LITTLEBLACKDOG.COM

Stray Dog Joined: 17 May 2001 Posts: 19

ok..
I installed Mandrake 8 on its own partition and set it to dual boot along side WIN98. I used Boot Magic (by Powerquest) to dual boot it. Powerquest says i Must put LILO in my root home directory for it to boot thru Boot Magic. I think i should do this with the "boot=" in lilo.conf. The problem is that I can't boot into Linux because Boot Magic just stops at Preparing to load OS (or something of that sort) I guess because it can't find LILO in / directory? I did not make a boot disk because the install skipped it for some reason. All I have is the LM 8 cd and the floppy with the cdrom image (cdrom.img) on it. How do I boot into Linux and change the Lilo location (if that is the problem)?

ansaul@musician.net

Stray Dog Joined: 17 May 2001 Posts: 19

Powerquest's exact words were:
"If you are using a boot utility like BootMagic, LILO (Linux Loader) must be installed to the Linux Ext2 partition containg the root directory and not installed to the master boot record. If you install LILO to the master boot record, other operating systems may become unbootable."

-Have I interpreted this correctly in my above post? Is this even my problem? I need help.

--ansaul

Posted: Fri May 18, 2001 9:53 am Post subject:

Try booting from the CD and when it prompts you to hit "Enter" or F1, hit F1, from there you should be able to type "rescue" and it should let you into a limited command prompt. Then you'll have to use a text editor like "vi" to edit the "lilo.conf" file. and reinstall LILO to the proper partition. BUT why even bother with BootMagic, when LILO will boot Win98 with no problems?!

Rover
- I don't have a god complex...I just like people to think I do!

Posted: Fri May 18, 2001 10:37 am Post subject:

Quote:

... BUT why even bother with BootMagic, when LILO will boot Win98 with no problems?!...

But what if I have NT4, Win2K, ME and I'm installing LM8?

Right now BootMagic give me a menu to select from the 3 installed OSes. Can LILO or GRUB do the same for 4 OSes?

How do you instruct the installation program to install LILO to /boot rather than writing to the MBR?

Thanks again for your help.

Posted: Fri May 18, 2001 10:40 am Post subject:

Is JT and Ansaul the same person?

No LILO could probably boot NT4 but not Win2K on NTFS5. In the lilo.conf file the boot= line should have the partition where you want it installed to.

Rover
- I don't have a god complex...I just like people to think I do!

Stray Dog Joined: 17 May 2001 Posts: 19

Quote:

Is JT and Ansaul the same person?

No, I don't know who JT is and why he is posting a followup question on this topic. I am a different person.
Thanks for the reply Rover. I will try it when I get home and post back tonight to tell you if it worked. Thanks.

-ansaul

Posted: Fri May 18, 2001 10:52 am Post subject:

Quote:

Is JT and Ansaul the same person?

No LILO could probably boot NT4 but not Win2K on NTFS5. In the lilo.conf file the boot= line should have the partition where you want it installed to.

Rover
- I don't have a god complex...I just like people to think I do!

No. We're different people.

Posted: Fri May 18, 2001 10:58 am Post subject:

[/quote]
No, I don't know who JT is and why he is posting a followup question on this topic. I am a different person...
[/quote]

Sorry. I thought I could post here because I have a similar problem (ie. using BootMagic to boot multiple OSes). This way, others with similar a problem could follow just one discussion. But if you prefer that I post as a new topic the next time, I will.

Posted: Fri May 18, 2001 11:16 am Post subject:

No big deal JT, I was just asking since your post made it sound like you were the same person. keep on posting!

Rover
- I don't have a god complex...I just like people to think I do!

Stray Dog Joined: 17 May 2001 Posts: 19

Quote:

No big deal JT, I was just asking since your post made it sound like you were the same person. keep on posting!

Rover
- I don't have a god complex...I just like people to think I do!

how do i open up vi to edit lilo.conf and how do i control vi. it's very confusing.
-ansaul

Stray Dog Joined: 17 May 2001 Posts: 19

Quote:

how do i open up vi to edit lilo.conf and how do i control vi. it's very confusing.
-ansaul

i type "vi /etc/lilo.conf" (minus the "") and vi opens up blank and says this is a new file. I typed this at the "[root@rescue /]#"
prompt. What do i do? Where is my lilo.conf?
-ansaul

Posted: Fri May 18, 2001 7:04 pm Post subject:

Try going directly to the directory before using VI. "cd /etc" and then do "vi lilo.conf", if that doesn't work see if you can even see the directories at all. I don't know the extent of what you can see in rescue mode.

As for vi...good luck, they say it rocks...once you learn it, but the curve is very steep. I used to use a program called PICO, but that has been dropped from Mandrake. When I have a working Linux box I now use "mcedit" (Midnight Commander) it's almost like the old DOS edit, but uses the F keys for functions like "save" "quit" and "replace". You might see if "mcedit" works for you in rescue mode. Do "mcedit /etc/lilo.conf". Otherwise read up on VI!

Rover
- I don't have a god complex...I just like people to think I do!

Stray Dog Joined: 17 May 2001 Posts: 19

Quote:

Try going directly to the directory before using VI. "cd /etc" and then do "vi lilo.conf", if that doesn't work see if you can even see the directories at all. I don't know the extent of what you can see in rescue mode.

As for vi...good luck, they say it rocks...once you learn it, but the curve is very steep. I used to use a program called PICO, but that has been dropped from Mandrake. When I have a working Linux box I now use "mcedit" (Midnight Commander) it's almost like the old DOS edit, but uses the F keys for functions like "save" "quit" and "replace". You might see if "mcedit" works for you in rescue mode. Do "mcedit /etc/lilo.conf". Otherwise read up on VI!

Rover
- I don't have a god complex...I just like people to think I do!

nah, didn't work
-ansaul

Posted: Sun May 20, 2001 5:03 pm Post subject:

If you have not yet been into Mandrake cause of this boot issue, I'd just reinstall the damn thing and make damn sure you choose the "Expert" installation mode, so you'll have full control over the entire installation process.

Rover
- I don't have a god complex...I just like people to think I do!

Stray Dog Joined: 17 May 2001 Posts: 19

Quote:

If you have not yet been into Mandrake cause of this boot issue, I'd just reinstall the damn thing and make damn sure you choose the "Expert" installation mode, so you'll have full control over the entire installation process.

Rover
- I don't have a god complex...I just like people to think I do!

hey! i got in. All i had to do was mount my partition to a directory. it was never mounted. Then i saw lilo.conf. edited that boot= to my linux partition. umounted. rebooted. selected linux at bootmagic screen. badaboom! im in. Thanks to the good people in #linux on efnet and you all. Since im new to this, you can count on me posting back with tons of questions. Thanks guys.