Lilo BIOS DiskProblems

Tuzinor · 03-21-2001, 12:12 PM

Decided that it was time to start over with the problem I am having considering the info I came across in the past couple of days regarding how the BIOS and Lilo see drives during booting.I've tried to compile all the relevant info into this post-it took me a LONG time to type all this up-so I appreciate the time anyone takes to go thru the whole thing.There must be somebody out there that can figure this out!
The problem I have that I cannot get Linux to boot thru System Commander.I get to “LI” then it stops. This is an indication that the second stage bootloader in Lilo is loaded but has not executed.I have posted on many forums & have contacted Mandrake support thru their e-mail support system.They were referring the problem to their engineers.Below is my system setup and relevant information.I just came across two links about Lilo,Bios Disk,OS disk differences. I currently use System Commander to boot into Windows 98SE & BeOS. I am determined to get Linux to work with System Commander.Anyone wishing to help –please check these links out.
(Let me add this- I am new to Linux!)

http://www.zepa.net/hypermail/elug/2001/01/0068.html
http://tycho.edico.si/linuxtnt/#Lilo-SCSI

System setup is as follows:
ASUS A7V Motherboard Award ACPI Bios 1004C
AMD 900MHZ Thunderbird Processor
Crucial PC-133mhz Ram- 512mb
Built in Promise ATA 100 Contoller –with two hard drives attached:First-Maxtor 30gb ATA 100,Second-Maxtor 40gb ATA 100.THIS CONTROLLER HAS IT”S OWN BIOS!
Primary Master: Two Partitions-first partition: Windows 98SE-(where System Commander is installed),second partition: Windows Files
Primary Slave: Two partitions: First-Linux-Mandrake 7.2 Complete, Second- Windows files
Secondary: Empty
Built in ATA 66 Controller- One Hard drive-Maxtor 40gb ATA 100,DvdRom Drive,Cdrw drive
Primary Master- Hard drive-Three partitions-1st-old Linux install, 2nd-Windows files, 3rd-BeOS
Primary Slave –Empty
Secondary Master- Creative PC-DVD Rom Drive
Secondary Slave- Creative 8432 CDRW Drive
BIOS Info as follows:
Main WINDOW: Primary Master-Maxtor hard drive-(the third hard drive)
Slave- empty
Secondary Master- Creative DVDRom
Secondary Slave- Creative CDRW
PCI CONFIGURATION: SymBios SCSI Bios-Auto
BOOT WINDOW: Boot Order: SCSI/ONBOARD ATA BOOT DEVICE
Floppy
Creative Dvd Rom
Maxtor Hard drive- (the third hard drive- the one on the ATA 66 Controller)
“Boot Onboard ATA Device First- Yes”
I boot from the SCSI Onboard ATA Device (the ATA 100 Controller) because that’s where my first two hard drives are-(with Windows 98SE as my main Operating System).I recently added the third hard drive to the ATA 66 controller because I found out that BeOS won’t work on the ATA 100.
Ok- now on to the problems:
Linux-Mandrake 7.2-(I have Kernel 2.2.17)-supports the Promise ATA 100 PCI card but NOT the built in Promise ATA controller. Special address parameters have to be added at boot to access this controller. I received the info from Mandrake on how to find this. I know add at boot: Linux ide2=0x8400,0x8002 when booting from floppy and in LILOCONFIG I add to the Append = line: ide2=0x8400,0x8002 ide2=autotune ide0=autotune.When booting into Linux on the second hard drive with the floppy- Linux does see the Windows partitions on the first two hard drives.
This is how Linux/Lilo sees my devices:
First hard drive: /dev/hde-where Windows 98SE resides
2nd “ “ : /dev/hdf- where Linux currently resides
3rd “ “ : /dev/hda- where old Linux-(same-“LI” problem) and BeOS reside
DvdRom Drive: /dev/hdc
CDRW Drive: /dev/hdd
System & Partition Commander see the drives as follows:
First Hard Drive- as Disk 0 (with Windows 98SE)-partition 0
Second Hard Drive- as Disk 1
Third Hard Drive-as Disk 2
Linux Info: Partitioning Info: FDISK “P” Results for /dev/hdf
Device Start End
/dev/hdf1- 1 2 Linux ID=83 > 15mb- (/boot) –installed bootloader to this partition.
/dev/hdf2- 1149 4982 Windows ext’d Lba ID=f
/dev/hdf3- 133 1148 Linux Swap ID= 82 125mb
/dev/hdf4- 3 1132 Linux- ID=83 (/) 8863mb
/dev/hdf5- 1149 4982 Windows95 Fat32 ID=b
System Commander sees HDF1 as Disk 1 partition 0, hdf4 as Disk 1 partition 3.
I feel the problem is not with System Commander.
The problem seems to lie in how Lilo and the BIOS label drives as they are booted-(see above links).
Below are my Fstab and Lilo Config files after I installed Linux and the second hard drive.
Fstab:

/dev/hdf4 / ext2 defaults 1 1
/dev/hdf1 /boot ext2 defaults 1 2
none /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0
/dev/hdc /mnt/cdrom iso9660 user,exec,nodev,nosuid,rw,noauto,fs=iso9660 0 0
/dev/scd0 /mnt/cdrom2 iso9660 user,exec,nodev,nosuid,rw,noauto,fs=iso9660 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy vfat user,exec,nodev,nosuid,rw,noauto,fs=vfat 0 0
/dev/hda3 /mnt/win_c vfat user,exec,umask=0 0 0
/dev/hde1 /mnt/win_c2 vfat user,exec,umask=0 0 0
/dev/hdf5 /mnt/win_c3 vfat user,exec,umask=0 0 0
/dev/hde5 /mnt/win_d vfat user,exec,umask=0 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hdf3 swap swap defaults 0 0

LiloConfig:

boot=/dev/hdf1
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
vga=normal
default=linux
keytable=/boot/us.klt
lba32
compact
prompt
timeout=50
message=/boot/message
menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.17-21mdk
label=linux
root=/dev/hdf4
append=" hdd=ide-scsi ide2=0x8400,0x8002 ide2=autotune ide0=autotune"
vga=788
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.17-21mdk
label=linux-nonfb
root=/dev/hdf4
append=" hdd=ide-scsi ide2=0x8400,0x8002 ide2=autotune ide0=autotune"
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.17-21mdk
label=failsafe
root=/dev/hdf4
append=" hdd=ide-scsi failsafe ide2=0x8400,0x8002 ide2=autotune ide0=autotune"
read-only
other=/dev/hda3
label=windows
table=/dev/hda
map-drive=0x80
to=0x81
map-drive=0x81
to=0x80
other=/dev/hde1
label=windows2
table=/dev/hde
map-drive=0x80
to=0x81
map-drive=0x81
to=0x80
other=/dev/hdf4
label=floppy
unsafe
In this setup I still get “LI” when trying to boot thru System Commnder.I then changed the LiloConfig regarding the BIOS=0x80,0x81 etc to see if I could get it to work. I then check the /etc/liloconfig file-notice the (?) marks in the append= line. I cannot get rid of them. When I run /sbin/lilo I get a Syntax error message regarding that line- sbin/lilo stops at that point and shows only Linux added.Below is the new Liloconfig- can anyone see what the problem is?
disk=/dev/hde
bios=0x80
disk=/dev/hdf
bios=0x81
disk=/dev/hda
bios=0x82
disk=/dev/hdc
bios=0x83
boot=/dev/hdf1
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
vga=normal
default=linux
keytable=/boot/us.klt
lba32
compact
prompt
timeout=50
message=/boot/message
menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.17-21mdk
label=linux
root=/dev/hdf4
append=? hdd=ide-scsi ide2=0x8400,0x8002 ide2=autotune ide0=autotune?
vga=788
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.17-21mdk
label=linux-nonfb
root=/dev/hdf4
append=? hdd=ide-scsi ide2=0x8400,0x8002 ide2=autotune ide0=autotune?
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.17-21mdk
label=failsafe
root=/dev/hdf4
append=? hdd=ide-scsi failsafe ide2=0x8400,0x8002 ide2=autotune ide0=autotune?
read-only
other=/dev/hda3
label=windows
table=/dev/hda
map-drive=0x82
to=0x83
map-drive=0x83
to=0x82
other=/dev/hde1
label=windows2
table=/dev/hde
map-drive=0x80
to=0x81
map-drive=0x81
to=0x80
other=/dev/hdf4
label=floppy
unsafe

Considering the info from those links,my system setup and the boot order- do I have some incorrect parameters? There must be way to make this work. I be very greatfull to anyone who could solve this problem- I’ve been going round & round for a couple of weeks with this problem.Before anyone says anything about “compiling a Kernel”-I am nowhere near the stage to take that idea on. YET! Thank’s- DAVE
Sheridan3957@adelphia.net