LILO

Saeven · 09-26-2006, 03:55 AM

I've searched high and low for a solution, apparently my new installation of Slackware 10.2 is fubar.

I'm hoping that someone has run into this problem before, and can help with the issue at hand.

Here's my fstab:

Quote:

/dev/hda2 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/hda1 / ext2 defaults 1 1
/dev/hda3 /var/www/htdocs ext2 defaults 1 2
/dev/hda4 /devel ext2 defaults 1 2
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom auto noauto,owner,ro 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,owner 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0

/dev/hda1 is bootable in the partition table

Here's my lilo.conf:

Quote:

# LILO configuration file
# generated by 'liloconfig'
#
# Start LILO global section
boot = /dev/hda
#compact # faster, but won't work on all systems.
prompt
timeout = 50
# Normal VGA console
vga = normal

image = /boot/vmlinuz
root = /dev/hda1
label = Linux
read-only # Non-UMSDOS filesystems should be mounted read-only for checking
# Linux bootable partition config ends

Here's the result of lilo -v:

Quote:

root@saevenstar:~# lilo -v
LILO version 22.7.1, Copyright (C) 1992-1998 Werner Almesberger
Development beyond version 21 Copyright (C) 1999-2005 John Coffman
Released 17-Sep-2005 and compiled at 00:33:53 on Aug 8 2006.

Warning: LBA32 addressing assumed
Reading boot sector from /dev/hda
Using MENU secondary loader
Calling map_insert_data

Boot image: /boot/vmlinuz
Added Linux *

Writing boot sector.
/boot/boot.0300 exists - no boot sector backup copy made.

Help appreciated, and direly needed!
Alex

blackhole54 · 09-26-2006, 05:06 AM

From the body of your post, I don't see a problem. I believe the comment about boot.0300 is advisory and not fatal.

Should I gather from your title that it then refuses to boot with a Keytable read/checksum error? I've not had that problem, but I suspect the data on the disk just got garbled somehow. I would run fsck (force it with -f) on the partition containing /boot and re-run LILO to see if it straightens out.

Here's a way to proceed if you can't boot your existing system:

Boot from your install disk in rescue mode (if it has one) or from a live CD.
Run fsck -f on the partition containing /boot.
Mount your / partition, and if you have a seperate /boot partition mount it on the / partition at its normal place. Make sure you mount the root partition with the dev option.
Run chroot /mnt/hda1 LILO. Change /mnt/hda1 to the mount point of /.
Unmount your partitions
Reboot and hope for the best

If it fails again, I would wonder if you have a hard drive problem.

Good luck.

Saeven · 09-26-2006, 09:26 PM

Thanks for the post.. I'd tried all these tactics unfortunately. I'd run into 9A and 99 errors, and on the same train as yourself, decided to give Grub (which I had on a Ubuntu CD) a try. In fact, I have to admit I was distraught by Slack and installed Ubuntu-server entirely. After a stress-free 30-minute install, I had a full SMP kernel running that booted properly. I can't explain it - broken LILO in new Slack? Abandoned old drives? No clue. Both the MBA, and EXT methods failed using the packaged Lilo.

Thanks for the shot, I'll stick with Ubuntu for now, it's actually pretty negligible of a speed difference with this latest 6.06 release.

tothzp · 04-19-2007, 05:59 PM

Hi,

I just ran into the same problem.
What I found is that I only have this problem if my lilo.conf
doesn't contain the compact line.

Try adding that, i.e. uncomment it.