lilo failed--HELP

[Craig White]

pfleming@infomagic.net wrote:
> 
> On Wed, 25 Jul 2001, Craig White wrote:
> 
> > "Michael J. Schweppe" wrote:
> > >
> > > On Wed, 25 Jul 2001 09:59:55 -0700, Craig White
> > > <craigwhite@azapple.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > >I still think that you need to try bios=0x82 - I believe that you can
> > > >try this from the lilo boot...i.e. - press control X when you see the
> > > >lilo picker - type 'linux bios=0x82' ...
> > >
> > > I'm not sure what the lilo picker is.  When I use the boot disk I get
> > > a 'boot:' prompt where I hit enter.  If I don't use the disk, well,
> > > like I said I just get the flashing 'L'.  Sorry to ask for
> > > by-the-numbers here, but could you?
> > >
> > ------------
> > that's interesting.
> >
> > try looking at lilo.conf on the floppy (if it's on the floppy) don't
> > quite understand the booting from floppy business...floppy booting is
> > not my idea of progress.
> >
> > ---
> >
> > what I was suggesting was to boot without floppy...since lilo is
> > installed in the mbr of the first hard drive, when it stops at startup
> > to pick linux or dos (if you do nothing or just hit return it boots
> > windows because the 'default = dos' setting), press control X before it
> > moves on and type
> >
> > linux bios=0x82
> >
> > Craig
> The problem is he never gets the prompt. I think- based upon a previous
> post of lilo.conf- that root is *way* too high on the disk, /dev/hdb8 if I
> remember right. And boot=/dev/hda does not seem right either. There needs
> to be a partition number there.. If you are using an older mb/bios, then
> that could be the problem. Try setting up /boot=dev/hdb1 and (root)
> /root=/dev/hdb2. Of course this may require a new install. I tried to get
> my RH7.1 box to partion the way *I* thought it should be, and no luck.
> When I let the installation decide I was much better off. But, that
> doesn't mean that you couldn't get it to work just by moving some
> partitions around to be lower on the disk (write your changes into
> lilo.conf then rerun lilo)
> Patrick
> 
------
I'm a bit bothered by this post - not because it's incorrect, it may
very well be the problem and have the solution in hand.

In fact, if we go by the contents of his lilo.conf which lists
root=/dev/hdb8 (which may or may not be out of BIOS range), it seems
apparent to me that lilo is indeed installed in the mbr of his master
drive and this startup choice between OS should indeed be available.

It's also possible that the problem is as you say, that the '/boot'
partition was written on a sector not available to his BIOS - and thus
isn't found and in that case, I could point him to ...

Using LILO when BIOS can't see the Root Partition
<http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/mini/LILO-5.html>

but he was asking for step by step instructions..."sorry to ask for
by-the-numbers" and your explanation isn't gonna help him.

Craig