SUCCESS! [was Re: lilo failed--HELP]

[Craig White]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: plug-discuss-admin@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
> [mailto:plug-discuss-admin@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us]On Behalf Of Michael
> J. Schweppe
> Sent: Saturday, July 28, 2001 12:39 AM
> To: plug-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
> Subject: SUCCESS! [was Re: lilo failed--HELP]
>
>
> Well, I finally got lilo to take.
>
> I could not understand why I could write to the /mbr on hda and then
> have it get hung up  The Red Hat docs were not very helpful, basically
> saying it could be anything.  I could boot Linux from the floppy fine,
> but not with lilo installed on the /mbr of the primary master, which
> contained only Windows files.
>
> I have a copy of Partition Magic and it didn't show the primary slave
> [the 10 Gb that had Linux].  This should have been my first clue, but
> I was so focused on lilo and doing repeat installs [figuring I messed
> up some how] that I didn't give the PM issue any thought.
>
> Nothing seemed to work--this was very frustrating.  I finally resigned
> myself to using Boot Magic that came with my copy of PM.  Boot Magic
> didn't see the Linux disk either.  More reading.
>
> Out of sheer cluelessness I decided to poke around in the CMOS.  I
> discovered that the 10 Gb drive was not defined!  It didn't show up at
> all!  I started the auto detect and took care of that.  I was certain
> I had done this after I installed the drive, but I can only guess that
> instead of typing "Y" on the save I typed "N".  I really don't know.
>
> What does have my curiosity though is how did Linux find the drive
> when it was not listed in the CMOS?  A mute point, but if someone
> knows I'd be interested.
>
-------
I am of the belief that linux tries to settings in bios that are designed to
accommodate inadequacies of the 16 bit processes of MS-DOS. The BIOS of
motherboards made in the last 3 years all seem to support auto-detect of IDE
devices well enough that you shouldn't have to bother but older BIOS have to
be prodded. I also believe that settings such as LBA for the IDE devices and
plug & play support in OS settings in BIOS are completely ignored in linux -
but not ignored by the insanely great software emanating from Redmond. I am
also thinking that had you implemented the bios=0x82 line in lilo.conf that
it would have taken care of this.

Craig