LILO wont work with dual boot Redhat 9/ XP

BG4533

Golden Member
Oct 15, 2001
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I just finished installing Redhat 9 and XP, but LILO doesnt even seem to come up when I boot. I am using a Gateway Solo 5300 Laptop. First, I formatted the HDs with 1 partition NTFS for XP, 1 partition EXT3 for linux, 1 swap for linux and 1 general fat32 partition. I then installed XP. Next I installed Redhat and set up LILO to be in the MBR and boot windows by default ( i reloaded linux and set it to linux by default, but same problem). When linux finished installing the machine rebooted and went straight into XP, with no sign of linux. When I defined my '/' partition as EXT3 it gave me a warning, but unfortunatley I dont remember what it was. Am I missing a step or something? I made a boot disk that will get me into Linux, but I do not know what the problem is, so I dont know where to attempt to fix it. I am relatively new to linux and my prior experience was 5 years ago or so. Thanks for the help.

Brian
 

cleverhandle

Diamond Member
Dec 17, 2001
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I'm guessing you didn't really install LILO to the MBR - if it was loaded there and the config was broken, it would just hang, not pass you through to XP. Personally, I find the method in the above link to be a PITA - so here's what I would do to keep booting direct from LILO:

1) Boot to linux with your boot disk.
2) Use vi, nano, emacs, or your favorite editor to edit /etc/lilo.conf - there's lots of stuff in there, but the only line you care about is close to the top - it says "boot=/dev/hda2" I'm guessing. It should say "boot=/dev/hda".
3) Run lilo.

That should do it. The warning you received was probably about BIOS partition restrictions - for most modern machines, that can be ignored. You may, however, need a line in lilo.conf that say "lba32" if you don't have one already.
 

BG4533

Golden Member
Oct 15, 2001
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Originally posted by: cleverhandle
I'm guessing you didn't really install LILO to the MBR - if it was loaded there and the config was broken, it would just hang, not pass you through to XP. Personally, I find the method in the above link to be a PITA - so here's what I would do to keep booting direct from LILO:

1) Boot to linux with your boot disk.
2) Use vi, nano, emacs, or your favorite editor to edit /etc/lilo.conf - there's lots of stuff in there, but the only line you care about is close to the top - it says "boot=/dev/hda2" I'm guessing. It should say "boot=/dev/hda".
3) Run lilo.

That should do it. The warning you received was probably about BIOS partition restrictions - for most modern machines, that can be ignored. You may, however, need a line in lilo.conf that say "lba32" if you don't have one already.

The line you were reffering to already said boot=/dev/hda. I tried switching it to hda2, but I still booted straight to Windows. There is no line that says lba32, should i just add it? Does it matter where? When you say "Run lilo" what do you mean? I tried just typing lilo in the run box, but got "Failed to execute command: 'lilo' no such file or directory.

Thanks,
Brian
 

cleverhandle

Diamond Member
Dec 17, 2001
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Originally posted by: BG4533
The line you were reffering to already said boot=/dev/hda. I tried switching it to hda2, but I still booted straight to Windows.
Until you run lilo (see below), the changes won't take effect.
There is no line that says lba32, should i just add it? Does it matter where?
It probably wouldn't hurt to add it, but I'd leave it alone to start with. If you get a hang on bootup, then boot with the boot disk and add it.
When you say "Run lilo" what do you mean? I tried just typing lilo in the run box, but got "Failed to execute command: 'lilo' no such file or directory.
Open a terminal, and "su -" to root - you can't run lilo as a normal user. Type "lilo" and enter - if you get a not found error, which you shouldn't, try "/sbin/lilo" instead.
 

BG4533

Golden Member
Oct 15, 2001
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I got everything working now, thanks for the help. I found a page written by someone installing linux on the same model laptop as I have. The main thing I changed that seems like it was important was removing a line that said something about initrd=linux kernel or something like that and adding root=/dev/hda5.

Thanks,
Brian