RedHat Linux Installation *update*

[andrey]

Here are my system specs:

Asus A7V with 1Ghz AMD TBird and 512MB of RAM
1 x Western Digital 20Gb Hard Drive
2 x IBM GXP75 30 GB Hard Drives
SCSI Plextor 40Max and Yamaha 8x8x24 on Adaptec 2940UW adapter

Both IBM hard drives are connected to onboard Promise Ultra100 controller, and when I'm installing RedHat 7.0, installation obviously doesn't see them, but that's okay. My goal is to have triple-boot configuration, something like Win98SE/Win2000/RedHat7.

What I was thinking is to make boot process in the following order:
Legacy Floppy
Western Digital hard drive (onboard IDE connector)
SCSI/Promise ATA100 Hard Drives

I made 100Mb boot partition on Western Digital (drive letter C: ), installed Win98 on the 1st IBM (drive letter D: ) and Windows 2000 on 2nd IBM (drive letter E: ). My next step was to make three more partitions on Western Digital, so the entire setup will look similar to the following:

1st hard drive (IDE):
FAT16 Partition (boot)
/boot
/
/swap

2nd hard drive (Promise Ultra100)
FAT32 Partition (Windows98)

3rd hard drive (Promise Ultra100)
FAT32 Partition (Windows 2000)

Seems good so far, right? But after I install Linux RedHat (I choose install LILO on first sector of bootable partition), it creates a floppy so I can boot. Now comes in the problem: as soon as LILO words loaded, I receive:
boot:linux....................
Error 0x02

What could be wrong and is there a way to fix it?

 

[thornc]

The only thing that comes to mind is the linux boot partition position!

Is it on the first 1024 cyl of the disk??? how large is the fat16 partition??

Did lilo give any error when you installed it?? Can you actually choose ( using the tab key to
see the list ) another OS to boot from lilo??

Another thing....
where do you have the w2k boot loader???? if it is on that same fat16 partition theres
the reason for your problem....w2k/wNT don't like anything messing around their boot partition...

See the instrutions on how to get around it in:
Linux+NT-Loader Mini Howto
its for the NT but should work with the w2k also.....

have fun

 

[jtshaw]

Ok, that error could be a number of things other then the hard disk..but for now we will focus on that. What version of LILO are you using? Cause if you aren't using a new enough version you will hit said 1023 cylinder problem.

"Big news: 1023 cylinder barrier broken!
John Coffman has added support for the new (1998) lba32 BIOS extension. If your motherboard was made (or you upgraded the BIOS) after 1998, the new Lilo will detect the BIOS extension, and you will be able to install LILO, kernel, map, and message anywhere on the drive. Before this, you needed to put them in a cylinder that ended on cylinder 1023 or lower. If your Linux distribution came with an old Lilo, install with a boot floppy, get the current Lilo, install it, and *then* set up Lilo. Don't let your distro "make your hard drive bootable" unless you are sure it knows how. " http://judi.greens.org/lilo/

 

[andrey]

FAT16 partition on my Western Digital drive is only 100MB, which is makes LILO below 1024th cylinder.

As far as which choices I have for OSes, than there is only "linux". Do u think it will be a good idea to load LILO on MBR?

One more interesting thing I've noticed. The floppy disk installation created for me tries to load linux from /dev/hda6. Doesn't make sense, since "/boot" partition is the second partition on the hard drive and "/" is the third. What would be the command to manually load from "/dev/hda2" ?

 

[jtshaw]

Edit the lilo.conf file on the floppy, I think you will be able to tell where it is getting the device from. I always put LILO on the mbr but some people don't like too. It seams just fine there to me.

 

[thornc]

jtshaw: thanks for that lilo update information...it was very usefull,

Ok, now if we are talking about windows win "NT" technology ( argh.. let's call it that )...
you cannot install Lilo on the MBR...because NT uses a different boot loader than win9x ... it
won't like the lilo there, in fact if install nt/2k after linux you'll get a bit mess....
and if you install nt/2k and then linux ( putting lilo on the mbr ), you loose the boot from
nt/2k alltogheter.....so in the case of nt/2k install the lilo on the partition!!!

I can't recall right now, but i can search around you can pass the boot partition as an argument,
to lilo, something like linux boot=/dev/hda2 i'm not certain...

And yes, it can be a number of other things, I personally haven't installed RH vs7.0 yet, but i've maid countless vs5.x and vs6.x installation, as well as a few other distributions. So i
thing you should start by the basics that it the boot sequence, if the problem persists you can
go into other levels like kernels and stuff.....

Try another thing...if the installation you made of win2k is not very important...erase the mbr
alltoghter and try to install linux again, that will clear the lilo question, but not os compatability issue.....just boot into windows 98 and do a "fdisk /mbr" then do a new linux
installation....

 

[andrey]

One more interesting thing I've noticed. If I install LILO on my Master Boot Record, I can boot into Linux RedHat without any problems and dual configuration Win98/Linux works pretty well so far. My next step is to install Windows2000 and I know it will erase my MBR and I will have to find a new way to boot to Linux somehow again. Is there any way how I can determine why I can boot from MBR on Hard Drive, but not from floppy disk?

 

[jtshaw]

You can install LILO on the partition or use another boot loader for linux like grub. I have also heard it is possible to configure NTLoader to launch linux though I have never seen it with my own eyes.

 

[thornc]

yes it jtshaw....

I use it every day!!! I've got a dual machine with NT+Linux comfigured like that, the NT loader
runs lilo!!!!

Just look at Howto for which i supplied the link in the previous post!!!!

It works, and might be one simple way to do things.....

 

[jtshaw]

ya, that might be the way to go though...I don't trust NTLoader enough to have it booting my LILO though Guess I really am developing some anti-MS biased.

 

[Gringo]

I agree, i have the ntloader load lilo for me as well. it was fairly quick and painless!

k.

 

[thornc]

<< Guess I really am developing some anti-MS biased. >>



Aren't we all, I just use the NT because I can't stand Netscape crushing one me every time
I look at a page &quot;IExplorer Only&quot;.... Most of the times i'm running linux in the Nt
desktop with a X-Server!!!!

And when I just want to do some work, I boot into linux and stay there for ages......