Re: Linux problem

Hi Ian,
1. Sure it's possible to just re-install lilo:
"rpm -q lilo" to get the package name
"rpm -ivh --replacepkgs <package name>"
I'm not sure what all is going to get replaced in /boot off the top of
my head, so you might want to backup the contents of /boot and
/etc/lilo.conf first, just to be certain!.
2. Are the following your /etc/fstab assignments?:
/boot is /dev/hdc1
swap is /dev/hdc2
/ is /dev/hdc3

3. It is my understanding (and be aware I am NO a lilo authority) that
boot.b contains both the primary and the secondary boot loader (lilo
transfers some to its boot record by default). BIOS initially loads the
primary boot loader @ 0x07C00 and starts execution. The primary loader
moves itself to 0x9A000 and then outputs 'L'.It then loads the secondary
boot loader @ 0x9B000. The boot sector (apparantly) stores the adresses
of the (disk) sectors containing the secondary loader (by default
contained within boot.b) If it sucessfully loads this, it ouputs 'I'
before transferring control to the secondary loader. The secondary
loader is supposed to output 'L' right after starting. Since you are in
fact running lilo again, (and I'm assuming you're using the hda MBR for
your boot sector), it seems that the MBR isn't being updated with the
correct sector addresses for the secondary loader. I guess that it would
be possible that that boot.b got creamed, somehow, but ?? Hmmm.....


Ian Wright wrote:

>
> From: "Ian Wright" <Ian@...>
>
> Hi George,
>
> Yes, I just repartitioned hda using fdisk from a windows 95 startup floppy.
> The current partition table for hda just lists 1 active partition hda1 as a
> normal FAT16 bootable partition. There is also, for some reason a note that
> there is about 29K of unallocated space left but this isn't in a partition.
> The disk is only a small one - 240Mb so I don't think I will have exceeded
> any limits. Hdc hasn't been touched since I installed RH6.1 and that is an
> 840Mb disk with 3 partitions - 16Mb boot, 64Mb swap and the rest as root.
> I'm running the RH6.1 a bit stripped down as I only need it as a terminal
> into my other linux machine but I've only omitted things like the
> documentation, Netscape etc which shouldn't affect the running of the
> kernel. Everything seems to be pointing towards some problem with the boot
> map but I can't see any advice on how to fix it other than simply running
> /sbin/lilo which has no effect. I wonder of it is possible to reload lilo
> alone without having to reload all of linux?
>
> Ian
> --
> Ian W. Wright
> Sheffield UK
>

-------------------------------
George Fouse,
President
G F I Consulting
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