[SOLVED] All of a sudden lilo won't boot win xp

[acid45]

HD SETUP
/dev/hdc1 -> IDE0 - >windows xp
/dev/hde2 -> SATARAID0 ->slackware
/dev/hde3 -> " " ->swap
/dev/gde2 -> SATARAID1->linux format storage

For some reason both /dev/hde and /dev/hdg WILL NOT create something like /dev/hde1 when using cfdisk or fdisk. I've checked for bad blocks when formatting with no results. I found nothing relevant on google.

Durring every linux instalation I added /dev/hdc1 fo fstab so linux can mount it. mount point -> /winxp

I installed windows XP and got it working as I wanted with all my development servers running etc. Then I installed Slackware linux 10 and added the slackware partition and the windows xp partition, making slackware the default boot choice. Then lilo installed itself and that went fine. I loaded both slackware and winxp to check that it worked, everything went find. After the instalation, being lazy, I decided to make win the default OS to load adding the following lines to lilo.conf:

default = winxp

then I typed:

/sbin/lilo

which output

slackware
winxp *

I rebooted and when I tried to boot into winxp it printed winxp and just hangs, waits and waits. So I took out the default statment ran /sbin/lilo again with the following output

slackware *
winxp

Still not being able to load winxp after this I used the commands

/bin/cp /backup/lilo.conf~ /etc/lilo.conf
/sbin/lilo

which output

slackware *
winxp

With this I thought well now I gota work on changing the defaults, HA! I get the same problem, still can't boot winxp without changing BIOS settings

So I said: "re-installing linux will work!" HA!

When I get to lilo I do expert lilo install, auto never added windows partitions for me. I added the linux partition and the windows partition, went to install and it gave me an error saying that I'd have to boot using a floppy and edit /etc/lilo.conf manually.

All this done as root

The only way I can load windows now is by going into BIOS and making it the boot device. Any ideas?

I've goten windows xp to load successfully in the past, using lilo and slackware instalation, I've used the same configuration I have now with no problems. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong...

Thanks for reading

[hard candy]

Whenever you change lilo's config, you need to run /sbin/lilo. I did not see that step listed.
Now the lilo config is on the /dev/hdg? What I'm thinking is to make WinXP boot,

Mount the WinXP under Linux in the /winxp directory.
Add the WinXP to your lilo like this:
other = /winxp
label = Winxp
table = /dev/hda

Then run "/sbin/lilo" as "su". See if it picks WinXp up.

[acid45]

I did I just didn't include /sbin/ because I don't know where the commands come from, they are in man and have arguments I can specify, that's all I know.

When I say I type lilo I probably mean I ran the command /sbin/lilo. Sorry about that I'll make all the proper modifications...lilo was installing it just wouldnt boot xp when selected or when it was set as the default no mater what modifications I make to lilo even after re-instalation.

It might also be worth mentioning I added the windows drive /dev/hdc1 to the fstab to be mounted at /win32

ahem, it might help if I tried /dev/hdc1 as the windows dir instead of /dev/hdc

DUH!!!

[acid45]

I don't know how, why or when BUT when installing slackware 10 I used to have no problems with booting until I got my raid card in use by sata drives. This caused lots of problems.

1) EVEN though my /etc/lilo.conf file only had the following for my windows partition
other=/dev/hdc1
label=xp
#map-drive = 0X80
#to = 0x81
#map-drive = 0X81
#to = 0x80
table=/dev/hdc

Reading man lilo.conf I discovered that the 0x80 was bios value for C driive in the map but I didn't know what drive it was being mapped as SO
I found this neat little dohickey and put it just under label
boot-as=0x80
this stopped my computer from hanging when trying to load windows xp from lilo

of course you have to run /sbin/lilo for changes to take place

hope this helps someone