Problem with LILO

[barrin]

I'm trying to get LILO to work for my PC. I have a 20GB harddisk of which 90% i used for a vfat partition for Win98 and the rest for Linux. I've installed Windows first as advised in most books but still can't get LILO to work. My machine boots to Win98 straight away without even showing the LILO screen.

How can i get LILO to work???

[DMR]

Lilo must be installed on the Master Boot Record in order to use it to dual-boot. For a Linux/Win98 system, your /etc/lilo.conf should look similar to the following (yours will differ according to distro and kernel):boot=/dev/hda
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
vga=normal
default=Mandrake
keytable=/boot/us.klt
lba32
prompt
timeout=600
# message=/boot/message
menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.3-20mdk
label=Mandrake
root=/dev/hda6
vga=788
read-only
other=/dev/hda1
label=windows98
table=/dev/hdaThe "Boot= /dev/hda" line tells lilo to install to the MBR; the "other" entry and those below it tell lilo where to find your Windows partition.
"prompt" tells lilo to pause and display a menu from which you can choose the OS to boot; the "timeout" value indicates how long (in tenths of a second) the menu is to be displayed before booting into the OS specified on the "default=" line.

The lilo.conf man page explains all of this.

Once your lilo.conf is correctly configured, make sure to run /sbin/lilo to make the changes take effect.

[mdwatts]

When you installed your distro ???, where did you tell it to install Lilo, the mbr or the Linux boot/root partition?

<comment for DMR>

David... You still don't believe me about installing Lilo or Grub to a Linux /boot or root partition and then setting that as active so you can multiboot.

That way if you ever have to reinstall Windows, you don't have to worry about the mbr being reset.

I have a 30mb /boot partition that I have set as active which allows me to boot OpenLinux, OpenUnix, Sorcerer, Gentoo and WinXP.

</comment for DMR>

[DMR]

Originally posted by The original mdwatts:
<STRONG>&lt;comment for DMR&gt;

David... You still don't believe me about installing Lilo or Grub to a Linux /boot or root partition and then setting that as active so you can multiboot.

That way if you ever have to reinstall Windows, you don't have to worry about the mbr being reset.

I have a 30mb /boot partition that I have set as active which allows me to boot OpenLinux, OpenUnix, Sorcerer, Gentoo and WinXP.

&lt;/comment for DMR&gt;</STRONG>Oops!
Sorry Mike- it isn't that I don't believe you; I do. It's just that I woke up after only 4 hours sleep, haven't been able to go back to bed, and your suggestion leaked out of that mush that I call a brain. Not to worry though, it's probably oozing around on the floor somewhere; I'll find it and stuff it back into RAM.

:D

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by DMR:
<STRONG>Oops!
Sorry Mike- it isn't that I don't believe you; I do. It's just that I woke up after only 4 hours sleep, haven't been able to go back to bed, and your suggestion leaked out of that mush that I call a brain. Not to worry though, it's probably oozing around on the floor somewhere; I'll find it and stuff it back into RAM.

:D</STRONG>

I got you beat...

I got to sleep after 4 and awoke at 5:50. Been on LNO since then and took 5 hours to get through all the changed topics in General, Software, Hardware & Tech since I logged off yesterday at dinner time.

Can't wait for the big change. :eek:

You take all the sound and ethernet threads and I'll take the bootloader and Windows partition access. ;)

[DMR]

Originally posted by The original mdwatts:
<STRONG>Can't wait for the big change. :eek:</STRONG>Tell me about it! We're all going to have to quit our jobs and spend every waking hour at LNO. ...Oh, wait a minute- that's what I'm doing now.

:eek:

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by DMR:
<STRONG>Tell me about it! We're all going to have to quit our jobs and spend every waking hour at LNO. ...Oh, wait a minute- that's what I'm doing now.

:eek:</STRONG>

Correction... That's what we're doing now.

I can't seem to just ignore those that are waiting for help and that's what takes all my time. So I guess it's either the job or LNO. :(

[barrin]

During the installation of my distro i had specified that i would install LILO on the mbr.

About the original mdwatts' solution about installing Lilo or Grub to a Linux /boot or root partition and then setting that as active so you can multiboot. Can you feel me in with the details, i suspect that this is the solution that i need. Thanks in advance!

[mdwatts]

Just install using 'Expert Mode' to give you greater control over the installation process and make sure you create a 30mb /boot partition and select to install the Linux bootloader into /boot and not the mbr.

Most distros should automatically set the /boot partition as active if you select the above method. If it doesn't, just use fdisk or Partition Magic etc. and set /boot to be the active partition.

That's all there is to it.