not sure what to enter at boot: prompt using boot disk

[win2lnx]

OK, this is probably really dumb, but I haven't found an answer looking yet. I installed rh7.2 on a winXP machine. I set up it's own partition(s) and did NOT install Grub on the MBR, I chose the other option (can't remember the exact statement...1st boot partition, I think.) Anyway, when I boot with the floppy I'm not sure what to put to get to my linux boot image? Please help!! BTW - I'm pretty new to linux (obviously!) TIA

[The Whizzard]

something like

linux root=/dev/hda5

should work. Change the

/dev/hda5

to what your / partition is.

[win2lnx]

Hm...I ran across some documentation between posts and actually tried that....should have been /dev/hda2, but that didn't work. Keeps saying it can't find the kernel image. Not sure what to try next! When I partitioned the drive (single drive) I partitioned 7 gigs for xp and installed, then installed linux and set the partitions on the remaining 7 gigs. Would that be causing the problem? I thought as long as it was below 8 gigs I would be OK (below the 1024 sector or something...can't remember the specifics now!!) Any more ideas?

[The Whizzard]

Hmmm...that should work fine. Are you sure /dev/hda2 is the / partition?
Can you even get in to linux to post your /etc/fstab?

BTW, the 1024th cylinder problem will not pose a problem booting from floppy, as it is a defect in LILO. In fact, I believe the LILO included with RH7.2 does not have this problem. Also, GRUB never had this problem.

[ 27 December 2001: Message edited by: The Whizzard ]

[win2lnx]

OK, I booted from the cd and chose linux rescue. I the used chroot /mnt/sysimage to get to a command shell. But something's fouled up because I can't mount my floppy to run something I found earlier:

dd if=/dev/hda2 bs+512 count=1 of=/mnt/floppy/enigma.bin

Not sure what that does but I is the first step of getting the boot location into the XP loader. Any ideas about why I can't mount my devices? Is this a restricted shell, etc? Also, I am pretty sure that hda2 is the correct partition but can't confirm because I don't know how!! :)

[The Whizzard]

When you dd to a floppy, the floppy must not be mounted.

Just out of curiosity, try:

linux root=/dev/hda3
linux root=/dev/hda4
linux root=/dev/hda5
and
linux root=/dev/hda6

just to make sure you're using the correct partition.

[win2lnx]

I tried throwing those at it and nothing worked. I looked at /etc/mtab and it looks (if I'm reading correctly) like the / partition is hda2.

I tried the dd without mounting and it said "mnt/floppy/enigma.bin" no such file or directory found"

Also, when I try to mount it says that "there is no /mnt/floppy mount point". Is my device not set up correctly?

[win2lnx]

Actually, I found the partition information in grub.conf, not /etc/mtab...sorry.

[The Whizzard]

Hmm...I don't know what to tell you about booting from the flopy.


For your other problem, try:
dd if=/dev/hda2 bs+512 count=1 of=/dev/fd0/enigma.bin

The '0' in /dev/fd0 is the number zero.

[win2lnx]

OK, figured out the floppy problem, I didn't have an entry in fstab or a directory under /mnt (duh!)

I ran the dd command and have the enigma.bin file on a floppy. Now I'm going to see if I can't get the darned thing configured on the XP side.....I'll keep posting...

[win2lnx]

OK, here's the skinny. I copied the enigma.bin file to the XP parition "c:\enigma.bin" then went to system-startup and recovery-and edited the bootcfg(boot.ini) file adding "c:\enigma.bin="linux"" and all is hunky dory now. Well, mostly, still a dunce when it comes to using, but working on that. :)

[The Whizzard]

So you can get into linux? Woohoo!!! Congrats, man!