LILO Misbehavin'

[gardyloo]

(I apologize for the multiple posting -- I posted this *same* message (minus this little note, of course) in the Installation forum.)

Hi, all.
I just installed Mandrake 8.0 on an HP system (755MHz, 128MB RAM, etc.) and things went fine. However, this machine also has WinMe on it. The boot manager shows Windows as a boot option, but when I try it, a nice little message -- "Loading Windows" -- comes up, and the machine hangs.

Any hints?

Luckily, I know my Windows data is still there -- it's viewable from the desktop. I just can't boot into it.

Thanks for your time and cooperation!

Curtis O.

[berb]

please post your lilo.conf file (should be in /etc but who knows with drake)

[gardyloo]

Haha! :D

Your message was a true help! (How in the HECK can that be?)

While rooting around (ooog -- sorry for the pun) in the etc/ directory, I *did* find the lilo.conf file. Being a TRUE newbie/grasshopper, I couldn't figure out how to view the thing ( instructions from anyone not laughing too hard by now? ). In my blunderings, I typed 'lilo' which made the terminal promptly spit back a list of 'added xxx' and one of them was 'added Windows'.
On the off chance that this had done something wonderful, I rebooted, whereupon choosing the 'windows' option made Windows boot up just fine!

So, thank you for your reply. It saved the day, and you don't even have to think anymore!

Cheers,
Curtis O.

[Silent Bob]

You can use a lot of different editors to view things try,
vi <filename>
or
emacs-nox <filename>
or
emacs <filename> (from a terminal within X)

[ronmon]

There are lots of die hard vi and emacs fans out there, though I'm not among them. Realistically, the commands are much too arcane and unintuitive for basic editing by a newbie. I prefer nano, but it's probably not installed on your system, so try pico. It's much easier to use.

pico /etc/lilo.conf