Boot up problems on dual OS system... freezes at "LI"

[eyor]

I am having MAJOR problems with my Redhat 6.2 install!

I wanted to dual boot win98 and redhat linux 6.2. I partitioned it before-hand in partition magic pro. the installation went fine.

... but when I rebooted it got through the part about "DMI" or whatever it is, the part where it goes to the boot disk or starts to load the OS, and then just printed "LI" on the screen.
So I tried to type something. Nothing showed.
My keyboard was working, because I could CTRL+ALT+DEL, and change caps and num lock, but nothing was being typed. Then the keys started making that tic-tic noise like it was frozen.
Reboot. "LI". Same thing. HELP!!!

I was able to boot to the dos prompt. So I changed directories to C:\windows\ and typed "WIN"... it says it cannot find himem.sys!! ahhh!! help!


someone suggested that LILO got written to the wrong partition... is that my problem? how do I fix it?
thanks

[Klosters]

If you have a boot floppy for your distro, this should get you into Linux. Used to be that your C:\Windows partition had to be 7 Gigs or smaller to install LILO into its MBR. Dunno if this still holds true. If your Win partition is the right size, just reinstall LILO after getting into RH via the boot floppy.

[AWebDesign]

You can delete LILO, and reinstall windows bootloader by booting off the windows floppy disk, and typing, fdisk /mbr
Then see if you can get into windows. Then use the linux boot disk to get into linux, and reinstall lilo

Aaron

[eyor]

I did fdisk /mbr and can get into windows. but when I try to boot with the floppy to linux it give me the message :

Kernel panic - attempt to kill idle task!
In swapper task - not syncing

just before it finishes loading and it freezes up. http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/frown.gif

[cyan]

Maybe you accidently put lilo in the wrong partition? (swap or something) If that's true, then fdisk /mbr would probably not do much good (though I could VERY easily be wrong) If you haven't done any major configuring since you installed, maybe just start over with a fresh installation? Please note that these are not the sugestions of a guru by any means, just someone who has spent a lot of time pulling out their hair after an incorrect lilo placement. ^_^

[MBMarduk]

Go with the fresh install.
Also, learn how partitions are arranged/used on harddisks. I know quite a bit about it (about enough to know what's going on) and I sometimes STILL forget! You'll be wondering how you lived without the knowledge.
If you bought RH62 you should've gotten a book with it. In it there should be explained what the 5 LILO error-codes stand for.
I won't place'em all for ya, but my SuSE book sez:
"'LI': The second stage has been invoked but could not be started. This can either be caused by a geometry mismatch or by moving /boot/boot.b without reinstalling LILO."
-Mike