dual boot problem with ata-100

[dale10]

Hi, I'm new to linux so please bear with me.
I just installed redhat 7.1 and it works fine. It's connected to (hde) the ATA-100 controller on my motherboard. However, I can't boot into windows 2000 which is installed on another hard drive connected to the first IDE Slot (hda). When I choose DOS in lilo it just shows this:
L?

Does anyone know what this means and how to fix it?

[bdg1983]

During the Redhat install, where did you install the bootloader (lilo) to, the partition that contains linux or the mbr.

Also, please post the contents of /etc/lilo.conf so we can have a look.

[dale10]

Well, I installed lilo on the mbr of the linux hard drive, hde

I've tried making some changes to the conf file, but none help. Here it is in it's current state:

boot=/dev/hde
disk = /dev/hde #tell how hde will look like:
bios = 0x80 # the bios will see it as first drive
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
prompt
timeout=50
message=/boot/message
linear
default=linux

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.2-2
label=linux
read-only
root=/dev/hde7
append="hdd=ide-scsi"

other=/dev/hda1
optional
label=win2k

[DMR]

I could be wrong, but I thought you needed a "table=" entry in your Win stanza to tell lilo where to find the Win partition table.other = /dev/hda1 # your dos/Win partition
table = /dev/hda # the current partition table
label = Win 2k

[ 20 July 2001: Message edited by: DMR ]

[dale10]

I changed the windows section of lilo.conf to this:

other=/dev/hda1
table = /dev/hda
label=win2k

but I still get L? when I try to boot windows 2000

[speck]

Originally posted by dale10:
<STRONG>I changed the windows section of lilo.conf to this:

other=/dev/hda1
table = /dev/hda
label=win2k

but I still get L? when I try to boot windows 2000</STRONG>

Have you been running "lilo -v /etc/lilo.conf" as root after you made the changes? My lilo.conf file's section for booting into win9x is pretty simple.

other=/dev/hda1
label=dos

Speck

[dale10]

Yeah, I know this is supposed to be very simple. That's why this problem is so frustrating. I think the reason why LILO is having such a hard time is because when I boot up the BIOS detects the normal 4 IDE devices, then the Motherboard's ATA-100 controller kicks in and checks the 2 additional IDE slots. They're part of the motherboard and not from a card. It then makes the hard drive on the ATA-100 controller C: and I guess since the first device detect during boot is supposed to be C: lilo gets confused. If this is it, how do I fix it?

hda is my windows 2000 drive, and I can get to it by changing my BIOS to boot from HD0 instead of the RAID/ATA-100 drive.

Then again, I never partitioned the windows hard drive with dos' fdisk. I just let the windows 2000 installation program partition and format it. Could that be the problem?

And thanks everyone for their help so far.

[bdg1983]

I doubt that not using fdisk prior to installing W2K would make a difference as the option to create/delete/format is given during the install.

Did you install W2K before of after Redhat?

How many devices do you have connected to the controller? And what are they?

[Black_Xmas]

Add the line

LBA32

Near the top of your lilo.conf then rerun lilo.

That's how I solved the same problem.

Hope this helps.

[ 21 July 2001: Message edited by: Black_Xmas ]

[dale10]

windows was installed first.

IDE1 has windows hard drive and zip drive
IDE2 has DVDROM and CDRW (yeah, i know, bad setup but I never use both at once anyway)

ATA-100 linux hard drive

[bdg1983]

Did you try the suggestion from Black_Xmas to add lba32?

[dale10]

I tried adding LBA32 but I still get
L?
when I try to boot windows 2000. This is pretty frustrating. Anyway, here's my lilo.conf file:

boot=/dev/hde
disk = /dev/hde #tell how hde will look like:
bios = 0x80 # the bios will see it as first drive
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
prompt
timeout=50
message=/boot/message
LBA32
default=linux

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.2-2
label=linux
read-only
root=/dev/hde7
append="hdd=ide-scsi"

other=/dev/hda1
table=/dev/hda
label=win2k

[ 25 July 2001: Message edited by: dale10 ]

[bdg1983]

You may need to add some mapping to the 'other' section to get W2K to boot. The problem is I cannot remember exactly what needs to be added. I've seen examples posted here in the past.

Perhaps the lilo manpages may have something on mapping or hopefully someone will post what you need to add. If I come across it today, I will post back.

[dale10]

Ok, I was looking up the man page on lilo.conf and here's something that I think will help me, but how do you find out what number your disk was given by the BIOS?


from lilo.conf man page:

disk=device-name
Defines non-standard parameters for the specified
disk. See section "Disk geometry" of user.tex for
details. Especially useful is the `bios=' parame*
ter. The BIOS numbers your disks 0x80, 0x81, etc.
and it is impossible to decide which Linux disk
corresponds to which BIOS disk (since this depends
on the BIOS setup, and on the type of BIOS), so if
you have an unusual setup you need to state the
correspondence between Linux disks and BIOS disks.
For example,

disk=/dev/sda
bios=0x80
disk=/dev/hda disk=device-name
Defines non-standard parameters for the specified
disk. See section "Disk geometry" of user.tex for
details. Especially useful is the `bios=' parame*
ter. The BIOS numbers your disks 0x80, 0x81, etc.
and it is impossible to decide which Linux disk
corresponds to which BIOS disk (since this depends
on the BIOS setup, and on the type of BIOS), so if
you have an unusual setup you need to state the
correspondence between Linux disks and BIOS disks.
For example,

disk=/dev/sda
bios=0x80
disk=/dev/hda
bios=0x81

would say that your SCSI disk is the first BIOS
disk, and your (primary master) IDE disk is the
second BIOS disk.
bios=0x81

would say that your SCSI disk is the first BIOS
disk, and your (primary master) IDE disk is the
second BIOS disk.

[ThePyr0x]

okay i had the same problem and here's what I did. I used the GUI Lilo editor that is in KDE under Settings to put a Windows entry in lilo.conf, but then i found it did some weird **** so I went in, changed it so that the reference was to the correct drive and removed some extra stuff it put in there
make sure u run lilo after making changes tho or they wont work
i made that mistake......


i'd give you the exact contents of my lilo.conf file but I cannot access the internet from linux (winmodem) and it takes to long to shut down windows, boot up linux, and then get windows back again

[ 26 July 2001: Message edited by: ThePyr0x ]