Mdk9.0 install on Thinkpad 390X problem

[TCaptain70]

I can't believe my luck...I've FINALLY managed to convert my lovely fiancee to Linux. She's been watching me use it on my laptop, desktop and server for a year and half now and she finally wants to take the leap. ("Frozen bubble" helped, she's now hooked on the game). :D

Only one problem, Mdk9.0, the install that went so smooth for me many times, does not work on her laptop...I'll describe the problem:

I boot from CD, and choose expert, as she is very limitted on space so I want more control on the partition and packages installed.

There's no errors when installing the packages.

There's a minor error...it fails to detect the SMC PCMCIA network card...no biggie.

Everything else is smooth, I choose lilo as a bootloader.

Problem: On reboot, no bootloader is evident, it just goes straight into Win98...?? Using the boot disk, I try and boot into linux but get kernel panic. Using the CD and "rescue" mode..it seems that everything is there. :mad:

- tried 3 or 4 times over the weekend.

I'm just wondering what to do/try next... here are my thoughts.

1 - maybe use the rescue CD, install Grub see if it works that way
2 - Try another install of 9.0 but not expert, that used to work back in the 7.X days when I had problems.
3 - if 1 and 2 don't work, chuck it all and try installing 8.1 (which I've seen on the net ppl have installed on this hardware)..which would be a small downer since she really likes KDE 3.0

Right now Knoppix runs VERY well from the CD...but she'd like Mandrake. And lets just say my credibility is rather lessened by my current install problems (since I'm always saying how great it linux and Mandrake are)

Hardware: IBM Thinkpad 390X, 128M Ram, 4.8 Gig HD.

[carlywarly]

I suppose I would boot Mandrake via the rescue route, make a boot floppy, and reboot via the floppy. Then, try reconfiguring Lilo via the Control Centre, and see if that works. Then if it doesn't, boot via rescue and try Grub. I would expect one of those to work, hopefully.

[TCaptain70]

Thanks, I got a chance to tinker yesterday and got nowhere...

so I went through another install and chose grub (because I couldn't get grub to install from the rescue CD) and still no go.

Playing in rescue mode I was able to determine that the install is complete (if there's anything missing, its nothing major that I could see) its ONLY the bootloader that just wont install.

Trying to install lilo with lilo.conf gives me a fatal error:
I don't have it exactly but, something like "Lilo doesn't know how to handle device 0X0103".

I'm doing some research now...man...complicated stuff. Apparently it means that lilo can't get info from the kernel or bios about my HD and doesn't know how to load itself into it, and that a possible work around is to explicitly define the HD specs in lilo.conf.

Gonna give it a shot tonight, then I'll post the solution if it works that way if anyone ELSE has this same problem, they can find it faster than I did.

[_ix_]

try to update the BIOS with a new one. the last version for 390X I think it is ww55; check on ibm site.
try to install lilo on MBR.

I installed rh8 on a 390X without problems (yeah, only one - the sound didn't work until I disabled de "pci bus power management" in bios)

[TCaptain70]

I'll look into that, I never thought it could be a BIOS problem.

I'm always nervous doing a BIOS update but I'll take a look (I gotta be extra careful, its the SO's laptop :D )

[_ix_]

I don't think it's about bios, it was just an idea. so, try to reinstall mdk first, with lilo in mbr.
(I was nervous too when I did that bios update :D)

[jglen490]

Problem: On reboot, no bootloader is evident, it just goes straight into Win98...?? Using the boot disk, I try and boot into linux but get kernel panic. Using the CD and "rescue" mode..it seems that everything is there.
If no bootloader is evident, then no bootloader code was set on the MBR. If it goes straight to Win98, then the default chainloading boot code exists and has not been replaced by Lilo or Grub boot code. Double check where you installed the boot code.

[TCaptain70]

Double check where you installed the boot code.

Always on hda (there's only one hd in the laptop, but I made sure.)

try to reinstall mdk first, with lilo in mbr.

I've done the reinstall about 6 times now, trying different options, both expert and recommended, trying both lilo and grub.

As I said earlier below, once the install is done, I can get in fine with rescue, and everything is there but the bootloaded...so I have attempted to manually install lilo.

Trying to install lilo with lilo.conf gives me a fatal error: I don't have it exactly but, something like "Lilo doesn't know how to handle device 0X0103".

I haven't had much time to research this further and my SO really hates me tying up her laptop to "tinker" while everything works ok using bootmagic (which I find kind of clumsy)

A very weird note: Once I installed Bootmagic and booted in linux, lilo comes up! With all the installed options....very weird (although as I noted above...on the up side, Mdk9 works very well once booted and the SO loves it.)