Lilo

[Redferne]

I've just installed an older version of Debian, 2.1 (Slink?) and I'm having a few problems with the boot loader. I think the LILO boot record was written to the second hard disk (which debian is installed on) and so it isn't booting up. Is there any way I can put it on hda rather then hdb?

[bdg1983]

Update the references to hdb in /etc/lilo.conf to point to hda and rerun /sbin/lilo. Being that Debian is not a distro that I have used yet, I'm not sure about the location of the above files.

[newmad]

redferne -

Went through the same probs this weekend, decided it was just easier to use a boot floppy, if you have that option.
I too have Linux on hdb, and so had the same LILO problem. Even tried to put Lin HDD as master (WinME on other HDD), but by then the boot record was fubar, I had to use Norton Rescue to restore old MBR on DOS, and did a reinstall of Deb on 2nd HDD after putting it back to slave drive (Gads I hate that Linux is on the slave drive when it actually Masters WinME :) ).
The Libranet distro installs Deb really easily, has the boot floppy option, and it's cheap :) with a year of support included in the price (which is like only $20).
Good Luck!

[bdl]

Providing you created a boot floppy when you did the install, you can simply boot the system from that, change the lilo.conf file, re-run lilo and be done. If you don't have a bootdisk handy, you should be able to do this with the debian install cdrom or the install floppy. (and remember to make one next install!)

## sample /etc/lilo.conf file
## 20FEB01
## YMMV


boot = /dev/hda #this is the line you need to change, it installs lilo on the MBR of hda

lba32
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
prompt
timeout=100
default=linux
vga=normal

image=/vmlinuz
label=linux
root=/dev/hdb1
read-only

# eof

After you edit your /etc/lilo.conf file accordingly, re-run /sbin/lilo and you should be all set. Luck!

[Redferne]

Thanks, I made the boot disk when I installed Debian, so I haven't had any problems booting... just wanted to get lilo running so I didn't have to rely on the disk.

[ 21 February 2001: Message edited by: Redferne ]