boot loader help needed

[rog99]

I just installed debian base as I would like to try and see how the new version performs on my laptop, and hopefully can keep it

The installation was made on a partition which was previously occupied by Xandros and I intended to keep the lilo bootloader of Xandros. However, as you may imagine the bootloader will not boot-up debian. After trying to go to
expert mode and input the boot command the bootloader stalls; perhaps it needed to load more info from xandros partition which is however not present now.

Is there a way how to boot up the debian partition through lets say liveCD to input the command and install debian bootloader or do I have to go through the installation all over again?

..maybe there is a way to install bootloader through Mandriva which is on the next partition, however I do not really want to drag Mandriva into this in case she cant cope What would you experts recommend?

Thanks

[iwanabeguru]

Can you boot mandriva?

If yes , use that.

1. start mandriva
2.make directory for the debian partition.
mkdir /mnt/debian
3. mount the debian partition (You need to know which one it is, and the file system type)
for ex: mount -t ext3 /dev/sda2 /mnt/debian
4. mount the /dev and /proc partitions
mount --bind /dev/ /mnt/debian/dev
mount -t proc none /mnt/debian/proc
5. chroot to debian
chroot /mnt/debian /bin/bash
6.now edit the lilo.conf
put all your oss entry into it , if you have questions read "man lilo.conf"
7.install lilo
lilo #if you want instal it to he master boot record
or read man lilo
8. exit from chroot
exit
9.umount mnt/debian/proc ,mnt/debian/dev
10.umount /mnt/debian
11.restart

If you want use livecd the steps are the same.

7.

[rog99]

Quick reply ! Will try and see... Mandriva is working so far.

Thanks

[rog99]

Just got off my experience.

1. commands described under points 1.-5. seems to be executed well
2. unable to start lilo, even the man lilo.conf did not respond, however evidently I was present on the debian partition ls listed current files; commands 6.-7. were not applied for above reasons
3. chroot exited w/o problems 8.
4. unmount command under points 9. and 10. returned 'file not found' in each case

Do you think if I try to setup bootloader through Mandriva centre it is going to work? I used to have good experience with the bootloader setup in SuSe, as it worked pretty well and could re-read the info from the disks. Does the Mandriva works similarly?

[rog99]

Now I got it! ... I think.

Because, the lilo.conf was not installed with the debian system, it cant work. Its just not there. The lilo which is currently booting the system wherether it is in MBR or not is the Xandros lilo which used to be linked to the same partition where debian resides now.

1. Xandros lilo can not be edited because there is not Xandros installed in the PC and Xandros needs the partition to be edited;
2. Debian lilo can not be changed/edited as the lilo was not installed with the system in the first place