MBR

[Stephen Smith]

I have a Lilo. That is the way Xandros installs the system. This is about the third time I have requested (along with many others looking at the posts that have the same dual boot problem)

I have a dual boot system which has been backed up using Norton Ghost. I have had to restore the system using Ghost. This leaves me in the situation where I can run Linux but not XP. If I use the fixmbr using the windows rescue console then I can use XP but not Linux.

I do not want to reinstall Linux as the original installation has about 120Mb of updates applied all download at 28K!!

I do have the original (not updated disk) but I do not have a floppy disk player.

Could anybody help me fix the current Linux installation so that it boots again. I do have the original Linux disk. The Linux installation is on Hda5.

The current installation just comes up with LI on the screen when I try and boot though I can reinstall the ghost image and get back to a working Linux but not working XP situation. Yes that can be fixed by Fixmbr but that just reverses the situation.

[techieMoe]

I have a Lilo. That is the way Xandros installs the system.

Have you tried booting with the Xandros CD, hitting SHIFT, and selecting the "Restore Xandros" option? All this does is redetect and rewrite the boot loader that Xandros uses. I find most of the time this fixes boot problems on a system that uses the Xandros bootloader.

[Ambictus]

Can this similarly be applied to RH9? I imagine it would since the core is the same... but I'm a newb so I'm not positive If so would I just type "restore redhat" ?

[Muser]

mostly like. most distrubtions have a rescue/restore option when you boot from cd. mandrake has one and with it you can reinstall lilo

[Ambictus]

Alright... I'm almost there... now I just need to figure out how to install lilo from the console. With RH9 the rescue system mounts my RH9 install as an image that I can change the root to. Once I've done that I'm at a loss as how to install lilo. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated

[techieMoe]

Alright... I'm almost there... now I just need to figure out how to install lilo from the console.

Two things need to be done to install LILO to your master boot record. First you need to configure your

/etc/lilo.conf

file to point to the appropriate partitions. There is a sample lilo.conf here:

http://linux-universe.com/HOWTO/Kern.../liloconf.html

Second, log in as root (if you aren't already) and type:

lilo

It will run through some lines that say "Adding Linux... Adding this... Adding that..." and provided you don't see any errors, you're done. All of the above assumes you already have the LILO program installed.

[Ambictus]

I really appreciate all the help I'm getting here... it's great to actually learn something. I was doing a little searching around while logged into the rescue image and noticed that I don't have a lilo.conf file which I figure I would have had if I had ever run lilo... I do however see a grub.conf file. So I imagine I was actually using grub... not lilo. If this sounds right please let me know, because then I can just re-install grub.. right?

[techieMoe]

I really appreciate all the help I'm getting here... it's great to actually learn something. I was doing a little searching around while logged into the rescue image and noticed that I don't have a lilo.conf file which I figure I would have had if I had ever run lilo... I do however see a grub.conf file. So I imagine I was actually using grub... not lilo. If this sounds right please let me know, because then I can just re-install grub.. right?

If you have a grub.conf but no lilo.conf, that probably means you were using GRUB, yes. I'm not terribly familliar with GRUB myself, but you might find out more about it here:

http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Linux+Win9...roc.html#AEN54

[Ambictus]

Here's my HD setup... I know it's kind of a mess but it works for what I need

hda1 = windows swap partition 1 gig
hda5 = windows OS partition(so I can just wipe the OS and not lose anything else) 5.86 gigs
hda6 = work partition, I keep all my files needed for work here 21.76 gigs
hdb1 = Storage drive, just random stuff like music programs etc... 76 gigs
hdc1 = linux boot drive 100 megs
hdc2 = general linux drive files etc... 37 gigs
hdc3 = linux swap drive 1 gig

[techieMoe]

Here's my HD setup... I know it's kind of a mess but it works for what I need

hda1 = windows swap partition 1 gig

Umm.. what? I've never heard of MS Windows needing a swap partition... You have confused me greatly, grasshopper.