Problem booting/recognizing Slackware

**LoisMustDie** · 05-09-2005

Hello there,
Earlier today I installed Slackware (10.1 I think) on the second hard drive on my comp. The first hdd has XP on it (I am switching) I went through the Setup, and installed Lilo, or at least I think I did. I also created a boot floppy when it gave me the option. I restarted my computer, and bios/boot only recognized windows as an os on the machine. Does this mean that lilo did not install? And do I need to flag another partition using cfdisk or something for the comp to recognize the os?
Any help is appreciated, I will do my best to fill in any gray spots.

**budman7** · 05-09-2005

When you installed LiLo, did you install it to the MBR, or to the superblock/root partition?
Can you boot slackware with the boot disk?

**LoisMustDie** · 05-09-2005

Im pretty sure that I installed it to the superblock. I cannot boot with the boot disk, and that is what really bugs me. I am currently looking around my house for the other boot disk that I made last time i installed it (like 3 mos ago) When it worked then, I had to boot using the floppy every time, so im wondering if I need to put a boot something somewhere.

**rong** · 05-09-2005

Originally Posted by LoisMustDie

Im pretty sure that I installed it to the superblock. I cannot boot with the boot disk, and that is what really bugs me. I am currently looking around my house for the other boot disk that I made last time i installed it (like 3 mos ago) When it worked then, I had to boot using the floppy every time, so im wondering if I need to put a boot something somewhere.

As budman points out you need to install LILO in the MBR - that's the option the setup screen warns you might impact you if dual booting, which you are. If you do this it will overwrite the MBR and then you won't be able to boot into XP until you put the XP install cd back in and do a FIXMBR. That or figure out why your bootdisk won't work.

**budman7** · 05-09-2005

If you install LiLo to the MBR, it should recognize that there is a Windows partition there, and it will put an entry in the LiLo.conf for Windows.

**LoisMustDie** · 05-10-2005

ok, so to fix this, i need to put the slackware CD back in, install Lilo to MBR, and then restart. After that, I need to put the XP cd in and then do a FixMBR right? How do I do that? What Is MBR anyway? I'll redo anything if you tell me how/to.
Thanks,
Grant

**LoisMustDie** · 05-10-2005

ok, so follow up question: When I put the Slackware Cd in, and login as root, then what is the command to move or re-install lilo?
and while im posting, how do i run fixmbr from the XP setup CD?

**budman7** · 05-10-2005

To install Lilo to the MBR, do this

Code:

/sbin/lilo -b /dev/hda -v

To boot Windows, you will need to put an entry in your llo.conf file for Windows.
Hopefully someone more familiar with LiLo can help out with this.
DO NOT use the XP cd to FIXMBR, that will uninstall lilo.

MBR stands for Master Boot Record.

**LoisMustDie** · 05-10-2005

all right, thanks, and thanks.
So I need someone who is familiar with Lilo, or at least has done this before to help me out. Is there an easier way to Dual boot? was it to just do the installation right the first time? grr, i might as well just totally re-install slackware, but im not giving up on this one yet....

so what is Lilo? what does it do/replace?
Grant

**budman7** · 05-10-2005

See this topic, look for Dylunio's posts, he explains it pretty well.
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/top...highlight=lilo

Thread Tools

Display

Problem booting/recognizing Slackware

Posting Permissions