Restoring LILO
Terrance N. Phillip
hda1 - small, vendor proprietary partition
hda2 - windows 98
hda3 - linux swap
hda4 - linux (reiserfs)
And everything's working smoothly. Lilo was installed using MBR.
Someone, NOT SAYING WHO, does a fdisk /mbr from Windows, and now the
computer boots only to windows, never see the Lilo screen.
Is there a quick way to restore Lilo using the installation CD without
re-installing?
Nick.
No_One
Maybe liloconfig is what your looking for.....
ken
Chris Willing
Hash: SHA1
Start machine with Slackware installation disk. At the boot prompt are
instructions to do exactly what you want (boot to linux). You'll need
to specify booting to /dev/hda4 rather than whatever instructions say
(/dev/hda1, from memory).
When you're up & running, fix /etc/lilo.conf (if necessary), then run lilo
chris
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ray
Chris gives you the proper outline. I'd also suggest, at some time, that
it would be good to move your swap and linux partitions to hda5 and hda6 -
the way it is, you can't make any more partitions, since all your primary
partitions are already used. This is not a major concern if all the
available space is used and you never want to install anything else, but
it would not hurt in any event.
Gerhard Wallraf
> Start machine with Slackware installation disk. At the boot prompt are
> instructions to do exactly what you want (boot to linux). You'll need
> to specify booting to /dev/hda4 rather than whatever instructions say
> (/dev/hda1, from memory).
>
> When you're up & running, fix /etc/lilo.conf (if necessary), then run lilo
it's even easier AFAIR. Boot the Slackware CD, mount your Linux drive to
wherever you want (let's say /mnt)
# mount /dev/hda4 /mnt
# lilo -C /mnt/etc/lilo.conf
This should work.
Greetings,
Gerhard
PS: If your name is really Terrance N. Phillip, your're a poor guy. If you
took it from the south park movie, please enter your realname :-)
--
1. Please remove the 'SPAMWEG' in my mail adress
if you want to write a mail to me. Thanks!
2. 'Ubuntu' is a (non-proven) african word for
"I can't figure out how to configure Slackware" ;-)
olive
> Chris Willing wrote:
>
>
>>Start machine with Slackware installation disk. At the boot prompt are
>>instructions to do exactly what you want (boot to linux). You'll need
>>to specify booting to /dev/hda4 rather than whatever instructions say
>>(/dev/hda1, from memory).
>>
>>When you're up & running, fix /etc/lilo.conf (if necessary), then run lilo
>
>
> it's even easier AFAIR. Boot the Slackware CD, mount your Linux drive to
> wherever you want (let's say /mnt)
> # mount /dev/hda4 /mnt
mkdir /mnt/part4
mount /dev/hda4 /mnt/part4
because it is better not to shadow what are in /mnt
> # lilo -C /mnt/etc/lilo.conf
lilo -r /mnt/part4
The -C option won't work because the files are refered as absolute file
if the partition is mounted on /. For example if your kernel is
/boot/vmlinuz; in our configuration it becomes /mnt/part4/boot/vmlinuz.
Olive
Terrance N. Phillip
> Gerhard Wallraf wrote:
>
>> Chris Willing wrote:
>>
>>
>>> Start machine with Slackware installation disk. At the boot prompt are
>>> instructions to do exactly what you want (boot to linux). You'll need
>>> to specify booting to /dev/hda4 rather than whatever instructions say
>>> (/dev/hda1, from memory).
>>>
>>> When you're up & running, fix /etc/lilo.conf (if necessary), then run
>>> lilo
>>
>>
>>
>> it's even easier AFAIR. Boot the Slackware CD, mount your Linux drive to
>> wherever you want (let's say /mnt)
>> # mount /dev/hda4 /mnt
>
>
> mkdir /mnt/part4
> mount /dev/hda4 /mnt/part4
>
> because it is better not to shadow what are in /mnt
>
>> # lilo -C /mnt/etc/lilo.conf
>
>
> lilo -r /mnt/part4
all. FWIW, I was mounting the partition to /mnt/hd, and then just trying
to run lilo without any options. Obviously didn't work.
Nick
ray
> Ah... this looks like what I need. I will try it Monday morning. Thanks
> all. FWIW, I was mounting the partition to /mnt/hd, and then just trying
> to run lilo without any options. Obviously didn't work.
>
It should, if you 'chroot /mnt/hd' first.
Terrance N. Phillip
ray
chroot comes in useful every now and again. It basically lets you change
your root environment.
Ron Gibson
>> Is there a quick way to restore Lilo using the installation CD
>> without re-installing?
> Start machine with Slackware installation disk. At the boot prompt are
> instructions to do exactly what you want (boot to linux). You'll need
> to specify booting to /dev/hda4 rather than whatever instructions say
> (/dev/hda1, from memory).
> When you're up & running, fix /etc/lilo.conf (if necessary), then run lilo
In general one can always use any bootable CD nearly
1. Boot CD
2. mkdir /mount
3. mount /dev/<your old root partition> /mount
4. chroot /mount
5. source /etc/profile
6. lilo -b /dev/<your old root partition> -v -t
7. If above reports no errors...
lilo -b /dev/<your old root partition> -v
Since your old lilo.conf is still intact and you had it in the MBR the
OP could simply do a...
lilo -v -t
lilo -v
However I would check /etc/lilo.conf first to be sure. One could use mc
for a fast check.
The above steps should cover most cases.
Dominik L. Borkowski
> 1. Boot CD
> 2. mkdir /mount
> 3. mount /dev/<your old root partition> /mount
> 4. chroot /mount
> 5. source /etc/profile
> 6. lilo -b /dev/<your old root partition> -v -t
> 7. If above reports no errors...
here is a shortcut:
1) boot cd
2) mount /dev/yourootpartition /mnt
3) chroot /mnt lilo
ray
last time I did that (or similar) I needed to remount /dev and /proc
because lilo needed them.
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1
mount --bind /dev /mnt/hda1/dev
mount -t proc proc /mnt/hda1/proc
lilo -r /mnt/hda1
(the -r does the chroot)
Ray
Grant
>
>last time I did that (or similar) I needed to remount /dev and /proc
>because lilo needed them.
The warning message from lilo is harmless, I don't remember needing
to mount /dev + /proc for recovery, but the full procedure is often
documented and handy to know. ;) So many ways to perform recovery...
Grant.
Ron Gibson
>> In general one can always use any bootable CD nearly
>> 1. Boot CD
>> 2. mkdir /mount
>> 3. mount /dev/<your old root partition> /mount
>> 4. chroot /mount
>> 5. source /etc/profile
>> 6. lilo -b /dev/<your old root partition> -v -t
>> 7. If above reports no errors...
> last time I did that (or similar) I needed to remount /dev and /proc
> because lilo needed them.
> mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1
> mount --bind /dev /mnt/hda1/dev
> mount -t proc proc /mnt/hda1/proc
> lilo -r /mnt/hda1
> (the -r does the chroot)
Oh yeah that does happen sometimes. IIRC it can occur if you boot a 2.4
kernel and the mount is a 2.6 series.
Ron Gibson
>>last time I did that (or similar) I needed to remount /dev and /proc
>>because lilo needed them.
> The warning message from lilo is harmless, I don't remember needing
> to mount /dev + /proc for recovery, but the full procedure is often
> documented and handy to know. ;) So many ways to perform recovery...
Ah yes I recall that also. Actually Zipslack is a great tool. Since I
keep W98SE around for Dreamweaver and games I have fat. If youy lose
lilo just boot a DOS system disk and start Zipslack that way. It's very
a fast, method - Maybe 2-3 minutes.
Grant
I avoid the problem on dual-boot machines by letting msft keep the MBR,
then all I need do is set slackware partition active, can do that from
win98 startup floppy, or winxp.
Never got around to trying ZipSlack, seems less likely as time passes.
OT:
I have three different zip100 drives doing very little, which strikes
me funny as what I paid for a Zip drive and three disks in '97 would
now buy a 20GB music thingy... iPod :)
Grant.
ray
Ron Gibson
> I avoid the problem on dual-boot machines by letting msft keep the
> MBR, then all I need do is set slackware partition active, can do
> that from win98 startup floppy, or winxp.
I use vpart (MBR) + OS/2 Bootmanager (takes a primary) my MBR. Vpart
is very similar to Smart Boot, another excellent product.
Then I always install lilo in the root of the distro.
I do this because lilo would be very lengthy (as in lots of stanzas)
since I have 10 bootable OS's, a mix of 'doze, OS/2 and several flavors
of linux. Vpart is very easy to use and can be installed from a floppy.
Smart Boot is likewise. And since I often change the partition scheme
the MBR gets nuked at least once, twice a week. I'm working on a
bootable CD to take care of all of these various nits for all three
types of OS's. I've had too many floppy drives go bad and eat my rescue
floppy.
> Never got around to trying ZipSlack, seems less likely as time passes.
> OT:
> I have three different zip100 drives doing very little, which strikes
> me funny as what I paid for a Zip drive and three disks in '97 would
> now buy a 20GB music thingy... iPod :)
Oh I don't use it on a Zip drive (Zipslack). I have it on a FAT
partition. It is very handy over my way.
I'll go one though regarding $$$ - I paid $400 for a 8MB 72 pin SIMMs
some time back <Groan>
Grant
>I do this because lilo would be very lengthy (as in lots of stanzas)
>since I have 10 bootable OS's, a mix of 'doze, OS/2 and several flavors
>of linux. Vpart is very easy to use and can be installed from a floppy.
Whatever works for you, I'm too easily confused to install that many
OS on one box :o)
>Oh I don't use it on a Zip drive (Zipslack). I have it on a FAT
>partition. It is very handy over my way.
Hmm, slack install syslinux on its own partition is good enough
for recovery (like when I killed bash recently) on an old box here.
>
>I'll go one though regarding $$$ - I paid $400 for a 8MB 72 pin SIMMs
>some time back <Groan>
Game / story time: when os/2 2.0 came out I tried it, umpteen floppy
disk install then that swap storm on first boot --> $400 for 4 x 1MB
30pin sticks to go 4MB to 8MB the very next day.
Grant.