Solved: LILO problem, hangs at 'L' at HD boot
Dave Parsons
>Hello,
>I am trying to install SuSE Linux 5.0 along with OS/2 using OS/2's boot
>manager.
>The initial installation went reasonably well considering it was my
>first try with Linux and it seems to have installed everything.
>The problem is that when I reboot and select Linux from the BM menu all
>I get is just an L and the machine hangs. It boots up ok from floppy.
>
>The system is as follows:
>Pentium 133, 48 MB RAM, Adaptec 2940 SCSI controller,
>1st hd IBM DCHS 4.5 G partitioned
> 1.5 G primary HPFS OS/2 V4 + Fix pack 1 (UK English) System
> 1.5 G logical HPFS data
> 1.5 G logical ext2 Linux (type 83)
>2nd hd IBM DPES 1 G partitioned
> 800 M Primary HPFS OS/2 V4 (UK) maintenance system
> 200 M logical Linux swap.
>
>From everything I've read in this news group and various Linux howtos
>and readmes I suspect that it's a geometry problem, but I can't find a
>working solution.
>I have tried DPARAM which told me
> 0x80 63 255 553
> 0x81 63 255 131
>and I have modified lilo.conf as follows:-
>disk = /dev/sda
> bios = 0x80
> sectors = 63
> heads = 255
> cylinders = 553
>but to no avail.
>
>Does anyone have any other ideas? What I am doing wrong?
>
Hello again,
The solution turned out to be very easy, simply delete the 'linear'
statement put in by the original YaST installation.
Here are copies of 'fdisk' results and the final lilo.conf:-
Disk /dev/sda: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 553 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes
Device Boot Begin Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 190 190 553 2923830 5 Extended
/dev/sda2 2 2 189 1510110 7 OS/2 HPFS
/dev/sda3 * 1 1 1 8001 a OS/2 Boot
Manager
/dev/sda5 * 190 190 371 1461883+ 7 OS/2 HPFS
/dev/sda6 * 372 372 553 1461883+ 83 Linux native
Disk /dev/sdb: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 131 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes
Device Boot Begin Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 103 103 131 232942+ 5 Extended
/dev/sdb2 * 1 1 102 819283+ 7 OS/2 HPFS
/dev/sdb5 * 103 103 131 232911 82 Linux swap
# LILO Konfigurations-Datei
# Start LILO global Section
append="auto"
boot=/dev/sda6
#compact # faster, but won't work on all systems.
#linear # the culprit
read-only
prompt
timeout=00
vga = normal # force sane state
# End LILO global section
# Linux bootable partition config begins
image = /vmlinuz
root = /dev/sda6
label = linux
# Linux bootable partition config ends
#
Dave
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David W.Parsons.
DL1MGQ / G3SLJ
dwpa...@t-online.de
dwpa...@compuserve.com
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