fedora-list Digest, Vol 15, Issue 219

[Jim Li]

> Message: 11
> Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 16:27:16 +0100
> From: Paul Howarth <paul at city-fan.org>
> Subject: Re: dual drive bootup problem
> To: For users of Fedora Core releases <fedora-list at redhat.com>
> Message-ID: <1116948436.13644.37.camel at laurel.intra.city-fan.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain
> 
> On Tue, 2005-05-24 at 11:21 -0400, Jim Li wrote:
> > i went to bootpart site. according to what they have... it looks like
> > they required the bootup loader to be lilo instead of grub.
> 
> No, you don't need LILO. All bootpart does is call up another bootloader
> from a different partition, instead of the one in the MBR. LILO, or any
> other bootloader can be used.
> 
> > so, i went
> > and copy the lilo executable from my other linux box and put it in
> > /sbin.. and i manually edit /etc/lilo.conf + grab a copy of
> > /boot/boot.b from my other machine. i went and change boot env
> > variable to boot=/dev/hdb1... i then ran lilo.. with a warning from
> > lilo that /dev/hdb1 is not the primary drive... which i simply ignore
> > since i know it is not. i reboot the system and ran bootpart... i then
> > have it grab the first 512 bytes of /dev/hdb1.. it then automatically
> > changes the boot.ini pointing to the /<path>/linux.bin that was
> > created on the previous step... reboot the machine again... and select
> > the linux partition... i got an endless 0101010101010101.... to
> > infinite...  i am seriously thinking of reinstalling fedora3... now,
> > my question is, is there a way to install lilo instead of grub with
> > fedora 3. i can't find a way to go around it.
> > appreciate your suggestion and solution,
> 
> Grub should be just fine. Try booting from the first/rescue CD and get
> to the system prompt. Then do:
> 
> # chroot /mnt/sysimage
> # grub-install /dev/hdb1
> 
> See how that goes.
> 
> Paul.
> --
> Paul Howarth <paul at city-fan.org>
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 

paul, you are right. i think it is really not a problem with either
grub and lilo. i did what you ask me to do... and i got this message
after selecting linux on the bootloader:
Loading new partition
Bootsector from C.H. Hochstatter
Cannot load from harddisk
Insert Systemdisk and press any key

so i try another way... installing an older version of linux (redhat
7.2) with lilo on it, ie. boot mbr is recorded to /dev/hdb1 using
lilo.. and use bootpart... it did not work.. i either got this message
above or some other error message...

so i try another way.. (really my original way before you introduce me
to bootpart..) i modify lilo.conf by just taking out the dos bootup
portion, which i don't need, and the timeout and prompt env variables
in the config file. run lilo... from a linux rescue, i did a dd
if=/dev/hdb1 of=/mnt/windows/linux.bin bs=512 count=1 (note:
/dev/hda1, my windows2000 c: partition, is mounted to /mnt/windows)..
and reboot with boot.ini modified to include c:\linux.bin="linux"

and i got one of the following:
1)LI... (stuck and not continue...)
2)0101010101010101010101010... infinite for the whole screen
3)error message like the one above...

i think i can be safe to say this process might work on some ppl's
machines... but it certainly did not work for me... i can strongly
think about tarring up my stuff on my windows machine and back them
up(ouch!, long process).. and have my linux (fedora 3) as my primary
partition instead of secondary... and use either grub or lilo to boot
up windows which will reside on my secondary drive. if you have
another idea i like to hear it... otherwise thanks for your help and
suggestion,
-jim