Re: [aclug-L] It wont boot?!?!?!?!?!

[John Goerzen <jgoerzen@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Here's what the documentation (/usr/doc/lilo/Manual.txt.gz) has to say 
about it:

   LI   The first stage boot loader was able to load the second stage boot
    loader, but has failed to execute it. This can either be caused by a
    geometry mismatch or by moving /boot/boot.b without running the map
    installer.

I have seen this occur often when there is some proprietary software
used to set up a drive.  This most often occurs if a hard drive is
bought separately from a computer and the software that comes on an
accompanying diskette is used to format the drive.  This software is
generally not needed with modern OSs, and can actually confuse them.

Also, make sure that LBA in your BIOS is turned on.

There is also a possibility that something went wrong with your
installation.  You may want to retry the install.

One thing that you can try (not useful if there's stuff on the hard
drive you want to save), is to zero out the partition table.  THIS
DESTROYS ALL DATA ON THE DRIVE.  But it will force Linux to reprobe
the drive for its geometry information.

I do not know about RedHat, but some distributions have a boot/rescue
disk such that you can easily get a shell (perhaps by hitting
Alt-F2).  Once you've got a shell, type:

cat /dev/zero > /dev/hda

and wait about ten seconds, then hit Ctrl-C.

Then reboot, and retry the installation.

REMEMBER, THIS DESTROYS ALL DATA ON THE DRIVE.

Good luck,
John

"MB Lindsey" <walrus@xxxxxxxxx> writes:

> [1  <text/plain; iso-8859-1 (quoted-printable)>]
> HI,
> 
> I am trying to install RH 5.0, and the installation goes well (no errors).  
> When it is time to boot the machine for the first time all I get are the 
> letters "LI" at the bottom of the screen.  Linux will be the sole OS on this 
> machine.  Any suggestions?
> 
> Thanks,
> MBL
> [2  <text/html; iso-8859-1 (quoted-printable)>]
> 

-- 
John Goerzen   Linux, Unix consulting & programming   jgoerzen@xxxxxxxxxxxx |
Developer, Debian GNU/Linux (Free powerful OS upgrade)       www.debian.org |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Visit the Air Capitol Linux Users Group on the web at http://www.aclug.org
---
This is the Air Capitol Linux Users Group discussion list.  If you
want to unsubscribe, send the word "unsubscribe" to
aclug-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx.  If you want to post to the list, send your
message to aclug-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx.