Re: [aclug-L] LI but no LO

[Bob Deep <bobd@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Karl Juhnke wrote:
> 
> So, I got the RedHat 5.2 CD's (thanks Matt!) last night, and installed.
> Now when I turn on the computer it counts the RAM, sees the hard drives,
> etc., (AMIBIOS) and at the point where it used to say "Starting Windows"
> it says "LI" and hangs.
> 
> Let me back up a step.  The computer has been running Windows 95.  I
> bought and installed a second hard drive for Linux, hoping to dual boot.
> I did back up the most important files from the Windows drive before
> starting the install, but I hadn't the means to back up everything, and to
> make matters worse the computer is my parents', not mine.  If you guys
> can't save my bacon, I won't be allowed to touch the machine until it is
> retired as a doorstop.  :-(
> 
> The installation process was uneventful until I tried to restart the
> computer.  I expect the partitions and packages I chose aren't relevant to
> my problem, just LILO, but I wouldn't know.  When I got to installing
> LILO, the instructions implied that I would not be able to dual boot
> unless I put LILO in the master boot record of hda, so I did.  On the next
> screen I set it to boot by default from "dos" = hda1 and alternatively
> from "linux" = hdb5 (my root partition).  However, it refuses to do
> either.  I never get to a boot prompt.
> 
> The instructions said to make a boot disk and a rescue disk, which I did.
> I don't know what the rescue disk is for, but the boot disk allows me to
> boot from hdb5 and run linux just fine.  XWindows works great.
> (Indicentally, I have already discovered that the backgammon program sucks
> pondwater.  20-3 my first match, and I expect more if I had known to
> aggressively exploit its weaknesses.  Is there a backgammon program out
> there of any real power?)  The point is, however, my linux boot disk
> doesn't allow me to boot to hda1.
> 
> What is my problem and how might I fix it?  Please please please don't
> tell me I have to reinstall Windows.

Try adding the "linear" (sp in doubt) option to your lilo config file
and cycle lilo.  That should fix it I believe...

What's going on is that lilo has a small portion of the program that
lives on the MBR... But the MBR is too small to do much except locate
some other sectors, load and run them...

This small program outputs "LI" to your console, finds the other part of
Lilo which prints "LO" then proceeds to load the OS of choice....

If the program on the MBR cannot address your drive correctly (Say you
are above the 1024 cylinder limit) you will get "LI" and the machine
hangs.

When you add the linear option, you tell LILO to use a differant
addressing scheme, that, assuming your BIOS understands it, gets you
past the 1024 cylinder limit..

Now... If adding the paramater does not fix it. Remove LILO by booting
from a DOS/Win Floppy and running "fdisk /mbr" which will restore the
MBR on the drive and make windows boot again.  Then you can either boot
from a floppy all the time, or use loadlin from a dos window.

-= bob=-
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