Ontrack Disk Manager & Lilo
Forum: HD Install
Topic: Ontrack Disk Manager & Lilo
started by: dsp
Posted by dsp on Feb. 10 2006,09:13
Hi All,I'm trying to install dsl on my system:
Compaq Prolinea 4100
Intel 486 DX4 100 Mhz, 64 Mb Ram
Maxtor 30 gB
Clearly the bios doesn't support the hd, so i've installed the ontrack disk manager on the mbr of the hdd.
The partitions scheme is:
/dev/hda1 Windows NT4 ~500mB
/dev/hda2 DSL 2.1b ~700 mB
/dev/hda3 Linux Swap ~128mB
I've installed dsl from cd and, at the end of installation process, when lilo is writed on mbr, it overwrite the ontrack's manager and system doesn't boot anymore.
The NT4 boot manager works fine.
So for solve this problem i thinked to use the nt loader for boot linux; for this aim i readed this < Howto >.
I used this syntax
| Code Sample |
| lilo -C ./myconfig /dev/hda |
My questions are:
Where is my mistake ?
How can i write lilo without boot from hda2 ?
Do you have some other way to resolve this ?
Thanks for the help in advance
Bye
Posted by larkl on Feb. 10 2006,22:22
DId you do a full HD install or a frugal? If it's frugal, editing the lilo is next to impossible. Grub would work better, but the BIOS HD recognition seems like a real hurdle. Have you tried getting a BIOS flash update from Compaq's web site? It's probably a waste of time, given the age of the PC.
Posted by dsp on Feb. 11 2006,00:28
A did the hd install.I found a bios update on the hp site, but i don't have a good experience with bios flashing
Use the NT Boot Loader is a good workaround for this problem, but i don't know how i can write lilo without boot from hd
.This Pc in old but quite useful, it works fine with nt.
As i readed around Ontrack Disk manager is compatible with linux...there should be a mistake somewhere.
Is it possible boot from a floppy ?
ThanX for the help
Bye
Posted by NewDude on Feb. 11 2006,07:43
BIOS flashing is fairly easily. I have flashed 486's and Pentiums before. Read the readme for the new bios. Make the new BIOS floppy. It might even make it bootable(Not sure). If it isn't a bootable flash, use a DOS boot disk, boot to it (Floppy), put your bios flash in it and execute the flash.
All the flashes I have done make the flash floppy bootable. But I would create the flash in dos. Don't execute the flash in a NT dos session. I know with DELL it will trash the machine. Although, you might be able to create the flash (Extract the BIOS to the floppy) in the DOS session, but DON"T EXECUTE THE UPGRADE BIOS IN THE NT DOS SESSION WINDOW.
I am willing to bet though, even with a flash, the 486 probably won't see a 30GB hd. The 486 was probably made to see only a 500mb to 2.1gb HD(NOT SURE). It might update the bios to only see a 8GB HD... (NOT SURE)... read the readme...
So, you might not get the full use out of the HD and might need and dish management program to split (Partition) it up.
Not sure, just from my experience...
Posted by larkl on Feb. 11 2006,13:07
I've never had a problem with a BIOS flash, but have always created the boot floppy with the flash first, then re-booted on the floppy. I agree that the chance is slim that this'll make it see a 30 gig drive. I'd explore the LILO issue further or try to find a smaller drive.You should be able to find information about booting with a floppy using search.