LILO Problem

Forum: HD Install
Topic: LILO Problem
started by: Scarletdown

Posted by Scarletdown on Sep. 07 2004,01:12

I just installed 0.8 on another of my computers. This one also has DOS 6.22.

The DOS partition is hda1 and the Linux partition is hda2. I set hda2 as bootable, and installed LILO on hda's MBR. However, when I reboot, I will get either just a flashing cursor or "No Operating System Found"

If I go ahead and make hda1 bootable, the system boots right to DOS 6.22. So it looks like LILO didn't actually get installed afterall. These problems remained even when I rebooted with the boot floppy and DSL CD and manually ran mkliloboot.

What step did I miss here?

Posted by Pu7o on Sep. 07 2004,22:38

you might want to take a look at loadlin

Posted by Scarletdown on Sep. 13 2004,09:29

As an update to the problem, I went ahead and wiped both hard drives and started from scratch. The "No operating System Found" problem was resolved, but replaced by an even more cryptic error: "LILO - Timestamp Mismatch" WTF does that mean?

I disconnected the second drive, and was able to boot up normally. However, when I put the second drive back in, the problem returned.

What can I do to fix this problem and still be able to have both drives connected, short of replacing it with another drive?

Posted by Scarletdown on Sep. 13 2004,09:30

Oops. Double post. Please delete this response.

Posted by henk1955 on Sep. 13 2004,09:48

why dont you try grub?

i took a knoppix 3.3 CD and "grub-install /dev/hda --boot-directry /mnt/hda2" ed.

i have win98 on /hda1 and linux on hda2

Posted by Scarletdown on Sep. 13 2004,09:54

Okay, I'll give GRUB a shot. Looks like I should be able to apt-get install it after doing the dpkg-restore command.

But even though I will try it, I still would really like to know what causes that Timestamp error in LILO. Sadly, a Google search didn't really turn up any useful information.

Posted by Scarletdown on Sep. 13 2004,22:44

GRUB worked nicely. I had to manually create /boot/grub/menu.lst, but fortunately, a quick Google search turned up some decent examples that don't automatically assume the reader already knows how to do what is being taught.