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Topic: HDD install on laptop that won't boot CD

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tonymoloney Offline

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Posts: 26
Joined: Dec. 2005

Posted: Dec. 15 2005,00:47

Hi Sarah
Thanks for the tips, especially the howto .pdf.
Due to a couple of emergencies and Christmas shopping, I didn't really have much of a chance to play yesterday. However, I should get more time today. I'll let you know how I go.
Tony

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The older I get, the better I was.

tonymoloney Offline

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Posts: 26
Joined: Dec. 2005

Posted: Dec. 15 2005,08:17

Well!!!!!! There's never a dull moment when you're playing with computers!
By following the tips and reading between the lines and in between visits to the hospital, I have finally got DSL installed to my hard drive.
However -
Now it boots from the hard drive without giving any choice, even if the partition is not selected as bootable.
Because I needed to access the Winows partition to be able to install - due to the fact that the floppy and the CD share the same port - I decided to install to the unused space on the Windows C: drive.
When I ran cfdisk to set up the partition and make it bootable, cfdisk reported that the MBR could not handle dual booting. "Not a problem" I thought "That is just a toggle so I can try it with or without dual booting"
Now, regardless of which option is picked, DSL (or LILO) always boots without giving me an option to pick it or Windows.
cfdisk shows that the Windows partiton still exists and is boot able so I can't think what is happening here.
BTW I initially created my space for DSL by using Windows fdisk, toasting the hard disk and re-installing Windows etc. to a smaller partition.
Any clues?
Tony

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The older I get, the better I was.

sarah

Group: Members
Posts: 73
Joined: Sep. 2005

Posted: Dec. 15 2005,11:20

I am wondering which DSL Lilo is booting? Is it booting the frugal image in your Windows partition, or is it booting the installation you want to run DSL from?

Anyway, I was thinking the solution would be to go into DSL, open a terminal and become root. BACK UP the /etc/lilo.conf file and then edit your /etc/lilo.conf file. I can only make a guess based on my lilo.conf file -sorry. :o(
Add the following lines:

Code Sample

other=/dev/hdaX (where X is the Windows partition number from)
label=win (or whatever)
table=/dev/hda

And run lilo before you reboot.. lilo -C /etc/lilo.conf (I think Lilo is located in /sbin/lilo).

And I'll be honest, I am pretty much guessing, so you might want to get someone else to confirm it before you try it unless you don't mind possibly breaking things..

I hope everything is ok with you and yours - emergencies doesn't sound too promising!

Good luck.

Cheers and beers
Sarah

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I've been told the best way to learn is to explain it to someone else in front of "experts". People who are knowledgable (and sometimes even if they're not!) on a topic will soon tell you if you're wrong, and love you for the opportunity to either show their prowess or make jokes at your expense!

AwPhuch

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Posts: 1404
Joined: April 2004

Posted: Dec. 15 2005,22:43

grub to me is the better bootload..plus when you install it, it asks you if your windows is on /dev/hda1..then kapow!!!

Brian
AwPhuch

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http://www.frappr.com/dsl <-- Where do you use DSL?
http://www.smoothwall.org <-- Ultimate firewall for the world!
http://boinc.mundayweb.com/one/stats.php/userID:6107 <--My BOINC stats!
./S99LinuxRevolution start

tonymoloney Offline

Group: Members
Posts: 26
Joined: Dec. 2005

Posted: Dec. 15 2005,23:25

Sarah, Brian
Thanks for the replies. I have a feeling that LILO is booting the DSL from my Windows partition as the installation just didn't seem to take long enough to copy the files from /dev/hda1 to /dev/hda2. When I get a chance I'll follow your tips - might be a couple of days, though.
Brian, how do I get grub in when I've already got LILO?
Tony

--------------
The older I get, the better I was.

15 replies since Dec. 13 2005,05:36

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