[NTLUG:Discuss] lilo question -- dmesg info

[Jack Snodgrass]

not sure if this rambling will be of use or not....

first of all.... make sure you can boot with a boot floppy or rescue
cd. If you hose up lilo and can't boot anything.... you need to
know how to boot from a floppy to get back into your system.

Also... if the system says:
"/lib/modules/2.4.4-4GB/modules.dep (No such file or directory)"
then it's loading the 2.4.4-GB Suse kernel and looking for the
appropriate /lib/modules/2.4.4-4GB directory off of your /
partition.


what do you mean by
"I copied vmlinuz-2.4.3-20mdk from mandrake's /boot dir into /dev/hda1,
which is the directory mentioned in lilo." exactly?

the
boot=/dev/sda
or
boot=/dev/hda
or
boot=/dev/hda1
line in lilo tells it where to look for the boot sector ( something
like that )

the section(s)

image  = /boot/vmlinuz
       label  = linux
       root   = /dev/hda6
       initrd = /boot/initrd

mean: "image =" location of kernel to boot. This is the location
                at the time you run lilo. If you have two '/boot'
                partions ( /boot and /mnt/mandrake/boot ) then you'll
                have one section with /boot and one section with
                /mnt/mandrake/boot in your lilo.conf file. I always
                have a 50Meg /boot partion I use for my /boot on
                all of my boxes.
      "label =" the 'name' of the section
      "root  =" the partion that will be loaded as root.
      "initrd=" optional. needed if you need to load modules
                in order to enable your filesystem. i.e. if
                you have SCSI ( or reiser ) compiled as a
                module, you have to have a initrd package that
                contains these so you can boot.


One of your original lilo.conf files had:

boot = /dev/hda1            # I'd use /dev/hda
vga  = 771                  # optional
read-only                   # I have this in each section.
                            # causes problems if you boot
                            # none linux oses.
menu-scheme = Wg:kw:Wg:Wg   # no clue what this is
prompt                      # ok
timeout   = 80              # ok
message   = /boot/message   #ok

  image  = /boot/vmlinuz
  label  = linux
  root   = /dev/hda6
  initrd = /boot/initrd

  image  = /boot/vmlinuz.suse
  label  = suse
  root   = /dev/hda6
  initrd = /boot/initrd.suse
  optional                 # not sure what this is.

  image  = /boot/memtest.bin # or these.
  label  = memtest86         # dito

# I copied this from Mandrake's lilo.conf
  image=/boot/vmlinuz       # using the SAME kernel as your 'linux' label.
                            # that's ok... you can have the same kernel boot
                            # susie and mandrake and redhat. not sure if
it's
                            # what you intended. Probably why your trying to
                            # load the 2.4.4-4GB modules.
  label=linux-mandrake
  root=/dev/hda7
  append=" quiet"           # don't know what this does. I'd take it out
                            # and see if it does more debug stuff.
  read-only                 # not needed if you have it at the top.



lastly... if you want to be able to boot both SUSE and Mandrake,
boot up with Suse and use the file that you have here. On the mandrake
part, use
  image=/boot/something-other-than-vmlinuz #i always use
/boot/bzImage-2.4.14
                                           # or something similar.
  label=linux-mandrake
  root=/dev/hda7
  read-only


you'll need to make sure that the /lib/modules on /dev/hda7 has the mandrake
modules. If you don't have /boot mounted as a partition ( the same on on
each distribution ) then you will have to change your lilo.conf file on
each one or have the exact data in each /boot partion coped to the other
one.

that's all for now. Let me know if it makes any sense or not.


------------------------------------------------------------
Jack - 817-455-1216
Available for Linux administration, configuration and setup.
------------------------------------------------------------