[ILUG] Re: SOS

[Liam Bedford]

On Thu, Jun 29, 2000 at 08:11:04AM +0100, kevin lyda came forth with:
> On Wed, Jun 28, 2000 at 11:21:33PM -0700, Pralhad Vernekar wrote:
> [upgraded from redhat 6.0 to 6.2]
> > redhat 6.2 is running ok - it does not have java.
> > 
> > but my NT has stopped booting up.
> > The conf is as follow:
> > hda1 : fat16 2GB
> > hda2 : NTFS 9 GB
> > hda3 : linux swap 400 MB
> > hd4 : linux 6 GB
> > 
> > while booting "LI" appears and then it just stops 
> > HDisk is being accessed but things do not 
> > move further.
> 
> lilo is a rather ui deficient program.  it's method of reporing errors
> is to print its prompt letter by letter.  so it loads itself up and prints
> L, then it does some other stuff and prints I, more stuff and L, etc.
> the idea is that if it stops at some point you know what it failed at.
> 
> so wait, does it boot linux?  if so what does /etc/lilo.conf say?
 From /usr/doc/lilo-0.21:
   LI   The first stage boot loader was able to load the second stage boot 
    loader, but has failed to execute it. This can either be caused by a 
    geometry mismatch or by moving /boot/boot.b without running the map 
    installer. 

may have a problem with the fact that the linux partition is above 8.4Gb
otherwise it's just upset, and you need to boot the redhat rescue disks,
and run it again...
> 
> does anyone have a good idea how to recover a messed up nt boot loader?
how do you mean? The quickest way is to boot a DOS floppy, and do
fdisk /mbr
Then set the NT partition active. If it's still not booting, boot
the NT installation disks, and try a repair of the boot sector (don't
select anything else, or you may end up with a very FUBAR machine
(the repair data tends to be SP1, and most people have SP5+ installed))

I always install LILO in the linux partition now, and just change
the active partition if I want linux to go away for a while.. It also
means that NT/9* don't clobber my boot loader when I install them..

L.
-- 
Liam Bedford                  | Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire
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