krash092097
asked on
Recovering Lilo (after W98 installation)
Problem -
Linux (RH6) won't boot via Lilo after
W95-->W98 upgrade. System boots to
W98 without Lilo Prompt.
Observations -
Partition Magic still recognizes the
Linux partitions.
Normal rescue procedure is to boot w/
standard boot diskette and enter
linux single root=/dev/hda2 initrd=
as per RH SysAdmin user guide.
Problem to be solved
"/dev/hdaXX" file system not being
recognized (have tried hda1 /2/3/4)
I have made a "rescue diskette" but
can't reboot with it.
Question -
Am I hosed????? (thanks MicroSoft!!)
Dr. Hed Krash
Silver Spring, Maryland
Linux (RH6) won't boot via Lilo after
W95-->W98 upgrade. System boots to
W98 without Lilo Prompt.
Observations -
Partition Magic still recognizes the
Linux partitions.
Normal rescue procedure is to boot w/
standard boot diskette and enter
linux single root=/dev/hda2 initrd=
as per RH SysAdmin user guide.
Problem to be solved
"/dev/hdaXX" file system not being
recognized (have tried hda1 /2/3/4)
I have made a "rescue diskette" but
can't reboot with it.
Question -
Am I hosed????? (thanks MicroSoft!!)
Dr. Hed Krash
Silver Spring, Maryland
If you created a rescue disk in red hat setup you should be able to boot linux from it unless your windows upgrade (or you) changed your partition scheme. What messages do you get when you try to boot your linux rescue disk?
ASKER
Followup - Lilo/MBR recovery
1. Have a rescue disk, but not
a bootable floppy (other than
install diskette).
2. When I type rescue, I get a
RAMDISK load of vmlinux, but
no recognizable mount points.
3. I would like to boot with floppy,
mount /dev/hda2 as / and then
re-run lilo.
1. Have a rescue disk, but not
a bootable floppy (other than
install diskette).
2. When I type rescue, I get a
RAMDISK load of vmlinux, but
no recognizable mount points.
3. I would like to boot with floppy,
mount /dev/hda2 as / and then
re-run lilo.
do you have a rescue disk or an install boot disk? they are different. if you actually have a rescue disk it will boot!
if you need to make one i think it can be done from dos/windows with the redhat cd, i'll get back to you on it.
if you need to make one i think it can be done from dos/windows with the redhat cd, i'll get back to you on it.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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ASKER
Here's a response that solved the
problem -
What you should do would depend partly on which version of RH6.X you have.
In either case, if you made a boot floppy, you should still be able to boot Linux from it and then run lilo. You shouldn't need to pass any parameters to it. If you can't do that, then to use a rescue system. If you have the
boot floppy as above, boot from it and enter rescue at the boot prompt as instructed. Then insert the rescue disk when prompted. (The 6.0 rescue disk also works for 6.1.)
If that doesn't work, for 6.0 boot from the installation media, and when you've gone far enough for Alt-F2 to bring
up a bash prompt, you now are in rescue mode.
For 6.1, you boot from the installation media and enter linux rescue at the boot prompt and you are ultimately put at the (rescue mode) bash prompt.
Once you are in rescue mode (in a ramdisk), run fdisk -l /dev/hda
to check your partition information. Mount what you think your root partition is on some stub directory. There is
a /mnt directory, but you probably shouldn't use that since it won't be empty, so create your own with mkdir /a, for example. Once it is mounted, you can rerun lilo by lilo -r /a
(or use whatever you mounted the root partition on).
There is one further twist with RH6.1. The devices for the disks won't exist when you start. So you have to
create them with mknod. So for example even to run fdisk -l, you would have to first do something like mknod /dev/hda b 3 0 And to be able to mount the second partition, you would need
mknod /dev/hda2 b 3 2
Then you should be able to mount it.
If when you get in rescue mode, fdisk -l /dev/hda does not
show your linux partitions, then the upgrade to Windows 98 wiped out the partition table. It is not supposed to do that, and we have installed Windows 98 on a machine with Linux without that happening. But I've seen such reports.
In that case, there is a program called gpart which may be able to find the partition markers, and you may be able
to use fdisk in rescue mode to remake the partitions.
--
Leonard Evens len@math.nwu.edu 847-491-5537
Dept. of Mathematics, Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL 60208
problem -
What you should do would depend partly on which version of RH6.X you have.
In either case, if you made a boot floppy, you should still be able to boot Linux from it and then run lilo. You shouldn't need to pass any parameters to it. If you can't do that, then to use a rescue system. If you have the
boot floppy as above, boot from it and enter rescue at the boot prompt as instructed. Then insert the rescue disk when prompted. (The 6.0 rescue disk also works for 6.1.)
If that doesn't work, for 6.0 boot from the installation media, and when you've gone far enough for Alt-F2 to bring
up a bash prompt, you now are in rescue mode.
For 6.1, you boot from the installation media and enter linux rescue at the boot prompt and you are ultimately put at the (rescue mode) bash prompt.
Once you are in rescue mode (in a ramdisk), run fdisk -l /dev/hda
to check your partition information. Mount what you think your root partition is on some stub directory. There is
a /mnt directory, but you probably shouldn't use that since it won't be empty, so create your own with mkdir /a, for example. Once it is mounted, you can rerun lilo by lilo -r /a
(or use whatever you mounted the root partition on).
There is one further twist with RH6.1. The devices for the disks won't exist when you start. So you have to
create them with mknod. So for example even to run fdisk -l, you would have to first do something like mknod /dev/hda b 3 0 And to be able to mount the second partition, you would need
mknod /dev/hda2 b 3 2
Then you should be able to mount it.
If when you get in rescue mode, fdisk -l /dev/hda does not
show your linux partitions, then the upgrade to Windows 98 wiped out the partition table. It is not supposed to do that, and we have installed Windows 98 on a machine with Linux without that happening. But I've seen such reports.
In that case, there is a program called gpart which may be able to find the partition markers, and you may be able
to use fdisk in rescue mode to remake the partitions.
--
Leonard Evens len@math.nwu.edu 847-491-5537
Dept. of Mathematics, Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL 60208
there's a program called "loadlin" that comes in
with almost all RH cd-roms. read the txt's. restart
in ms-dos mode, and run loadlin. after you get
linux working you can run lilo to replace m$'s mbr.
with almost all RH cd-roms. read the txt's. restart
in ms-dos mode, and run loadlin. after you get
linux working you can run lilo to replace m$'s mbr.
with partition magic. With any luck your LILO
prompt will be back, to boot off either label.