🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <3s7d5l$qrp@news.cais.com> jsdy@cais3.cais.com (Joseph S. D. Yao) writes:

   Path: news.clark.net!news.sprintlink.net!news.cais.com!cais3.cais.com!jsdy
   From: jsdy@cais3.cais.com (Joseph S. D. Yao)
   Newsgroups: dc.org.linux-users,comp.os.linux.setup,comp.os.linux
   Date: 20 Jun 1995 21:04:53 GMT
   Organization: Hadron, Inc. [Posting from Cap. Area Internet Svcs.]
   Lines: 53
   References: <3s4a3t$q17@news.cais.com> <WHITTENG.95Jun20070024@act1.clark.net>
   NNTP-Posting-Host: cais3.cais.com
   Xref: news.clark.net dc.org.linux-users:588 comp.os.linux.setup:16877 comp.os.linux:869

   In article <WHITTENG.95Jun20070024@act1.clark.net>,
   Gary Whitten <whitteng@act1.clark.net> wrote:
   > What I believe is normally done ...
   >   ... It seems like you are trying to do some non-standard things
   >which may be making life difficult. First, you are trying to boot
   >from floppy instead of hard drive, and second you do not seem to be
   >using LILO as the master boot record.
   > 
   > To install LILO after standard Linux instalation, just run /sbin/lilo
   >and make sure your /etc/lilo.conf is setup for the partitions and
   >booting scheme you would like (see the Linux LILO howto and/or
   >"Running Linux").

   Thanks from your suggestions.  I've been doing all manner of variations
   on the latter; I'm looking for more detail.  As for the former, the use
   of LILO from a floppy has been suggested / mandated for security and
   paranoia reasons - so we don't overwrite the "real" MBR, and so that
   the machine can't be booted in Linux mode without the floppy disk.
   (You decide which is security and which is paranoia.)  The primary
   partition is an MS-DOS partition, which - if I read the documents
   a-right - may not have LiLo as its MBR.  That is also the boot parti-
   tion, in the absence of a floppy disk.


There is no problem loading LILO into the MBR of the MS-DOS disk. That
is really one of the most popular, and reliable, ways of doing
it. Your life will be much easier if you trust in LILO and let it take
over all booting. If you are really concerned, make sure /boot does
not have a file called boot.0300 (if it does, just rename it). Then if
you do install LILO over the original DOS MBR, it will be saved in
/boot/boot.0300 and you will be able to recover the original. Even
easier, you can run dos "fdisk /mbr" on the disk, and it will bring
back the DOS mbr.



   In any case, the problem is not that I don't know how to run the LiLo
   install program, or that I don't know where to put it.  The problem is
   that I can't get LiLo to generate a correct boot sector for the new
   drive when I make the new drive the primary drive.  (It will eventually
   be running as the only drive on the system.)

   In detail, the problem seems to be as follows:

   If I specify the first IDE disk as the root, the install program
   appears to store a disk [hardware] name equivalent to hda, and to store
   the sector numbers of the /boot/boot.b file on that disk.  [Yes!  It
   appears to use sector numbers, rather than parsing the file system!
   While this is quicker, it is certainly causing problems for me!]  Then,
   when I switch the new drive to being the Master drive, it looks for the
   /boot/boot.b on the new drive, but at the sector locations where the
   file is located on the old disk.

   If I mount the second IDE disk and specify it as the root, the install
   program appears to store a disk [hardware] name equivalent to hdb, and
   to store the sector numbers of the /boot/boot.b file on that disk.
   Then, when I switch this drive back to being the Master drive, it tries
   to find /boot/boot.b on the old drive, but at the sector locations
   where the file is located on the new disk.

   Any suggestions on how to mix disk designation and boot sectors?

   Thanks.

   -- 
   Joe Yao				jsdy@cais.com - Joseph S. D. Yao

When you have anything other than a trivial disk setup, it is unlikely
the basic instalation will be able to sort things out properly. You
need to oversee it by checking the /etc/lilo.conf file - that is where
your boot setup is defined. You have to make sure your setup is
consistent. If you have only IDE drives, then linux will refer to the
first (Master) as /dev/hda - the partions will be /dev/hda1 ,
/dev/hda2..., the next drive will be /dev/hdb etc. The Master must be
hardware specified with the jumper setup. The Master will be known to
DOS as C:. The BIOS setup must also be configured properly - everytime
you swap Master/Slave, BIOS has to be reset. All discs must be
partioned consistently, both using DOS fdisk and Linux fdisk. When you
have your boot setup well defined, then you must edit your
/etc/lilo.conf accordingly - see LINUX HowTo or "Running Linux" - you
can specify almost anything you would want. Then, when you run
/sbin/lilo, you should see something like:
	Added Linux
	Added msdos
and this is an indication that everything is ok and LILO will then
take over all booting. If you must avoid LILO running your booting,
I've noticed recent threads about something called "loadlin" I think,
which can call Linux from DOS, and sounds like it works well.

I hope this helps.

		Gary Whitten
		whitteng@clark.net