Reinstalling lilo bootloader

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10-14-2003, 02:48 PM
sstrange

Reinstalling lilo bootloader

I've been using Knoppix besides other OS (Windows) on my laptop and used the lilo bootloader.
Now I installed a third OS (XP) on my machine and now the Windows Bootloader is started and is not showing Knoppix.
For this kind of problems I created a linux boot disk but for some reason the floppy is corrupted. ;-(
How can I reinstall the lilo bootloader in the MBR?
I've all the info about the lilo.conf available.

Summary of lilo.conf
....
root=dev/hda6
....
default=W2KPROF

image=boot/vmlinux-2.4.20-xfs
label=Linux
initrd=/boot/initrd.gz
read-only
.....
other=/dev/hda1
label="W2KPROF"

Summary of question:
How can I reinstall the lilo bootloader, so I can boot all my OS's (W2K, WXP and Linux).

All help is more than welcome...
10-14-2003, 03:15 PM
baldyeti

Re: Reinstalling lilo bootloader
Quote:

Originally Posted by sstrange

How can I reinstall the lilo bootloader, so I can boot all my OS's (W2K, WXP and Linux).

I think that when you want to boot several windows versions it's best to use
the MS boot loader, but add linux entries to it. In your case I would:
- boot off the knoppix CD in console mode ("knoppix 2")
  cd /tmp
  dd if=/dev/hda6 of=hda6.bs count=1
  insert a formatted floppy
  mcopy hda6.bs a:
  reboot under windows
  copy the hda6.bs file from the floppy to your c:\
  edit the (hidden, system) c:\boot.ini file
  in the [operating systems] section, add the following line:
  c:\hda6.bs="Knoppix"
I am using a floppy because I am assuming your C: unit is NTFS and you
cannot directly write to it from knoppix/linux.
10-14-2003, 03:18 PM
rickenbacherus

Perhaps this post will help you get LiLo reinstalled.
10-15-2003, 08:44 AM
sstrange

Adding the Knoppix to the NT bootloader failed. I only got a blinking cursor when I tried to start Knoppix from NT bootloader menu.
I found that it something to do with logical partitions, but didnot investigated it. So I could be wrong. But I found that the copied hda6.bs file was empty??

Then I reinstalled lilo with the Knoppix CD as suggested in second posting.
The only I did first was run lilo with the -t -v options ;-)

Everything is booting again. Thanx alot :D

Stefan
10-15-2003, 09:30 AM
baldyeti

Quote:

Originally Posted by sstrange

But I found that the copied hda6.bs file was empty??

Then something went wrong. It should be 512 bytes long: it's a boot sector.