I feel really smert... oh yes i do..

To me that verbals as ...


Using a 1024x768 screen with 64k colour, with 32 bit LBA enabled ( a good idea) and with the 1st stage installed on the mbr.

If you decide to uninstall Lilo, do "lilo -u" to restore the mbr first. Rather than just over-ewriting its' partition or removing its' table entry then rebooting. Other wise you will still have a lilo 1st stage trying to bootstrap a 2nd stage that either isn't there any more, or it can't find. Incidently, you will find your original/previous mbr stashed in /boot/boot.0300. If you raw copy that to a floppy you will have your original mbr safely stored away on that.

And your booting the 2nd partition on the 1st drive.



>>
install=/boot/boot-menu.b
>>

It, must be an old lilo. Newer versions just use "install=menu" for a menu based 1st stage, or "menu=text" for a text based menu. Which you would set up with the "bootmess.txt" file. In which case you would need a "prompt" option stated as well. The "bootmess.txt" is just layed out to describe your different kernels/systems, with their labels ... to act as a kind of "jogger" to remind you what to type at the prompt.



>>
message=/boot/bootmess.txt
>>

That would seem to contradict your "menu" choice above. But it may just get ignored, or possibly, try to put(squeeze) a message on top of your graphical menu (grin)



>>
prompt
>>

And puts a "prompt" under your graphical menu. You could use both i suppose. I haven't actually tried that and am now wondering if it might work :D

Ok as long as it dosen't cause any conflict. If it does you will have to just go for one or the other.



>>
timeout=150
>>

15 second to decide, not very long.



>>
default=Windows
>>

no comment there :roll: (grin)



>>
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.24-xfs
label=Linux
initrd=/boot/initrd.gz
read-only
>>

Unless you have hw that needs special divers loaded at boot time, that the kernel hasn't got, you shouldn't need an "init.rd"


Seems ok, except for the possible menu thing ... I won't yack on about whether lilo should go on the mbr or not ... it does tend to be one of my pet rants ... but thats were every one puts it :roll:

So .... aside from all that,

As long as windows is on the 1st partition ... highly likely, ... then it should be ok.


Does it boot :D ??.

c-h, what Lilo version are you using, and is the Linux a knoppix hd install or something else ??


I'm kinda thinking of a kernel upgrade to 2.6. It will give you a much faster/smoother desktop compared to 2.4. It does require some package updating though ... but once that stuffs out of the way, it's well worth it. 2.6 deals with module loading differently, and all bootsector type programs would need upgrading. Things like lilo. And "parted" ... especially things like parted. But, only just a thought :)



On your idea. Your kinda getting at something like a cut down enterprise version, specific for small business.... interesting ...

One thing about LiveCds' is that they are amazingly versatile things. They can be used as an actual distro, or a recovery/repair facility ... and also as a convenient and efficient means to "demo" Linux.

Such as a demo to a small business person who may otherwise not have the time to go through a hd install based trial.

So, basically a good idea i guess...

Go over Lilos' manual if you have time, it is worth the read :)



jm

well.. to answer if me meddling worked or not...

IT WORKED!!! and it worked fine... THANK-YOU very much...

>>
well.. to answer if me meddling worked or not...

IT WORKED!!! and it worked fine... THANK-YOU very much..
>>

Good (grin) ...

Don't forget that if you remove, or install on top of your Linux, you will be left with a Lilo stage 1 loader that won't be able to find it's second stage.

If you do a raw copy of the /boot/boot.0300 file to a floppy you will have the original (prior) mbr on that floppy. Effectively turning it into a boot disc. Albeit with the table as it existed at that time.

]# lilo -u

will copy the saved mbr (boot.0300) back.

Just mentioning as it is commonly forgotten by lots of people (grin) when they decide to install a new Linux to the existing partition.

Code:

---


        -=-  Raw copy to floppy -=-
              ----------------------------

]# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/fd0 bs=1024 count=1440

Just to get rid of cruft on the floppy.


]# dd if=/boot/boot.0300 of=/dev/fd0 bs=446 count=1

That'll copy over just the mbr bootstrap.

 "bs=512 count=1"

That will include the prior table.

---

NOTE: Point "dd" the wrong way round, and it __will__ shoot your head off (very_big_grin)


jm

wow... alot of info to injest...

well, i did apt-get update, and now, its all... well... screwed!!!!


http://img299.echo.cx/img299/3630/ohshit6ey.gif

http://img299.echo.cx/img299/1797/opps6ic.gif

I can only open few programs, no text editing programs, and i can apt anything, and hardly anything works... PLEASE HELP!! sorry for lack of info, sister is kicking me off... :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

i dont know what i did wrong...

i know i should be posting this in the helping section, but considering we are on the topic of helping and errors... well... yeah...

ok people... DONT WORRY!!! I'm ok now... i took the switch into debian... and i am doing great.... :twisted: :twisted: its evil... and i can see why some people dont like gnome....

Pure Debian? Hmmm I am thinking of doing that one day too. Any bad experiences yet that you wouldn't face with Knoppix? Glad you got it working anyway.

>>
Pure Debian? Hmmm
>>

deb <---> knoppix <---> etc ....

My system is a woody 3.0 r0 base from late 2002 thats been largely recompiled/updated with packages which tend to spread over much of 2004. Some from 2005. So i guess it's a kind of woody/sarge/sid combo.

Point being that deb is often mistaken for a distro. It's more a "proof" of concept expression. The whole point to debian is that it shows that a working, viable OS, along with an associated sw collection is possible in a GNU context. Which was an underlining critisism of the FSF when it started up. Proprietry industry said that ... well, the concepts promoted by the FSF are all well and good, but a bit naive.

So, the two "Murdocks" proved them wrong. deb will state in their documentation that their intension is to provide a concept base that can be freely taken by other people in order to create a distro from. And so you have knoppix and a number of other deb based distros as a result.

The main criticism deb seems to attract is the "up-to-dateness" of the sw. Well, thats what "apt-get" is for :).

And like most things ... the info is in the docs, but your gotta look for it :).

That would be my only criticism ... obscure documentation. But then again ... the more you search the more available they seem to be.

deb also, often gets criticised for being a techi distro. Well, that is completely incorrect. It's just that it will do the UNIX like thing, and treat you as though you do have a degree of competence ( of soughts :) )

The system management facility "debconfig" dosen't get in your face. You can over-ride it, or work in conjunction with it, (depending on how you arrange its' comment tags in your config files), or let it control the system configuration.

So it tends to suffer the accusation that a lot of people who just sit quietly not making a lot of noise sometimes get accused of ... that is ... that they must be some sought of freakout intellectual :roll: (ever notice that (grin) ).

>>
Any bad experiences yet that you wouldn't face with Knoppix? Glad you got it working anyway.
>>

Iv'e learnt more from deb than i have from any other OS. But then again iv'e spent more time with it too. So that probably cancels out really. But, ultimately it was "dpkgs'" textual flatness and resulting flexability that convinced me to change over from my RH. The binary file formate of the rpm system used to irritate me no end. As a result of fiddling with things, i would inevitably muck things up. And not being able to get into a binary db, and being to stupid to have made backups (one thing iv'e certainly learned to do now (grin) ), i used to get into some very tight corners. But dpkg solved all that.

When i first started using the knoppix v3.3 LiveCD, and then copying it to disk etc ... frankly ..., iv'e had more screw ups with that than with any othe Linux :) :roll:

>>
Hmmm I am thinking of doing that one day too.
>>

(pssss, wisper ....) your probably already doing deb :wink:



chris-harry

:loll:

>>
well, i did apt-get update, and now, its all... well... screwed!!
>>

If you were to post the exact cli you used, like ... write it down somewhere first ... then also posted all the generated messages as well ... it would make things a lot easier.

Dealing with problems/quieries can be enjoyable ... as it becomes a challenge ... and is often mutually revealing. But it becomes hard work when a person has to guess all the time :). A bit of help wouldn't go astray there :wink:

Just as a general standby, look over your "man apt-get", doing an upgrade ( i figure thats what you mean) isn't a trivial exercise ... there are some preliminary steps that are advisable to be done first...

The ...

-s
--simulate
--dry-run
--no-act
--show-upgraded

switches are worth looking at.

such as :


>>
ok people... DONT WORRY!!! I'm ok now... i took the switch into debian... and i am doing great.... its evil... and i can see why some people dont like gnome....
>>


OK ... but ,... how did you fix it. The information may be helpfull to someone else !

Also, could you post the file-size of those image files. I no there not large, but you never know how tight a persons down-load allocation may be that is reading the post. Like ... i'm running almost on empty now (grin) :)

Glad it's fixed though :)



jm



jm

jjmac, first of all, THANKS! Thanks for taking the time to type that up, I appreciate it a lot. A lot of it went over my head because I'm new to this but I get the general idea of it. One thing though:

Quote:

---

>>
Hmmm I am thinking of doing that one day too.
>>

(pssss, wisper ....) your probably already doing deb

---

I realise Knoppix and a lot of other Linux'es are Debian based but I was referring to the Debian. Isn't there just the one main Debian distro, and offshoots like Knoppix are based on that? I assumed that's what Chris-Harry is using now. I probably just got the wrong idea from your post (and emoticon)...bah, just ignore me. But I can just download "pure" Debian right? I picture it as being like Knoppix but without the missing stuff. Lots of times, I go to apt-get a program but it isn't available to Knoppix. Would I be wasting my time getting Debian in the hope that I can apt-get most (more) programs?

About the "Murdocks", do you mean Rupert Murdock? Do you mean there's more than one?!!!! One is enough. Never giving that guy any more of my money! A genuinely evil person. He scares me! Thanks again anyway. Hope I make sense.