Can't boot linux from HD after installtion?

[gopikrish]

Since knoppix installation complained that it needs atleast 2 GB of disk space to install I fully formatted my harddisk and created 3 partitions one for windows as Primary DOS partition and one for linux as linux partition with size 2.5GB and one partion as linux swap drive with 300MB size.I did the command "IGNORE_CHECK sudo knoppix-installer" since without that ignore_check it was complaining that "The installer detected that the installation requirements are not fulfilled yet." And then installation was completed successfully.But when I restarted, it said "Checking for boot disk in IDE .... OK" and then weird thing of L 09 09 09 09 and even more 09s appeared and nothing happened Why is this?

[shah]

This 99999....occurs when lilo not properly installed on your mbr.

You can try reinstall lilo:
1) Boot from cd.
2) Open konsole and run command:
su
mount /devhad*x /mnt/hda*x *x= partition which knopppix installed
chroot /mnt/hda*x
lilo (check your /etc/lilo.conf first, to make sure it's okay)

If this doesn't word, you need to reinstall your knoppix.

[gopikrish]

I did "mount /dev/hda2 /mnt" and it said
mount: only root can do that
And so I did, "sudo mount /dev/hda2 /mnt" and it said
mount: error while guessing filesystem type.
mount: you must specify the filesystem type.

hda1 is the windows partition and hda2 is my linux partition which I am trying to mount.So how to do that?
I just tried to run lilo from root using "./lilo" and it said
"Unrecognized token "! Please edit /etc/lilo.conf before running lilo ! at or above line 20 in file '/etc/lilo.conf'
When I opened lilo using editor the following was there,

lba32
boot=/dev/hda
install=/boot/boot-menu.b
backup=/dev/null
map=/boot/map
timeout=100
vga=normal
default=Knoppix

image=/vmlinuz
append="lang=de apm=power-off hda=scsi hdb=scsi hdc=scsi hdd=scsi hde=scsi hdf=scsi hdg=scsi hdh=scsi vga=791 quiet BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix"
root=/dev/hda5
label=Knoppix
read-write

[shah]

mount /devhad*x /mnt/hda*x *x= partition which knopppix installed

Sorry for the typo.

From your lilo.conf, I believed hda2 is your swap partition and hda5 is your linux partition.

Lets do again:
1) Open konsole
2) su <enter>--- you'll get something like : root@knoppix:#
3) mount<space>/dev/hda5 <space>/mnt/hda5 <enter>
4) chroot<space>/mnt/hda5 <enter>
5) lilo <enter>

You might want to edit your /etc/lilo.conf to add Windows partition:
lba32
boot=/dev/hda
install=/boot/boot-menu.b
backup=/dev/null
map=/boot/map
timeout=100
vga=normal
default=Knoppix

image=/vmlinuz
append="lang=de apm=power-off hda=scsi hdb=scsi hdc=scsi hdd=scsi hde=scsi hdf=scsi hdg=scsi hdh=scsi vga=791 quiet BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix"
root=/dev/hda5
label=Knoppix
read-write

other = /dev/hda1
label = windows

[gopikrish]

hmm As I did as you said "mount /dev/hda5 /mnt/hda5"
and it said,
mount:error while guessing filesystem type.
mount:mount point /mnt/hda5 does not exist.

I think the mistake I made is that I should have installed windows first and then Linux.Before installing windows as I said it was showing that "09 09 09 09..... " stuff but now on booting its directly booting windows.Actually it should ask me either windows or linux options to boot, but its not asking.So I think there is problem with that lilo. So shall I delete linux partition, create a new one and reinstall linux ?

[shah]

Hmmmm..Reinstall knoppix, don't delete existing partition unless knoppix-installer indicate problem when trying to install.

[gopikrish]

awww.. lot of problems

Actually I reformatted linux partition and installed Linux again but while booting this time something called as GNU GRUB version 094 occured with grub:> prompt. Before installing linux and even before writing partition table to disk I made Linux partition active and not the dos partition because it complained both primary partitions cant be active. And while installing linux this occured in shell,
Cant remove /usr/share/applications/ ./Ethereal.desktop: Read-only file system, skipping file.
And similar things also was displayed for EtherealAsRoot, qtparted.desktop, kxconfig.desktop
warning: unable to determine video adapter in use in the present system.
Fatal: APPEND or LITERAL may not contain "vga="

But I think these errors are not causing my problem, right? And it said Installation successfull but when I was watching that progressbar it didn't fully passed to 100% but still it said "Installation completed successfully".By that time it was doing mbr I think. But anyway when I restared that Grub was displayed.
So again I tried booting from CD and then did the following steps, but not in the root directory but in the default dir after I opened a shell (i think its /ramdisk/knoppix)
su
mkdir /mnt/tmp
mount /dev/hda2 /mnt/tmp
And it displayed,
mount: fs type ext3 not supported by kernel.
But when I opened qtparted, hda2 is actually displayed as ext2 but here its saying it as ext3.I dont know whats happening

So please what could I do? Maybe shall I change my installation option to "Installation like that of LiveCD" instead of "Install to HD(preferred one)"
I even tried creating linux partition using cfdisk as,
Primary Linux ext3 partition (2600 MB) for type I entered 83
Primary Linux swap partition(200 MB) for type I entered 82
And there is other type also saying Linux extended type number is 85, maybe is this the right one?

[shah]

Lets do step by step:
Your partition is okay: 82 & 83
1) lets remove grub, from your mbr, use your windows cd or floppy to boot to command promt and run : fix /mbr and restart. If you windows can boot, your mbr has been fixed and grub has been removed.
2) Boot knoppix cdrom, and choose this cheat codes: knoppix26 alsa
*alsa if you have sound card.
3) Open konsole
4) su
5) knoppix-installer
6) If your partition is okay, it will not complain.
7) Select Debian like hhd install if you don't intend to add any hardware later. With this type of installation, you will have less problem later on. You will learn how to to add hardware later.
Choose to do mbr lilo .

Cant remove /usr/share/applications/ ./Ethereal.desktop: Read-only file system, skipping file.
And similar things also was displayed for EtherealAsRoot, qtparted.desktop, kxconfig.desktop

It's a common thing.

[gopikrish]

Sorry Shah I didn't follow your post since I slept last night and I did a new thing again this morning and it worked

Hey I did it! Basically the trick which worked was......
After I installed and even though it said "Installation successfully completed" I didn't reboot and I mounted my hda2 partition then chroot into that and then executed lilo. Now only warnings occured and no Fatal error occured and so after restarting it booted !

I have a few doubts though...
1) At booting that lilo is giving me the following options,
Linux
Linux (some number, i think 2.24.26)
Linux (some number)
hda1(windows)
So what are those 3 Linux? Are they different?

2) After Linux loads I login as user name "gopi" and if I wanted to switch to root user name I typed "Login" and it said "No utmp entry, you must exec "login" from the lowest level "sh".
So how to login to a root user?

3) When I go to /mnt directory and I did "ls -al" it shows hda1,hda2 and some more and as well as floppy->/mnt/auto/floppy
So what does this floppy->/mnt/auto/floppy mean?

Thanks.

[shah]

1) number that exist (next to Linux) on lilo menu , represent the kernel version, so you can choose what kernel you want to boot from. You can change the name if you want too. Just edit your /etc/lilo.conf, go to label section.

2) Remember , when you run knoppix-installer it asked for user password and administrator password. To log as root you need to supply it with the administrator password you already set.

3) It means that your floppy will be mount automatically when you inserted it and will resides in this folder.