Install XP after Knoppix - LILO problem

**ackelley** · 02-02-2005, 04:02 PM

I am a new user to Knoppix. I have been running Windows XP for a couple of years now, but I started having so much trouble with updates and such that I decided to try Linux. My brother, who is also semi-new to Linux helped me install Knoppix and Lilo so that I could boot Windows XP or Knoppix. I have two a 40GB hard drive that has 4 partitions (each 10GB). The first partition is Windows XP and the second is Knoppix. The third and fourth are just storage.

I've pretty much been using Knoppix full time, but I have a couple of programs in Windows that I need to use and I haven't found replacements for them in Knoppix, so when my Windows XP load ended up having several bugs, I decided to reformat that partition and reload XP.

Of course, when I did that, the MBR got messed up and now I can't get back in to Linux. I used the Live CD to boot into Knoppix and I used a terminal window to bring Lilo back up. Now Lilo is coming up properly and I can select either system, but Linux won't boot properly. It seems to have trouble finding the right place to load from. It starts to mount the drives, but then throws a "kernel panic" error and says something about failing to find the init file.

I read another forum discussion where someone said you could reload LILO from the HD install by using the Live CD and booting with the following code:

Knoppix lang=us root=/dev/hdaX noinit ro

I tried this, but it said:

fsck.ext3: Invalid argument while trying to open /dev/hda8

Now, it is probably important to mention that before my Windows reload, Knoppix was mounted in such a way that it was on hda8. After my windows reload, when I booted with the Live CD, I could see that Knoppix was on hda6. So when I restored Lilo I used root=/dev/hda6.

Could the drive numbering be the problem? It used to be hda8 and now it is hda6? I don't know how to fix it. Can someone help me?

Thanks

**Markus** · 02-02-2005, 05:40 PM

Did you change /etc/fstab on the hdinstall to mount / at the new partition?

**ackelley** · 02-02-2005, 08:22 PM

No, can you explain?

**Markus** · 02-02-2005, 09:52 PM

Well, for instance the following line in my /etc/fstab tells my system to find and mount the root partition on hdb1:
/dev/hdb1 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
If you have / and under it /boot on hda8 and it's looking for them in hda6 the kernel nor any system file for that matter is found. If you have more partitions like /home you will need to change them also.
This page is better at explaining fstab: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fstab

**ackelley** · 02-03-2005, 12:37 AM

I managed to edit fstab and get LILO back to working! Now my only problem is that the partition file structure seems to be messed up. I can read everything in Linux, but I can't run qtparted because it throws errors in analyzing hda. Also, I noticed under disk management in Windows XP that the partition structure is messed up and I can only read 2 out of 3 logical drives. Is there a way to rebuild that system? I already tried running gpart and it threw errors while trying to guess the structure.

**Markus** · 02-03-2005, 08:42 AM

How exactly did you remove 2 partitions. Or did you remove them or did they just disappear?

**ackelley** · 02-03-2005, 07:49 PM

I didn't remove 2 partitions. They just got screwed up somehow.

** Original drive partitons
Active - Disk1Part1
Logical - Disk1Part2
Logical - Disk1Part3
Logical - Disk1Part4

** Before XP Install:

XP Disk Management showed (40GB)
Active - Disk1Part1 10GB (Healthy, FAT32) - This was Windows
Logical - 512MB (Healthy, Unknown) - This was my swap partition for Linux
Logical - 9GB (Healthy, Unknown) - Knoppix HD Install
Logical - Disk1Part3 10GB (Healthy, FAT32)
Logical - Disk1Part4 10GB (Healthy, FAT32)

Linux had the following:
hda1 - Windows
hda5 - Swap? (can't remember)
hda6
hda7
hda8 - Knoppix HD Install

** After XP reload

Windows disk management shows:
Active - Disk1Part1 10GB (Healthy, FAT32) - New XP load
Logical - 512MB (Healthy, Unknown) - This was my swap partition for Linux
Logical - 9GB (Healthy, Unknown) - Knoppix HD Install
Logical - 10GB (Free Space) - don't know where this came from
Active - 10GB (Healthy, Unknown) - don't know why 3rd partition disappeared
Logical - Disk1Part4 10GB(Healthy, FAT32)
Logical - 10GB (Unallocated) - don't know where this came from

Linux had the following:
hda1 - Windows
hda3
hda6 - Knoppix HD Install
hda7

As you can see, it's pretty messed up. Windows disk management shows a total of almost 60GB, but it's only a 40GB hard drive.

**ackelley** · 02-03-2005, 07:57 PM

Believe it or not, I can actually read all of my drives in Linux now, but when I run qtparted it says:

Xlib: connection to ":0.0" refused by server
Xlib: No protocol specified
qtparted: cannot connect to X server :0.0

Windows XP disk management still shows the same thing I described above.

**Markus** · 02-03-2005, 08:48 PM

I know way too little about XP's partitioning tools to tell you how to fix it.

The Xlib thingy I can OTOH fix. You probably tried to run qtparted as root when you got the error. A couple of ways to avoid it:
-As user do in a konsole kdesu qtparted
-As root do in a konsole export DISPLAY=:0.0 and then run qtparted
-Run qtparted from the menu, it should ask for a root pass.
This of course requires you to be running X in the first place.

**benjamin1254** · 03-13-2005, 12:12 AM

*bump*

its best if u install xp first then knoppix. It is always gana be windows first then other Os's such as knoppix. windows hates to be second best so it gets angry when u deside it needs to be second in line... just my 2 cents