Getting Knoppix to BOOT from the HD....

[BioStitch]

I can't seem to get Linux to boot....
...at all.
Brand new HD, nothing on it at all, nor has there ever been.
I tried LiLo and Grub to no avail.
I've tried Gentoo and Knoppix both SEEM to install fine... but after removing the boot/liveCD, the computer won't boot from the HD...

[I seem to have no troubble in installing Knoppix using
knx-hdinstall
and I think I only need two partitions one root and one swap...?]

My goal here is to run Knoppix from my HD, I have no problem booting from CD and running it. but booting from the HD just dosn't work, I get a:
"Disk boot error, insert system disk and press enter" when I start up without the CD in.
I have to boot order set up correctly in the BIOS (I've tried switching the order too)
1st CDROM
2nd HDD-0

I can save files to the HD and read files saved on it. I'm sure the HD works, and it's not a mechanical prob. Like I said, Knoppix SEEMS to install fine, all the correct files are there and what not. IT JUST WON"T BOOT!!!

I'm thinking maybe something about the MBR is off? or I need to zero out part of the disk?
(It's got to be something fundamentally simple that I just don't have adjusted correctly I think...?)
I'm very new to Linux and have very few ideas as to what to do.
I'm open to any any all suggestions, just fire away, I need more stuff to try.
Thanks!!!
[/u]

[A. Jorge Garcia]

Did you run cfdisk and set up a primary linux bootable partition (82?)as well as a linux swap partition (83) and rewrite this info?

Good luck,

Yes
Tried that.
LiLo still won't load.....

How do I write to or just erase the MBR?

[A. Jorge Garcia]

I had a problem with them MBR whereby I couldn't boot WIN95 anymore after a knx-hdinstall. What I did was get a Windoze rescue disk and run fdisk /mbr.

I hope that helps you too!

[Axel]

Hi all,

Just installed KPX 3.1 on my PIII550/512MB box and all works fine, apart from not being able to boot from the hdd that is ;(

I've got a swap, root and a fat32 shared partition. All I get is 99... and then it stops. The only way to boot from hdd is with the floopy.

PS: The root partition was selected as bootable.

Any pointers? MTIA

Axel

[jgte]

Also have the same problem. There are some complications too (newbie, so bear with me):

1) Laptop
2) No floppy, forget booting from one
3) Booting from CD-ROM doesn't work with all CDs. Some windoze cds don't work. Knoppix CD boots ok.
4) knx-hdinstall runs ok, if knoppix booted in cmd line. During install cfdisk creates partitions in /dev/hdb. Only one HD. Dunno what happened to /dev/hda. Tried going with and without LILO.
5) When trying to boot from HD, after successful knx-hdinstall, bios does not find it.
6) Managed to boot DOS from a rescue CD and run fdisk /mbr. It said there were no HDs.

Bottom line: mbr is totally screwed up. I need to find a way to fix it from knoppix CD.

Help appreciated.

[jgte]

New developments.

I've noticed that lilo.conf had:
boot = /dev/hda

There's no hda in this system, so I tried to fix it with:
(edited lilo.conf to have 'boot=/dev/hdb1' instead of above)
su
mount /dev/hdb1 /mnt/hdb1
chroot /mnt/hdb1
lilo -v

The following warnings show up:
'/proc/partitions' does not exist. disk scan bypassed
/dev/hdb1 is not on the first disk

Still, I rebooted and got the "non system disk" error.

[jgte]

Again, the problem was not on the wood but on the carpenter.

Hd was on slave. I made back ups and forgot to set it as master again.