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Thread: can't boot from hard drive but only from floppy

  1. #1
    Junior Member
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    Nov 2003
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    can't boot from hard drive but only from floppy

    Linux noob here: I've installed Knoppix successfully, BUT...it won't boot from the hard drive, just from the boot floppy. When I leave the boot floppy out, I get about 10 rows of "99"s across the screen, then nothing. But when I put in the boot floppy, it loads files from the floppy then boots from the hard drive and everything's great. How do I get the boot files on to the hard drive so I don't have to use the boot floppy? Thanks for your replies.

  2. #2
    Senior Member registered user
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    Sep 2003
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    106
    I assume you did a hard drive install of knoppix and lilo bootloader is not working properly. To fix it, edit /etc/lilo.conf, type /sbin/lilo in a terminal, and reboot.

  3. #3
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2003
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    8

    can't boot to hard drive only floppy

    Thanks for the reply. Yes, I did do a hard drive install with knoppix, but just made a boot floppy. I thought that doing a hard drive install as described on this site would enable the hard drive to boot. Being new to this, I need some detailed instructions on how to get the hard drive to boot by itself. I don't need lilo since this is a dedicated linux machine with no windows on it.

  4. #4
    Senior Member registered user
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    Sep 2003
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    106
    You have to put a bootloader on the master boot record of the HD for it to boot. I recommend lilo. Edit /etc/lilo.conf as root, then open a terminal and type: /sbin/lilo If you get errors, try again. Here's a sample lilo.conf for redhat 9:

    prompt
    timeout=50
    default=RedHat9
    boot=/dev/hda
    map=/boot/map
    install=/boot/boot.b
    message=/boot/message
    lba32

    image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-8
    label=RedHat9
    initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.20-8.img
    read-only
    append="hdc=ide-scsi root=LABEL=/"

  5. #5
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2003
    Posts
    8

    Lilo installation successfull...boots from HD now ...thanks!

    Thanks. My Knoppix now boots from hd.....
    Appreciate your replies.

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