[ale] Redhat LILO Problems

Tue Nov 12 09:10:38 EST 1996

I know that I already sent this message once, but I'm getting desperate
so I thought I would give it one more try ...

I installed the new Redhat 4.0 distribution on my machine and everything
worked beautifully with the exception of the Lilo installation. I have 
been trying to get Lilo to work for a few week and I've run out of
ideas. 

On bootup, I get the 'LI' prompt and then my system freezes. According 
to the documentation, "The first stage boot loader was able to load the 
second stage boot loader, but has failed to execute it. This can either 
be caused by a geometry mismatch or by moving /boot/boot.b without 
running the map installer."

I'm not sure what to do at this point. /boot/boot.b is updated by 
running /sbin/lilo which is used to install Lilo, so this should not be 
the problem. I do see something that could be a geometry mismatch, but I 
don't know exactly how to interperate the information. According to the 
output of dmsg (shown below), "hda: Maxtor 71626 A, 1554MB w/64kB Cache, 
LBA, CHS=789/64/63". According to the output of /sbin/lilo -q (shown 
below), "Device 0x0342: BIOS drive 0x81, 64 heads, 786 cylinders, 63 
sectors. Partition offset: 68544 sectors". I am guessing that BIOS drive 
0x81 is /dev/hda but I do not know how to determine this. Neither of 
these parameter reports match my drive parameters which are: 16 heads, 
3158 cylinders, 63 sectors.

Is this is my problem? If so, exactly what does it mean and how do I
correct it? Also, how do you translate device numbers (eg. 0x81) into
actual devices?

Help please.

-----------------------------------------------------------
MY SYSTEM AND BIOS SETTINGS:
  486DX120
  /dev/hda = 16 HD, 3158 CYL, 63 SEC, 1554 MB
        /dev/hda1 = Windows 95
  /dev/hdb = 16 HD, 3146 CYL, 63 SEC, 1548 MB
        /dev/hdb1 = Linux Swap (32MB)
        /dev/hdb2 = Linux ext2
  /dev/hdc = 16 HD, 1572 CYL, 63 SEC,  774 MB
        /dev/hdc1 = MSDOS 6.22
-----------------------------------------------------------
THE FOLLOWING IS A COPY OF MY /etc/lilo.conf:

boot=/dev/hda
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
timeout=0
compact
prompt
verbose=5
image=/boot/vmlinuz
        label=linux
        root=/dev/hdb2
        read-only
-----------------------------------------------------------
THE FOLLOWING IS THE OUTPUT OF dmsg:

Console: 16 point font, 400 scans
Console: colour VGA+ 80x25, 1 virtual console (max 63)
Calibrating delay loop.. ok - 3.71 BogoMIPS
Memory: 30724k/32768k available (752k kernel code, 384k reserved, 908k
data)
This processor honours the WP bit even when in supervisor mode. Good.
Swansea University Computer Society NET3.035 for Linux 2.0
NET3: Unix domain sockets 0.12 for Linux NET3.035.
Swansea University Computer Society TCP/IP for NET3.034
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP
Checking 386/387 coupling... Ok, fpu using exception 16 error reporting.
Checking 'hlt' instruction... Ok.
Linux version 2.0.18 (root at localhost) (gcc version 2.7.2) #2 Fri Nov 1
10:43:11 EST 1996
Serial driver version 4.13 with no serial options enabled
tty00 at 0x03f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
tty01 at 0x02f8 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
lp1 at 0x0378, (polling)
ftape-2.08 960314 for Linux 1.3.70
Ramdisk driver initialized : 16 ramdisks of 4096K size
hda: Maxtor 71626 A, 1554MB w/64kB Cache, LBA, CHS=789/64/63
hdb: Conner Peripherals 1620MB - CFS1621A, 1548MB w/0kB Cache, LBA,
CHS=3146/16/63
hdc: Conner Peripherals 810MB - CFA810A, 774MB w/256kB Cache, LBA,
CHS=1572/16/63
hdd: NEC CD-ROM DRIVE:251, ATAPI CDROM drive
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M
Started kswapd v 1.4.2.2 
FDC 0 is an 8272A
PPP: version 2.2.0 (dynamic channel allocation)
TCP compression code copyright 1989 Regents of the University of
California
PPP Dynamic channel allocation code copyright 1995 Caldera, Inc.
PPP line discipline registered.
Partition check:
 hda: hda1
 hdb: [PTBL] [786/64/63] hdb1 hdb2
 hdc: [PTBL] [786/32/63] hdc1
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem) readonly.
Adding Swap: 34236k swap-space
-----------------------------------------------------------
THE FOLLOWING IS THE OUTPUT OF /sbin/lilo -q:

Device 0x0342: BIOS drive 0x81, 64 heads, 786 cylinders,
               63 sectors. Partition offset: 68544 sectors.
Reading boot sector from /dev/hda
Global settings:
  Delay before booting: 3119.5 seconds
  Command-line timeout: 2781.6 seconds
  Always enter boot prompt
  Boot prompt can be accessed from COM191
  Boot prompt message is 61834 bytes
  No default boot command line
Images:
  linux           * <dev=0x81,hd=28,cyl=107,sct=17>
    No password
    Boot command-line won't be locked
    VGA mode is taken from boot image
    Kernel is loaded "low"
    No initial RAM disk
Device 0x0342: BIOS drive 0x81, 64 heads, 786 cylinders,
               63 sectors. Partition offset: 68544 sectors.
fd 4: offset 0 -> dev 129, head 28, track 107, sector 11
fd 4: offset 512 -> dev 129, head 28, track 107, sector 12
fd 4: offset 1024 -> dev 129, head 28, track 107, sector 13
fd 4: offset 1536 -> dev 129, head 28, track 107, sector 14
fd 4: offset 2048 -> dev 129, head 28, track 107, sector 15
fd 4: offset 2560 -> dev 129, head 28, track 107, sector 16
fd 4: offset 3072 -> dev 129, head 28, track 107, sector 17
Device 0x0342: BIOS drive 0x81, 64 heads, 786 cylinders,
               63 sectors. Partition offset: 68544 sectors.
fd 4: offset 0 -> dev 129, head 28, track 107, sector 11
fd 4: offset 512 -> dev 129, head 28, track 107, sector 12
fd 4: offset 1024 -> dev 129, head 28, track 107, sector 13
fd 4: offset 1536 -> dev 129, head 28, track 107, sector 14
fd 4: offset 2048 -> dev 129, head 28, track 107, sector 15
    No fallback
Device 0x0342: BIOS drive 0x81, 64 heads, 786 cylinders,
               63 sectors. Partition offset: 68544 sectors.
fd 4: offset 0 -> dev 129, head 28, track 107, sector 11
fd 4: offset 512 -> dev 129, head 28, track 107, sector 12
fd 4: offset 1024 -> dev 129, head 28, track 107, sector 13
fd 4: offset 1536 -> dev 129, head 28, track 107, sector 14
fd 4: offset 2048 -> dev 129, head 28, track 107, sector 15
fd 4: offset 2560 -> dev 129, head 28, track 107, sector 16
    Options: "ro root=342"
-- 
Ciao,
	Michael Morris
	mjm at avana.net