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Linux won't boot after System Failure

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8 replies

by roger 1 view

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I have a hard drive configured as a dual-boot linux and Windows system. The windows system crashed, and would not boot. Linux was still operating correctly. I installed my Windows CD and re-installed the Windows operating system which fixed booting to windows. However, now I can't boot into Linux. I have confirmed that Linux will still run on the PC by installing a different hard disk, and installing linux on the disk. I tried using Linux rescue and linux single from a boot floppy, the computer starts running up to the point where it displays "Freeing unused memory" and then it freeses. No activity for 24 hours. (I left the machine on!) I tried upgrading linux on the pc, but it said that everything was OK. I would like to be able to get the system running again. Anyone have any suggestions?

8 replies

by j_t_c

Please tell me you chose to make a boot disk when prompted during the installation of your Linux Distro. If you did then you can boot from the floppy and rerun lilo at the command prompt after logging in as root. It can be as simple as that, if you did not make the boot disk things get more complicated. You will have to get a CRK(crash recovery disk) from http://crashrecovery.org/.
This is a good method for restoring your lilo(Linux Loader). Hope this helps!

by roger

J_T_C recommended I go to a web site crashrecovery.org and download an ISO image file for a CD. I did this! When booting from the CD I just burned I still hang at the prompt "Freeing unused kernel memory: 252K freed" I like having the emergency disk but would still like to get past this problem. Note: Booting the RedHat CD and doing a fresh install on the pc with a different HD works. I just can't boot linux with this HD installed. It boots Windows 98 with no problems. (Still looking for an answer before I format the Linux partition and start over)

by j_t_c

Ok, well i guess that didn't work. At least you have a useful CD in your toolkit now. I have another suggestion. at the lilo prompt(you may have to hit CTRL-X for redhat) type linux mem=32M
example:
lilo:linux mem=32M
I know this sounds strange but maybe the kernel cannot handle some of the upper memory. Try different memory combinations, including your actual memory. I have had this problem before on a Compaq server with 256MB Ram installed. I was able to use all 256, but only with the mem=256M added to the lilo.conf file in /etc/lilo.conf
Give that a try...

by amoeba1

Windows rewrites the mbr when you install it. You may be able to recover using the original linux CD by typing recover (or something similar) at the prompt before the CD install kicks in. This should allow you to reinstall LILO as the bootloader. I know Redhat and Mandrake have this as an option when booting from the CD. If that doesn't work, then you may need to reinstall linux to get evewrything working again.

Hope this helps,
Ray

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