Boot problem in redhat6.1

I had a similar problem with a drive that had previously been formatted for W95 (it was a "new" drive but had been formatted for testing). As I recall (it's been awhile...),
I think I had to use the W95 fdisk /mbr to re-write the Master Boot Record, re-boot with the RedHat diskette and at the boot prompt (boot:) enter " rescue root=/dev/xxxx ro load_ramdisk=0 " (where xxxx is the partition you've assigned to root).

Also, you have to make sure that your root partition (not boot) is betweencylinders 0 and 1023.

Hope this helps!

paul

Paul M. Wright, Jr.
McKay Technologies

try "lilo -l" . linear mode. sometimes it is necessary. (IBM for example)

I ran into this problem before and it was due to Linux install program hung at the last step which is writting the LILO. You can get around the problem buy reboot from the Linux CD and procedure to installation but this time choose "UPGRADE" insteadof the other option. This will rewrite the LILO give you a proper boot option.

While you did install lilo it's entirely possible you installed it above the 1024th cylinder, if so then try reinstalling lilo after creating a /boot partition below this limit.

Another option would be to check (via CMOS setup) whether LBA access was enabled. If it's not then you will more than likely have to repartition your linux drive and reinstall everything.

Hope this helps,

Dave

To wipe teh master boot record, boot into dos and run "fdisk /mbr", this will wipe the master boot record and you can start over.

I don't understand actually, why do you have to boot your LINUX box with a boot disk. Well this probably happened because of your mapping stucture in your Lilo.conf file. I had the same problem when i installed my RH 6.1 previously. It seems that RH6.1 has a booting problem when you are using dual boot partition. If you need my further assitance please email me.

Thank you,
zigg

Boot with your boot-disk, edit /etc/lilo.conf and add a line that reads "linear" before the descriptions of the boot images, then run /sbin/lilo to reinstall lilo and check your CMOS settings to get the CHS parameters for the disk IN LBA MODE, and write them down. Try to reboot with lilo, if not then reboot again with floppy, edit /etc/lilo.conf and add a line hdx=cyl,head,sect , where x is the drive you're using (probably a) and cyl,head,sect are the CHS parameters that you've written from theCMOS table.
If this fails, rebuild your partintions to get a /boot partition in the beginning of the disk and reinstall, puting the kernel, and such in this partition...

Good luck

This appears to be a classic case of the boot partition lapping over the 1024 cylinder limit, but you didn't give any info on how your drive is partitioned so I can't be sure.

Another thing to consider is whether you reran /sbin/lilo after installing the new hard drive. Changes to the CMOS setup data, ESPECIALLY changes relating to the hard drive, can cause the problem you're having unless you rerun lilo after the changes.

if adding 'linear' and the HDD parameters to /etc/lilo.conf don'tget you fixed, there's always soft-booting into Linux from Windows by using LOADLIN.

Regards,
ninewands

if you have rescue disk than use it , otherwise install the linux again with the upgrade option, then your boot prompt will be ok from LI to LILO.

Hi,
I had the same problem, with a 15G Quantum LBA HDD. I resolved this problem in the hard way! For this I bought a small & cheap 100M Hdd on wich i installed lilo now my sistem run pretty well. I configured lilo to load OS's forom the partitions that I've set up on the big Hdd. Ok it's not a very nice solution but it works fine, and i nedeed a solution fast. Recently I downloaded an upgrade to lilo. In docs they says that the 1024 limit has gone if the bios sees the hdd.
Hope this helps!

The LI essentiaally means the second stage loader was loaded but was unable to find/load the actual OS.

You say your boot partition is before cyl 6 and I assume it's a small partition say 20 Megs or so. I also assume you are not confusing "/boot"with the root partition "/"

Your entire boot bartition must exist below cyl 1024.

1st - check that your boot partition is set to active.

2nd - if you built your own kernel, make sure that the drivers for your disk/controller are compiled into the kernel (not as modules) the same goes for ext2 filesystem support.

3rd - if you did build your own kernel did you copy it to the boot partition along with the System.map file (on Red hat I believe it has a version number attached that's the same as the kernel version) Then update your /etc/lilo.conf and finally run lilo

I usually make a boot partition of about 20megs as the 1st partition on the boot drive.

THis is a known problem with the 6.1 installer :P..here is an easy fix:
1. get the boot & rescue disk from redhat 5.2
(you want boot.img & rescue.img /images)
2. boot off the boot disk type rescue at the
prompt.
3. type mkdir mnt; cd /mnt/etc
4. check to see that lilo.conf exists
(sometimes the installer doesn't write it
5. If it's not there make one with
echo firstline > lilo.conf ( you can find many examples of a lilo.conf on the internet just make sure you modifiy the partition labels to be correct for your system)
6. type /mnt/bin/ln -s /mnt/boot /boot
7. type /mnt/sbin/lilo -C /mnt/etc/lilo.conf
8. watch it add your partitions.
9. reboot into linux :)
10. ohh yeah if all that doesn't work make sure your partition is bootable.

hi, espero me entiendas...
he tenido este mismo problema, y llegue a la conclusion de:
1-. cuando tengo instalado linux y luego quiero instalar otro sistema operativo.
2-. cuando borro con DOS y las particiones fueron creadas con linux.
en este momento aparece el mensaje LI y se bloquea.
lo que debes hacer es desde MSDOS correr el comando FDISK /mbr.
funciona...

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