Arch Linux

Sidewinder289

Member

Registered: 2010-12-02

Posts: 3

After a fresh install with GRUB, I get a LILO error on startup [FIXED]

Hey guys, newcomer to Arch here. I've finally decided to give Arch a try, so I booted up the install cd.

After successfully setting up the partitions and packages with no problems, and configuring the system files and grub's menu.lst to what I thought was correct, I rebooted as instructed.

My computer loads the BIOS, and immediately after, the screen is black with a single lined error:
LILO - Keytable read/checksum error

As mentioned above, I installed the GRUB bootloader, not Lilo. I didn't even download its package.

Do any of you know which configuration file I could modify to fix this issue? I'll list my partition setup below so that maybe one of you guys can help me modify my fstab and menu.lst files properly. I'm sure that I probably installed GRUB on the wrong partition or have the wrong root in my menu.lst.

/etc/fstab

# <file system>        <dir>         <type>    <options>          <dump> <pass>
none                 /dev/pts      devpts    defaults            0      0
none                    /dev/shm      tmpfs     nodev,nosuid        0      0
   
/dev/cdrom           /media/cd   auto     ro,user,noauto,unhide   0         0
/dev/dvd               /media/dvd  auto     ro,user,noauto,unhide   0         0
/dev/fd0               /media/fl      auto    user,noauto                  0         0

UUID=0e9a46fb-14d1-43ad-811c-5b0be65fc272 swap swap defaults 0 0
UUID=43ec3efa-0546-4acf-898f-e6626e43bb75 /boot ext2 defaults 0 1
UUID=4a0ccb6b-ee28-43f6-adde-f049cbd78c12 /home ext4 defaults 0 1
UUID=a499a2af-e026-46a3-ae5f-c39bd1fdf922 / ext4 defaults 0 1

fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB
/dev/sda1     Boot (Y)     /boot      << I installed GRUB on this partition >>
/dev/sda2     Boot (N)     swap
/dev/sda3     Boot (N)     /
/dev/sda4     Boot (N)     /home

menu.lst

# (0) Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux
root  (hd0,0)
kernel  /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/a499a2af-e026-46a3-ae5f-c39bd1fdf922 ro
initrd /kernel26.img

# (1) Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux Fallback
root   (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/a499a2af-e026-46a3-ae5f-c39bd1fdf922 ro
initrd /kernel26-fallback.img

Last edited by Sidewinder289 (2010-12-02 22:12:35)

nixpunk

Member

Registered: 2009-11-23

Posts: 271

Re: After a fresh install with GRUB, I get a LILO error on startup [FIXED]

Was LILO installed previously by another distro into the MBR?  Was the MBR where you selected to install Grub?  If Grub was properly installed into the MBR, you should be getting a GRUB menu after the BIOS screen.

I recommend reading over this article as well.

Last edited by nixpunk (2010-12-02 21:12:31)

Sidewinder289

Member

Registered: 2010-12-02

Posts: 3

Re: After a fresh install with GRUB, I get a LILO error on startup [FIXED]

Yeah I was actually looking through that GRUB wiki while doing it. This is with an empty hard drive with no O/S on it currently. Everywhere I looked, they said to install GRUB to the MBR, but I don't know where it is or what partition it is on a completely new hard drive.

nixpunk

Member

Registered: 2009-11-23

Posts: 271

Re: After a fresh install with GRUB, I get a LILO error on startup [FIXED]

Is it the only drive in your system?  If not, is it set as the boot drive in your BIOS?  As much info as you can provide us with will help others to help you.

This might help you as well.

Last edited by nixpunk (2010-12-02 21:45:25)

Sidewinder289

Member

Registered: 2010-12-02

Posts: 3

Re: After a fresh install with GRUB, I get a LILO error on startup [FIXED]

I just solved my issue. When you get to the Bootloader Installation, it asks you where you want to install it. It recommends the MBR and not a partition. This was the list I had to choose from:

• /dev/sda

• /dev/sda1

• /dev/sda2

• /dev/sda3

• /dev/sda4

Because I had used all of my hard disk space to create 4 partitions, I didn't think about using /dev/sda as the installation location. Turns out, the partition that is the lowest of the hierarchy (blank or 0 being the lowest) is the MBR. I selected it from the list, GRUB installed correctly, and rebooted into Arch Linux!

Thanks for the response nixpunk.

nixpunk

Member

Registered: 2009-11-23

Posts: 271

Re: After a fresh install with GRUB, I get a LILO error on startup [FIXED]

I am glad you fixed the issue. 

Just to clarify, 'sda' specifically represents the hard drive, not a partition.  sda1, sda2, sda3, and sda4 represent the 4 partitions of 'sda'.