Arch Linux

rayjgu3

Member

From: Chicago IL usa

Registered: 2004-07-04

Posts: 695

lilo overwritten

my arch lilo got overwritten by mandrake10
my setup before looked like this

ide(hda) 40 gig   win 98 
                  win xp 
                  mandrake10

scsi(sda) 18 gig   arch

i used my bios as boot manager either ide or scsi

now my ide took a dump (bad sectors)

so i put another scsi drive in which is sdb (ScsiDriveB or scsi drive 2)

i installed mandrake on sdb & lilo overwrote arch's lilo on sda
now when i try to add arch into mdk's lilo i get errors like
 
"the boot sector and map are on diffrent disks"

i did try to use grub but it didnt want to work either or im doing something
wrong there <<im sure i am

then i mounted all my arch stuff in mandrake added arch entry to lilo
but when i boot to it i get
"Wraning : unable to open an initial console
kernel panic : no init found try passing init= option to kernel"
so i opened lilo again added line  init=Arch/vmlinuz26 
i get the same message im at a loss
i dont want to reinstall arch cause i got alot of work in setting it up
not to mention stuff i dont want to lose

once i get this down i know i can setup to use bios as boot manager again
i just got to get into arch & run lilo i already got lilo to move to sdb

thanks for any/all help

dp

Member

From: Zürich, Switzerland

Registered: 2003-05-27

Posts: 3,378

Website

Re: lilo overwritten

using bios as bootmanager can be a dangerous thing (using bios too often anyways) - i would not do that

yes, once you are in arch again, you can run lilo to be back

to boot into arch, you can take the archlinux cd or another linux cd with a similar kernel (devfs ...) and boot with the option root=/dev/sdXY (assuming you use scsi and X=a for first drive and Y=1 for first partition if archlinux / is on it)

good luck

---

The impossible missions are the only ones which succeed.

rayjgu3

Member

From: Chicago IL usa

Registered: 2004-07-04

Posts: 695

Re: lilo overwritten

YEAH got it the way i want it finally
thanks for your help dp

i got to ask why is it bad to use bios for boot manager?

each disc has its own bootloader
all i do is tell bios where to look  ie 
1st boot  ide0 ,cdrom ,floppy ,scsi ,whatever i got a bunch of options then my scsi's bios has even more options as to wich disc 0-15 if i had the room i could put 16 drives in here  but my case isnt big enough

but before you answer i will say i dont think many have been harder on theyre bios than me  let me tell you a few stories
1 i tried to change logo(with amibcp75) ended up with a bad flash got a new chip (couple of them from local pc store 5 for $20) im back in  did a hot flash to rewrite the bad flash it worked
2 i found an overclockers bios was playing around trying the hot flash thing again i didnt have the chip lose enough to pull it off  with my fingers so i used a screw driver to loosen it (while it was on ,not too smart to do ) i arched it good . got a nice spark  , scared me but good .  the pc immediately was off and would not boot i thought i fried the machine for sure  but i wanted to make sure  so i took another chip that i had dropped it in     it booted

not to sound arrogant or be ignorant but if you would please tell me whats so bad about useing the bios to tell where to look for a boot loader cause i know i dont know it all i am usually willing to learn more about pc's
thanks