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Linux here I come...


BrianT1701

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Now, I tried to boot from the xp cd, and lilo came on and put a stop to that so how do i get lilo out the the boot record?
How is your BIOS set? You must have it set to boot from CD. Did you have the CD in the correct drive? I have two drives and it only usually will boot from CD instead of going to LILO if I have the CD in the drive I used for my install. Actually, it should not even go to LILO if it reads the CD before getting that far. This is a function of your BIOS, not your OS!
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i did set it that way, and it started booting from the cd, then lilo took over and booted linux.also, neither cd rom drive will recognize an audio cd, but will recognize data cd's.somehow i need to fix the boot record, wipe this drive, and then see where i am at.

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I am confused because Lilo has never taken over when a CD is in the drive that is a bootable CD. Bruno is much better at sound than I am. I think sleep is the order of the day at this point.

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ok, i thought that was going to work. but it didn't.it went into lilo, and the windows option was there, when i seleted it, the screen turned black with a little flashing white bar, and sat there, so i had to hit the power button and now here i am. check out screen shot snapshot3.jpeg
Brian, this sure looks very very strange . . . . however win_c is at the start of hda . . it´s recognised as ext3 partition . . . :lol: How on earth did you manage to get such a partition table ? :lol: Hope you did get a good sleep !The blue part at the end is that win_D ?? ( it guesses it´s win_c but indicates it´s win_d )What does the text say when you click on the first partition ( the real win_c ) ??Okay we have Plan A, Plan B, Plan C and D, It will involve a few re-installs but they only take 20 minutes each, so that should be no problem.Let´s start with the easiest option: Plan A:We do a simple default re-install ( clean install, no upgrade or repair ) . . no expert mode this time, no messing with partitions, just let´s see the magic of the Mandrake installer and gamble that it will put things in it´s place.Only at the overview of the configuration, you need to have a look at the sound-config AND the screenresolution.Let me know how that worked . . I´m online till the same time as last night.:lol: BrunoPS: Stay clear of win_d, that is where your music is stored . . we don´t want to loose that ! . . . Note down the hdaX numbers . . . hda6 is Win_D . . . hda1 should be your Win_C . . . . I can not see the other numbers, but my guess is hda2 for / and hda5 for swap ( hda3 and 4 don´t exist, don´t worry ). Those hdaX numbers are mega important ! Note them down on a post-it !PS2: I see light at the end of the tunnel . . . . :lol: . . . Just do the above first and do tell me what the MCC says about hda1.
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I had windows XP set up as d: and the other part was c:, maybe that is where we went wrong here?had i know that XP was an idiot I would have formated and did a clean install of XP first, so that it would have been on c:. Now, plan a i am not too sure of. here is the plan i want.stop lilo from stealing focus of my windows xp cd when i try to boot from it..or find some way to totally format the drive whole drive to one partition in NTFS format,install windows xphope that fixes the issuse with the bootingthen install mandrakei do not care if the windows partition is deleted, everything i need is backed up already.

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No Brian, there is a simpler solution:Go to the MCC and format hda1 ( win_c ) in FAT . . . that will make the first part of your drive free for installing XP . . the CD will boot if it finds the first part of the HD in FAT and freshly formatted . . . leave hda2 ( / ) as it is, we will reinsstall Mandrake there later and make win_d to a backup partition.Don´t mess with Lilo now . . :w00t: Bruno

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BrianIf you have the same as on your screenshot . . click on win_c . . . . unmount it and you will get options like formatting in another filesystem . . . :w00t: Bruno

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Hi Brian2 Questions .1). . . you made the first partition FAT ? ( Check if it still is . . )2). You have a regular XP CD ? Not a restore disk from HP or PB ?:w00t: Bruno

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Aie . . . . a restore disk ! . . this is bad news . . . . it needs a ( hidden ) file to make it boot . . Okay, let´s try this another way . . can you open a terminal/console ( it´s in the menu ) and type:$ cat /etc/lilo.conf >lilo.txtThis will put a text file in your home directoryAnd copy and paste the content of that file in your next post in a quote.:w00t: Bruno

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boot=/dev/hdamap=/boot/mapvga=normaldefault="linux"keytable=/boot/us.kltpromptnowarntimeout=100message=/boot/messagemenu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bwimage=/boot/vmlinuz label="linux" root=/dev/hda5 initrd=/boot/initrd.img append="devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda7 splash=silent" vga=788 read-onlyimage=/boot/vmlinuz label="linux-nonfb" root=/dev/hda5 initrd=/boot/initrd.img append="devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda7" read-onlyimage=/boot/vmlinuz label="failsafe" root=/dev/hda5 initrd=/boot/initrd.img append="failsafe devfs=nomount hdc=ide-scsi acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda7" read-onlyother=/dev/fd0 label="floppy" unsafe
there is what i got, i am almost ready to call dell and tell them to send me a new HD.
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Don´t panic Brian,Here is the next step:In a console, type: $ su < rootpassword > # kwrite /etc/lilo.conf ( # after the prompt means you are root :w00t: ) Add these lines just above the "other=/dev/fd0"section:

 other=/dev/hda6         label="windows"         table=/dev/hda

Save the file and close it . . . when you get the prompt back type: # /sbin/lilo And pray that you don´t get any error messages. Report back to me as you´re done. ;) Bruno

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there are little dots to the left side of every line in that kwrite thing, when i type in what you said, it only makes one of those dots on the last line, and there should be one on the second line too, it is is to match the rest.

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yes it is.here is what you should know. if there is a .00000000000000001% chance of something going wrong, or something not working, it will happen to me. it is a curse.

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Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part5                    34G  1.7G 31G 6% //dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part6                      8.0G  5.7G  2.4G  72% /mnt/win_d
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BrianWe do as I sugested first . . a clean install of Mandrake . . . on hda5 . . .do not touch hda1 or hda6 . . no expert partitioning just go for the defaults . . . . it will find the hda5 and the swap itself . . . B) Bruno

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ok, I tried that. this time durning install it asked me where i wanted the boot loader i chose the first option in the mbr, now windows is seletable in lilo, but when i select it, it says, "this is not a bootable floppy, please insert a bootable floppy and press any key"so it is still not right

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boot=/dev/hdamap=/boot/mapdefault="linux"keytable=/boot/us.kltpromptnowarntimeout=100message=/boot/messagemenu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bwimage=/boot/vmlinuz label="linux" root=/dev/hda5 initrd=/boot/initrd.img append="devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda7 splash=silent" vga=788 read-onlyimage=/boot/vmlinuz label="linux-nonfb" root=/dev/hda5 initrd=/boot/initrd.img append="devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda7" read-onlyimage=/boot/vmlinuz label="failsafe" root=/dev/hda5 initrd=/boot/initrd.img append="devfs=nomount hdc=ide-scsi acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda7 failsafe" read-onlyother=/dev/hda1 label="windows" table=/dev/hdaother=/dev/fd0 label="floppy" unsafe
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