/dev/hda1 doesn't have a valid boot signature

[réjean]

Hi everyone!Last night I formatted my whole hd and started reinstalling everything. First I installed Mandriva on hda1 (/) and hda5 (/home) both about 5 Gb each with a 500 Mb Swap partition on hda6. Then I installed PCLinuxOS ( Can you believe that it took over 3h 40 min even before the online updates? ) on hda7 (/) and hda8(/home) also roughly 5GB each. I decided to use its bootloader as the main bootloader ( nicer than mandriva and Konqueror has the tendency to freeze or crash on me all the time ). This morning I installed Xandros on hda3 (2nd primary partition I guess) also close to 5 GB which leaves me with 12 or 13 GB for when SuSE 10.1 will finally be released.Now I can boot in all the distros except for mandriva.When I try to "/sbin/lilo" in PCLinuxOS I get the following:

[rejean@XANO21XGB7 ~]$ suPassword:[root@XANO21XGB7 rejean]# /sbin/liloAdded pclinuxos *Added ubuntuWarning: First sector of /dev/hda1 doesn't have a valid boot signatureAdded mandrivaAdded xandros[root@XANO21XGB7 rejean]#

Notice btw that Xandros changed the name of the computer but that's ok. I can live with it or go back a few days and see what was Bruno's suggestion to change that.Here is the Mandriva /etc/lilo.conf:

# File generated by DrakX/drakboot# WARNING: do not forget to run lilo after modifying this filedefault="linux"boot=/dev/hda1map=/boot/mapkeytable=/boot/us.kltmenu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bwpromptnowarntimeout=100message=/boot/messageimage=/boot/vmlinuz	label="linux"	root=/dev/hda1	initrd=/boot/initrd.img	append=" acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda6 splash=silent"	vga=788image=/boot/vmlinuz	label="linux-nonfb"	root=/dev/hda1	initrd=/boot/initrd.img	append=" acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda6"image=/boot/vmlinuz	label="failsafe"	root=/dev/hda1	initrd=/boot/initrd.img	append=" failsafe acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda6"

I thought I would ask before I mess up everything but could it be that all I have to do is change the line:

default="linux"

to

default="mandriva"

Edited February 2, 2006 by réjean

[Bruno]

Hi RéjeanWhat I would need to see is the /etc/lilo.conf from PCLos ( where you added all the distros )My guess is that you pointed it to:

other=/dev/hda1 label="mandrake"

But that the lilo of mandrake is NOT in hda1 . . . this means you will have to add mandrake in the oldfashion way BrunoPS:

I thought I would ask before I mess up everything but could it be that all I have to do is change the line:CODEdefault="linux"toCODEdefault="mandriva"

Nope it is okay like it is now . . . . your mandriva lilo has "Linux" in both places so that is okay

[réjean]

Thanks Bruno!That did it! It took me quite awhile to figure it out. I think it's because my notes are based on your tutorial "Multiple boot" and Slax doesn't use initrd so I was putting it into the PCLos /etc/lilo.conf but wasn't doing a

cp /mnt/mandriva/boot/initrd...	/boot/mandriva

One more question if I may. I have to change the xorg.conf ( that I know because the desktop is a mess again ) but during the install or the initial opening I was asked if I wanted xorg to open automatically at boot time and I said no. Is it something I can change in MCC?

[Bruno]

Glad that part is fixed now

One more question if I may. I have to change the xorg.conf ( that I know because the desktop is a mess again ) but during the install or the initial opening I was asked if I wanted xorg to open automatically at boot time and I said no. Is it something I can change in MCC?

Yep in the MCC under "boot" there should be a setting that tells the bootloader that you want X to start automatically Bruno