Configuring lilo to boot from sda after RH 9.0 install

Configuring lilo to boot from sda after RH 9.0 install

[Steven Ackerman]

Dear list,

I read the faq for the list. Searched tldp.org
(http://tldp.org/LDP/lame/LAME/linux-admin-made-easy/install-lilo.html) and
read the linux faq (ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/faqs/!INDEX.html)
before posting. I also read the faq for this list. At that point I got
frustrated and am sending this message. I know this is easy but I can't
figure it out. I am not a linux guru. Just an enthusiast and that makes me
the best man for the job at hand.

I installed RH 9.0 as a server and the machine only boots from floppy. In
lilo.conf the boot= line in the first section says boot=/dev/sda. In the
same section the install= line says install=/boot/boot.b. I don't even know
what I should be posting to help anyone answer my question. This is a rack
mount server with 4 SCSI drives. I don't know if that matters. If I remember
right, the root directory is /dev/sda. Whatever the default is. I can give
you whatever info you need. I may have to figure out how to do it, but
usually I can do that.

I need help. I don't mind pointers to links, documentation, pointers to some
documentation I missed, ect. All the doc's I found refer to using ide
devices and pointing to the root directory or wherever lilo is installed or
the root directory is or something like that. Not knowing all the linux
internals, I don't even know how to find that out.

-Steve


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Re: Configuring lilo to boot from sda after RH 9.0 install

[Mr. James W. Laferriere]

	Hello Steve ,  Please post the /etc/lilo.conf & the disk and
	pertition layout .  JimL

On Wed, 14 May 2003, Steven Ackerman wrote:

> Dear list,
>
> I read the faq for the list. Searched tldp.org
> (http://tldp.org/LDP/lame/LAME/linux-admin-made-easy/install-lilo.html) and
> read the linux faq (ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/faqs/!INDEX.html)
> before posting. I also read the faq for this list. At that point I got
> frustrated and am sending this message. I know this is easy but I can't
> figure it out. I am not a linux guru. Just an enthusiast and that makes me
> the best man for the job at hand.
>
> I installed RH 9.0 as a server and the machine only boots from floppy. In
> lilo.conf the boot= line in the first section says boot=/dev/sda. In the
> same section the install= line says install=/boot/boot.b. I don't even know
> what I should be posting to help anyone answer my question. This is a rack
> mount server with 4 SCSI drives. I don't know if that matters. If I remember
> right, the root directory is /dev/sda. Whatever the default is. I can give
> you whatever info you need. I may have to figure out how to do it, but
> usually I can do that.
>
> I need help. I don't mind pointers to links, documentation, pointers to some
> documentation I missed, ect. All the doc's I found refer to using ide
> devices and pointing to the root directory or wherever lilo is installed or
> the root directory is or something like that. Not knowing all the linux
> internals, I don't even know how to find that out.
>
> -Steve
>
>
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-newbie" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> Please read the FAQ at http://www.linux-learn.org/faqs
>

-- 
       +------------------------------------------------------------------+
       | James   W.   Laferriere | System    Techniques | Give me VMS     |
       | Network        Engineer |     P.O. Box 854     |  Give me Linux  |
       | babydr@baby-dragons.com | Coudersport PA 16915 |   only  on  AXP |
       +------------------------------------------------------------------+
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Re: Configuring lilo to boot from sda after RH 9.0 install

[Ray Olszewski]

OK. We probably need to see a bit more than James asked for. Please provide:

1. The complete /etc/lilo.conf
2. The contents of /etc/fstab
3. A description of what does happen if you try to boot from sda.
4. Do you know that the hardware is capable of booting from a SCSI drive? How?
5. If you boot from floppy, log in as root, and run the command "lilo", 
what is the result? What gets printed to the screen?

The root directory (almost) surely is NOT /dev/sda. It will be something 
like /dev/sda1 or /dev/sda2 (the numbers identify partitions on a drive, 
while the matching entry without a number is the drive itself).

Finally, is this by any chance a RAID server? If so, and if the boot device 
is part of the RAID cluster, there are special problems getting it to boot. 
I fear I do not recall the details, but you might look through the various 
RAID HowTos at tldp to find the one that discusses boot procedures.

At 05:18 PM 5/14/2003 -0700, Steven Ackerman wrote:
>Dear list,
>
>I read the faq for the list. Searched tldp.org
>(http://tldp.org/LDP/lame/LAME/linux-admin-made-easy/install-lilo.html) and
>read the linux faq (ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/faqs/!INDEX.html)
>before posting. I also read the faq for this list. At that point I got
>frustrated and am sending this message. I know this is easy but I can't
>figure it out. I am not a linux guru. Just an enthusiast and that makes me
>the best man for the job at hand.
>
>I installed RH 9.0 as a server and the machine only boots from floppy. In
>lilo.conf the boot= line in the first section says boot=/dev/sda. In the
>same section the install= line says install=/boot/boot.b. I don't even know
>what I should be posting to help anyone answer my question. This is a rack
>mount server with 4 SCSI drives. I don't know if that matters. If I remember
>right, the root directory is /dev/sda. Whatever the default is. I can give
>you whatever info you need. I may have to figure out how to do it, but
>usually I can do that.
>
>I need help. I don't mind pointers to links, documentation, pointers to some
>documentation I missed, ect. All the doc's I found refer to using ide
>devices and pointing to the root directory or wherever lilo is installed or
>the root directory is or something like that. Not knowing all the linux
>internals, I don't even know how to find that out.



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RE: Configuring lilo to boot from sda after RH 9.0 install

[Steven Ackerman]

Thanks for the timely responses. Here's all the info that was requested.
Took me a little while to get to it and then to actually do it. I'm a little
slow with Linux. All details are inline.

Ray Olszewski [ray@comarre.com] in part, wrote the following:

OK. We probably need to see a bit more than James asked for. Please provide:

1. The complete /etc/lilo.conf

There is nothing in /etc/lilo.conf. When I go to the /etc directory and type
vi lilo.conf, it is a new file. There is an /etc/lilo.conf.anaconda. I can
send the contents of that if necessary. It looks like other lilo.conf that
I've seen.

2. The contents of /etc/fstab

The /etc/fstab file looks like this:
Label=/	/	ext3	defaults	11
Label=/boot	/boot	ext3	defaults	12
none	/dev/pts	devpts	gid=5,mode=62	00
none		/proc	proc	defaults	00
none	/dev/shm	tmpfs	defaults	00
/dev/sdd1	/swap	swap	defaults	00
/dev/cdrom	/mnt/cdrom	udf,iso9600 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro	00
/dev/fd0	/mnt/floppy	auto	noauto,owner,kudzu	00

3. A description of what does happen if you try to boot from sda.

If I leave the boot disk in it searches for DHCP and then gives the
following output to the screen:
DHCP MAC Address: <It lists my MAC address here>
PXE-E51: No DHCP or Bootp offers recieved
Invalid partition table

4. Do you know that the hardware is capable of booting from a SCSI drive?
Yes.
How?
I have loaded other OS's on this box and booted. It looks like some kind of
linux configuration to me.
5. If you boot from floppy, log in as root, and run the command "lilo",
what is the result?
/etc/lilo.conf: no such file or directory.

What gets printed to the screen?
The above line gets printed to the screen.

The root directory (almost) surely is NOT /dev/sda....---8<snip>8---

Thanks for the info. I like to know how things work. I need to learn all I
can about this thing.

Finally, is this by any chance a RAID server?

No it is a standard scsi card with no RAID enabled hardware or software. I
had a scsi RAID card in it but took it out and installed a regular scsi card
in it. I think it's a mylex. I don't remember.

I hope that helps. Let me know if there's anything else I can send. Thanks
for all the help.

-Steve

---snip---

>
>I installed RH 9.0 as a server and the machine only boots from floppy. In
>lilo.conf the boot= line in the first section says boot=/dev/sda. In the
>same section the install= line says install=/boot/boot.b. I don't even know
>what I should be posting to help anyone answer my question. This is a rack
>mount server with 4 SCSI drives. I don't know if that matters. If I
remember
>right, the root directory is /dev/sda. Whatever the default is. I can give
>you whatever info you need. I may have to figure out how to do it, but
>usually I can do that.
>
>I need help. I don't mind pointers to links, documentation, pointers to
some
>documentation I missed, ect. All the doc's I found refer to using ide
>devices and pointing to the root directory or wherever lilo is installed or
>the root directory is or something like that. Not knowing all the linux
>internals, I don't even know how to find that out.



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RE: Configuring lilo to boot from sda after RH 9.0 install

[Ray Olszewski]

Steven -- I am a bit confused by this response.

First, your initial message referred to a lilo.conf file several times. 
When I ask for the complete contents of that file, though, referencing its 
normal location (in /etc), you say there is no such file. You need to 
explain this inconsistency in reporting. If *you* were referring to this 
lilo.conf.anaconda file you mention, then of course we need to see it.

Second, in response to my asking "what does happen if you try to boot from 
sda", you reply "If I leave the boot disk in ...." I assume you mean a 
floppy here (otherwise, why "leave" it in?). This is not booting (or trying 
to boot) from sda.

Third, the message you quote about DHCP *seems* to be from the BIOS, 
attempting to do a network boot. I'm not sure what is going on here, but it 
is not a Linux "something", unless you've left out information I can't 
imagine well enough even to guess about. Prior to this message, does the 
BIOS ever indicate that it is attempting to boot from a hard disk? If yes, 
what is the message?

Fourth, going back to lilo ... it normally expects to find its config file 
as /etc/lilo.conf . If your setup, for some reason unknown to me (quite 
possible ... to a non-RH user like me, Red Hat seems to be diverging more 
and more from what I think of at Linux/Unix standards, so this anaconda 
stuff may be something specific to RH ... perhaps a Red Hat user can 
comment???) uses a non-standard name for this file, you'll need to pass it 
to lilo. You'd do this with "lilo -C /etc/lilo.conf.anaconda" ... but I do 
not suggest your doing this until we determine if this really is a sensible 
lilo.conf file.

Fifth, the format of fstab is a bit different from what I am used to. Those 
Label= lines cause it (I think ... I've never actually used this setting) 
to rely on lilo information about what partitions get mounted as / and 
/boot . This is (probably) OK, but it takes us back to needing to see what 
the lilo config-file settings are (as I said before, / being /dev/sda is 
almost surely wrong).

Bottom line: this all reads like lilo does not boot the system into Linux 
because lilo was never properly installed.  **Probably** all you need to do 
... at least from the Linux side of things ... is boot the system from a 
floppy, but with the correct root filesystem. Then run lilo with an 
appropriate config file to install it on the boot drive, probably  /dev/sda 
.  Then reboot. I say "from the Linux side" because the BIOS needs to be 
able to boot this system from sda, and that's really a hardware/BIOS issue, 
not a Linux issue, if it does not.

Oh, an incidental. If this system is intended to run with 4 SCSI drives, 
you'll need more partitions entered in /etc/fstab (unless you mount them in 
some other way). Assuming root and boot are on sda, you have no entries for 
sdb# and sdc# partitions (replacing # with actual partition numbers).

At 11:58 AM 5/15/2003 -0700, Steven Ackerman wrote:
>Thanks for the timely responses. Here's all the info that was requested.
>Took me a little while to get to it and then to actually do it. I'm a little
>slow with Linux. All details are inline.
>
>Ray Olszewski [ray@comarre.com] in part, wrote the following:
>
>OK. We probably need to see a bit more than James asked for. Please provide:
>
>1. The complete /etc/lilo.conf
>
>There is nothing in /etc/lilo.conf. When I go to the /etc directory and type
>vi lilo.conf, it is a new file. There is an /etc/lilo.conf.anaconda. I can
>send the contents of that if necessary. It looks like other lilo.conf that
>I've seen.
>
>2. The contents of /etc/fstab
>
>The /etc/fstab file looks like this:
>Label=/ /       ext3    defaults        11
>Label=/boot     /boot   ext3    defaults        12
>none    /dev/pts        devpts  gid=5,mode=62   00
>none            /proc   proc    defaults        00
>none    /dev/shm        tmpfs   defaults        00
>/dev/sdd1       /swap   swap    defaults        00
>/dev/cdrom      /mnt/cdrom      udf,iso9600 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro       00
>/dev/fd0        /mnt/floppy     auto    noauto,owner,kudzu      00
>
>3. A description of what does happen if you try to boot from sda.
>
>If I leave the boot disk in it searches for DHCP and then gives the
>following output to the screen:
>DHCP MAC Address: <It lists my MAC address here>
>PXE-E51: No DHCP or Bootp offers recieved
>Invalid partition table
>
>4. Do you know that the hardware is capable of booting from a SCSI drive?
>Yes.
>How?
>I have loaded other OS's on this box and booted. It looks like some kind of
>linux configuration to me.
>5. If you boot from floppy, log in as root, and run the command "lilo",
>what is the result?
>/etc/lilo.conf: no such file or directory.
>
>What gets printed to the screen?
>The above line gets printed to the screen.
>
>The root directory (almost) surely is NOT /dev/sda....---8<snip>8---
>
>Thanks for the info. I like to know how things work. I need to learn all I
>can about this thing.
>
>Finally, is this by any chance a RAID server?
>
>No it is a standard scsi card with no RAID enabled hardware or software. I
>had a scsi RAID card in it but took it out and installed a regular scsi card
>in it. I think it's a mylex. I don't remember.
>
>I hope that helps. Let me know if there's anything else I can send. Thanks
>for all the help.
>
>-Steve
>
>---snip---
>
> >
> >I installed RH 9.0 as a server and the machine only boots from floppy. In
> >lilo.conf the boot= line in the first section says boot=/dev/sda. In the
> >same section the install= line says install=/boot/boot.b. I don't even know
> >what I should be posting to help anyone answer my question. This is a rack
> >mount server with 4 SCSI drives. I don't know if that matters. If I
>remember
> >right, the root directory is /dev/sda. Whatever the default is. I can give
> >you whatever info you need. I may have to figure out how to do it, but
> >usually I can do that.
> >
> >I need help. I don't mind pointers to links, documentation, pointers to
>some
> >documentation I missed, ect. All the doc's I found refer to using ide
> >devices and pointing to the root directory or wherever lilo is installed or
> >the root directory is or something like that. Not knowing all the linux
> >internals, I don't even know how to find that out.




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RE: Configuring lilo to boot from sda after RH 9.0 install

[Steven Ackerman]

Holy cow. O.k. Well, I'll find all this stuff out. Sorry about the
confusion. I really need to understand the boot sequence of linux systems
anyway. No better way than to have problems with it.

Thanks, I'll get back to the list soon as I figure all this out.

-Steve

-----Original Message-----
From: linux-newbie-owner@vger.kernel.org
[mailto:linux-newbie-owner@vger.kernel.org]On Behalf Of Ray Olszewski
Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2003 12:40 PM
To: steven@nvts.us; linux-newbie@vger.kernel.org
Cc: babydr@baby-dragons.com
Subject: RE: Configuring lilo to boot from sda after RH 9.0 install


Steven -- I am a bit confused by this response.

First, your initial message referred to a lilo.conf file several times.
When I ask for the complete contents of that file, though, referencing its
normal location (in /etc), you say there is no such file. You need to
explain this inconsistency in reporting. If *you* were referring to this
lilo.conf.anaconda file you mention, then of course we need to see it.

Second, in response to my asking "what does happen if you try to boot from
sda", you reply "If I leave the boot disk in ...." I assume you mean a
floppy here (otherwise, why "leave" it in?). This is not booting (or trying
to boot) from sda.

Third, the message you quote about DHCP *seems* to be from the BIOS,
attempting to do a network boot. I'm not sure what is going on here, but it
is not a Linux "something", unless you've left out information I can't
imagine well enough even to guess about. Prior to this message, does the
BIOS ever indicate that it is attempting to boot from a hard disk? If yes,
what is the message?

Fourth, going back to lilo ... it normally expects to find its config file
as /etc/lilo.conf . If your setup, for some reason unknown to me (quite
possible ... to a non-RH user like me, Red Hat seems to be diverging more
and more from what I think of at Linux/Unix standards, so this anaconda
stuff may be something specific to RH ... perhaps a Red Hat user can
comment???) uses a non-standard name for this file, you'll need to pass it
to lilo. You'd do this with "lilo -C /etc/lilo.conf.anaconda" ... but I do
not suggest your doing this until we determine if this really is a sensible
lilo.conf file.

Fifth, the format of fstab is a bit different from what I am used to. Those
Label= lines cause it (I think ... I've never actually used this setting)
to rely on lilo information about what partitions get mounted as / and
/boot . This is (probably) OK, but it takes us back to needing to see what
the lilo config-file settings are (as I said before, / being /dev/sda is
almost surely wrong).

Bottom line: this all reads like lilo does not boot the system into Linux
because lilo was never properly installed.  **Probably** all you need to do
... at least from the Linux side of things ... is boot the system from a
floppy, but with the correct root filesystem. Then run lilo with an
appropriate config file to install it on the boot drive, probably  /dev/sda
  Then reboot. I say "from the Linux side" because the BIOS needs to be
able to boot this system from sda, and that's really a hardware/BIOS issue,
not a Linux issue, if it does not.

Oh, an incidental. If this system is intended to run with 4 SCSI drives,
you'll need more partitions entered in /etc/fstab (unless you mount them in
some other way). Assuming root and boot are on sda, you have no entries for
sdb# and sdc# partitions (replacing # with actual partition numbers).

At 11:58 AM 5/15/2003 -0700, Steven Ackerman wrote:
>Thanks for the timely responses. Here's all the info that was requested.
>Took me a little while to get to it and then to actually do it. I'm a
little
>slow with Linux. All details are inline.
>
>Ray Olszewski [ray@comarre.com] in part, wrote the following:
>
>OK. We probably need to see a bit more than James asked for. Please
provide:
>
>1. The complete /etc/lilo.conf
>
>There is nothing in /etc/lilo.conf. When I go to the /etc directory and
type
>vi lilo.conf, it is a new file. There is an /etc/lilo.conf.anaconda. I can
>send the contents of that if necessary. It looks like other lilo.conf that
>I've seen.
>
>2. The contents of /etc/fstab
>
>The /etc/fstab file looks like this:
>Label=/ /       ext3    defaults        11
>Label=/boot     /boot   ext3    defaults        12
>none    /dev/pts        devpts  gid=5,mode=62   00
>none            /proc   proc    defaults        00
>none    /dev/shm        tmpfs   defaults        00
>/dev/sdd1       /swap   swap    defaults        00
>/dev/cdrom      /mnt/cdrom      udf,iso9600 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro       00
>/dev/fd0        /mnt/floppy     auto    noauto,owner,kudzu      00
>
>3. A description of what does happen if you try to boot from sda.
>
>If I leave the boot disk in it searches for DHCP and then gives the
>following output to the screen:
>DHCP MAC Address: <It lists my MAC address here>
>PXE-E51: No DHCP or Bootp offers recieved
>Invalid partition table
>
>4. Do you know that the hardware is capable of booting from a SCSI drive?
>Yes.
>How?
>I have loaded other OS's on this box and booted. It looks like some kind of
>linux configuration to me.
>5. If you boot from floppy, log in as root, and run the command "lilo",
>what is the result?
>/etc/lilo.conf: no such file or directory.
>
>What gets printed to the screen?
>The above line gets printed to the screen.
>
>The root directory (almost) surely is NOT /dev/sda....---8<snip>8---
>
>Thanks for the info. I like to know how things work. I need to learn all I
>can about this thing.
>
>Finally, is this by any chance a RAID server?
>
>No it is a standard scsi card with no RAID enabled hardware or software. I
>had a scsi RAID card in it but took it out and installed a regular scsi
card
>in it. I think it's a mylex. I don't remember.
>
>I hope that helps. Let me know if there's anything else I can send. Thanks
>for all the help.
>
>-Steve
>
>---snip---
>
> >
> >I installed RH 9.0 as a server and the machine only boots from floppy. In
> >lilo.conf the boot= line in the first section says boot=/dev/sda. In the
> >same section the install= line says install=/boot/boot.b. I don't even
know
> >what I should be posting to help anyone answer my question. This is a
rack
> >mount server with 4 SCSI drives. I don't know if that matters. If I
>remember
> >right, the root directory is /dev/sda. Whatever the default is. I can
give
> >you whatever info you need. I may have to figure out how to do it, but
> >usually I can do that.
> >
> >I need help. I don't mind pointers to links, documentation, pointers to
>some
> >documentation I missed, ect. All the doc's I found refer to using ide
> >devices and pointing to the root directory or wherever lilo is installed
or
> >the root directory is or something like that. Not knowing all the linux
> >internals, I don't even know how to find that out.




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RE: Configuring lilo to boot from sda after RH 9.0 install

[Steven Ackerman]

>I am a bit confused by this response.

Sorry for the confusion. I'd like to blame it on all the drugs at Woodstock,
but I wasn't even born yet.
>
> First, your initial message referred to a lilo.conf file
> several times.
> When I ask for the complete contents of that file, though,
> referencing its
> normal location (in /etc), you say there is no such file. You need to
> explain this inconsistency in reporting. If *you* were
> referring to this
> lilo.conf.anaconda file you mention, then of course we need to see it.

My bad. I was referring to that file and made the mistake of reporting that
it was /etc/lilo.conf when it is actually /etc/lilo.conf.anaconda. I noticed
that "anaconda" is the RH installer program. Someone may know if it has more
functions than just installing. Here's the contents of
/etc/lilo.conf.anaconda:

prompt
timout=50
boot=/dev/sda
map=/boot/map
install=boot/boot.b
message=/boot/message
linear

image=/boot/vm-linuz-2.4.20-8smp
lable=linux
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.20-8smp.img
read-only
append="root=LABEL=1"

image=/boot/vmlinux-2.4.20-8
lable=linux-up
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.20-8.img
read-only
append="root=LABEL=/


> Second, in response to my asking "what does happen if you try
> to boot from
> sda", you reply "If I leave the boot disk in ...." I assume
> you mean a
> floppy here (otherwise, why "leave" it in?). This is not
> booting (or trying
> to boot) from sda.

Yes, it's the floppy when I say "leave the boot disk in...". It is the boot
disk that the install program gave me the option to create when I installed
the OS.

>
> Third, the message you quote about DHCP *seems* to be from the BIOS,
> attempting to do a network boot. I'm not sure what is going
> on here, but it
> is not a Linux "something", unless you've left out
> information I can't
> imagine well enough even to guess about. Prior to this
> message, does the
> BIOS ever indicate that it is attempting to boot from a hard
> disk? If yes,
> what is the message?

It does refer to be "Searching for boot record from floppy" prior to this.
Let me give you the exact messages. My comments follow the # sign.

#this only happens when I don't have my boot disk (floppy)in the drive
	Searching for boot record from floppy..not found
#if I have a bootable CDROM in the CD drive it boots to/from it
	Searching for boot record from CDROM..not found
#this all happens with no 3.5 in. boot disk in the floppy drive
	Searching for boot record from SCSI..OK
#slight pause then the exact output to screen is...
Intel UNDI, PXE-2.0 (build 067)
Copyright (c) 1997, 1998 Intel Corporation

DHCP MAC ADDR: 00 D0 B7 DE F9
PX-E51: No DHCP or BOOTP offers received
Invalid partition table

> Fourth, going back to lilo ... it normally expects to find
> its config file
> as /etc/lilo.conf . If your setup, for some reason unknown to
> me (quite
> possible ... to a non-RH user like me, Red Hat seems to be
> diverging more
> and more from what I think of at Linux/Unix standards, so
> this anaconda
> stuff may be something specific to RH ... perhaps a Red Hat user can
> comment???) uses a non-standard name for this file, you'll
> need to pass it
> to lilo. You'd do this with "lilo -C /etc/lilo.conf.anaconda"
> ... but I do
> not suggest your doing this until we determine if this really
> is a sensible
> lilo.conf file.

Sounds right to me. That's exactly what I thought when I saw it in the /etc
directory and no linux.conf file.

>
> Fifth, the format of fstab is a bit different from what I am
> used to. Those
> Label= lines cause it (I think ... I've never actually used
> this setting)
> to rely on lilo information about what partitions get mounted
> as / and
> /boot . This is (probably) OK, but it takes us back to
> needing to see what
> the lilo config-file settings are (as I said before, / being
> /dev/sda is
> almost surely wrong).
>
> Bottom line: this all reads like lilo does not boot the
> system into Linux
> because lilo was never properly installed.  **Probably** all
> you need to do
> .. at least from the Linux side of things ... is boot the
> system from a
> floppy, but with the correct root filesystem. Then run lilo with an
> appropriate config file to install it on the boot drive,
> probably  /dev/sda
>   Then reboot. I say "from the Linux side" because the BIOS
> needs to be
> able to boot this system from sda, and that's really a
> hardware/BIOS issue,
> not a Linux issue, if it does not.

Hopefully, all the information I've posted will help.
>
> Oh, an incidental. If this system is intended to run with 4
> SCSI drives,
> you'll need more partitions entered in /etc/fstab (unless you
> mount them in
> some other way). Assuming root and boot are on sda, you have
> no entries for
> sdb# and sdc# partitions (replacing # with actual partition numbers).

Is there a way for me to find that information for this box?

Thanks again. At least I'm learning proper boot sequence settings for a
linux box. I really need a good reference book for Linux. Something I can
look stuff up in, not read "in 21 days". Something for RH 9.0, too. If
something's out yet.

-Steve

>
> At 11:58 AM 5/15/2003 -0700, Steven Ackerman wrote:
> >Thanks for the timely responses. Here's all the info that
> was requested.
> >Took me a little while to get to it and then to actually do
> it. I'm a little
> >slow with Linux. All details are inline.
> >
> >Ray Olszewski [ray@comarre.com] in part, wrote the following:
> >
> >OK. We probably need to see a bit more than James asked for.
> Please provide:
> >
> >1. The complete /etc/lilo.conf
> >
> >There is nothing in /etc/lilo.conf. When I go to the /etc
> directory and type
> >vi lilo.conf, it is a new file. There is an
> /etc/lilo.conf.anaconda. I can
> >send the contents of that if necessary. It looks like other
> lilo.conf that
> >I've seen.
> >
> >2. The contents of /etc/fstab
> >
> >The /etc/fstab file looks like this:
> >Label=/ /       ext3    defaults        11
> >Label=/boot     /boot   ext3    defaults        12
> >none    /dev/pts        devpts  gid=5,mode=62   00
> >none            /proc   proc    defaults        00
> >none    /dev/shm        tmpfs   defaults        00
> >/dev/sdd1       /swap   swap    defaults        00
> >/dev/cdrom      /mnt/cdrom      udf,iso9600
> noauto,owner,kudzu,ro       00
> >/dev/fd0        /mnt/floppy     auto    noauto,owner,kudzu      00
> >
> >3. A description of what does happen if you try to boot from sda.
> >
> >If I leave the boot disk in it searches for DHCP and then gives the
> >following output to the screen:
> >DHCP MAC Address: <It lists my MAC address here>
> >PXE-E51: No DHCP or Bootp offers recieved
> >Invalid partition table
> >
> >4. Do you know that the hardware is capable of booting from
> a SCSI drive?
> >Yes.
> >How?
> >I have loaded other OS's on this box and booted. It looks
> like some kind of
> >linux configuration to me.
> >5. If you boot from floppy, log in as root, and run the
> command "lilo",
> >what is the result?
> >/etc/lilo.conf: no such file or directory.
> >
> >What gets printed to the screen?
> >The above line gets printed to the screen.
> >
> >The root directory (almost) surely is NOT /dev/sda....---8<snip>8---
> >
> >Thanks for the info. I like to know how things work. I need
> to learn all I
> >can about this thing.
> >
> >Finally, is this by any chance a RAID server?
> >
> >No it is a standard scsi card with no RAID enabled hardware
> or software. I
> >had a scsi RAID card in it but took it out and installed a
> regular scsi card
> >in it. I think it's a mylex. I don't remember.
> >
> >I hope that helps. Let me know if there's anything else I
> can send. Thanks
> >for all the help.
> >
> >-Steve
> >
> >---snip---
> >
> > >
> > >I installed RH 9.0 as a server and the machine only boots
> from floppy. In
> > >lilo.conf the boot= line in the first section says
> boot=/dev/sda. In the
> > >same section the install= line says install=/boot/boot.b.
> I don't even know
> > >what I should be posting to help anyone answer my
> question. This is a rack
> > >mount server with 4 SCSI drives. I don't know if that matters. If I
> >remember
> > >right, the root directory is /dev/sda. Whatever the
> default is. I can give
> > >you whatever info you need. I may have to figure out how
> to do it, but
> > >usually I can do that.
> > >
> > >I need help. I don't mind pointers to links,
> documentation, pointers to
> >some
> > >documentation I missed, ect. All the doc's I found refer
> to using ide
> > >devices and pointing to the root directory or wherever
> lilo is installed or
> > >the root directory is or something like that. Not knowing
> all the linux
> > >internals, I don't even know how to find that out.
>
>
>
>
> -
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RE: Configuring lilo to boot from sda after RH 9.0 install

[Ray Olszewski]

OK. It sounds to me like you do NOT have the lilo bootloader installed on 
sda. To do that, you should do the following (as root):

         1. Copy the file to the usual name, with "cp 
/etc/lilo.conf.anaconda /etc/lilo.conf".

         2. Edit lilo.conf so it works (I'll return to this).

         3. Run lilo.

The lilo.conf.anaconda has (relative to the lilo.conf files I am used to) a 
couple of errors, a couple of omissions, and one thing I do not understand. 
Going through it:

>prompt
>timout=50
>boot=/dev/sda
>map=/boot/map
>install=boot/boot.b
>message=/boot/message
>linear

These are the general settings and look fine (you may or may not need the 
"linear" entry, but it shouldn't hurt). You probably want to add this line:

         default=linux

to tell lilo which kernel to boot if you don't interrput the boot proces to 
select one manually. (I'm only guessing, of course, which is your default 
kernel, but it is customary to label that one Linux or linux.

>image=/boot/vm-linuz-2.4.20-8smp
>lable=linux

should read "label", not "lable"

>initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.20-8smp.img
>read-only
>append="root=LABEL=1"

This is the line I do not understand. I suppose it interacts with the entry 
in /etc/fstab, but I've never done it that way so I do not know if the two, 
together, are OK or not. A more conservative approach would be to specify:

         root=/dev/sda1

or whatever sda? partition has the root filesystem on it.

>image=/boot/vmlinux-2.4.20-8
>lable=linux-up

label, not lable

>initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.20-8.img
>read-only
>append="root=LABEL=/

Same comment as above.

As I said, there are some details in what you are doing that are different 
from my usual practice, and RH 9 is new enough that even experienced RH 
users (I'm not one) won't yet be familiar with whatever new quirks RH has 
added this time around.

So I'm not sure if these suggestions will work as written or require a bit 
of fiddling at your end. But they should get you on the right track at least.

At 03:39 PM 5/15/2003 -0700, Steven Ackerman wrote:
[old stuff deleted]



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Re: Configuring lilo to boot from sda-Got it

[Steven Ackerman]

Ray Olszewski wrote:
> OK. It sounds to me like you do NOT have the lilo bootloader installed 
> on sda. To do that, you should do the following (as root):
> 
>         1. Copy the file to the usual name, with "cp 
> /etc/lilo.conf.anaconda /etc/lilo.conf".
> 
>         2. Edit lilo.conf so it works (I'll return to this).
> 
>         3. Run lilo.
> 

Did all that. Same problem. At this point I knew that something else was 
going on. I know that lilo uses lilo.conf and even if between the 
lilo.conf.anaconda file and lilo.conf it in the /etc directory it should 
work.

There's a SCSI utility that is ran during POST. The bios refers to it. 
All bootable drives in the BIOS were floppy and CDROM. So I opened up 
the SCSI util and found something referring to "Boot Target ID" it was 
set to drive 1. That didn't sound right to me because it had an 
installed drive 0. I set it to 0 and Linux booted right up. I sure am 
curious about the whole lilo.conf.anaconda file though.

Thanks for all the help. I really appreciate it. I now know a few more 
things than I did. I'm so glad this list has stayed active. Hopefully 
I'll be able to contribute at some point.

-Steve
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