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

["Steven Ackerman" <steven@nvts.us>]

>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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