perhaps someone can help me with this problem... my grandpa has a computer on wich he installed XP and redhat 7.2 (I dont know the settings in RH so that is the biggest problem) he used lilo as bootloader and I dont know any of the settings.. anyhow... he decided to install redhat 8.0 over 7.2... but what I noticed on the setup is that 8.0 normally installes GRUB as bootloader...(im not an expert at linux stuff) it resulted into a system just saying: LI when trying to boot... I tried formatting the whole HD but it didnt help... I tried fdisk /mbr but that didnt work so I am kinda desperate and dont know what to try on his PC anymore.. because he cant boot a single OS now... if anyone could give me idea's of what to try I would be very happy (yea i installed xp as well and that didnt help either....) Tnx in advance...
Ashok Mash
Ranch Hand
Joined: Oct 13, 2000
Posts: 1936
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fdisk /mbr should fix it, in my opinion. I am not sure what is the problem here, but if I were you, I would try a fresh attack on the hard disk with a new (and pure) Dos boot disk with fdisk on it. Let us know how it goes for you, Cheers.
I had the same situation once, booting and getting the 'LI' prompt then nothing.... I installed win2k over the top of it and the included format fixed the problem. I tend to agree though, can't understand why formatting the Master Boot Record didn't work
iemand anders
Greenhorn
Joined: Jan 11, 2003
Posts: 3
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I tried installing DOS 6.0 and using Fdisk.. but it didnt help.. I read somewhere that its possible to have more then 1 boot records and there is a different line to format that one.. perhaps that is the problem... anyone know anythign about that?
When you install any version of Windows from 95 on up to XP, it overwrites the MBR. Actually, I *think* you can still choose LILO OR GRUB as boot loaders for Linux - it's just that since 7.2 or so GRUB is the default. However, if there was a LILO installed, chances are that the GRUB got zapped and the /etc/lilo.conf is aimed at the 7.2 linux kernel which was probably erased. Here's the fix: 1. Boot from the Red Hat install CD and select "linux rescue". 2. you should see a message saying that your old Linux has been found (we hope) and mounted at /mnt/sysimage. 3. chroot /mnt/sysimage (may be /sbin/chroot ???) 4. Now you have the proper reference points. Look in /boot for the RedHat 8 kernel name. Edit /etc/lilo.conf and replace the existing kernel name name with the Red Hat 8 kernel name and save the changes. 5. /sbin/lilo 6. Shutdown and reboot with the CD ejected. You should be able boot with LILO and enjoy life again. Actually I understand a GRUB recovery is even easier, since the GRUB loader can understand the Linux filesystem, but you would have to have a GRUB boot diskette.
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