i just installed redhat 6.2 on my c

[yarrgh]

i just installed redhat 6.2 on my compaq presario 700 laptop. i non-destructivly resized my NTFS drive, (has XP on it) and made a 2 gig FAT partition, and a 10 gig linux partition. linux seemed to install okay, though i dont know what the heck im doing, and guessed on half the things (about what sort of monitor i have and all that).

anyway: after the install, it restarts, and i get "LI". nothing else!! fine. i put in the linux boot disc, and it goes "LILO" and boots up and all, but when i get to the login screen where it says "username" the whole screen flashes on and off, and i can't do anything, i have to hit CTRL+ALT+DEL and then it shuts down. (note, the first few times i went to linux i didn't get any flashing screen at all. however, i didn't get any GUI either, i tried startx and got some long error message)

now I cant boot XP! when i go with a DOS boot disc, it confuses all the drive letters, thinks my FAT drive (which i think was D is the C: and all that.

SO:
1) i want to be able to boot XP
2) i want redhat to work
3) i want to fix my LILO problem
4) once all thats working, i want to know how to load a GUI on redhat! (i put GNOME on it)
5) anyone know of a good way to get a free distribution of linux thats a little more current? downloading is not an option, im on 14k

ps; i have no idea where lilo is installed, i dont think it even asked me.

 

[yarrgh]

update: i got XP to boot by typing Fdisk /mbr in DOS from a boot disc. I also figured out why linux is crashing when i start it up with the boot disc. i changed the settings so that it would go directly to the GUI when it started up, and since i put incorrect info in for my monitor, its flipping out without letting me actually DO anything in linux.
anyone know how to reinstall LILO, to force it to boot without the GUI or to manually change the settings? or actually, anyone know how to just re-install? i cant figure that out either.

bretnon

 

[RhythmAce]

You should just have to type lilo at the command prompt.

 

[yarrgh]

update: i now am starting linux by typing 'linux 3' at boot, so it wont go to the grapics thing, but it gets stuck before it finishes booting. it looks like this:

Partition Check
hda hda1 hda2 <hda5> hda3 hda4
autodetect RAID
autorun...
... autorun DONE
Kernel Panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 3:03


anyone know what this means and how i can fix it? it might have something to do with the changes i made on one of the little partitions i made.

brenton