No choice of OSs after dual boot setup

[Dougzilla]

I am running WinXP Pro. Recently i decided to put RH 8.0 on for a dual boot environment. After getting Linux installed successfully, when the computer restarts there is no LILO screen to choose which OS to boot into. And when i try to make a boot disk during the installation process, it tells me to Insert a Disk, even though one is already in the drive. My linux boot partition is not near the beginning of the hard drive, as i understand that some computers cant access anything higher than 1024 cylinder during boot up. The computer is less than a year and was a top of the line Dell when i bought it.
So the synopsis is this: 1. Cant make a boot disk. 2. after successful installation, at restart there is no choice for OSs.
I dont know a whole lot about Linux, but if anyone out there has a clue, please help me out. Thanks in advance.

 

[jeisner]

"higher than 1024 cylinder during boot up" That shouldn't be a problem anymore, and it definately doesn't explain why the lilo screen doesn't appear, as lilo should be in the MBR!

Where did you install Lilo? did you put it in the MBR of the first harddrive (hda)?

 

[Dougzilla]

i dont remember it asking me where to put LILO. I was hoping that it would be smarter than me.
How do i ensure that LILO will go into the MBR the next time i try installing it?

Thanks

 

[Dougzilla]

OK, More information...

I have Intel Boot Agent running on the computer. I guess it is just for initializing the network card to boot the computer remotely. If i disable the boot agent, will ite help?
Also, i found the advance settings for where to install LILO. The text on the left side of the screen said that if i am using LILO and Windows NT ( I am using XP), then i should NOT install it in the MBR. Is there something that I am missing here?

Thanks again

 

[RiezalR]

Sometimes after an install Lilo is unable to locate the 2 OS due to the FAT being altered. I had this problem once and had to do some repartitioning. But in your case, try resetting the MBR. If im not mistaken, you can do this at DOS prompt by typing 'fdisk /mbr'.

Once you sorted your MBR, try re-installing again. If Lilo still doesn't work, try using a different boot loader such as GRUB. I installed RH 8.0 on an old HDD and the Lilo screen did not even come up. The HDD wasn't even partitioned for dual boot and still Lilo wouldnt even come up. I couldnt boot my Linux. I tried to use GRUB instead and everything works fine. To me GRUB is more robust, you are able to edit kernel and boot options via the GRUB command line. Using GRUB, troubleshooting boot problems is much easier. You should try using GRUB as the boot loader instead of Lilo. See if that works.

 

[Dougzilla]

i loaded with GRUB this time and it all works now. Thanks for the help. I still am curious why LILO doesnt work...

 

[pweegar]

Did you try pressing the 'tab' key while booting under lilo???? Tab SHOULD bring up a list of bootable OS's.

You can also go into the lilo config file and alter it, but it's not a fun encounter and you realy need to do some research on lilo.