SuSe 7.0 boot problem. 1

[eugene2]

I have installed SuSe 7.0 on a system 4 times. It works well until I shut down machine.When I reboot system all I get is 0& 1"s across the screen. I have even saved the Settings to a floppy disk to boot from, same result. any ideas why this is occuring would be most appreciated.

 

[pansophic]

I haven't had this problem with SuSe before, but I have with RedHat and Mandrake. I believe that it was a problem with a system that had a disk that was larger than 8GB and I did not have lba32 listed in /etc/lilo.conf.

I think that it has to do with /boot being in a sector of the disk beyond 1024 cylinders.

I've not had the problem with grub as a boot loader, but I am more familiar with lilo, so I still generally install it instead.


pansophic

 

[eugene2]

I do have a 10 gb HD installed. what would I need to do short of changing drives. I thank you for responding.

 

[pansophic]

Are you using Grub or Lilo as your boot loader?


pansophic

 

[eugene2]

lib.

 

[pansophic]

If it is Lilo, then you need to boot with something like a rescue disk or one of the bootable CDs if you are familiar with them.

Mount your / file system and edit the /etc/lilo.conf. Add lba32 on a separate line in the initial portion of your file. You can symbolically link that file to the /etc location of the bootable CD or rescue system. Then run lilo.

Here is my lilo.conf file:

prompt
timeout=50
default=linux
boot=/dev/hda
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
message=/boot/message
lba32

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-8bigmem
label=linux
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.20-8bigmem.img
read-only
append="hdb=ide-scsi root=LABEL=/"

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-8smp
label=linux-smp
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.20-8smp.img
read-only
append="hdb=ide-scsi root=LABEL=/"

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-8
label=linux-up
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.20-8.img
read-only
append="hdb=ide-scsi root=LABEL=/"

other=/dev/hda2
optional
label=DOS

Good luck!


pansophic

 

[eugene2]

Thanks, I will try that. I started the install on a 4 gb hd in the time before I read this. It went bad as well. all that came up was a blank screen. Will a DOS boot disk wipe out Linux partion? a Win95 boot disk could not fdisk, so no format. I would like to get a couple of drives back for other things. thanks

 

[pansophic]

If you want to repartition the disk, download KNOPPIX or one of the Bootable Linux CDs and run fdisk. It will allow you to recreate your FAT partitions.

You may just want to try out KNOPPIX anyway. No installation and you get a quite usable form of Linux. Just boot from CD.


pansophic

 

[eugene2]

tahnks, I will try both . you have been a big help.