[BL] LIL- error fixed on worn-out drive (sindi keesan)

[Sheldon Isaac]

Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2012 16:09:37 +0000 (UTC)

Much snipping.

On a laptop with multiple operating systems (XP, BL2, BL3 and other
linuxes) I was booting with lilo (boot.ini had a line in it referring
to c:\boot\bootsec5.lnx which was a copy of the first 512 bytes of
/dev/hda5) when suddenly I would get LIL- instead of LILO.
I reran lilo the first few times this happened and things worked again
but today they did not. So I edited lilo.conf to use /dev/hda6 instead
of /dev/hda5, copied the 512 bytes of that to c:\boot
(dd if=/dev/hda6 of=bootsec6.lnx bs=512 count=1
cp bootsec6.lnx /hd/boot)
and it works again. Windows bootloader now looks at /dev/hda6 not 5.
See the archives for dual booting XP or 2K with linux using lilo.
It requires editing boot.ini.
I think the area of /dev/hda5 used by lilo must have worn out, as happens when
hard drives no longer boot due to MBR area wearing out. Can anyone explain
this more technically?

Thanks, Sindi, for this info and tip.

This multi-boot method requires a FAT32 file system for XP

I wonder about that: I have a refurbished Acer Acpire One (8.9" screen)
netbook and a hand-me-down Dell Dimension 8300 desktop, 2004 vinage.

Each has XP booting from an NTFS partition, the C: drive.
The boot.ini files includes a line for a file on C:\ (it's analogous to
your c:\boot\bootsec5.lnx) which is a copy of the first 512 bytes of
a VFAT partition where /boot/grub is.

I may have misunderstood what you said.

By the way, I see that you've posted on the http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy
forum.


Thanks,

Sheldon

, which means I could also plug in a USB floppy drive and boot to DOS thence
to BL to fix things. It does not seem to work with NTFS.

[sindi keesan]

Post by Sheldon Isaac

I think the area of /dev/hda5 used by lilo must have worn out, as happens when
hard drives no longer boot due to MBR area wearing out. Can anyone explain
this more technically?

Thanks, Sindi, for this info and tip.

This multi-boot method requires a FAT32 file system for XP

I wonder about that: I have a refurbished Acer Acpire One (8.9" screen)
netbook and a hand-me-down Dell Dimension 8300 desktop, 2004 vinage.
Each has XP booting from an NTFS partition, the C: drive.
The boot.ini files includes a line for a file on C:\ (it's analogous to
your c:\boot\bootsec5.lnx) which is a copy of the first 512 bytes of
a VFAT partition where /boot/grub is.

I have not figured out how to use grub but ought to since you say it also
works with NTFS. I tried the LILO/boot.ini method with NTFS (using puppy
linux to write to boot.ini since it can access NTFS) but it did not work.

Post by Sheldon Isaac
I may have misunderstood what you said.

I think not. Try it yourself with lilo instead of grub.

Post by Sheldon Isaac
By the way, I see that you've posted on the http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy
forum.

Yes, I am now using Puppy Linux when I need a recent browser.

Post by Sheldon Isaac
Thanks,
Sheldon

, which means I could also plug in a USB floppy drive and boot to DOS thence
to BL to fix things. It does not seem to work with NTFS.

Sindi