Red Hat 7.0 - Boot Floppy Problems

[Web Gecko]

Howdy

I have been setting up RH 7.0 (GNOME/KDE etc) and have no problems with my installs. I want to overwrite LILO with a normal C: primary Windows install and then I will go onto create a NT4, 2K multi-boot from there.

I know how to do this and as I'm not using a boot manager like System commander I will need a boot floppy to start my Linux partition.

I created a boot disk in the RH 7.0 GUI install process. I have done this before and had no problems with the start disk.

This time my boot floppy doesn't work !

When I boot the floppy is accessed and LILO runs. I either hit Enter or type linux and Enter.

Then you get Linux Loading ........
Error 0x10

and this just repeats forever..

LILO is still installed so I can start and log into RH 7.0 .

Once inside GNOME or KDE or from the Linux command line
How do I create a boot floppy that works ?

(I actually ran the GUI install again and wrote out another boot
floppy but got the same result - NO GO).

I have located a file called mkbootdisk in /sbin which seems
to be a script of some kind ( first line is #!/bin/bash ).
Is this a bash script ? How do I run it ? The permissions on this
are set to rwx for owner (root) and r-x for group and world
so it should be able to be run.

If I type mkbootdisk kernelversion Enter in /sbin
I get bash: command not found ?
(in user account or root)

I know how to install Linux and use the GUI but am just starting to learn the CLI (newbie).

I have heaps to learn when it comes to Linux. I would really appreciate some help/ideas here.

Thanks

The Web Gecko

[Web Gecko]

Howdy to Statica and others

Still no go on getting my RH 7.0 boot floppys to work. I did have one that worked at one stage but unfortunately I overwrote it
(dumb move yes). I have two sets (from different sources I hope)
of RH 7.0 CDs so I may try installing from the other set and seeing if that install can create a good boot floppy.

I have no problems with the FDD drive that I know of as my Win start floppies boot fine and I can access my files OK.

I intend to check out a good boot manager as was suggested by others on another thread. Is System Commander free ware ?
If not how much is it ? Are there any other good freeware boot managers out there that can handle a mix of FAT16 and EXT2 partitions ? If I can't get the boot floppy thing to work then a boot manager may be my only option for a multi-boot which has to handle at least 4 different OS/NOSes.

It seems that LILO only gives you a dual boot option at max. Is this correct ? The other thing I can do is to get myself some drive caddies and swap caddies when I want different OSes/NOSes
( VmWare ?) but these are relatively expensive options.

I wanted to set my multi-boot up in the interim as a 3 entry multi-boot and use the RH 7.0 boot floppy to start Linux. It makes sense to go with a boot manager but then it is always handy to have a boot floppy for Linux if things screw up.

I have tried other forums on this one but have drawn a blank so far. So it's boot manager hunting I go for now (and another install attempt to see if the other CD set will do what I need).

If anyone has any ideas at all I could really use some help.

Thanks again for your help with the other stuff.

cheers

The Web Gecko

[Statica]

Hi WG:

Regarding your situation with mkbootdisk .. did you install the package correctly, with all dependencies - I ask this because RHat wouldve done it with the wonderful use of RPM's ? You can use your package manager to check it. If you do have it installed and cant get it to work, we can help you out as well.

I dont use any other bootdisk managers except Lilo from floppies or grub from the MBR. I hate using 3rd party utils, System commander 7 is available here: http://www.v-com.com/product/sc7_ind.html and it costs a whopping ~60 bucks .. waste of money if you ask me.

Lilo will give u multiple options, not limited to 2 operating systems .. you can use as many as you have.

[Statica]

Oh yeah forgot to mention the Error 0x10 is usually indicative of a media error.

[Statica]

Oh yeah .. here's an interesting way to boot Linux using your NT bootloader http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue61/padala.html

[Web Gecko]

Howdy Statica

Thanks for the ideas.

So if I have the following FAT16 partitions set up :

C: primary FAT16 Win Me

extended D: FAT16 NT4

E: FAT16 2K

EXT2/SWAP balance assigned to RH 7.0
(assigned by Disk Druid during install)

and then I install RH 7.0 (last) and install LILO in the MBR
will LILO pick up all my FAT16 partitions and my RH 7.0
partitions and be able to start all of them ?
Is there any special procedure required to set this up ?

The other question is how do I get the RH 7.0 package manager to check my dependencies in relation to mkbootdisk or is the dependency check in relation to all package dependencies on the system ? When you install the setup routine usually reports that it is checking dependencies. Is this the same procedure ?

I have tried to run mkbootdisk kernelversion in /sbin (permissions are set to rwx for owner (root) and r-x for group and world so I should be able to execute this script from /sbin under root or my other user account). I guess you are saying that I am getting bash: command not found due to other stuff (dependencies) called from mkbootdisk ?

If mkbootdisk has access to all the other stuff it runs then all I need to do is type the following from the command line in /sbin :

mkbootdisk kernelversion Enter

Is this right ?

It also seems strange with that Error 0x10 that I am all of a sudden having problems with floppies that a day before were working fine. It may of course be the FDD playing up (have to check it). Nothing surprises me these days with computing.

Thanks again for your help. If you can help with the above then that would be great. I started using PCMECH in late 2001 and I must say this is a great site (haven't found a better one yet)
in terms of the quality of advice people give and the quality of the site itself. The crowd here are also a great bunch of people.

So I keep coming back.

Thanks again

cheers

The Web Gecko

[Statica]

Hi WG:

mkbootdisk sometimes has an issue if you dont give it the full path .. have you tried running /sbin/mkbootdisk 2.x.yy-zz
or how about /sbin/mkbootdisk /dev/fd0 2.x.yy-zz

There isnt any special procedure to set it up, letting LILO do it, should detect your OS' and give you entries for all of the OS. However, I personally dont quite care to boot with LILO to start off with. I always make myself a bootdisk during install - then verify that my MS operating systems function properly enough before I move on to using LILO. You could use your linuxconf utility to setup LILO using your GUI.

As for checking to see if mkbootdisk is correctly installed, you could run the command rpm -qli mkbootdisk and see what turns up. It should also tell you where mkbootdisk is installed, and the files. If you feel that all the dependencies have not been met, you could go to this page and click on the appropriate distribution you are using; you should also see a list of the packages for dependencies.

I personally, have found loads of issues with RPMs behaving funny (CH would point me out to be a dinosaur right about now ), and I dont quite trust it yet... in any event, if nothing else, its a cinch to install the packages you need.

If you are running it as root, other than the obvious uh-ohs of being root (its better to make it a habit of su-ing), you shouldnt have an issue with permissions.

http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/mini/LILO-8.html is a good howto on creating rescue disks with LILO.
And as usual it would be nice to read the sections on LILO and multibooting other operating systems.

And regarding suddenly problematic floppies, thats the nature of floppies

[Web Gecko]

Hey Statica

I like that solution/link from the Linux Gazette. Looks like one way to boot Linux from an NT multi-boot setup ( idea).

The guy doesn't want to have to select the DOS option from LILO,
he just defaults to DOS with no delay and goes straight into
his NT multi-boot menu. Usefull to know as a HOW TO.

If he does all that stuff (sets up his NT multi-boot with an entry
to run his Linux boot sector from C and then does an
fdisk /mbr does that remove LILO and restore the NT multi-boot
so he can avoid LILO altogether (he sort of indicates this in his page) ?

If the DOS option in LILO runs my 3 entry NT based multi-boot
then this is all I need. I can start RH 7.0 from LILO as well as my NT multi-boot menu. If this works I have a solution.

Running Linux from the NT loader looks interesting but in this case I shouldn't need to do all that stuff.

All I can do is give it a shot anyway. The main problem with running multiple OSes like this is if something screws up on the drive and you can't recover your mbr/FAT info then you probably have to reload every damn thing. Go Back software can help here as can imaging stuff but with drives getting larger this can represent a problem.

Probably easier to run multiple drives (one OS/NOS per) or to use
a drive caddy approach. Then there's stuff like VmWare but you need quite a lot of processor grunt/memory etc., to run multiple OSes using VmWare or whatever.

Thanks again

The Web Gecko

[Web Gecko]

Thanks Statica

I'll give all that stuff a burl and see how it goes.

cheers

The Web Gecko

[Statica]

Yes you dont need to do any of that stuff, LILO or grub will do it for you, and you dont need to use a blind DOS option at all. I would like to refer you to some good howto's -
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/mini/Linux+NT-Loader.html - this involves using the NT loader to multiboot
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/mini/Linux+WinNT.html - this tells you how to use LILO to multiboot LINUX+NT
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/mini/Loadlin+Win95-98-ME.html - does LILO w/ Linux+Win9x
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/mini/Multiboot-with-LILO.html tells you how to manage Win9x+WinNT+LINUX using LILO

HTH

[Web Gecko]

Howdy Statica

I finally got Me, NT4 and Win 2K Servers loaded up and the NT multi-boot works fine from LILO ( as you said it would). Thanks for all the other usefull info as well.

I figured out how to get mkbootdisk running
( dependencies were OK). Linux can be interesting but it sure has some funny ways of doing stuff. Linuxs' default paths don't work like MSDOS i.e. you have to key ./ before the file name if you are in the directory containing the executable file you want to run. Otherwise Linux can't find the file (weird).

I am still a Linux newbie so it must have been time for me to suss that one.

I still seem to have some wierd issue with the floppy drive though as I get the Error 0x10 ( occasionally 0x02 as well) after Loading Linux ........ every time. Mkbootdisk seems to run fine and reports no errors. The floppy drive works fine when creating the Linux install floppy with rawrite and also seems to work fine in MSDOS and Windows (have never had a problem with it before). I rarely have media problems with my floppies but I know this is possible.
I have two different sets of RH 7.0 CDs and have installed and created boot disks from both of these with the same results.

The floppies that the Linux load process has problems with seem to format up OK ( in RH 7.0 and MSDOS/Windows ) and work fine with everything else so (stumped) ?????? I may replace the floppy drive and see if this helps.

I have discovered a work around though. I have RH 7.0 set up on two other systems. So I create boot disks on my other systems
( work fine) and boot with these on this system BUT
I feed LILO

linux root=/dev/hda7 to respecify my root partition

This works fine. The floppy/media problem could be related to the
FDD drive so I'll replace it and see.

Question : Is there a list of Error messages and definitions etc.,
somewhere on my system or elsewhere ?

So I'm making some progress. Thanks again for all the great info you supplied before.

cheers

The Web Gecko

p.s. Discovered a dealer selling System Commander
for 40 bucks Oz ( 20 US or less ) with
TurboLinux and Star Office thrown in. At that price
I may take a look at SC (maybe).

I am constantly working on my systems and making
changes so the more flexibility/options the better.