Teething problems - Red Hat 7.2

I have just installed Red Hat 7.2 on a new partition on my computer, (also running Windoze 2000). Everything went well, but I am left with two queries. I wonder if any of you guys can help.

1) On partitioning my drive prior to install, I created a logical ex2 partition and a linux swap partition. After booting into Linux, I then tried to install Lilo (boot manager) to run on startup. I ran /path/to/lilo lilo -s ~/old_boot_table , but there is no sign of Lilo's presence on booting.. it still defaults into Windows. I'm wondering if that partition should have been a Primary (rather than Logical) partition?? If I go back into Partition Magic and change the partition type, will that destroy the existing data meaning that I have to reinstall Linux, or is it just a modification to the boot table - Maybe that's not the problem anyway - any ideas? Currently having to boot of a floppy boot image.

2) I have a modem on COM3 - use it all the time in Windows, no problem. I tried to run the dial up connection setup utility in Red Hat 7 and it failed to probe a modem (presumably trying each of the /dev/ttySx devices). I just can't get Linux to see my modem :-(

I would really appreciate any help on these topics, so I can start to move my work over to Linux..

best regards,
Christo

do you have the line "boot=/dev/hda" in your /etc/lilo.conf? probably you have a number after the "hda". then lilo is not installed in the MBR (where it should be) but in the boot record of this partition (which is never read...)
for linux it does not matter if it is on a primary or extended / logical partition.

another solution (to be safe AND fast):
boot=/dev/fd0
then lilo goes to the boot sector of your floppy-disc. if the disc is in the drive, it loads lilo in less than one second and boots straight from your harddrive.

your modem, is it an internal one? then maybe it´s a winmodem (as the name says, it´s made for windows only ).
if not, maybe com3 is not configured automatically by your distro. look in the manual how to configure more than 2 serial ports in redhat.

Thanks M.Hirsch,

I made the relevant changes to lilo.conf - removed the partition number from the device path.. and rebooted. Things were okay for a while, but on booding withoug the floppy. it was giving the message: "kernal panic: VFS: unable to mount root on 03:00
Net result being that still it would only boot from thge floppity disc. ... so I tried a few more things in the lilo conf file - still no cigar... and then I tried GRUB. Grub looks nicer when it starts, and boots Linux by default - lovely - but will not let me boot windows. In fact, I think I have shafted the MBR, because when the laptop starts up, I get a little pink box tellinh me to run Phdisk, or something - and that's only at the BIOS stage before GRUB or anythings else starts.... all looking a bit ugly at the mo!
I'll be back on this thread when finally manage to sort stuff out,... bit worried that I've totally sha99ed it, though!

When I used to load Windows and Linux on same hard drive, I used bootpart:

http://www.winimage.com/bootpart.htm

Now I just have a drive dedicated to each OS.

Ho...

you can "repair" the mbr (revert back to windows mbr) by using "lilo -u" - if this does not work, try "fdisk /mbr" on a (win)dos command prompt.

the root needs to be specified with "root=/dev/hda3" in lilo.conf. some distros make an extra boot partition (how many linux partitions do you have?) then you need to pass this one instead of the "real" root which will be mounted by the boot partition´s setup.

test the phdisk program. it is for creating the hibernation partition on your pc. did you delete this partition? if no, just re-install it with phdisk overwriting the existing one. if yes, you need do free some space with partition magic before re-installing phdisk.

Es is wirklich ganz furchtbar - Ich kann nichts tun Ich veruhrsache sofort ihnen zu erklaren was los ist... I'm gonna run outside and cry in a minute! Also dann..

I ran lilo -u and the machine now boots (still with the phdisk warning) and the screen then goes black with the following at the top:

LIL-

nothing else, just flashing curser. Of course I would run phdisk or fdisk from dos, but I don't have DOS - never did - I can't boot into my NTFS (windows 2000) partition to use the command prompt either... that's what the whole problem is.

Anyway, I can boot into linux no probs with my floppity disk - but that's the only place I can go.... baaaaahhhH!!!!!

the LIL- says it´s a broken lilo, so your backup of the boot sector contained already lilo and not the original windows boot sector.

1. solution: get on the ´net with your linux installation, download a dos bootdisk and copy it to a floppy (dd if=image.dat of=/dev/fd0" then you can boot from disk.

2. solution (without internet connection): setup lilo to boot your windows partition. i am not 100% sure about the syntax, but i think:

should do this. (if your windows is on hda1 - "fdisk -l" will tell you)

if it does not work, post back, i can look it up

I changed the lilo.conf to read:

boot=/dev/hda
prompt
label=windows
other=/dev/hda1

and got the messages:

Warning:device 0x0305 exceeds 1024 cyliner limit
Fatal: geo_comp_addr: Cylinder munber is too big (2337 > 1023)

I don't think I'll try booting with that one.. in the meantime, I could boot with a DOS boot image, but I'm not sure what use that would be. What could I do with it? - I mean most MS stuff requires Windows and the full apps to view the files... and it's windows I want to be running anyway (so I can use VB apps etc).. hmmmmm if only it was possible to make a Windows 2000 boot floppy, but I understand that NTFS boot disks don't exist. My machine certainly wouldn't let me make one...

3 hours before I finish work and go home for a tearful weekend with no lappytop!

Whilst we are grinding over this little prob, I have to thank you for taking so much time and effort to help... the scary day continues!...

always happy when my help is appreciated

the dos boot image will let you restore the mbr (also for win2k). you need to call "fdisk/mbr". there is no ntfs boot disks from microsoft, only from third parties

the cylinders problem says your version of lilo is old. it supports cylinders>1024 today (but not since long).

just looking for a boot disk download...

Something doesn't like me today..

$su root
*****
$cd /mnt/floppy
wget http://www.daniel-hertrich.de/bootdisks/dos62_d1.img
Connecting to www.daniel-hertrich.de:80... connected!
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 1,474,560 [text/plain]
dos62_d1.img: Read-only file system

Cannot write to `dos62_d1.img' (Read-only file system).

I DO have the little tab thingey closed... is this the worst day of my life?

this won´t work.the image needs to be written in raw mode.

download to a directory on the harddisk, then write the image to the disk with:

dd if=dos62_d1.img of=/dev/fd0

without mounting the floppy before!