trouble with lilosetup

[mimosa]

I'll go upstairs in a minute and try it out.

In answer to my own earlier question, running lilosetup from the USB key doesn't seem to work, though maybe that is because of the mess I have made down here. I've just spent a good while trying to boot into the (as far as I know) undamaged Arch installation, without success. From the USB's grub, I pressed e and edited to what look like sensible values, taken from Arch's /etc/default/grub:

root (hd0,6)
kernel /vmlinuz26 /root=/dev/sda6 ro
initrd /kernel26.img

but when I tried to boot using CTRL-x, grub rejected this and put me back in edit mode. Arch is on sda6 with separate /boot on sda7

Once I get inside it, my plan is to do grub-install, in the hope I can get everything back!

I'd be most grateful for any quick pointers - it is all getting rather frustrating

[mimosa]

That looks as though it is working, though I haven't actually run it to its conclusion, in case I end up with two unbootable machines

Unlike the old version (which I had to remove to install this x.7), it doesn't appear to be in my $PATH, though it doesn't matter because there is no need to run it from the console:

Code: Select all

root[tim]# lilosetup
bash: lilosetup: command not found
root[tim]# whereis lilosetup
lilosetup: /usr/sbin/lilosetup.py /etc/lilosetup.conf /etc/lilosetup.old /usr/share/lilosetup
root[tim]# /usr/share/lilosetup
bash: /usr/share/lilosetup: is a directory
root[tim]# /usr/sbin/lilosetup.py

which executed the program.

[Akuna]

Actually lilosetup.py is the correct command.

So you are saying that it doesn't freeze anymore. So the new bug you found is fixed. Tx for your helpful report.

About working out from a usb live key, I never tried it, but I don't see why it wouldn't work.

[mimosa]

Actually lilosetup.py is the correct command.

... as I should have remembered from my initial post!

So you are saying that it doesn't freeze anymore. So the new bug you found is fixed.

Normally I would test it to see if it actually works in every respect but this time I didn't care to chance it.

About working out from a usb live key, I never tried it, but I don't see why it wouldn't work.

It isn't working (probably because my partitions are unsalvageable) but under normal circumstances, this would clearly be a useful feature (for rescue purposes). It strikes me this would be worth checking on an uncompromised system (I am down to one, so don't care to risk it just now ) It would perhaps be natural for the software to "think" you were trying to install Lilo on the partition it is being run from, even if in fact you specify a different one, given that the former is (I assume) the normal scenario under which it was developed and tested.

[Akuna]

LiloSetup has initially been designed to install LILO from a LiveCD, in other words necessarily to another partition. Then it was adapted to be run from a non-live environment. LiloSetup usually installs LILO on the MBR of the hard drive holding the partition of the first Linux distro in LILO boot menu list (and in fact LILO is executed from that chrooted partition if it is not the same one that LiloSetup is executed from).
I still need to finetune which MBR to use in the case of a few hard drives as sometimes it picks up the one that doesn't boot first. In that case it is necessary to manually edit lilosetup.conf. But it is quite a rare scenario.
In other words, yes, LiloSetup is very much adapted to rescue operations and does work from any Live media.

[mimosa]

I'm sorry to report I'm having trouble with Lilo again:

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root[tim]# slapt-get -l | grep lilosetup
lilosetup-0.2.6-noarch-1plb [inst=yes]: LiloSetup (GUI utility to setup LILO)
root[tim]# which lilosetup
which: no lilosetup in (/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin)
root[tim]# /usr/sbin/lilosetup.py 
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/sbin/lilosetup.py", line 953, in <module>
    LiloSetup()
  File "/usr/sbin/lilosetup.py", line 434, in __init__
    setup_partition_list()
  File "/usr/sbin/lilosetup.py", line 386, in setup_partition_list
    operating_system = line.split(':')[1].split()[0]
IndexError: list index out of range
root[tim]# 

I reinstalled it to make sure it was the latest version ...

I'm trying to use it because the installer didn't manage to put Lilo on my external HD (I did slapt-get -u ; --update first), and I've had no luck with liloconfig or grubconfig either, from the USB Salix Live or (now) in my main hard-disk based Salix installation. This is a problem analogous to the one I mentioned earlier in this thread - there seems to be no way to install a bootloader on a drive other than the one currently in use, which creates something of a bootstrap problem. I'll try grub rescue disk or whatever it's called. But is this a bug or is it what I'm trying to do, or possibly a hardware problem with the external drive? It's an ancient one recuperated from a dead computer, which I wiped with gparted in preparation for the Salix install.

[Akuna]

It seems you reverted to the older version. The fixed version is 0.2.7.test1.
Here is the link again:
http://people.salixos.org/akuna/testing ... h-1plb.txz

I'll put it on the repo as soon as I can, I was away for a few days

[mimosa]

Thanks for the link.

Ah, fool that I was, I made a point of being a good boy and updating first I'll be interested to see if it now works - I spent a good few hours this afternoon relearning Grub legacy, to no effect. The drive is quite ancient and possibly defective, though this evening I managed to use it for data transport without apparent problems, and have just installed Salix afresh on my office machine (where I now am). I was tempted to give 13.2 alpha a spin, but since I have quite a lot on this week coming, it was probably just as well that I had trouble with the download, and ended up with vanilla/Brazil.

Off topic, I am particularly anxious to hear any comments you may have on my draft for the new Guide, which was really stimulated by your blog post on F/OSS. I don't know the first thing about it of course, except that that inexperience in itself gives me the perspective of the "green" user - and there do have to be new recruits.

[Akuna]

Alas, I have been away & couldn't give it the attention it deserves. Will get to it as soon as I can

[mimosa]

That made it work, of course; but I then realised it isn't possible to do what I had hoped, which was put Lilo on the external disk, not put an entry for it on the existing list. This is probably impossible (maybe if one physically unplugged the main drive?), which would explain why I didn't get anywhere with other installers either. No matter, because I don't really need an OS on the drive at all; I just thought it would be kind of cool. To use Linux out and about, there is the USB key.