lilo questions

[nda]

Hi,

I was so impressed with Salix when I installed it on my very old Toshiba laptop that I decided to put it on my T30 Thinkpad, which is almost as old . This installation works well but I do have a couple of problems.

The first problem is the boot procedure. After the boot screen 'Loading Linux' displays for 55 seconds whilst drawing the dots across the screen until the message 'BIOS data check successful' is displayed. This should only take a second or two.

I have done some research, including reading man lilo.conf, and it seems that adding 'suppress-boot-time-BIOS-data' to /etc/lilo.conf would resolve this. However, I can't find any guidance on exactly where in lilo.conf it should go, and I'm unfamiliar with lilo. Should it go on line 6 that begins append= ?

I was also disappointed that lilo didn't pick up the existing Linux distribution, which was booted with Grub, on hda5. If I added instructions in the same format as the Salix bootable partition config to lilo.conf would that work? It would look like this:

Code: Select all

image = /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-11-generic
  root = /dev/hda5
  label = Linux2
  read-only

If my questions seem basic I apologise, but this is the first time I've used lilo and I don't want to mess up and leave myself with an unbootable machine and a lot of work sorting it out.

Nda

[lipk]

I usually kill the dots by adding a "compact" command, as I know it can be placed anywhere; in my lilo.conf it's after the "boot = /dev/sdx" line

[gapan]

If I added instructions in the same format as the Salix bootable partition config to lilo.conf would that work?

Yes, but you might need to add a line for an initrd if it's used by the other distribution.

[nda]

lipk,

I will try that. It's a lot less typing than 'suppress-boot-time-BIOS-data'!

gapan,

Yes there is an initrd so I shall include a line for that.

I'll try these tomorrow. Thank you both for your help.

Nda

[nda]

I tried these two suggestions and unfortunately neither worked. I tried 'compact' in three different places but to no effect, and running lilo always gave me the error message that 'image = /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-11-generic' didn't exist, which is silly because that is what the Mint 7 on hda5 uses.

Then I remembered Lilo Setup on the SalixLive CD and ran that. It correctly identified Linux on hda5 and Slackware on hda7. I gave the labels it asked for, Mint and Salix, and was told that a new Lilo had been successfully installed.

When I rebooted though, there was only one option listed on the boot screen and that was Mint; Salix wasn't even mentioned. I let it run and this time it took about two minutes to get to the BIOS data check message before booting up Mint normally.

I don't know whether this behaviour is a bug or just an incompatibility between Lilo and my hardware; neither do I know enough about Lilo to try to find out. Instead, I installed Grub to the MBR and now I can at least boot the machine normally.

Salix is still there on hda7 and when I have time I will have a go at getting Grub to boot it.

I assume that Lilo is used on Salix because that is the default on Slackware and you wish to keep the two fully compatible. However, I would like to suggest that you consider offering the user the choice between Lilo and Grub when installing Salix so that those more familiar with Grub can choose to use that. After all, Grub is the bootloader most frequently used on Linux distributions, so more people will be comfortable with that rather than Lilo.

Nda

[gapan]

I tried these two suggestions and unfortunately neither worked. I tried 'compact' in three different places but to no effect, and running lilo always gave me the error message that 'image = /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-11-generic' didn't exist, which is silly because that is what the Mint 7 on hda5 uses.

You need to provide the full path to the vmlinuz file, including the mountpoint. So, it should be something like:

Code: Select all

image = /mnt/mint-mountpoint/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-11-generic

Then I remembered Lilo Setup on the SalixLive CD and ran that. It correctly identified Linux on hda5 and Slackware on hda7. I gave the labels it asked for, Mint and Salix, and was told that a new Lilo had been successfully installed.

When I rebooted though, there was only one option listed on the boot screen and that was Mint; Salix wasn't even mentioned. I let it run and this time it took about two minutes to get to the BIOS data check message before booting up Mint normally.

What RC version of the live CD did you use? Maybe it had an old lilosetup, I remember it had some bugs in previous versions that have been fixed by now.

I don't know whether this behaviour is a bug or just an incompatibility between Lilo and my hardware; neither do I know enough about Lilo to try to find out. Instead, I installed Grub to the MBR and now I can at least boot the machine normally.

If you already have grub installed and you already know how to set it up, it might be easier to tweak that than installing lilo, especially if you're not familiar with lilo.

Another way to force lilo to use the "compact" mode, is to remove the line completely from lilo.conf and run lilo with:

Code: Select all

lilo -c -v

I assume that Lilo is used on Salix because that is the default on Slackware and you wish to keep the two fully compatible. However, I would like to suggest that you consider offering the user the choice between Lilo and Grub when installing Salix so that those more familiar with Grub can choose to use that. After all, Grub is the bootloader most frequently used on Linux distributions, so more people will be comfortable with that rather than Lilo.

As I wrote, if you already have grub installed, use it.

[Akuna]

Then I remembered Lilo Setup on the SalixLive CD and ran that. It correctly identified Linux on hda5 and Slackware on hda7. I gave the labels it asked for, Mint and Salix, and was told that a new Lilo had been successfully installed.

When I rebooted though, there was only one option listed on the boot screen and that was Mint; Salix wasn't even mentioned. I let it run and this time it took about two minutes to get to the BIOS data check message before booting up Mint normally.

Actually what I suspect is that the line for Salix was not entered properly. This is somewhat of a bug but a label is correctly entered only if you press Enter or move to another partition line. (I really need to find a solution for that). To understand what I mean, try clicking on the up or down arrow after selecting a label but before confirming it by pressing Enter or by going to another partition line.

If the label was entered correctly, then the proper entry for it would have been created in the configuration file which means Lilosetup would have worked with it included or else the whole of Lilosetup process would have failed. One or the other.

[nda]

gapan,

You need to provide the full path to the vmlinuz file, including the mountpoint

.
This is the kind of thing I was asking for in my original post.

What RC version of the live CD did you use?

I used Salix 13.0.2a to do the original installation. I used SalixLive 13.0-rc3 to do the Lilo Setup.

If you already have grub installed and you already know how to set it up, it might be easier to tweak that than installing lilo, especially if you're not familiar with lilo.

I agree with that now, but when I first installed Salix I had no way of knowing that Lilo was not going to recognise the original partition or to take so long to check the BIOS data. As I said above, when I have the time I will get Grub to boot Salix.

As I wrote, if you already have grub installed, use it.

I see you are not too excited by my idea. That's fine: it's your distribution and you make the choices. I was merely making a suggestion that I thought may be helpful.


Akuna,

What you have described matches what I did with Lilo Setup. I gave the label Mint to hda5, then moved to the next partition line to add the label Salix. I did not press Enter then, but moved straight to the 'Install Lilo' button at the bottom right.

If this causes a label not to be entered correctly then may I make another suggestion(!). Could you put a 'Confirm' button at the end of each partition line so that the final 'Install Lilo' button would not work until the necessary 'Confirm' buttons had been pressed? Or maybe a single button next to the 'Install' button that says 'Confirm Settings'?


Finally, I notice that the Salix Live Users's Guide on the rc3 does not contain any of the suggestions I sent to JRD after I had proof-read it for him.

If that is because you don't like them then that's fine . If, as I suspect, it's because JRD has forgotten or been too busy to change the guide then this is just a helpful reminder.

Nda

[gapan]

Finally, I notice that the Salix Live Users's Guide on the rc3 does not contain any of the suggestions I sent to JRD after I had proof-read it for him.

I think that is because your suggestions were made after RC3 was released. I think they will be there in the final version.

[Akuna]

Finally, I notice that the Salix Live Users's Guide on the rc3 does not contain any of the suggestions I sent to JRD after I had proof-read it for him.

I think that is because your suggestions were made after RC3 was released. I think they will be there in the final version.

Indeed

JRD did include your corrections & suggestion, & again thank you very much for taking the time to do this, it was very helpful.

Concerning your 'confirm' suggestion, I was actually thinking of resorting to something like that if I don't find a satisfactory way to make the hinted label stick.