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Legacy Forums => General Discussion (Legacy) => Topic started by: Dean on March 14, 2001, 07:20:31 PM
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Hi,
Having installed and configured 4.1.1, I've got this weird problem - the machine stops half-way through the boot and the cursor just blinks after typing LI_ and fails to go any further.
If I boot from the floppy, the machine goes through LILO without a hitch and runs like a charm.
Any idea what might be causing this?
I mean, if I had a hardware problem, the machine wouldn't stop in the middle of a word, right?
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Thisis a fairly common problem, and in fact, LILO will stop part way through the display of the four letters when it has a problem (see the LILO man pages for more information). Generally, LI means that LILO has a problem with your disk geometry. You need to add the "linear" option in lilo.conf. Search on this and the Advanced forums for LILO and you'll get more background.
Des Dougan
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Des Dougan wrote:
>
> Thisis a fairly common problem, and in fact, LILO will stop
> part way through the display of the four letters when it has
> a problem (see the LILO man pages for more information).
> Generally, LI means that LILO has a problem with your disk
> geometry. You need to add the "linear" option in lilo.conf.
> Search on this and the Advanced forums for LILO and you'll
> get more background.
Version 4.1.1 has the "linear" option. Trying without the "linear" option would be a good idea. Another would be "lba32". Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all solution :-(
Charlie
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Charlie, Des
Thanks for replying to my post, I'll follow up on this as advised.
I should have probably given more detail on my hardware setup - it's a Digital Prioris LX590 upgraded to 233MMX with a Powerleap adapter.
The HDD is a 2.2G Quantum Fast SCSI-2 (narrow) that has a SCA connector connected to on-board Adaptec 78xx AIC via a SCA to 50pin adapter.
I've had a lot of trouble getting its propriatory BIOS configured, and at first, the hard drive was VERY slow - 4.1.1 took more than an hour to install. But it loaded without a problem !
I can't remember changing any BIOS settings, but I "wiped" the disk prior to installing 4.1.1 and let e-smith do all the partitioning and formatting.
All IDE-related stuff is disabled in BIOS and in SCU, but i'll double check.
Perhaps, I should Fdisk and format the drive first (in DOS), then run E-smith installation?
My problem is that I am without a clue on Linux commands - what should I type at the command prompt to find, open and edit the file, in order to disable the "linear" function in it?
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Dean wrote:
> I've had a lot of trouble getting its propriatory BIOS
> configured,
This is a BIOS issue...
> and at first, the hard drive was VERY slow -
> 4.1.1 took more than an hour to install.
Not good.
> Perhaps, I should Fdisk and format the drive first (in DOS),
> then run E-smith installation?
No.
> My problem is that I am without a clue on Linux commands -
> what should I type at the command prompt to find, open and
> edit the file, in order to disable the "linear"
> function in it?
pico /etc/lilo.conf
To run the lilo command after making the change, type
/sbin/lilo -v
Then fingers crossed, reboot.
Regards
Charlie
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Charlie, I followed your instructions and was able to pico-edit .
Des - you were spot-on about the command. As soon as I added it right under the dev/sda (first) line, LILO was able to boot into Linux.
Thanks for the help, guys!
Dean