More installation and boot problems

[bigjohn]

Hi,

As far as I can tell, I've installed gentoo, but I can't make it boot.

I normally have my hard disc set up as windowsXP/mandrake9.1/swap/and I now have gentoo here.

I have tried to change it so I have a /boot partition and a / partition, but I haven't managed to work out how to do this.

Previously, I had knoppix/debian installed where the gentoo is (/dev/hda4).

I normally use lilo to multi boot, and so I don't want multiple installs of lilo, so I have followed the instructions from the install guide and told "it" that I want to make hda4 both /boot and root, with hda3 being swap.

At the end of the install routine, I have ignored installing a boot loader and opted to make a boot floppy.

If I try and boot the gentoo install from the floppy, it starts loading but then hits me with an "invalid compressed format (ERR1)" error and halts the system.

I have also tried modifying the /etc/lilo.conf in the mandrake install but it didn't like the mod (basically what is mentioned in the install guide) so I've had to cancel the mod to the lilo.conf with #'s (is this what is called "commenting out"???).

Now I can only see the gentoo install if I use the partition magic file browser (in windows), I can't open/check either /dev/hda4 or /dev/fd0 using konqueror in mandrake.

Could someone tell me how to get this booting, either from the hard disc via lilo or from the floppy please.

I'm not new to linux, having used SuSE and Mandrake for 2 years, but I'm now wondering if being a "gui drone" has done me any favours Hence advice in "monkey see, monkey do" form would be very helpful, if possible

Thanks in advance

regards

John
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[slais-sysweb]

[cyrillic]

[bigjohn]

Well slais-sysweb and cyrillic,

It's a bit of a saga. My hard drive was originally hda1(c drive for windows xp), hda2 swap, hda3 mandrake and hda4 knopppix debian.

I tried to install slack 9.1 instead of the knoppix. I managed to balls up the install, and then mandrake wouldn't boot, because of the balls'd up slackware.

so I tried to just blank out the slack/knoppix mistakes. the mandrake still wouldn't boot. So being an impatient idiot, I went straight for a re-install of mandrake, so I would at least have a linux install.

Since then, I've downloaded and burned the gentoo disc's and "tried" to install it.

the only difference being that my hard drive is now hda1 windowsxp, hda2 mandrake, hda3 swap and hda4 gentoo.

As far as I can tell, the gentoo has installed on the hda 4 partition. And because I have always had a lilo version installed from mandrake (sorry, I know absolutely nothing about grub), I figured that if I can get the gentoo installed, then I should be able to make a boot floppy, until I can work out how the hell I get it to boot from the hard disc.

I tried to change my hard drive partitions so it reflects the default set up, just with different id's i.e. as I already have hda1, 2, 3 and 4, (all primary partitions) I tried to change things using partition magic so I had 1, 2 and 3 as primary partitions, then change things so hda4 was extended and then create hda5 and 6 which would have been logical for root and boot(which I think may have been the correct way to do it), but I couldn't work out how to make partition magic accomplish this (and as with grub, I know zero about fdisk so I couldn't try to do it that way).

for these reasons (lame though they may be), I have managed to install the gentoo, to the hda4. I just can't get it to boot.

I have tried modifying my lilo.conf like this

boot=/dev/hda
map=/boot/map
vga=normal
default="windowsXP"
keytable=/boot/uk.klt
prompt
nowarn
timeout=100
message=/boot/message
menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="Mandrake"
root=/dev/hda2
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="quiet devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi acpi=off"
vga=788
read-only
#image=/boot/kernel-2.4.20-gentoo-r6
# label="Gentoo"
# root=/dev/hda4
# initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.20-gentoo-r6
# append="devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi"
# read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="linux-nonfb"
root=/dev/hda2
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi acpi=off"
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="failsafe"
root=/dev/hda2
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="failsafe devfs=nomount hdc=ide-scsi acpi=off"
read-only
other=/dev/hda1
label="windowsXP"
table=/dev/hda
other=/dev/fd0
label="floppy"
unsafe

but as you can see, I have had to comment out the gentoo reference, because when I tried to run "lilo -v" I just got

Boot image: /boot/kernel-2.4.20-gentoo-r6
Fatal: open /boot/kernel-2.4.20-gentoo-r6: No such file or directory

so it won't boot from lilo at the moment.

I am unable to tell if the kernel is too large for a floppy, because I can't check it with konqueror, and when I try "#mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy" I just get an error saying about having to quote a file system. I also found "mount -a" in the man page, but that just drops me back into a # prompt and I don't know what to do from there.

I have, in fact, done a stage 3 re-install, but can't do anything with it. It seems to be there, as I can see the files by using the Partition Magic file browser (though that's all I can do with it - the PM8 is installed within windows and we all know what windows thinks of linux ).

This is where I'm stuck.

Hopefully, this post is a little clearer.

regards

John
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rute users handbook
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[Halanegri]

I reccommend you learn to use grub. I knew nothing about it till I learned from the installation instructions. At least try.

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook.xml?part=1&chap=9#doc_chap2

[bigjohn]

Thank you for your suggestion Halanegri,

I read the install instructions, and changed my boot loader over to grub in mandrake, had a look at the grub.conf and checked out how mandrake see's it (i.e. for modification and so on), and using it via mandrake would make little difference - but trying to follow the different naming conventions used by grub i.e. hd0,0 and so on, is confusing me further.

I'm going to change back to lilo, because to my way of thinking it seems to be more straight forward, not that I understand it particularly, but until I'm comfortable with gentoo (if I can get the bugger booting), then I'd prefer to stick with lilo (this could also be more to do with familiarity).

Again, thanks for your suggestion.

regards

John
_________________
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rute users handbook
Take care with "emerge -U"

[cyrillic]

In order for Mandrake's LILO to find your Gentoo kernel, you will need to mount your Gentoo partition (/dev/hda4) somewhere that Mandrake can see it. Then provide LILO with the correct path to your kernel and initrd.

Do this from Mandrake :

[bigjohn]

Boot image: /mnt/gentoo/boot/kernel-2.40.20-gentoo-r6
Fatal: open /mnt/gentoo/boot/kernel-2.40.20-gentoo-r6: No such file or directory
[root@localhost root]#

I am definitely getting closer. Because although lilo still doesn't like info above, I can now view the files by looking at /mnt/gentoo.

I have made sure that there is a copy of both the kernel and the initrd (well, as far as I can tell) in the /mnt/gentoo/boot - So I'm still not sure why it can't boot it.

I don't have any mention of /dev/hda4 in the /etc/fstab which currently looks like this

/dev/hda2 / ext3 defaults 1 1
none /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0
none /mnt/cdrom supermount dev=/dev/hdb,fs=auto,ro,--,iocharset=iso8859-15,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0
none /mnt/cdrom2 supermount dev=/dev/scd0,fs=auto,ro,--,iocharset=iso8859-15,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0
none /mnt/floppy supermount dev=/dev/fd0,fs=auto,--,iocharset=iso8859-15,sync,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0
/dev/hda1 /mnt/windows ntfs iocharset=iso8859-15,ro,umask=0 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hda3 swap swap defaults 0 0


So should there be something in the /etc/fstab ? ( tried to put the basic /dev/hda4/ ext3 defaults 1 2 but it just errored and said something about no final newline - and I haven't a clue what that is).

Thanks for the continued support - and any further suggestions are appreciated more than you could ever believe.

regards

John

p.s. Short of pouring it over my keyboard, there's no way I can buy you a drink cyrillic, so I'll just have to drink one for you.
_________________
How to read manpages
rute users handbook
Take care with "emerge -U"

[cyrillic]