RH9 x86 Setup issues - GRUB/LILO do not work

[drhg]

I am setting up redhat 9 in an intel environment with the following
hardware:

AMD Athlon 700 MHz
256 MB RAM
Western Digital HDD, 20 GB
Gforce 256 video
Mboard = Asus K7V

During my initial installation, I left GRUB as the default boot
loader. When installation completed and I tried to boot, it displayed
"GRUB" on the screen but did nothing- it just hung there. I ran
through installation again and chose LILO. Now when I try to boot, it
displays "02" over and over again (i.e. 02020202020202020202020202).
It keeps cranking out "02" until I power off the machine or hit the
reset switch. During both of these instances, it allowed me to boot
to redhat using the floppy. If that is my only option, then I can
continue to do that, but I was wondering if anyone has any idea why
neither boot loader will work. Could it be hardware compatability?
Something with the MBR? Prior to installing redhat on this machine,
it was running solaris 8, intel edition. I am not sure what solaris
does to the MBR, so i was wondering if that was part of the problem.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
d

[Jeff Howard]

Try reinstalling and this time create a /boot (about 54Meg) partition.
Make sure you make it bootable. Install lilo there instead of the MBR.


"drhg" <djupdike@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:5f019053.0309190958.b8fac97@posting.google.co m...

> I am setting up redhat 9 in an intel environment with the following
> hardware:
>
> AMD Athlon 700 MHz
> 256 MB RAM
> Western Digital HDD, 20 GB
> Gforce 256 video
> Mboard = Asus K7V
>
> During my initial installation, I left GRUB as the default boot
> loader. When installation completed and I tried to boot, it displayed
> "GRUB" on the screen but did nothing- it just hung there. I ran
> through installation again and chose LILO. Now when I try to boot, it
> displays "02" over and over again (i.e. 02020202020202020202020202).
> It keeps cranking out "02" until I power off the machine or hit the
> reset switch. During both of these instances, it allowed me to boot
> to redhat using the floppy. If that is my only option, then I can
> continue to do that, but I was wondering if anyone has any idea why
> neither boot loader will work. Could it be hardware compatability?
> Something with the MBR? Prior to installing redhat on this machine,
> it was running solaris 8, intel edition. I am not sure what solaris
> does to the MBR, so i was wondering if that was part of the problem.
>
> Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
> d

[Douglas Mayne]

On Fri, 19 Sep 2003 10:58:34 -0700, drhg wrote:

> I am setting up redhat 9 in an intel environment with the following
> hardware:
>
> AMD Athlon 700 MHz
> 256 MB RAM
> Western Digital HDD, 20 GB
> Gforce 256 video
> Mboard = Asus K7V
>
> During my initial installation, I left GRUB as the default boot
> loader. When installation completed and I tried to boot, it displayed
> "GRUB" on the screen but did nothing- it just hung there. I ran
> through installation again and chose LILO. Now when I try to boot, it
> displays "02" over and over again (i.e. 02020202020202020202020202).
> It keeps cranking out "02" until I power off the machine or hit the
> reset switch. During both of these instances, it allowed me to boot
> to redhat using the floppy. If that is my only option, then I can
> continue to do that, but I was wondering if anyone has any idea why
> neither boot loader will work. Could it be hardware compatability?
> Something with the MBR? Prior to installing redhat on this machine,
> it was running solaris 8, intel edition. I am not sure what solaris
> does to the MBR, so i was wondering if that was part of the problem.
>
> Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
> d
>

If you can boot your system with the floppy, then you can fix the loader
without reinstalling everything (as suggested).

I would use grub as the loader setup in the MBR.
Boot your system with the floppy.
Make sure the directory /boot exists and the kernel is there.
Make sure the file /boot/grub/menu.lst references the correct
files.
Run the grub shell:

grub> root (hd0,0)
grub> setup (hd0)
grub> quit

Watch for error messages. Note: you must provide the correct value for
root for your system. Also, "root" refers to the partition where grub is
located. If the setup step succeeds, then you should be able to start your
system without the floppy.

--Douglas Mayne