There are several ways and problems to solve with this. 1. Erased LILO - Boot from CD - choose upgrade, proceed until after the part about partition, right after this hit Alt-F3 to get shell prompt. Enter - /mnt/sbin/lilo -r /mnt should see "adding Linux" reboot the computer 2. If not able to reinstall - At boot prompt enter - linux rescue enter - mount /dev/hdaX /mnt you'll be in root dir - enter /sbin/lilo it will overwrite the MBR enter contrl-D and reboot 3. Only get the L or LI - boot with a linux disk enter - /sbin/lilo -v -v check the error messages with the LILO Readme file - /usr/share/doc/lilo-version-#/README might be able to add linear or lba32 or compact in options of /etc/lilo/conf 4. Windows overwrites LILO or MBR - restart computer with bootable disk run LILOCONFIG from floppy drive If LILO was installed in superblock use FDISK command to activate the Linux partition. 5. Clear LILO from MBR enter - fdisk /mbr 6. LILO -- boot=/dev/hda map=/boot/map install=/boot/boot.b prompt timeout=100 other = /dev/hda1 label = dos table = /dev/hda image=linux or /boot/vmlinuz-2.2.30-2.9 ( your version of linux) root=/dev/hda3 read-only If you can get to reboot the computer into Linux, just go through the LILO configuration procedure to reload the LILO. Always carry a linux boot disk. I never leave home without one. Once you are in Linux you can fix most anything. Also, check the Linux version knowledgebase for your flavor and the linuxquestions.org and linuxdocumentationproject site. These have many problem and instruction sheets for download - clean them up and put them on a floppy or CD for emergencies. I also have a large notebook with these printed out. Thanks, Tim Sinks ----- Original Message ----- From: "Joel Dick" <joel_cd at yahoo.com> To: <tclug-list at mn-linux.org> Sent: Thursday, March 04, 2004 10:51 AM Subject: [TCLUG] Boot Issue on a laptop using LILO > Hey all, > > Ran into a problem today, wondering if anyone knows a solution. One of the > guys at work has a laptop that had linux loaded on it a few years ago > (using lilo, set to default boot to windows). Yesterday, he turned his > computer on, it booted up to a blank screen, so he brought it in today, I > tried booting it up, and the farthest I get is that it gets past the bios > screen, goes to LILO, but all you see of the LILO prompt is "LI" and then > it's just stuck. I'm thinking the MBR might have gotten corrupted. Does > anyone know of a way to fix this problem? I'm assuming I need to boot up > with a floppy, but have no idea on a good utility to use/etc. > > Any help would be greatly appreciated. > > Thanks, > Joel > > __________________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > Yahoo! Search - Find what you're looking for faster > http://search.yahoo.com > > _______________________________________________ > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > http://www.mn-linux.org tclug-list at mn-linux.org > https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota http://www.mn-linux.org tclug-list at mn-linux.org https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list