[lug] Re: LILO stops at LI

[Ferdinand P. Schmid]

HI,
For a few weeks I had been fighting this issue of Lilo not wanting to come
up when called by the NT loader.  Here is what I found to fix this issue
with an explanation - sorry for posting my initial message with a reply
flag, my intent is to help others who may be running into the same issue.
I didn't find a lot of real helpful info on my deja.com and google.com
searches.

Problem description:
You followed the Win2000 or WinNT - Linux dual boot howto and created a 512
byte image of the Linux boot sector.  You then copied this image into the
root of the Windows drive (C drive) and modified boot.ini.
Upon start the NT loader presents you with your alternate OS option, you
pick Linux and then your system stalls with the LI prompt.  All you can do
is a hardware reset.

The problem may be - and this is listed on the net many times - a disk
geometry issue.  I found that the Linux utilities to check out disk
geometries don't work reliably.  This is especially true if there are IDE
and SCSI hard drives present in a system.

Solution:
Go to your hard drive manufacturer's web page and find out the disk
geometry (sectors, heads and cylinders).
Add the following info to the beginning of your /etc/lilo.conf file (on
some distros this file may be located in a different directory):

disk = /dev/hda
       bios = 0x80
       sectors = 63
       heads = 15
       cylinders = 13446

run lilo (just type lilo at the prompt)

done - this fixed my problem.

References:
http://www.linuxsa.org.au/mailing-list/1999-08/466.html

--
Ferdinand Schmid
Architectural Energy Corporation
http://www.archenergy.com
(303) 444-4149