Re: 2.1.125 and lilo
I'll take a wild guess at this, although I've never seen the error message
before, so be warned...
On Mon, 21 Dec 1998, Marten Berggren - LUB NetLab wrote:
> I have been trying to install kernel 2.1.125 straight from the source into
> my Debian 2.0-based system. Everything went fine when I first installed it
> (I am typing this from that new kernel), but when I tried to install a
> version with somewhat tuned settings, lilo refuses to cooperate:
>
> > lilo
> Device 0x0800: Invalid partition table, 2nd entry
> 3D address: 1/0/128 (2056320)
> Linear address: 2/81/16 (262144)
>
> If would be very grateful if someone could tell me:
>
> 1) What this error means? Seems like a mis-alignment between two systems?
> I recognize the second series from cfdisk (see below) but not the first
> one.
My guess is that you kernel is above the cyl, sector, or whatever limit
that lilo has.
> 2) How do I correct it? Can I use cfdisk to rewrite the partitiontable while
> running from the disk? Besides, cfdisk does not seem to detect any errors?
> (See below.)
Ack, um, one suggestion, don't try it. Writing partition tables is a bad
thing on a running system, especially if you are using that drive, or
expecting to keep the data on it. I believe lilo points it's loader to
the kernel on your harddrive. In fact, I've seen someone "rm -rf /" and
then reboot to find that lilo still worked and the kernel started fine
('course, nothing else worked). You may want to start copying and
removing old copies of files to see if you can get your kernel below the
limit. My personal solution is to make a small partition (10 megs is
plenty) at the front of the drive, and mount it as /boot. (A small /
partition is nice, but not needed for getting your kernel to the right
spot on the drive.) You may do this yourself by shrinking your swap a
little adding another partition, fix up mount points in /etc/fstab, and
rerunning mkswap from a rescue floppy.
> 3) Why did it happen? Are there any other utility that touches the partition
> table besides cfdisk? (lilo, for instance?) If the partition table has not
> change but rather lilo:s view of it (through the 2.1.125 kernel), is it
> possible to create a partition table that works both for 2.0 and 2.1?
Woops, already answered that, at least if my guess is correct.
Good luck,
Brandon
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