Re: No LILO Boot after Re-Install Windoze95
On Tue, Mar 30, 1999 at 09:51:23AM -0500, Jason Willoughby wrote:
> On Tue, 30 Mar 1999, Jeff Hill wrote:
>
> > After re-installing Windows95 on a dual-boot set-up, the machine
> > now boots directly to Windows. I tried booting to Debian from
> > floppy and then re-installing lilo, but that didn't help --
> > machine still goes directly to Windows. I think I need to mess
> > with the MBR, but not certain how to proceed.
>
> Make sure "boot=/dev/hda" (or your scsi drive, whatever) is in
> /etc/lilo.conf. I had this problem as well some time back. The original
> Debian install wrote the MBR correctly, but after that I always wrote to
> the boot record of /dev/hda4 (my root disk).
Using boot=/dev/hda is exactly why this problem occurs in the first place!
The standard DOS/Windows MBR code will boot the partition marked Active
(bootable, as linux fdisk calls it) in the partition table.
During Windows 95 install, it rewrites the MBR with the standard boot code,
and makes the Windows 95 partition active.
If you had LILO installed in the MBR (/dev/hda, as opposed to /dev/hdaN),
Windows 95 writes over the top of it. Now you need to get our your rescue
disk or Debian CD-ROM, boot that up with "rescue mount=/dev/hdaN" and
run lilo to restore it.
However, if you had LILO installed in /dev/hdaN, all you would have to do
is use Windows 95's FDISK.EXE to make your Linux partition active.
Similarly, if you decide to remove Linux, you just need to make your Windows
partition active, then delete the linux partition.
Obviously LILO needs to put this information up with flashing bells and
whistles, because this issue comes up on debian-user every 2-3 weeks.
Hamish
--
Hamish Moffatt VK3TYD hamish@debian.org, hamish@rising.com.au
Latest Debian packages at ftp://ftp.rising.com.au/pub/hamish. PGP#EFA6B9D5
CCs of replies from mailing lists are welcome. http://hamish.home.ml.org
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