Re: kernel upgrade options
on 28 Oct 99, Bryan K. Walton wrote...
>On Wed, 27 Oct 1999, Salman Ahmed wrote:
>
>> >>>>> "J" == John <joney@clara.net> writes:
>> J> Firstly, when I boot, I do not get an opportunity apply any
>> J> parameters - the reference to (I think) Peter Anwin and the boot
>> J> prompt do not appear - the word 'loading' and a fast moving line of
>> J> dots then right into the 'init' and up comes the log-in screen. (No
>> J> time to pick up my coffee mug). What have I omitted?
>>
>> I too have the same 'problem'. When I initially installed Debian a couple
>> of months ago, that was one of the first thing that I noticed. The Debian
>> boot process does not seem to give any opportunity to enter boot
>> parameters, the way that Redhat does by pausing at the LILO: prompt.
>
>As a newbie, I have had many problems -- still trying to get X Windows to
>correctly run :( -- but I found what (at least seems to me) to be a cool
>fix for this problem you mention above. I installed Red Hat 6.1 (doesn't
>take very long) and installed LILO on the Master Boot Record. Then, I
>installed Debian over it, formatting the drives and everything. BUT, when
>I came to the point in the installation where I told it to make linux
>bootable directly from hard disk, it gave me the following message: "The
>root filesystem is installed in a logical partition. LILO can't boot from
>there, so you must install LILO in one of the following extended
>partitions. Please select the partition to use:". At this point, I hit
>cancel and then go ahead and make my boot floppy and then reboot.
>Essentially, I have left the Master Boot Record alone. Then when I boot
>up, I have the opportunity to boot either into Windows or Linux.
>
>Bryan Walton
>
I am a newbie to computing and Debian, so I may not always explain
my problems well.When I decided to 'get involved' with computing
(at almost 70 and with no technical background), I had the problem
of trying to acquire some knowledge and experience in a field which
seems to develope daily. After some months with Windows, it became
necessary to decide either to give up or find something that works.
Linux seemed the answer, but which 'variety'? I elected to devote a
4.3 Gig drive, split it between RedHat, SuSE and Debian, and after
trying each select which suited or appealed to me most. I need only
a stand-alone machine so installations have presented no significant
difficulties. I have fully functional RedHat and SuSE installations, and
use both daily. Debian I started to feel would be beyond me - being
somewhat bloody-minded by nature, I thought no and vowed to get
friendly with the beast. When I started to accept the philosophy
behind Debian, it suddenly seemed that the other distributions, good
as they were tended to be moving towards the Gates man i.e. too
much was automated and commercialisation seemed to have started
to come round the corner. (maybe unfair, but I do feel that). With
Debian, I can (when I know how) decide exactly what I want and
that's what I am striving for now, plus I have a hobby which is far
more addictive than golf.
Having read this newsgroup for some time, its obvious that not only
am I not in the same class (knowledge-wise) as posters and advisors,
I'm not even in the same school. So tread softly and absorb is my
idea.
As I have three distributions and don't yet understand lilo, I decided
to boot each from a floppy for the time being. This has so far worked
well. My question was directed to the fact that after update I have a
far faster system, but no way I can see to rescue if booting in the
normal manner fails. I'm sure there is a way, but its beyond me at
this stage.
Your point now confuses me - I thought it was only possible to boot
from a primary partition. Is it in fact possible to boot from logical in
an extended partition? If it is then life will be much easier later on.
I've rambled on a bit - just trying to truthfully justify why I need to
keep asking for help.
Regards, John.
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