Re: boot loader problem
On Fri, Nov 22, 2002 at 10:52:06AM -0500, Rebecca Riall & Jeff Melton wrote:
> Recently I tried to install Debian 2.2 on a system with Win98 (recently I
> had Red Hat 7.2 but got tired of some of the glitches). Never was able to
> get it successfully up and running, and decided to go with Mandrake 9.0
> for the time being. For now, Mandrake is there and Debian is gone.
>
> My problem is that ever since the Debian installation attempt, during
> which I installed the "mbr" boot loader, I have been unable to boot
mbr is _not_ a boot loader. It is a MBR (Master Boot Record) to replace
the non-free MS-DOS MBR. LILO is a boot loader.
> properly into Windows or my now successfully installed Mandrake OS without
> using the Win98 CD. If I don't do this, I get a prompt that says
> "MBR1234FA:" or more recently "MBR1FA:" and the computer stalls at that
> point.
Your computer stalls because it is waiting for your input. An exerpt
from /usr/share/doc/mbr/README:
4.1 The boot prompt
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The boot prompt looks something like this:
14FA:
This is the list of valid keys which may be pressed. This means that
partitions 1, and 4 can be booted, also the first floppy drive
(F). The A means that 'advanced' mode may be entered, in which any
partition may be booted. The prompt for this mode looks like this:
1234F:
The only other valid key which may be pressed is RETURN, which
continues booting with the default partition
> Something seems to be stuck in my boot sector from the Debian
> install attempt that won't go away. I tried various things to fix the
> situation, including using fdisk/mbr from DOS to install the default
> Windows boot record. Nothing has worked so far. I tried re-installing
> Debian in hopes of changing the boot loader, but it seemed to want to
> install on top of my Mandrake partitions and didn't give me the option of
> installing it elsewhere. Am I stuck with starting boots from the CD
> forever, or is there a solution?
Back in January, the MBR prompt kept coming up every time I booted the
system (logical partitions can be fun to boot from) and I got rid of it
by changing one line of my lilo.conf (I think it was the "boot=" line),
then rerunning LILO. Even if the prompt never stops coming up, you don't
need to use the CD. Instead, enter in the partition that you want to
boot from. There is also an article about clearing out the MBR in issue
63 of the Linux Gazette.
> P.S. I'm not quite a newbie, but close (have been using Linux for about a
> year), so please keep it simple!
About a year? I started with Linux (Debian is my first, and currently
only, distro) on December 2 last year.
--
Seneca
seneca-cunningham@rogers.com
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