Re: boot loader problem
On Fri, 22 Nov 2002, Seneca wrote:
> 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
> > 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
Thanks for writing. The documentation for Debian 2.2 actually does say
there's an "mbr" boot loader, although I'd never heard of it until I got
Debian.
Anyway, the problem I'm having is that neither pressing enter nor pressing
any of the other listed keys results in the system booting. This prompt
is a leftover from when I had Debian (sort of) installed, apparently.
> > 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.
Right now that line from lilo.conf says boot=/dev/hda. Maybe that's the
problem, since hda isn't the name of a partition? Should it say
boot=/dev/hda5, my root partition for Linux?
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