Re: PROBLEMS WITH RUNNING LINUX ON SECOND MASTER HARD DRIVE AND

[Khimenko Victor]

In <[e-mail]> Cesar G. Dubois Carranza ([e-mail]) wrote:

It's not realy appropriate list for such discussion, but since I'm not know
where to send your with such newbie's questions...

> Hello everyone!!!

> Sorry about asking but to be honest I don't know how to solve this. I have
> windows 98 running alright on my first master IDE hard drive. I also
> installled linux on another IDE hard drive, but now I want to have it as
> second master hard drive.

No problem - just modify your lilo.conf (if you are using LiLo)/config.menu
(if you are using GRUB) and /etc/fstab.

> I am trying to run windows 98, and optional from a menu at startup, I
> would like to run Linux (I have Red-Hat version 6.0).

Hmm. Are you sure you want it in Windows98's menu ? It's easy to add Windows98
in LiLo or GRUB but not so easy to add Linux in Windows98 menu.

> I have followed all the directions shown in how-to's and mini-how-to's
> regarding multiple operative systems running on the same computer, but so
> far I have been unsuccesful.

> I am able to boot windows 98 and linux, but when booting linux I get the
> following error (if I boot linux as a first master hard disk, I get no
> error, but if I boot linux from windows 98 as a second master hard disk
> I do get the error):

> *******

> Checking root filesystems
> Parallelizing fsck version 1.12 (9-Jul--98)
> [/sbin/fsck.ext2] fsck.ext2 -a /dev/hda1
> fsck.ext2: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/hda1
> /dev/hda1:
> The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2
> filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2
> filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), the superblock is
> corrupt, and might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock e2fsck
> -b 8193 <device>

> *********
> I have modified lilo.com, and it looks something like this:

> boot=/dev/hdc
> map=/boot//map
> install=/boot/boot.b
> prompt
> timeout=50
> #linux stanza
> delay=100
> root=current
> image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.0.36-0.7
> label=linux
> root=/dev/hdc1
> read-only
> #end linux stanza
> #windows 98 stanza
> other=/dev/hda1
> table=/dev/hda
> label=win98
> #end windows 98 stanza
> *******

> When trying to run lilo to compile it, I get the following error:

> warning:/dev/hdc is not on the first disk
> Added linux *
> first sector on /dev/hda1 doesn't have a valid boot signature

> Any ideas are very welcome. I appreciate your help. Thank you.

boot=/dev/hdc is useless - it's on second harddisk and BIOS will not use
second harddisk while booting. Other then this your lilo.conf is Ok. But
you can not use THIS lilo.conf while your Linux disk is primary master !
And when it's secondary master you can not boot Linux at all. You can use
loadlin to handle problem (loadlin.exe is on RedHat's CD in dosutils
subdirectory). Just start it like
-- cut --
loadlin vmlinuz root=/dev/hdc1
-- cut --
from Windows98's MS-DOS mode (of course vmlinuz mentioned there should be
copy of your /boot/vmlinuz-2.0.36-0.7). Perhaps Linux will barf again about
"Bad magic number ...". In such case use
-- cut --
loadlin vmlinuz rw root=/dev/hdc1 -b
-- cut --
It'll put linux in "emergency mode". When you'll see
-- cut --
Give root password for maintenance
(or type Control-D for normal startup):
-- cut --
and then type command
-- cut --
[root@(none) /root]# mount -o remount /
-- cut --
Now you can edit /etc/lilo.conf and /etc/fstab. When done, just press Ctrl-D
(as usual). Fsck will compain again (this time about filesystem, mounted R/W)
but on next boot you should be able to boot linux from LiLo and fsck finally
should be satisfied.