Grub/Lilo won't display on startup.

[guitarlp]

Ok, I finally got Mandrake installed on my computer but it's not allowing me to choose my OS at Startup. It automatically loads windows XP.

I tried both Lilo and Grub and neither have worked. My Windows XP is mounted on the C drive (RAID 0... SDA1). My Linux is mounted on my D drive in a partion (SDA5).

I set the bootloader to be installed on SDA (MBR)... but nothing is showing at Startup. Am I doing something wrong? Thanks in advance for taking the time to help me out with this.

[guitarlp]

Edit to the above post... SDA should really be HDA

My C drive of Windows is on /dev/HDA1

Linux is on /dev/HDA5

I installed the MBR boot record and Mandrake then installed the final boot record (or whatever it's called) on /dev/hda

Not sure what /dev/hda is (must be the begining of the disk). I don't have a partion for it and maybe that's the problem. Shouldn't Lilo or Grub be installed on /dev/HDA1 (windows partion)? Mandrake didn't give me that as an option. I had:

/dev/hda
/dev/hda5
/dev/hda7 <-- FAT32 partion for shareing between windows/linux
/dev/ftd <-- I think that's what it was... dunno though.

[hkwint]

Well, I don't know the cause of this problem, and LILO or GRUB should be able to fix it, but I know another solution which is quite simple and solves it.
It only requires a DOS-boot disk, but that shouldn't be the problem...

So, download a DOS-boot disk.
(www.bootdisk.com is fine I believe)

Make the DOS-boot disk (never done it on linux, but shouldn't be difficult. I think you can simply use dd, but don't blame me if it's more difficult)

Put a file called bootinst.exe also on the disk. You can find it through google.com, and it is at FreeBSD's site available as a tool. Maybe there's some help over there how too use it too. FreeBSD is rather like Linux, so things should be quite the same, I suppose.
Note: it also requires a file called boot.bin I remember. Without this, it doesn't work...

Then, tell your bios it should boot from floppy.

After that, DOS should boot.

type bootinst.exe (I think), which should run the program.
Click enter a few times.

If you're lucky, it will make a nice very simple and small startup menu for you.

If you boot now, this comes first (before LILO), here one can choose to boot Win or Linux.
If you choose linux, than you get LILO.
Note: You still need lilo after this. Don't know why, but believe me!

Well, after that, it works very fine (for me), it is about the only thing which allowed me to double-boot OpenBSD and Win, and now XP and Gentoo.

Good luck!

[guitarlp]

Thank you for taking your time to help me out with this one.

I'm actually only able to boot into Windows right now... I can't get into Linux even though it's on the HD.

I created the boot disk and placed bootinst.exe on the disk, rebooted, and DOS started. I typed bootinst.exe and it started the program you mentioned. It looked like it was working fine but at the end of all the text it displayed on the screen it gave this error "boot.ini no such file or directory exists" (I think it was boot.ini... not sure on the extension though).

Is this because I'm loading from Windows and boot.ini is something linux creates to boot from?

[hkwint]

You're right (about the boot file missing, it hasn't to do with windows or linux, just with bootinst.exe)
I mentioned you should include the file boot.bin ON the diskette, but I think you forgot it. So, you have still to put it there.

You can download this file from

http://ftp6.us.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/tools/

it is then called boot.bin (you mentioned boot.ini, but I hope you meant boot.bin, I got the same problem a few times). If you put it along with bootinst.exe on the diskette, it worked for me.

So, keep on trying, and let me know if this still won't work.

[guitarlp]

My mistake... I must be getting too excited to get this going :)

That now worked and I installed boot.bin.

Now when I restart I'm prompted with the following:

F1 . . . Hpfs
F5 . . . Disk2

Default: F1

If I don't touch anything I automatically start into Windows. If I hit F5 (for linux I'm guessing), then the following keeps getting posted to the screen about every 5 seconds:

Default: F5
F1 . . . Hpfs
F5 . . . Disk2

Default: F5
F1 . . . Hpfs
F2 . . . ???
F5 . . . Disk1

I'm not sure if this makes a difference... but the last time I installed Mandrake I used Grub... not Lilo. Should I try lilo instead?

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by guitarlp
Shouldn't Lilo or Grub be installed on /dev/HDA1 (windows partion)? Mandrake didn't give me that as an option. I had:

/dev/hda
/dev/hda5
/dev/hda7 <-- FAT32 partion for shareing between windows/linux
/dev/ftd <-- I think that's what it was... dunno though.

Never install the Linux bootloader in the Windows partition or you will render Windows unbootable.

Either install the Linux bootloader in hda (the mbr) or the Linux boot or root partition (you would then need to make that partition active or use another bootloader altogether that is installed in the mbr.

If you can boot Linux with a bootdisk or installation cd in rescue mode, either modify the Lilo config (/etc/lilo.conf) or the Grub config (/boot/grub/menu.lst) to ensure the bootloader will be installed in the mbr and then run (as root)

grub-install /dev/hda (for Grub)

or

/sbin/lilo (for Lilo)

to write the bootloader to the mbr.

Post the contents of either bootloader if you require assistance with the configuration or search the JL forums to find examples.

[hkwint]

I recognize your "menu problems", I know these menus are a bit hard to try and sometimes they give errors. The biggest problem is the lack of help from bootinst.exe. You might ask why I adviced this program if I know sometimes it's hard to use, but that's because IF it works, it's the most simple program there's in use. So, I'll give a suggestion to (I hope) get linux started, and a suggestion for a different bootloader this time.

bootinst.exe:
First a remark: the program always uses the possibility last chosen as default. That means, if you booted win last, with F1, the next time the boot-selector runs, F1 is the default, but if F5 last time was succesfull, that is going to be the default.
You once get these menus you said:

>Default: F5
>F1 . . . Hpfs
>F5 . . . Disk2
>
>Default: F5
>F1 . . . Hpfs
>F2 . . . ???
>F5 . . . Disk1

Did you try EVERY possible combination? (In the second menu) In my case linux is always the ??? thing (F2 at your menu?). You should at least have tried it once. F5 obvisiously returns to the first menu, so isn't of any use, and I think F1 isn't the solution neither, but you could try it.

Still doesn't work? Well forget about the last program, because it didn't work in your case, so I suggest another one which also once worked fine for me...

The program is called MasterBooter, you have to do something more in order to install it nicely, but once done, there's a nice menu to choose from, much less fuzzy than the other bootloader, and most important, there's a help file I remember, which gives you instructions.
You can get it at:

http://www.downlinx.com/proghtml/36/3670.htm

I checked it (which files it include I mean), and it includes a link to their website, a long explanation file whith examples (MRBOOTER.TXT) and a faq (FAQ.TXT).

Read al the help files (mentioned), and try it, I suggest.
Hope this final works.

Although things doesn't go smoothly, keep trying! Because one day it's gonna work!