Linux bootloaders hanging on dual boot system

[Mannix]

Hi all....
I am not a newbie when it comes to computers....but when it come to linux, then yes, I am...And I need some help...and yes, I know this question (or something similar) has been asked many, many times before, and I've read through numerous FAQ's, and tried the solutions they offered (if they offered one :P), but none of them seemed to work, so I figured it was time for that 'human' touch...

NB: When I say lilo below, I mean either lilo or grub, it doesn't matter to me which one I use.

Just in case it comes in useful, here is my lilo.conf:

prompt
boot=/dev/hdb1
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
message=/boot/message
lba32

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.18-3
label=Linux
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.18-3.img
read-only
root=/dev/hdb2
append="hdc=ide-scsi"

I am running a P4 1.5GHz, with two HDD's...A 40GB Seagate (Primary master), and a 13GB IBM (Primary slave). I have a Windows 2000 (SP 3) installation occupying the whole of the 40GB, and I recently installed RH7.3 on the IBM drive. The RH install has a 50MB /boot, 11.somethingGB /, and a 1GB swap.
I want to use the windows boot loader (ntldr), to boot into 2000, and lilo (by copying the IBM's boot sector to a file on the 2000 partition...It can be done, and it's not hard - I am going to assume that most of you know what I mean by that). I will then use lilo to boot to linux.

Seeing as I want ntldr to stay put on the Seagate MBR, in the installations I choose to install the boot loader to /dev/hdb2 (The IBM drives second partition - the only other choice than the /dev/hda MBR). The install and everything goes ok, until the installation finishes, and I try to boot into linux to copy the boot sector (I change the first boot device in my BIOS to HDD-1, which will boot to the IBM 13GB - my linux drive). If at this point im using lilo, I get LI, and it hangs...If im using grub, I get grub printed to the screen...over and over again....then it hangs. I can boot to linux using the bootdisk I made, but I don't want to have to use the bootdisk everytime. I have tried all sorts of things, like adding 'linear' to lilo.conf, forcing LBA32, but nothing seems to work...I know from the errors I'm getting that there is a hardware geometry problem, but I'm not quite sure what it is, nor how to fix it.

Computer specs:

P4 1.5GHz
512MB SDRAM
40GB Seagate 7200RPM
13GB IBM 7200RPM
Riva TNT2 M64
32x/8x/4x Sony CDRW
52x Mat****a DVDROM
...If that helps anybody...

Anybody who could offer any help is worthy of a medal of some sort :)

Cheers,
-Mannix

BTW, if I have not included some information that you need, just tell me.

[mdwatts]

Can someone please offer at least a little bit of assistance?

I can't be here 24 hours a day...

[ashoksagar]

why not install the bootloader on the MBR of your second drive which would be /dev/hdb. I do not understand why the only other place would have to be /dev/hdb2.

[slapNUT]

Did you use fdisk and set /dev/hdb1 as bootable?

Did you make a bootdisk? If not you can boot off the Install CD#1 and use rescue mode to boot into linux. Then you use dd if=/dev/hdb1 of=/mnt/floppy/linux.img bs=512 count=1 <- or something similar to that.

[mdwatts]

Guess they got fed up of waiting... :(

[Mannix]

Thanks for your help guys....I was able to get it working earlier tonight by making a copy of the linux bootsector (dd if=/dev/hdb1 of=/bootsect.lnx bs=512 count=1) and using that along with 2k's ntldr to set up the 2k/linux dual boot...Again, thanks for your help :)
-Mannix