In attempting to decide whether to go with slackware for my lab when I
switch, I have attempted to load it on the three most prevelant machine
types we have in there currently (different cd-roms, processor speeds,
memory, etc.) We have five different types due to the nature of us
upgrading/replacing 6-12 machines each year (Hey, money is tight in
schools)

The first one wouldn't let me get far at all, didn't detect the cdrom
drive after booting from it in order to "Select Source". Go figure, I'll
just use another cdrom in it hopefully

The second machine installed flawlessly and booted up fine.

The third installed flawlessly, but I did one thing different. On the
second I skipped boot disk creation. Everything worked and it was just a
test so I figured what the hell. The third one I decided to make the boot
disk. Everything installed fine, boot disk created, but I tried to boot
without it and nothing. Boot with it and everything is fine.

The only thing I can think of that I did wrong was during partitioning I
created the swap partition first then the linux partition for root. Is
that wrong? I also created the boot disk. If you do that does it not
make the hard drive bootable?

Help appreciated. Slackware looks like the way to go for us. And I like
the Edutainment software loaded when you select full install!

Thanks for your help

Liam Marshall wrote:
> The third installed flawlessly, but I did one thing different. On the
> second I skipped boot disk creation. Everything worked and it was just a
> test so I figured what the hell. The third one I decided to make the boot
> disk. Everything installed fine, boot disk created, but I tried to boot
> without it and nothing. Boot with it and everything is fine.

it's been a while since i last installed slack on a machine with a floppy
drive, but IIRC there are two moments in the installation where you can
create boot(able) disks. one is when you install lilo, the other is when
you can create a rescue disk. lilo is necessary to boot linux, and if
you've installed it to a floppy, it's not installed to the hard disk, so
booting is only possible with that floppy.

> The only thing I can think of that I did wrong was during partitioning I
> created the swap partition first then the linux partition for root. Is
> that wrong?

no, there's nothing wrong with that.

> I also created the boot disk. If you do that does it not
> make the hard drive bootable?

like i said, if you mean to say you installed lilo to a floppy disk, then
yes, you cannot boot linux from the hard disk alone.

the solution is to boot again from the install cd, rerun the lilo setup and
select the option 'install lilo to the MBR'.

HTH

--
Joost Kremers joostkremers@yahoo.com
Selbst in die Unterwelt dringt durch Spalten Licht
EN:SiS(9)

On 16 Apr 2004 00:48:03 GMT, Joost Kremers <joostkremers@yahoo.com> wrote:

snip...

>
> like i said, if you mean to say you installed lilo to a floppy disk, then
> yes, you cannot boot linux from the hard disk alone.
>
> the solution is to boot again from the install cd, rerun the lilo setup
> and
> select the option 'install lilo to the MBR'.
>
> HTH
>
you got me on the right track. I put in the first cd ran setup but there
was no option to just install LILO. (not that I could find) But for the
hell of it I ran cfdisk and looked at the partitions. None were marked as
bootable! Even though I swear I did when I first partitioned it. Marked
it bootable then and away we go!

Thanks

"Liam Marshall" <lsrpm@mts.net> wrote in message
newspr6i6j1zwc44lx2@news.mts.net...
> On 16 Apr 2004 00:48:03 GMT, Joost Kremers <joostkremers@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> snip...
>
> >
> > like i said, if you mean to say you installed lilo to a floppy disk,
then
> > yes, you cannot boot linux from the hard disk alone.
> >
> > the solution is to boot again from the install cd, rerun the lilo setup
> > and
> > select the option 'install lilo to the MBR'.
> >
> > HTH
> >
> you got me on the right track. I put in the first cd ran setup but there
> was no option to just install LILO. (not that I could find) But for the
> hell of it I ran cfdisk and looked at the partitions. None were marked as
> bootable! Even though I swear I did when I first partitioned it. Marked
> it bootable then and away we go!
>

That wouldn't have been my guess. I'd have said, if it boots off floppy,
but not off the HD, (and the partition is marked bootable in the MBR),
then all you really have to do is either run liloconfig, then run lilo
again, or edit /etc/lilo.conf, and then run lilo again. (i.e. you don't
have to install again from square zero.)

And if you didn't create a bootdisk, but want to, you can put lilo on
it with lilo -b /dev/fd0 or something like that. (pls see man lilo.)

Have Fun!
Rich