->-----Original Message----- ->From: Wendy Langer [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] ->Sent: Saturday, 22 September 2001 9:58 ->To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ->Cc: Teresa ->Subject: Bootloader doesn't work after clean install of Mandrake 8.0 -> -> ->Hello everybody, -> ->Aarlier I was having problems getting my SCSI card recognised ->(the aha1510), however I swapped it for an aha1542A and that ->problem now seems to be resolved :) -> ->I am now having another problem though...I have tried to install ->Mandrake 8.0 onto a second hard-drive (my first drive has ->windows), and although the install seems to all go ok, after ->finishing the install then rebooting, the bootloader doesn't seem ->to work. -> ->I get a few messages from the BIOS, then "searching for boot ->record on IDE-0" (my main hard-drive, where the windows ->partitions are, and also where I *think* I told it to put the ->boot - loader) -> ->Then it just starts spewing out 1s and 0s like this across the ->screen "01 01 01 01 01 01 " except it goes on forever!! -> ->It's definitely done *something* to the start of my first ->hard-drive (BIOS IDE-0) as it now can't load windows either, it ->has clearly written something over the master boot-record here ->but whatever it has written isn't working! -> ->I can boot to DOS using a boot disk, but to get it to boot to ->windows I have to do "fdisk /mbr" (not sure why really, I thought ->if you booted from floppy you didn't need the MBR anyway but ->clearly something I don't understand here.) -> ->This of course wipes over whatever the Mandrake installer did, ->but at least I can boot windows to read docs and send emails :) -> ->I can boot into Mandrake using the install floppy in rescue mode, ->and I can mount the root partition (hdc5) from here using "mount ->-t ext2 /dev/hdc5 /newroot" where "/newroot" is a directory I ->created as mountpoint just to test this out. -> ->So from here I ought to be able to look at some log messages and ->figure out what is going on. and then somehow reinstall the ->bootloader properly? I don't know where to begin though!!! What ->messages should IO view? How would I go about repairing a boot-loader? -> ->I have actually been through the install program on the disk ->twice completely and a few other times in "update" or "expert" ->mode and am getting very sick of it, so if there is anyway of ->fixing this without another complete install, I would be ->thrilled. At the moment *even* another complete install would be ->ok IF it worked!!! Just don't wanna do it agian and have it ->*still* not working! -> -> ->Ok, so here is a summary of my setup: -> ->AMD GA 71XE4 Motherboard ->850 mHZ AMD Duron CPU ->128MB RAM ->Adaptec 1542A SCSI host adaptor with Matsushita cd-rom connected ->(nothing else) - this scsi card is recognised by mandrake ->installer but not currently by windows. -> ->2 Hard-Drives: -> ->1st Primary IDE (IDE-0 according to my BIOS) - Seagate 20.4 GB ->2nd Primary IDE (IDE-1 according to my BIOS) - Samsung 6.4 GB -> ->Amd here is how I have partitioned it. -> ->Seagate 20.4GB (hda) (hda1) Windows 18GB -> (hda5) *old* RedHat linix ->partition 870 mb -> (hda6) *old* RedHat swap ->partition 203 mb -> -> -> ->Samsung 6.4GB (hdc) (hdc5) Mandrake / 300MB -> (hdc6) Mandrake swap 392MB -> (hdc7) Mandrake /usr 1.9GB -> (hdc8) Mandrake /var 1.5GB -> (hdc9) Mandrake /home 1.8GB -> -> ->This info I wrote down whilst going through the install a second ->time. I don't know what on the second drive it starts at hdc5 ->instead of hdc1, I've never understood partitions, but hopefully ->this is ok as it was pretty much auto-chosen by the wizard, I ->just made the root partition a bit bigger and added a /var and a ->/home as it was suggested in a book I am reading. -> ->the stuff on the 20.4 GB drive I just left alone, so this is how ->it used to be and still is. -> -> -> ->When I got to the bootloader section, I chose "hda" for where to ->put it. Actually, the first time I tried I was in "novice" mode ->but it still defaulted to hda, definitely did *something* there ->as I mentioned earlier, since it over-wrote the windows mbr! I ->have tried at various points all three bootloader options - Grub, ->LILO with graphical interface, and LILO with text interface. Some ->very slight variation in error messages but basically the same ->behaviour with each of these options. -> -> ->So, to summarise, I have installed Mandrake on a second ->hard-drive, and the install seems to have worked to the extent ->that there is certainly *something* there on the /hdc5 partition. ->I know this as I can boot in using rescue mode and mount it, it ->looks like it is full of typical linuxey files and utilities and so forth! -> ->However, the bootloader is not working and has in fact ->over-written my windows mbr, thus I have ended up wiping whatever ->it did in order just to get back into windows. -> ->I now need to know what to next to get a working bootloader! -> ->Hopefully this will not require *another* complete reinstall as I ->have already tried twice, however, even if it did, I would be ->happy as long as whatever I end up after that works!! -> ->Thanks very much!!! -> -> :) Wendy Langer -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> ->------------------ ->"The average home computer user now has more processing power, ->storage and bandwidth than was available to the US Government ->scarcely a generation ago..." -> ->www.potlatch.net ->------------------
Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
