Re: [newbie] losing lilo
Dan Brown wrote: Again, it's not "/sbin/lilo", it's "/mnt/sbin/lilo". Your /sbin directory contains only what's on the rescue disk, which (as you know) doesn't include lilo. /mnt/sbin is the /sbin directory on your normal system, and that's where you'd need to run lilo from. You don't have your normal path statement, so you shouldn't expect that any commands will work without you explicitly specifying a path to them. Yes, but I tried to run it as /mnt/sbin/lilo. In fact, I went to the /mnt/sbin/ directory and found the lilo executable there. But running it did nothing. This is weird. Richard Adams wrote: at the prompt type 'mount root=/dev/hdaX ro' Then it was the wrong type of boot disk. OK, there are only three image files in the images directory on the mandrake CD: boot.img, rescue.img, and supp.img. Using rawrite I made disks from boot.img and rescue.img. These are the two disks I have been using. I wonder if something else is going on because, when i tried to reinstall lilo using the upgrade mode of installation from the CD, the installer said something to the effect that an error was encountered. Could this be related to the fact that my system does not appear to recognize the /mnt/sbin/lilo command? Thanks again Idris
[newbie] Solution for losing lilo [was: losing lilo]
I finally found a solution which turns out to be close in spirit to Matt's.
("mount root=/dev/hdax" did not work for me but maybe I did something wrong.)
In what follows, "hdb1" stands for the root filesystem partition, "hda" for
the mbr partition (with windows on it). Adjust your situation accordingly. I
am writing this for the archives in such a way that it may benefit total
newbies who encounter a similar problem, including the vi commands (which I
never used before this point).
1. Boot with the boot disk: type "rescue";
2. Insert rescue disk (created in DOS with rawrite from the CD) when
prompted;
3. At #bash, type "mount /dev/hdb1 /mnt" (your root filesystem may differ,
adjust accordingly); do a "ls" to get familiar with the directory structure
of rescue mode. Check out, e.g, /bin. "more" is not available but "cat" is.
To get your full set of commands, specify the full path through /mnt/...;
4. The lilo command is "/mnt/sbin/lilo"; the vi command is "/mnt/bin/vi".
Note that in rescue mode, the root directory is a level higher than your
normal root directory structure, so /mnt/sbin/lilo /mnt/etc/lilo.conf does
not work;
5. /mnt/etc/lilo.conf must be edited because it is based on the normal, as
opposed to the rescue mode, directory structure. To make sure I did not
change the original, I copied it from ~/mnt/etc/lilo.conf to ~/etc/lilo.conf;
6. "/mnt/bin/vi /etc/lilo.conf". You are in command mode. Press "i" for edit
mode;
7. All lines of lilo.conf _except_ those that have /dev/hda(n) (where n is a
number) must be changed from "/foo/..." to "/mnt/foo/..."; press escape to
reenter command mode.
8. Save as follows (changing the name): ":wi lilo1.conf".
Now "cp /etc/lilo1.conf /mnt/etc/lilo1.conf".
9. "mkdir /boot", then "cp /mnt/boot/chain.b /boot/chain.b" (otherwise
something will go wrong);
10. Finally "/mnt/sbin/lilo -C /mnt/etc/lilo1.conf". Then you should see
something like this (depending on your original lilo.conf):
Added win *
Added linux
11. Unmount /dev/hdb1 then reboot (I forgot to unmount so Linux took a very
long time boot up while it checked the filesystems).
That's it. The gurus out will surely be able to suggest more efficient ways
of doing this but at least it works (and forces you to learn some vi, which I
will no longer ignore from now on:-( )
Thanks to everyone for their help
Matt Stegman wrote:
You'll need to point lilo to the right config file: try
bash# /mnt/sbin/lilo -C /mnt/etc/lilo.conf
This tells lilo to use the config file /mnt/etc/lilo.conf.
I did try this. But I still needed to modify lilo.conf itself
You may also want to symbolically link /mnt/boot as /boot, because your
old config file points to /boot for all it's info. If you already have a
/boot directory on the rescue disk (I don't know, never used it) then:
bash# mv /boot /old-boot ln -s /mnt/boot /boot
I did not try this but it may relieve the need of step 9, and maybe the need
to modify lilo.conf altogether.
Again, thanks to all
Idris
Re: [newbie] losing lilo
Dear folks John Connell wrote: At the bash prompt try typing in "su" you should then get a "[root@localhost root]#" prompt, then try typing "startx" and see if that does anything. I meant to say "/sbin/lilo" then type in "reboot." Well, "su" was not a recognised command from #bash. Neither was "mkbootdisk" nor "/sbin/lilo". Just to be clear: using the rawrite utility in DOS I created a rescue disk from the rescue.img file on the Mandrake CD. I booted from the installation disk, typed in "rescue" at the prompt. moments later I was asked for the rescue disk. I placed it in the floppy drive and I soon arrived at the #bash prompt. A very limited number of commands where available in /bin, identical to those in /sbin. As I mentioned, the commands you suggested were not available. I hope this more detailed description helps. Thank you Idris
Re: [newbie] losing lilo
If not make another disk from your distribution cdrom or source. Sorry to bug you but: What kind of disk? I already tried making a boot disk (and could not), I made a rescue disk, and my installation disk works fine. How do I make the disk you are talking about? Thanks again Idris
[newbie] losing lilo
Dear folks: I recently had to reinstall Windows after it began seriously misbehaving, but lost lilo in the process. Now I can't get Mandrake 5.2 to boot up. I tried using the rescue disk, got to the #bash prompt, but have no idea what to do next. I tried reinstalling lilo from the CD (using the upgrade mode) but to no avail. Can I get some help here? Thanks! Idris
[newbie] Relevance of Mandrake
Dear folks: I recently spoke to my computer hardware dealer about upgrading some of my computer parts. He told me that once he was done he would install RedHat 6.0 for me. I told him I wanted Mandrake and this is what he said: "Mandrake is dead. The whole idea behind Mandrake was to integrate KDE with RedHat. Now that RedHat has KDE as an option, what's the need for Mandrake?" In response I muttered a couple of things about extra tidbits that come with Mandrake but I did not sound very convincing, even to myself. I think that Mandrake needs a new mission statement or manifesto; what's present on the website is no longer satisfactory. I want to stick with Mandrake in part because I believe that RedHat's former anti-KDE attitude truly hurt (or at least slowed down) the Linux cause and I do not really want to reward them for merely caving in to the pressure that distros like Mandrake put them under. Unless Mandrake Linux convincingly and clearly reassesses its raison d'etre and redirects its focus to present and potential members of the Linux community, I am afraid that this wonderful distro will indeed become irrelevant. Now it may be that the leaders of the Mandrake organization are clear about this, but the info on the web page (e.g. http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/fpolicy.html and http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/ffaq.html ) does not reflect this in a coherent and convincing way. Best wishes to all Idris
Re: [newbie] File Associations in KDE
One way to do this: Run KDEAppFinder so that KDE finds the Adobe Reader. Then add the Adobe Reader to the Panel. Click with the right mouse button on the panel button for Adobe, then click "Properties". Go to the execute tab, where you can now add the pdf-type from the right column to the left column. If you like, click on the icon so that you can also change the default icon to, say, the Acrobat symbol. Click "OK". When opening a pdf file from kfm, you can now click the right button to choose whether you want Kghostview or Adobe to open it. To make kfm automatically select the reader, you may have to follow the same procedure with kghostview, only deselct the pdf-type from the right column in the "execute" tab of "properties". Then you can delete either from the panel if you like. I am sure that there is an easier/better way but this will work. Interestingly, when I installed the latest beta of Adobe Reader for Linux, the installation script automatically associated *.pdf files with the reader. Best Idris "Mark A. Walters" wrote: Using the KDE desktop, how do I associate a application w/ a file type? For example, I would like to associate ".pdf" files w/ the Adobe Acrobat program. I can't find anyplace in the system to allow me to do this. Mark W.
[newbie] Sound and Modem (again)
Greetings: Ok, I bought, from a linux systems distributor, a linux-compatible 56K modem and a SoundBlaster AWE64 soundcard. I cannot get either to work with Mandrake up to now. Modem: My computer manufacturer had disabled COM2; from the BIPS setup, I reenabled it; dmesg gives me - Serial driver version 4.13 with no serial options enabled tty00 at 0x03f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A tty01 at 0x02f8 (irq = 3) is a 16550A - The modem works fine in W95 (again, it is not a WinModem) but in Linux the kppp "Query Modem" command finds the modem and says "Sorry, modem does not respond". What could be wrong? Sound: I ran sndconfig but it failed to set up sound (although my card is listed in the soundcard list). I tried again and sndconfig would just freeze, forcing me to have to kill kvt. This happened a number of times. dmesg gives me -- Soundblaster audio driver Copyright (C) by Hannu Savolainen 1993-1996 sb: dsp reset failed. AWE32: not detected -- My old RedHat 5.o Installation guide Advice, please! Thank you in advance Idris
Re: [newbie] Non-KDE applications in kpanel missing
Quinton Jones Jr wrote: I just installed Festen (5.3), but none of the installed non-KDE packages are listed in kpanel's menu listings. This is at odds with Leeloo (5.2), where quite a number of installed non-KDE packages were listed on kpanel's menu listings after install. Does anyone know the reason for this? KDE 1.0 had a menu choice called ``Non-KDE Applications''; what happenned to it? Try running [K] [System] [Appfinder]. I worked for me. (:-) Worked like a charm. Thank you! Idris
