LILO dual-boot problems

[cyberfrem]

After reading James LaRue's Linux LiveCD Roundup article, I was keen to try PCLinuxOS having wanted to delve into Linux for some time.

I used the latest LiveCD and liked what I saw. However, whilst it recognised my wireless PCMCIA card I couldn't get a connection. I thought I might have better success if I committed the installation to the hard drive.

Having installed PCLinuxOS I tried to get the wireless working again but am having limited success. However, I can no longer boot into my Windows XP Pro environment! To correct this I'll surely have to fix the MBR but then I won't be able to access my PCLinuxOS! What can I do?

Also, it's no good having PCLinuxOS if I can't get the wireless working. Currently, PCLinuxOS is correctly indicating that its detecting a strong 54Mb signal from my ADSL router. It's correctly received its IP address, DNS settings, from the DHCP server on the router. The output of ifconfig & iwconfig seems okay (from a noob viewpoint). But I cannot ping anything (not even the ADSL router), access the Internet, or anything!

Can someone please rescue me from these problems as I dearly want to use this distro?

[markwolfe Veteran]

If you want to repair the ability to dual-boot, we will need to see your GRUB or LILO configuration file, and we will also need to know which partition Windows is set into (usually hda1, but hda2 on some OEM builds, from what I have heard).

[cyberfrem]

OK - I've got my wireless connection working (I'm typing this from PCLinuxOS now - it turns out I just needed to reconfigure the firewall (shorewall) for eth1 rather than eth0).

My lilo.conf is as follows:

# File generated by DrakX/drakboot
# WARNING: do not forget to run lilo after modifying this file

default="Windows_XP"
boot=/dev/hda
map=/boot/map
keytable=/boot/livecd.klt
prompt
nowarn
timeout=100
message=/boot/message
menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.10-oci7
 label="PCLinuxOS"
 root=/dev/hda6
 initrd=/boot/initrd-2.6.10-oci7.img
 append="nomce devfs=nomount splash=silent"
 vga=788
 read-only
other=/dev/hda2
 label="Windows_XP"
other=/dev/hda5
 label="win_d"

This looks right to me - /dev/hda6 is my boot partition.

Now I've got wireless working in Linux I don't want to lose it; ie. I don't want to fix my MBR and lose access to Linux, but I do want to be able to boot up XP too. Is this possible?

[markwolfe Veteran]

From what I see here:

http://www.lugor.org/sig/newbie/lilo/

it looks like you need a bit of work on your lilo config. I haven't used LILO in a LONG time (and even then, I was too much of a noob to be an expert).

But, your "other" starts the section (called a stanza, in LILO terms, I believe), and it points to the partition.

You have a "label" that will be shown as the title.

The link above includes a "table" reference for the partition table. Not sure if adding this will help or hurt...

Also, are you sure you boot XP from hda2? Normally, Windows is on hda1 (except for some OEM installs, which you may have).

The last one, with hda5 throws me for a loop. Did you add that yourself?

EDIT: I changed the topic title for clarity...

Edited March 4, 2005 by markjensen

[cyberfrem]

hda2 is correct. This is down to a minor screw up the last time I reinstalled XP - hda2 (my data drive) has become a primary boot partition, though hda5 is my system partition which resides in a logical partition - does this make sense?

ie.

hda5 is the Windows system partition

hda6 is my Linux root partition

hda7 is my Linux swap partition

hda2 is my Windows boot partition

[cyberfrem]

I don't know if this has anything to do with my problem but my Windows boot.ini file reads:

[boot loader]
timeout=1
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

Is the partition number (ie. 3) correct?

Correct me if I'm wrong but now that I've inserted the Linux swap file should the partition number now read 4? Is this preventing my Windows boot?