Slackware 9.0 - GRUB hangs

[murakami]

I wanted to play with slack 9.0 before migrating from 8.1, so I stuck on a spare drive on a Thinkpad A21m. Disk formatting and install went smoothly. Unfortunately, GRUB just hangs.

I've had Redhat and Slackware 8.1 on this machine before so I don't think its hardware. Its a clean install, so no partitioning weirdness.

Any one seen this before?

[Cyb3RSoldi3R]

Saw a post in Linuxquestions.com forums about grub and Slack 9 but don't think it was a hanging issue. You could try finding it. I actually got it working and it works great other then a few problems I had to correct with the kernel compile. Other then that it booted from LILO and then destroyed lilo and booted fine from CD-ROM. My opinion (like it matters) boot from cd and check the GRUB config file. Your problem may lie within there.

[kampf]

How about just using LILO, like it was meant to be...

[blackwave]

I tried GRUB... once.

[murakami]

Originally posted by kampf
How about just using LILO, like it was meant to be...

That was the weird thing, I did select LILO during the setup. Rebooting after setup, the first thing that comes up is GRUB.

Anyway, just checking to see if anyone had seen this problem before I start having to debug what went wrong.

[kampf]

You need to install LILO on the MBR, where GRUB is presently.

You can kill the MBR with a dos disk and "format /mbr".

The protocol for reinstalling lilo escapes me at the moment...

[Chris]

Originally posted by kampf
You need to install LILO on the MBR, where GRUB is presently.

You can kill the MBR with a dos disk and "format /mbr".

The protocol for reinstalling lilo escapes me at the moment...

Easy enough. Use the CD as a boot disk
Follow the on screen instructions to access your current installation
Log in as root (or su - to root)
verify that /etc/lilo.conf has the correct info in it (something like:
boot = /dev/hda
message = /boot/boot_message.txt
prompt
timeout = 10)

type lilo at the prompt.
eject cdrom
reboot
you should be good.

[murakami]

Originally posted by kampf
You need to install LILO on the MBR, where GRUB is presently.

You can kill the MBR with a dos disk and "format /mbr".

The protocol for reinstalling lilo escapes me at the moment...

Interesting, I did the install on semi-auto-pilot and took the defaults. Installing LILO on the MBR, according to the notes on the page, was supposed to be less likely to work. I'll try installing LILO on the MBR.

[Chris]

Originally posted by murakami
Interesting, I did the install on semi-auto-pilot and took the defaults. Installing LILO on the MBR, according to the notes on the page, was supposed to be less likely to work. I'll try installing LILO on the MBR.

Actually...for install to MBR it says "Possibly Unsafe"

Come on now...be like Kenny Loggins..."Ride Into the Danger Zone" are you a man or a mouse.

[Cyb3RSoldi3R]

If anything I'd say it's the most likely to work. I always had issues with GRUB. I say if your just testing right now install and boot it up through the cd-rom everytime. Worked for me and then if you don't like it you don't have to go clearing out the mbr and all that fun stuff. All you gotta do is type the command it gives on the cd to boot from the cd-rom with the exception of giving you the correct partition area that you installled on. It's just a way of getting the os going, after that it's all you... Just thank yourself that you didn't have to go through what I went through. Got about an inch stack of dead tree bark with all my info to configure to my lappy, and I still didn't get it right (sound issues). Had to go through everything from looking at the code itself to filling in the gaps in material with my own logic and scripts. It was a learning experience though.

[boogah]

My question is are you using the official Volkerding ISO or are you using one of the "fan compiled" ISOs? Itching to get my hands on Slack 9 when it came out I grabbed the first ISO i could find - which turned out to be a shoddy "fan compiled" ISO that had several problems including putting GRUB in place of LILO no matter what you chose on install.

So, first tip, make sure ol' Pat threw it together if that's not the case toss that hunk of plastic in the trash and get your ass a proper ISO.

[Cyb3RSoldi3R]

No official ISO has been released, so I don't know what your talking about boogah. If it is an ISO issue the one I linked to this guy is tried and tested ( here ).

[Chris]

Originally posted by Cyb3RSoldi3R
No official ISO has been released, so I don't know what your talking about boogah. If it is an ISO issue the one I linked to this guy is tried and tested ( here ).

You could always buy it. 24.95 if you are on subscription.

[Cyb3RSoldi3R]

HAHA, official ISO is out. DOn't know how long it's been out but the have it at Linux ISO's . I'm sending the link around so all the HTTP linux ISO sites will have it. There you go for all you people who didn't trust the fan made ISO. The file size is exactly the same so I don't know what the fuss was about. MD5 checked it too and it's clean so go figure.