Fixing Lilo to dual boot

[dmanno]

Hi all,
I have installed Ubuntu 9.04 and Vista before that. (64-bit of each). I now can not get back into Linux. I have tried many things. I am trying to get Lilo to run again so I can get into Linux. I'm in the Live CD terminal trying to get it all to work. Please see below for disk configuration and lilo.conf printout. I only have one hard drive but I've been getting some RAID errors. Maybe there's something funky in my lilo.conf file?

Here's what I want to do: I want to install lilo onto the Linux root partition so that I can use Vista's EasyBCD bootloader. When I installed lilo onto the MBR, it overrode EasyBCD. When I replaced the EasyBCD bootloader, it overrid the lilo bootloader which is where I'm at now. Here's my info:

(/dev/sda4 has my Linux root, /dev/sda2 has my Linux /home, /dev/sda1 is Vista, /dev/sda5 is Linux swap)

Device Boot Start End #cyls #blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 0+ 172297- 172298- 1383981048 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 178034 181553 3520 28274400 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 181554 182400 847 6803527+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda4 172298 178033 5736 46074420 83 Linux
/dev/sda5 181554+ 182400 847- 6803496 82 Linux swap / Solaris


lilo.conf:

**************************************************
large-memory
lba32
boot=/dev/sda4
map=/boot/map

# message=/boot/bootmess.txt
prompt
delay=100
timeout=100

default=Linux

image=/vmlinuz
label=Linux
read-only
append="root=/dev/sda4 "
initrd=/initrd.img

image=/vmlinuz.old
label=LinuxOLD
read-only
optional
append="root=/dev/sda4 "
initrd=/initrd.img.old

other=/dev/sda1
label=Windows
**************************************************

When I try to then re-configure lilo, i get this:

root@ubuntu:/etc# sudo /mnt/ubun/sbin/lilo
Warning: Partition 4 on /dev/sda is not marked Active.
Fatal: Trying to map files from unnamed device 0x0011 (NFS/RAID mirror down ?)


Remember, I'm doing all of this from the Ubuntu 9.04 64-bit Live CD terminal.
Thanks amigos!

[dmanno]

Anyone out there that can offer some assistance?

I've spent countless hours trying to get my Linux installation working over the past week. Long story short, I am unable to install Grub, which is why I am using Lilo. Now I just need to finalize the dual-booting by fixing Lilo and then hopefully using EasyBCD. I'm just not sure how to make it all work!

[dmanno]

I FINALLY fixed it! I found this link that lead me to the solution:

http://forums.remote-exploit.org/bt3beta-software-related-issues/13616-cant-reinstall-lilo-2.html

In case anyone else has this problem and needs to reinstall Lilo from a Linux Live CD, here's what you do to get Lilo to run in the terminal of a Live CD (I dual boot with Vista. My Ubuntu root is on partition /dev/sda4):


sudo mkdir /mnt/sda4 # makes a new directory where you mount your Linux partition
sudo mount /dev/sda4 /mnt/sda4 # mounts your LInux partition to the directory
sudo mount -o bind /dev /mnt/sda4/dev # points the Live CD's /dev directory to your partition's /dev
sudo chroot /mnt/sda4 /bin/bash # so you work from your partition's root and loads bash
sudo lilo # re-configures Lilo

I'm a Linux n00b, so if my explanations of each command are not quite right, I apologize! Wow, it feels so good to finally be done getting Vista and Linux to dual boot. Only took me 4 days... :( And it's all because my computer did not like it when I installed from the regular CD using GRUB. I had to install from the alternate CD, and when GRUB failed it gave me the option to install Lilo instead. I wish the regular CD gave you that option to save people like me headaches.

Now I'm off to play in Ubuntu and learn new stuffs.