I thought I had this fixed, but it appears not so.

It all started with a kernel 2.6.0 compile. I was running 2.6.0, but needed
something or other to get a program (rosegarden) to work. I did something
wrong during the installation process and couldn't boot.

Eventually (a day later), I got back in and was able to use the new kernel.
At this time I figured out that /boot/boot.b wasn't there. But the system
was working -- almost.

As it turns out, I had no access to the cd drive. Nothing appeared to be
missing, but I got an error something like "/dev/cdrom is not a valid block
device". Trying to fix this, I compiled another kernel. This time I was
very careful.

After running lilo and rebooting, I was back to the locked up screen with
an L on it. I went to a rescue disk and ran lilo again. Now I can get back
into my system again, but still no cd access and I have to use the old
image as the new one doesn't work.

I back went to the rescue disk and re-installed lilo using apt-get. It
seemed to work fine, but /boot/boot.b still doesn't exist on my system. I
can run lilo, then I get the L screen and have to boot from the rescue disk
again. Running lilo from the rescue disk gets me back into my system again.

I read in the lilo documentation that a missing /boot/boot.b will cause
problems. But how do I get it back? Looking in my saved copies of /boot, I
find that it's been missing for a long time. I found it in some of my old
copies, but they're all just broken links.

Help would be greatly appreciated. This is day 3 of a crippled system and a
large amount of wasted time.

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On Mon, 17 Jan 2005 14:33:34 -0500, Spongebob Squarepants
<nada@noemail.net> wrote:
> I thought I had this fixed, but it appears not so.
>
> It all started with a kernel 2.6.0 compile. I was running 2.6.0, but neede
d
> something or other to get a program (rosegarden) to work. I did something
> wrong during the installation process and couldn't boot.
>
> Eventually (a day later), I got back in and was able to use the new kernel
.
> At this time I figured out that /boot/boot.b wasn't there. But the system
> was working -- almost.
>
> As it turns out, I had no access to the cd drive. Nothing appeared to be
> missing, but I got an error something like "/dev/cdrom is not a valid bloc
k
> device". Trying to fix this, I compiled another kernel. This time I was
> very careful.
>
Is /dev/cdrom linked to the correct device?


> After running lilo and rebooting, I was back to the locked up screen with
> an L on it. I went to a rescue disk and ran lilo again. Now I can get back
> into my system again, but still no cd access and I have to use the old
> image as the new one doesn't work.
>
> I back went to the rescue disk and re-installed lilo using apt-get. It
> seemed to work fine, but /boot/boot.b still doesn't exist on my system. I
> can run lilo, then I get the L screen and have to boot from the rescue dis
k
> again. Running lilo from the rescue disk gets me back into my system again
.
>
Looking at the changelog for lilo, the boot.b file has been obsolete
since version 22.5-1.  Perhaps you need to reinstall the latest version
of lilo.


> I read in the lilo documentation that a missing /boot/boot.b will cause
> problems. But how do I get it back? Looking in my saved copies of /boot, I
> find that it's been missing for a long time. I found it in some of my old
> copies, but they're all just broken links.
>
> Help would be greatly appreciated. This is day 3 of a crippled system and 
a
> large amount of wasted time.
>


--
BOFH excuse #270:

Someone has messed up the kernel pointers

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Bill Marcum wrote:

> Is /dev/cdrom linked to the correct device?

/dev/sd0
This hasn't changed I don't think. I have an APTI drive, but use
ide_scsi=/dev/hdb as a command-line argument to keep xcdroast happy.


> Looking at the changelog for lilo, the boot.b file has been obsolete
> since version 22.5-1.  Perhaps you need to reinstall the latest version
> of lilo.

That helps a lot. That explains why the reinstall didn't install it. I
apprently upgraded versions in the process.

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