I have recently installed RedHat 7 on my PC at work. The installation went smoothly and without a hitch :-)
Unfortunatly on reboot lilo failed to load properly, giving the "L" error message.
I have tried re-installing LILO and different configurations as suggested by the HOW-TO, to no avail.
I am beginning to beleive that the problem is due to my disk size (aprox 15GB), however, the large-disk how-to says that RH7 should know how to deal with this.
Fortunatly I can boot from floppy, this works perfectly but is clearly not practical.

My system:
hda1=primary boot (24MB)
hda5=logical root (15GB)
hda6=logical swap (70MB)

Any suggestions please?

Craig

Can we see what your /etc/lilo.conf file looks like?

If it is a problem with your Large disk size then you need to inform LILO of the parameters of your disk. This includes how many heads, cylinders, and sectors which are present.

You will find this info when you boot up and the screen displays all the info on your comp.

/etc/lilo.conf :


boot=/dev/hda1
timeout=500
linear
prompt
vga=normal
root=/dev/hda5
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.16-22
label=linux

To tell the LILO about the size of your hard drive you need to add the following:

disk=/dev/hda
bios=0x80
sectors=??
heads=??
cylinders=??

This of course depends on the fact that it is the master drive of the first IDE port or the first two lines would be different.

You may be able to get away with using linear in the lilo file. This specifies that LILO doesn't need 3D address and geometry of the HD. However it doesn't work with floppy's or with compact in the file aswell.

Remember to type LILO every time you have altered it so that the effects can take place.

I thought lilo had to have a certain syntax like

boot=/dev/hda1
timeout=500
linear
prompt
vga=normal
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.16-22
root=/dev/hda5
label=linux
read-only

maybe its just that way on mine to make it more organized?
i dont know just a thought.

I tried adding the disk= line as you (CragStar) suggested, unfortunatly it doesn't appear to have made any differance. If I use this option would the "linear" option have to be removed? using this option ignores the disk geometry I beleive.
Would installing LILO on the partition instead of the MBR make any difference?

Installing LILO will not allow you to automatically boot Linux, thats the job of the MBR. Putting it into a partition will allow you to use a boot manager such as Syscommander to boot Linux from within that boot manager (what a mouth full!).

I would not use linear and compact together, and I wouldn't use linear as well as specifying your disk geometry (like you said). If your problem persists, then you may want to try GRUB.

Just by chance i happenned to look at a partitioning howto, it states that /boot cannot be over 16Mb oops! One repartition later and everything is working.
Thanks for all the helpful suggestions!

Over and out
Craig