[wplug] Linux 2.4 killed my system: FIXED!

[David Tessitor]

Did you figure out how to set lilo to call up the other kernels than vmlinuz?

I don't use the default symlink, vmlinuz, at all when setting up lilo.  In
lilo.conf file you can give each kernel an alias name and set the exact kernel
file name that will be used for the session.  At the lilo prompt you can call any
kernels that you have configured into lilo.conf by typing tat alias; you
shouldn't need to designate the root directory location (root=/dev...) if the /
directory is properly identified in the lilo.conf file and lilo is then
reinstalled to the correct MBR.

If you use linuxconf with RH or Mdk with the drakeconf to do it, you don't have
to touch the actual lilo.conf and it installs lilo in the MBR of the drive or
partition where you want to access lilo.  Of course, you probably know that.
Just pick the right kernel designations.

Oh, BTW, if you want to have more than one distro installed and be able to choose
between them easily through lilo you can easily set it up.  To install, I create
a separate set of partitions for each distro (/, /boot, /usr, & /var), then I
migrate the information from the /boot partition of one into the other (I have
one of them at /dev/hd_5 which I migrate the other into).  One needs to be
careful not to move the symlinks that are duplicated in each (however, Mdk uses a
number of extra symlinks that RH doesn't, and those get copied).  There is also a
file that looks identical to its counterpart though probably has a different
date; it must be the one current to the lilo you will be using (unfortunately,
I'm in NT at the moment and can't call it up to give you its name).  Once
everything is successfully migrated, set up lilo to go to the different kernels,
designating the root for each kernel in the lilo setup process.  When it works
OK, you can delete the extraneous boot and use its space for something else.
(Note: to conserve space, I use one partition each for /home, /opt, /usr/local
and share them between distros, but this is still an experiment.)

Dave

Zach Paine wrote:

> I fixed it!!  I grabbed tomsrtbt and stuck it on a floppy using my parents
> windows computer.  Thanks to Rafael's advice I was able to get into my system
> by using tomsrbt to boot too root=/dev/hda2.
> Thanks Rafael!
>
> --
> Zach Paine