Mandrake bootloader config

[Richard M]

I've been running Mandrake 9.1 in a dual boot configuration with XP Pro for around 6 months now but no matter what I try, I cannot make Windows the default OS to boot.
The reason is because I tend to use Windows more often because I play a lot of games and it's annoying having to remember to press a key before the 10 second timer runs out.

I've tried using the config app in Mandrake to alter the boot order but it just won't work?
It gives an error/warning message but I'm at work right now and can't remember exactly what it says.

Sys info:
hda1: WinXP, containing bootloader
hdb1,hdb2,hdb3: Windows NTFS partitions
hdc: Linux

Any ideas?

[chriscl]

Richard,

I'm assuming you're using a linux loader to boot your operating systems? (i.e. not a third-party loader?)

If so, are you using LILO or GRUB? (I don't know Mandrake's preference as to which they install by default?)

Sometimes wonderful GUI tools don't work very well - for instance, if you want to change boot-loader options with LILO, you have to be 'root' to do this. Maybe the Mandrake tool isn't asking you to authenticate as root?

If you're using GRUB, I think that in the "grub.conf" config file you merely need to specify which OS to boot, using the "default=x" line - where x is the operating system as listed in order in your grub.conf, starting at '0' for the first one. You can edit grub.conf (again as root) and check for this, if there is no "default=" line, add one!

If your system uses LILO, you can add a "default=xxxx" line to lilo.conf (again, as root) where the 'xxxx' is the "image name" of the operating system to boot by default. If you open lilo.conf in an editor, you should see several lines, any linux kernels whil be shown as "image=/path/", with a "label=" entry beneath, and other (non-linux OS) will be shown as "other=/path", again with an appropriate "label=" entry. I think from memory, that lilo will call a non-linux OS "DOS" unless otherwise amended, so you could put an entry in to lilo.conf to say "default=DOS" - this should then default LILO to booting your "DOS" image. Obviously, if it's called it "Windows", then use this...

Remember if you manually amend lilo.conf you must (as root....) run 'lilo' at a command prompt to update the boot loader. It's also then an idea to run 'lilo -q' to query LILO - you should see the 'default' image (i.e. the one booted first!) with an asterisk after it....

If either of the above don't work, let us know which loader you use and I can check further for you.....

HTH!

[Richard M]

Originally Posted by chriscl

Richard,

I'm assuming you're using a linux loader to boot your operating systems? (i.e. not a third-party loader?)

If so, are you using LILO or GRUB? (I don't know Mandrake's preference as to which they install by default?)

Sometimes wonderful GUI tools don't work very well - for instance, if you want to change boot-loader options with LILO, you have to be 'root' to do this. Maybe the Mandrake tool isn't asking you to authenticate as root?

If you're using GRUB, I think that in the "grub.conf" config file you merely need to specify which OS to boot, using the "default=x" line - where x is the operating system as listed in order in your grub.conf, starting at '0' for the first one. You can edit grub.conf (again as root) and check for this, if there is no "default=" line, add one!

If your system uses LILO, you can add a "default=xxxx" line to lilo.conf (again, as root) where the 'xxxx' is the "image name" of the operating system to boot by default. If you open lilo.conf in an editor, you should see several lines, any linux kernels whil be shown as "image=/path/", with a "label=" entry beneath, and other (non-linux OS) will be shown as "other=/path", again with an appropriate "label=" entry. I think from memory, that lilo will call a non-linux OS "DOS" unless otherwise amended, so you could put an entry in to lilo.conf to say "default=DOS" - this should then default LILO to booting your "DOS" image. Obviously, if it's called it "Windows", then use this...

Remember if you manually amend lilo.conf you must (as root....) run 'lilo' at a command prompt to update the boot loader. It's also then an idea to run 'lilo -q' to query LILO - you should see the 'default' image (i.e. the one booted first!) with an asterisk after it....

If either of the above don't work, let us know which loader you use and I can check further for you.....

HTH!

I'm pretty sure it's LILO - Mandrakes own modded version though.
It has a mixed graphic/text interface like this:


I'm also sure that I've tried to change the .conf file manually but I didn't know about the last point you made about running as root to update it, that could be it!

[chriscl]

...it could well be!!

With GRUB, you just amend the .conf file with whatever changes you like, and they are there once you reboot.

With LILO, you can amend the .conf file, but you *must* (as root!) run 'lilo' at a prompt or the changes you've made will not be written to the boot loader!

If you installed Mandrake (or any linux distro for that matter) *after* installing windows, both GRUB and LILO are usually pretty good at finding "other" operating systems and adding them to the respective .conf file. Obviously. Mandrake (or whichever distro....) will want to set itself as the default. As long as you have the respective entry in your .conf file, just run 'lilo' as root and all should be well.

Hope that'll work for you!

[Richard M]

Hmm..

As you can see in the image below, I ran lilo and it seemed to work but had a weird RAM disk error:
http://www.richardm.co.uk/images/for.../grab_lilo.jpg

When I go into the LILO config tool though, it has the new settings but when I reboot, it still does the same old thing.
What's going wrong?

PS. Find my lilo.conf attached:

[chriscl]

Hi Richard,

The "initial RAM Disk error" is, as it says, that (one of) the kernel image(s) you're trying to add does not have RAM disk support.

Linux uses "initial RAM Disks" (or "initrd") to load a an extra driver (usually a file system driver) to boot the actual kernel.

From your lilo.conf, you seem to have more than one kernel compiled/installed for Mandrake - it may be that one (or both) of these kernel images, when compiled, wasn't compiled with support for RAM disks? One appears to tbe a standard linux kernel, while the other may be a "non-framebuffer" kernel (linux-nonfb??)

If you keep getting the error, you may need to recompile to include support for the RAM disk - I'm not 100% certain with Mandrake, but with some distro's that use RAM disks, you need to specify and entry for an inital RAM disk in your boot loader file (lilo.conf or grub.conf) as appropriate, or use the "mkinitrd" command to create the inital RAM disk image. The RAM disk image is really only a file with a (Very) compressed version of the linux kernel - just enough, in fact, to boot certain drivers!

You can see from the last segment ot your lilo.conf that you're specifying an .IMG (initrd image) file for Mandrake, but it isn't happy smoewhere.....?

The other strange thing in your lilo.conf is the image entitled "Windows2" - you're not showing an initrd for this, so you might want to try commenting this section out, then re-running 'lilo' (as root) and rebooting?

Give that a go and see if it helps...?

[Richard M]

Originally Posted by chriscl

Hi Richard,

The "initial RAM Disk error" is, as it says, that (one of) the kernel image(s) you're trying to add does not have RAM disk support.

Linux uses "initial RAM Disks" (or "initrd") to load a an extra driver (usually a file system driver) to boot the actual kernel.

From your lilo.conf, you seem to have more than one kernel compiled/installed for Mandrake - it may be that one (or both) of these kernel images, when compiled, wasn't compiled with support for RAM disks? One appears to tbe a standard linux kernel, while the other may be a "non-framebuffer" kernel (linux-nonfb??)

If you keep getting the error, you may need to recompile to include support for the RAM disk - I'm not 100% certain with Mandrake, but with some distro's that use RAM disks, you need to specify and entry for an inital RAM disk in your boot loader file (lilo.conf or grub.conf) as appropriate, or use the "mkinitrd" command to create the inital RAM disk image. The RAM disk image is really only a file with a (Very) compressed version of the linux kernel - just enough, in fact, to boot certain drivers!

You can see from the last segment ot your lilo.conf that you're specifying an .IMG (initrd image) file for Mandrake, but it isn't happy smoewhere.....?

The other strange thing in your lilo.conf is the image entitled "Windows2" - you're not showing an initrd for this, so you might want to try commenting this section out, then re-running 'lilo' (as root) and rebooting?

Give that a go and see if it helps...?

Thanks for the reply.
The Windows2 partition is nothing to worry about, the disk which is now hdb used to have Windows on it until I started to use another (hda).

It's weird that it shows two kernels because it's a fairly standard Mandrake install. I'm certainly not advanced enough to be compiling kernels either, I'm still a bit of a noob really and my only other Linux distro was Red Hat 8.

I do have two different LILOs though, one in /sbin/ and one in /usr/share/loader/ ...
I'll play around with it later, if it doesn't work then it's not a disaster but I'd rather not push it too hard in case I mess up the Windows partition which has a lot of important data on it.

/me reminds himself to do a backup on the weekend.