I can't tell you in detail, but I can give you the outline (and
if you learn how to do this you will greatly increase your
independence).
The old Linux boot disk has very good potential, and the new
Linux boot disk should as well.
First the old disk:
- this disk is correctly loading a kernel into memory and
executing it. That's why you see regular kernel messages
before the kernel panic.
- The reason for the panic is that your boot disk was
pre-configured to load your '/' from a particular location on
the disk. Your new install apparently has it in a different
place. Without mounting the root partition, the boot process
cannot continue and the kernel will panic.
The fix:
Instead of typing "linux" at the command prompt, you are
going to have to give it more information so the kernel can
find the root filesystem. Something like:
"linux root=/dev/hda1 ro"
This tells lilo that after loading the kernel the root
filesystem should be loaded from "hard drive a" (the first
hard drive) partition 1. That is the first partition on the
first hard drive. The "ro" means to mount it "read only" at
first which is appropriate because during startup the system
will want to check the integrity of the hard drive, and you
read only for that. After everything checks out, it will be
changed to read-write.
So you will need to experiment to discover exactly what you
need to put in for /dev/hda1, but when you get it, your
system will boot.
The new lilo disk:
You should be able to do something of the same with this
disk. It also has a better chance of running everything well
since it should have a newer kernel on it (designed to go
with the version of Mandrake you just installed). If it
doesn't give you a prompt, I believe holding one of the shift
keys (left?) down during the boot is supposed to force it
give you a prompt.
Once you get a prompt, the ideas from above would apply.
At the risk of being offensive, I'll finish with a slight
reprimand. You should probably try to become familiar with Lilo
and how it works. The whole idea of a bootloader is mysterious
at first, particularly to those coming from a DOS/Windows
background. The Lilo man page is also not so easy to read, and
you could probably say the same for the FAQs. However, this
problem occurs over and over for you, so you might as well learn
the ropes.
--
Don Bindner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
