On Tue, 2004-03-09 at 15:40, Ron Joordens wrote: > Hello Everyone, > > I have just installed Mandrake on a system which already had Windows > XP and FreeBSD installed on it. I want to be able to choose which OS > to use at boot time. However, I am given no menu to choose from and > the default Mandrake starts automatically. > > LILO is installed in the MBR. I had a look at the lilo.conf file and > saw that Mandrake saw the pre-existing windows partition and added the > relevent lines to the file. It did not add lines for FreeBSD. I was > able to add FreeBSD using the tools available in the configuration > menu. However still no options appear to choose OS on bootup. > > I have discovered that if I manually change the default in lilo.conf, > I can boot Windows and FreeBSD successfully. However doing so entails > changing lilo.conf, running lilo to install to MBR, rebooting to other > OS. Then to boot to another OS, I have to boot Mandrake using a boot > floppy and change it again. > > So how do I change lilo.conf to enable a menu. I was under the > impression through reading the man pages that the menu was enabled by > default. Following is my lilo.conf file: > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > boot=/dev/hda > map=/boot/map > vga=normal > default="Mandrake_Linux" > keytable=/boot/us-latin1.klt > nowarn > message=/boot/message > menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw > image=/boot/vmlinuz-enterprise > label="Mandrake_Linux" > root=/dev/hda5 > initrd=/boot/initrd-enterprise.img > append="devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi splash=silent" > read-only > image=/boot/vmlinuz > label="linux" > root=/dev/hda5 > initrd=/boot/initrd.img > append="devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi splash=silent" > vga=788 > read-only > image=/boot/vmlinuz > label="linux-nonfb" > root=/dev/hda5 > initrd=/boot/initrd.img > append="devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi" > read-only > image=/boot/vmlinuz > label="failsafe" > root=/dev/hda5 > initrd=/boot/initrd.img > append="failsafe devfs=nomount hdc=ide-scsi" > read-only > other=/dev/hda1 > label="Windows" > table=/dev/hda > other=/dev/fd0 > label="floppy" > unsafe > other=/dev/hda2 > table=/dev/hda > label="FreeBSD" > > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > The man page also says that the /boot/message file is limited to > approximately 65,000 bytes. My /boot/message file is 102KB and is > filled with unreadable hieroglyphics. Here's a sample: > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Â* > 6 X > +|#x 2lqâ ?'z > *|>V-ÂÃÃÂÂÃ;[EMAIL PROTECTED]'ÅÂÃÃÃÃÃÃÂÂ=SÂ!8tÃÃà ;âMcÅ > ÃÃÃÃÃÃËHHH~<<==0000 333""????>>>qq;;yyyFFFF&&&&& ppp > 9999 > > ÃÃÃÃÃÃËHHH~~<<=0000 333""???>>>qq;;yyFFFF&&&&& ppp > 9999 > > ÃÃÃÃÃÃËHHH~<<==00000 333""????>>q;;yyyFFFF&&&&& ppp > 9999 > > ÃÃÃÃÃÃËHHH~<<==0000 33""????>>>qq;;yyFFFF&&&&& ppp > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Isn't this supposed to be a readable text file that shows the message > to display like for example. > > LILO Menu > 1 - Windows > 2 - Mandrake > 3 - FreeBSD > > Also my /boot/map file is filled with the same type of hieroglyphics > and is 119KB in size. > > Can anyone give me any pointers on how to modify my lilo.conf file to > get a menu? Or is it the message and map files that are at fault? > > Also on another related issue. When I tried to create my Mandrake boot > floppy for Mandrake Enterprise it failed because it was too big to > fit on a floppy. I had to create one with the other kernel mdk. How do > I create one for the enterprise kernel? > > Everytime I boot from the floppy it detects changes to the hardware > and asks if I want to load the tools to configure them. Then when I > boot from the hard disk, it again detects new hardware. Anyone know > why this is? > > Thanks in advance for your help. > > Ron Joordens > Melbourne
Try adding: timeout=100 after the nowarn line in your lilo.conf, then run lilo to rebuild the boot manager. I suspect that without this, you get the menu for 0 seconds before it boots the default image. HTH Brian (also Melbourne!)
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