[mattach]

Hi everyone,

Here's my situation: I have an old PC (AMD K6, 32MB RAM, 6GB HD) and I wanted to install a linux distro on it just to goof off with. I installed Fedora 2, but I found it was brutally slow, and I read somewhere that Slackware was a good choice for computers with less power. I installed Slackware, and it went pretty smooth, but when the PC rebooted, the old GRUB came up with Fedora as the only option, which I had just overwritten (of course, it wouldn't boot Fedora).

In the Slackware install, there was an option of where to install the LILO bootloader, and I chose to have it on the hard disk, as the installer recommended it as the safest option short of boot diskettes. I have little to no idea on how to use GRUB or LILO, but I've heard that GRUB is the better choice for ease of use and whatnot for linux bootloaders. Is there a way I can reconfigure GRUB to boot Slackware, or at least remove GRUB so LILO can work? (If it helps, there was a dialog in the install about which kernel to install, so I chose the one labelled "lowmem.i". It also said something about how I might have to use fdisk to make the partition where I installed Slackware to be bootable.). Pretty much, what are my options here?

Thanks in advance,
Matt

[Elvandil]

Try a different boot loader altogether and overwrite what is there. Install this one to the drive from a floppy (or run it from the floppy, though I'm not sure why someone would do that):

http://gag.sourceforge.net

[tdi_veedub]

Reboot with the slackware CD in the drive and when you get to the "boot:" prompt type:

vmlinuz root=/dev/dhaX ro

X is the partition that your linux / directory is installed. Once the system is finished booting go into the LILO configuration by typing "liloconfig". This time when it asks where to install LILO select MBR (Master Boot Record). That will overwrite GRUB with LILO, and you should be good to go.

[mattach]

Okay, so I reinstalled Slack10, and this time, I chose "Install LILO to MBR". When I rebooted, LILO showed up, and I tried to boot Slack10, but now the screen is totally blank and it didn't sound like it actually did anything after. Any ideas as to whats going on?

Matt

[tdi_veedub]

Sounds like you configured your console display wrong. What display mode did you choose for your console when you installed? If it was anything other than "standard" then that is your problem.

When you get to the LILO prompt, instead of just hitting enter to boot linux, type "linux 1" without the quotes. This will boot into runlevel 1 with no specialized console or anything. Once you login, recofigure you LILO by typing "liloconfig" without the quotes. Only this time when it asks you to choose a screen resolution for your console, select "standard". Proceed to configure your boot options as before. Once back at the prompt, type "lilo" (no quotes) to write your lilo config file changes to the /boot directory. Restart, and you should be good.

[mattach]

okay, i tried "linux 1" but the same thing happened?
the monitor is somewhat old but it still works, could it be a hardware problem?

also, after some time in the blank state, it sometimes just reboots itself???