Help! Linux won't boot and my nephew is coming for dinner!

[billhorne at mediaone.net (Bill Horne)]

Glenn Burkhardt wrote:

> So, what did you do and did it work?  I'm dying to find out how the story
> ends.
>
> I'm pretty sure you need the initrd parameter and file in /boot.  For SCSI
> with most distributions, the module containing the SCSI driver isn't linked
> in with the kernel file.  So there there needs to be some way to load it
> from the SCSI disk so the kernel can use it.  That's where initrd comes in...

Well, I've got to the point that I can use Tom's Boot disk (thanks, Charles!) to
mount the SCSI drive, but I've found two problems:

1. The "backup" copy of the boot sector is out of date. I had previous copies of
the boot sector (e.g., boot.0800) on the disk, and I thought that LILO would
generate an alternate filename when it saw them. No such luck: it just doesn't
back up. Live and learn.

2. Whatever I try with LILO, including reinstallation, I get an error saying
"First boot sector doesn't have a valid LILO signature", which I already knew.

3. The documentation says the error is caused by moving the map table without
rebuilding the map, but I don't find any man page for "map" or similar
activities.

All ideas welcome, and thanks.

Bill

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