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

[gaf at blu.org (Jerry Feldman)]

The map is created when you build the kernel. 
You should find it with the vmlinux file in the /usr/src/linux top 
directory.
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root       398311 Jun 19 21:16 System.map
-rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root      2223484 Jun 19 21:16 vmlinux

Bill Horne wrote:
> 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 The "backup" copy of the boot sector is out of date.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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-- 
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix user group
http://www.blu.org


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