----- Original Message -----
From: "Stephen Nelson-Smith" <sanelson@???>
To: "Hampshire LUG Discussion List" <hampshire@???>
Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2008 6:26 PM
Subject: Re: [Hampshire] Slackware rootdisk (was: Removing master boot
records)
> Hello,
>
> On Wed, Jun 11, 2008 at 6:13 PM, Rob Malpass <lug@???>
> wrote:
>
>> I've got it to boot from the hard drive - but a few seconds into the boot
>> process, it's now asking for a rootdisk - which I've obviously not
>> created,
>> nor do I really want to create one - I want it to stick to the hdd
>> completely - no cds, no floppies etc.
>
> Do we infer from this that you've installed slackware?
>
>> To be honest, I ran the dd command suggested
>>
>> dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=4
>>
>> not really knowing what it did.
>
> Ok - MBR101 follows:
>
> The MBR (master boot record) is the first 512 bytes of your disk - the
> first sector. It contains the partition tables, and optionally some
> executable code that the bios runs when the computer boots. In the
> slackware install there's an option to install lilo to the MBR - I
> think it even says (possibly unsafe) from memory.
>
> The executable code is contained within the first 446 bytes. The
> partition table follows, 6 bytes later, and is 64 bytes in size. Then
> there are 2 extra bytes of data. That makes up your 512 bytes.
>
> You erased the partition table and the executable code by over-writing
> it with zeros.
>
>> Am I right in thinking the initial output
>> is from lilo
>
> Which output - it would help if you gave the exact things you see.
>
>> and lilo now needs to know where the partition is?
>
> I'm not clear on what you're experiencing, or even if you're still at
> the install stage. Older slackware installs spoke of root and boot
> disks, so you may even be seeing installation messages. You've not
> provided enough context.
>
>> If so, can
>> someone tell me what the dd syntax is to point it at /dev/hda1?
>
> You don't want/need to do that.
>
> S.
>
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>
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> 08:32
>
>
I'm past the install stage. When it now boots, I get lines and lines of
output (which obviously I'm afraid I can't post as the networking isn't up),
then it asks me to insert a rootdisk. The problem is I have no root disk.
Cheers
Rob
