Gentoo Archives: gentoo-user

From: Walter Dnes <waltdnes@××××××××.org>
To: Gentoo Users List <gentoo-user@l.g.o>
Subject: [gentoo-user] Strange behaviour with LILO on new install on old laptop
Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2014 04:52:59
Message-Id: 20140419045237.GA31969@waltdnes.org
1 I just finished installing Gentoo on an older AMD laptop. There was
2 one major problem that I hacked around, and things appear to be working
3 OK, but I still get warnings when installing lilo.
4
5 When I first did the install, I got the warning message...
6 "Could not determine root partition!". I ran lilo and rebooted, but got
7 a kernel panic, because the kernel couldn't find the boot device. I dug
8 into this. Apparently the lilo ebuild tries to outsmart the user, and
9 figure out the root partition itself, with the bash syntax...
10
11 rootpart="$(mount | grep -v "tmpfs" | grep -v "rootfs" | grep "on / " | cut -f1 -d " ")"
12
13 I don't know if I screwed up during the install, but *IN THE CHROOT*,
14 mount returns a null string. I remembered vaguely that "mount" returns
15 the contents of /etc/mtab. I looked at it, and /etc/mtab was also
16 empty. I applied the "rootpart=" stuff against another machine, and
17 found out which line it homed in on. I manually edited /etc/mtab in
18 the chroot, inserting the short line...
19
20 805
21
22 ...Then I emerged lilo again. This time I got...
23
24 #####################################################################
25 >>> Installing (1 of 1) sys-boot/lilo-23.2-r2
26
27 * Checking for LILO ... Yes, on /dev/sda
28 * Running DOLILO to complete the install ...
29 You can move /etc/conf.d/dolilo.example to /etc/conf.d/dolilo and edit it to set your preferences.
30 fdisk: cannot open 80: No such file or directory
31 fdisk: cannot open 80: No such file or directory
32 Bootsector updated succesfully.
33 #####################################################################
34
35 The important part is that the laptop now boots up OK. However, when I
36 re-install lilo, on the natively-booted laptop, I still get the above
37 messages. I'm using the same partitioning scheme and fstab that I've
38 been using for years without problems. Here they are...
39
40 outfput from "fdisk -l"
41 #####################################################################
42 Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes, 625142448 sectors
43 Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
44 Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
45 I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
46 Disk identifier: 0x612cf108
47
48 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
49 /dev/sda1 2048 625142447 312570200 5 Extended
50 /dev/sda5 4096 618495 307200 83 Linux
51 /dev/sda6 620544 17397759 8388608 83 Linux
52 /dev/sda7 17399808 625142447 303871320 83 Linux
53 #####################################################################
54
55 /etc/fstab
56 #########################################################################
57 /dev/sda5 / ext2 noatime,nodiratime,async 0 1
58 /dev/sda7 /home ext3 noatime,nodiratime,async 0 1
59 /home/bindmounts/opt /opt auto bind 0 0
60 /home/bindmounts/var /var auto bind 0 0
61 /home/bindmounts/usr /usr auto bind 0 0
62 /home/bindmounts/tmp /tmp auto bind 0 0
63 /dev/sda6 none swap sw 0 0
64 /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso9660 noauto,users,ro 0 0
65 /dev/sr0 /mnt/dvd auto noauto,users,ro 0 0
66
67 devpts /dev/pts devpts defaults 0 0
68 #########################################################################
69
70 Any ideas?
71
72 --
73 Walter Dnes <waltdnes@××××××××.org>
74 I don't run "desktop environments"; I run useful applications

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