(LILO installation problems, solved) but possibly serious installation problems? Hi again gerasimos! ...been a long time! Every time I come here it seems that I only ask about -probably- basic Slackare problems. I am aware and ashamed of that. I find Slackware more difficult to configure than opensuse, Debian or Mint, but like it because -once working- I find it the most stable and safe OS to use in a server. Since last time my SMS-1.6.0 on an eeePC (as backup server) is still running smoothly. So was SMS-2.0.7 on the fitpc2 I inherited from my Slackware friend up to last summer when the HDD crasched. (The previous SMS-2.0.7 installation was made by my friend in a setup like: /dev/sda1 Windows7 NTFS /dev/sda2/ Extended /dev/sda5 Swap swap /dev/sda6 Mint 9 Ext4 Grub2 Bootmgr in Mint handled all OS' /dev/sda7 SMS-2.0.7 Ext 4 /dev/sda8 /home EXt4 SMS-1.6.0 on eeePC was much simpler to install because SMS was the only OS and I installed LILO "Automatic" in MBR. There were heaps of other configuration problems, but the installation was fairly simple. This week I tried to install SMS-2.0.9-Native + Extra as second OS on a new HDD. The fitpc2 has got CPU Intel Atom Z530/550 processor 1.6/2 GHz and US15W chipset, 2 GB RAM and a 320 GB S-ata HDD. I wanted a similar setup as my Slackware friend had setup /dev/sda1 Windows7 NTFS EasyBCD Bootmgr in Windows handling both, SMS through LILO in /dev/sda6 /dev/sda2 Extended /dev/sda5 Swap swap /dev/sda6 / SMS-2.0.9 Ext4 /dev/sda9 /home Ext (later perhaps /dev/sda7 Debian or LinuxMint or any other remaining x64 OS I can find. opensuse had none since one year) Now I am fairly used to this kind of settings with one Win and 2-3 Linux OS' handled from Windows and EasyBCD, but NOT used to LILO. Installations: 1. My first try failed due to carelessness: I let LILO install Automatically and this way got LILO installed in MBR /dev/sda. 2. I had a MBR-backup that I rewrote with dd, formatted /dev/sda6 and made a new installation. -This time using Expert mode when installing LILO in /dev/sda6, added a Windows entry, but forgot to add a Linux, SMS, entry. (Thought I didn't have to? More used to the graphical och semigraphical grub2 installation interfaces in openSUSE and Debian). I also let SMS-installation create an USB Boot stick. Now my setup worked so far that EasyBCD could boot up Windows and also Start LILO on /dev/sda6 but with only the Windows Entry (that worked). -I thought I could try to re-configure/-install LILO if I just could boot SMS. a. Tried the USB Boot stick but ended up in 'Kernel Panic - mot syncing : Attempted to kill init! exitcode' however I tried. b.Tried a SuperGrub2CD (I know Ususlly have worked before) but ended up in 'Kernel Panic - not syncing: VFS : Unable to mount root fs on unknown block (0,0)' c. Finally I had hoped that I could use the "Configure" entry in 'setup' on SMS-Native-Install CD, but found it was only for reconfiguring an ongoing new installation. d. Through the SMS Installation CD I opened a console, mounted /dev/sda6 on /mnt/sms (that I created): Could make a backup of /etc/lilo.conf to /root/Documents (Surprised but Glad to find the Linux tools were available). Made another backup of /etc/lilo.conf in /etc/; Edited lilo.conf, but could not install it using "# lilo" (no such command). -Since I could not find any way to reconfigure LILO from "outside" I reformatted /dev/sda6 an made a 3rd installation. 3. Installation in /dev/sda6, LILO in /dev/sda /root, created USB boot stick Installed LILO in Expert mode, this time I remembered the Linux entry /dev/sda6 [Name "SMS-2.0.9] -This time my bootmanaging worked! That is: EasyBCD in Windows booted Windows and started Lilo now with two entries; Win7 and (default) SMS-2.0.9. Now booting SMS from LILO went just as bad as before: After "Loading SMS-2.0.9...." for about 45 s, with msg "BIOS data checking successfull", the boot started and continued for ~8 s. Then screen went black and nothing more happened for 10-30 minutes. Booting with the fresh USB Boot stick (created in this install), went as before: Black screen after loading vmlinuz... for ~45 s. When passing the parameter vga=791 I sometimes can read out 'Kernel Panic - mot syncing : Attempted to kill init! exitcode', sometimes I only reach the lines before that. Something like "_ret_from_kernel_thread +0x21/0x38 rest_init +0x70/0x70 ----------[ end trace [a large hex number ]---------" Initially I thought to try a 4th and last installation: 4. Installation in /dev/sda6 no LILO, start with USB boot stick but I gave that up! I think the Black screens and Kernel Panics indicate that there are other serious errors in my installation. errors that seems the same everytime (beside my failed LILO installations in 1st and 2nd installation). Have you got any clue? When I installed 1.6.0 on the eeePC i had the disk prepartitioned and formatted to Ext3 with GParted. Had / on a logical (Extended) partition /dev/sda5, /home on /dev/sda6 and a DOS fat32 partition /dev/sda7 mounted as /mnt/Win. This SMS 2.0.9 installation has -apart from the partition order, and Ext4-format- got a very similar setup. I booted hugesmp.s on the Native Install CD (to me "Pentium-Pro" is a fairly old CPU. Besides I used hugesmp.s when installing SMS 1.6.0 on the eeePC from the same year as the fitpc2, 2011, also with Intel Atom CPU, another model) Then I installed the Default hugesmp kernel (just as in the eeePC). -I add some extra hwinfo about my fitpc2 CPU in a textfile. Now a second, not so important question: In my second installation (2.) -Should there have been any way for me to reconfigure and reinstall LILO? That is: Is there any way I can reconfigure LILO when I cannot boot SMS/Slackware? Best regards Lars