file:  README.common.problems
date:  04-Oct-2000


Problem:  LILO won't 'make'
==========================
If you get errors trying to 'make all', and the errors are occurring
during the assembly of 'temp2.s', you have encountered the most common
problem trying to build LILO.  If the lines in error all have the assembler
directive 'near' on them.  This problem occurs when your assembler for
the real-mode bootstrap code is out-of-date:  'as86'.  Certain current
distributions of Linux distribute version 4 of this assembler; whereas
the current version is 15.

Two sources for an updated version are:

Redhat RPM distribution:
     site: http://www.redhat.com      (search for 'dev86')
     pkg:  dev86-0.15.0-2.i386.rpm  

or Robert de Bath's page at:
     site: http://www.cix.co.uk/~mayday
     link: bin86-0.15.1.tar.gz


Problem:  When I boot, all I get is 'LI'
=======================================
This means the first-stage loader gained control; it thought it success-
fully loaded the second-stage loader; but it never got there.  This most
often occurs when the second-stage loader, '/boot/boot.b', is not load-
able using the BIOS.

First, have you tried specifying 'lba32' in your 'lilo.conf' file?  On
newer systems, this will almost always work, since the loader will now
use the newer EDD packet calls, which are not cylinder-limited.

Second, do you know your disk geometry?  This means, do you know the
numbers of cylinders/heads/sectors of all your hard drives; and are these
the numbers that LILO is using when it installs the boot loader.  Three
reports of the disk geometry may be obtained:

  1.  Run 'lilo -t -v5' and check the geometry reports for each device.
  2.  Run 'lilo -Tgeom' and see if the same numbers are reported.  (This
      may fail on some systems, where LILO has trouble running BIOS 
      calls in v86 mode.)
  3.  Create the diagnostic floppy (see README.disk) and check the
      reported disk geometries.

If any of the geometry reports differ, then you may have to specify the
disk geometry to LILO using 'disk= heads= sectors='.  Use the actual
numbers reported by the BIOS:  #3 above, or #2.

The reports above will also indicate the BIOS device codes used by each
disk.  LILO uses heuristics to obtain these device codes, and usually gets
the codes right on all-IDE or all-SCSI systems.  However, mixed IDE/SCSI
systems, and SCSI systems on Future Domain controllers, will require you
to tell LILO what disks are assigned to what device codes.  This can
be done using 'disk= bios=' lines in 'lilo.conf'.

(end)