LILO Error Codes

     When you first boot up a system with Linux installed on it, odds are
     that it will be using the LILO Boot Manager. Sometimes the boot process
     does not go smoothly and, as a result, only part of the letters of the
     LILO: prompt will show up on the screen (with the boot process coming
     to a halt).

     Below are the various LILO boot prompt's and their attendent problem,
     and solutions.

 L<nn>         1<=nn<=16 - Disk Error codes

 LI            The second stage boot loader loaded but could not run.
               This could be caused by an incorrect geometry setting
               (hard drive parameters) or it could be caused by
               repositioning the file boot.b without reinstalling the
               loader (/sbin/lilo).

 LIL           The second stage of the boot loader has started but
               cannot read the descriptor tables from the map file.
               This may be caused by either a physical defect of the
               hard drive, or the hard drive geometry is wrong.

 LIL?          The second stage of the boot loader has loaded at the
               wrong address. This could be caused by an incorrect
               geometry setting (hard drive parameters) or it could be
               caused by repositioning the file boot.b without
               reinstalling the loader (/sbin/lilo).

 LIL-          LILO boot manageer has found a corrupt descriptor table
               (from the map file). This could be caused by an
               incorrect geometry setting or it could be caused by
               repositioning the map file without resinstalling the
               loader (/sbin/lilo).

 LILO          Success. J Press the <TAB> key to see your choices. The
               LILO boot manager will start the first one by default.

     Error codes associated with the L<nn> LILO message

 0x00         Internal Error
              Read error. Probable cause is an incorrect map file.

 0x01         Illegal Instruction
              This message should not be displayed.

 0x02         Address Label not found
              An error occurred reading the disk.

 0x03         Disk is Write Protected

              This should not occur (unless you can find the hidden
              write protect tab on your hard drive! J )

 0x04         Sector not found

              Caused by incorrect geometry. If the boot disk is a SCSI
              disk, the kernel does not recognize the geometry data or
              the disktab file is faulty. In rare cases, this error is
              caused by the the compact flag in the /etc/lilo.conf
              file.

 0x06         Change line active
              This is normally caused by opening and closing the disk
              drive door during the boot process.

 0x08         DMA overflow
              Should not occur.

 0x09         DMA transfer exceeds 64K limit
              Should not occur

 0x0C         Invalid Media
              This error message is by defective media. It should not
              occur.

 0x10         CRC Error
              The data on the disk is faulty. Reinstalling LILO might
              help (to rewrite the sector). If this error occurs when
              booting from a hard disk, the hard disks bad sector list
              should be updated by running fsck.

 0x20         Controller error
              Should not occur

 0x40         Seek error
              This indicates that the disk may be faulty.

 0x80         Timeout
              The disk drive is not ready (open door).
--------------------------------------------
   L <error> ...   The first stage boot loader has been loaded and started,
    but it can't load the second stage boot loader. The two-digit error
    codes indicate the type of problem. (See also section "Disk error
    codes".) This condition usually indicates a media failure or a geometry
    mismatch (e.g. bad disk parameters, see section "Disk geometry").
   LI   The first stage boot loader was able to load the second stage boot
    loader, but has failed to execute it. This can either be caused by a
    geometry mismatch or by moving /boot/boot.b without running the map
    installer.
   LIL   The second stage boot loader has been started, but it can't load
    the descriptor table from the map file. This is typically caused by a
    media failure or by a geometry mismatch.
   LIL?   The second stage boot loader has been loaded at an incorrect
    address. This is typically caused by a subtle geometry mismatch or by
    moving /boot/boot.b without running the map installer.
   LIL-   The descriptor table is corrupt. This can either be caused by a
    geometry mismatch or by moving /boot/map without running the map
    installer.
   LILO   All parts of LILO have been successfully loaded.
============================================ IDE Disk/CD-ROM Driver Parameters
 "hdx="  is recognized for all "x" from "a" to "h", such as "hdc".
 "idex=" is recognized for all "x" from "0" to "3", such as "ide1".

 "hdx=noprobe"          : drive may be present, but do not probe for it
 "hdx=none"             : drive is NOT present, ignore cmos and do not probe
 "hdx=nowerr"           : ignore the WRERR_STAT bit on this drive
 "hdx=cdrom"            : drive is present, and is a cdrom drive
 "hdx=cyl,head,sect"    : disk drive is present, with specified geometry
 "hdx=autotune"         : driver will attempt to tune interface speed
                                to the fastest PIO mode supported,
                                if possible for this drive only.
                                Not fully supported by all chipset types,
                                and quite likely to cause trouble with
                                older/odd IDE drives.

 "idex=noprobe"         : do not attempt to access/use this interface
 "idex=base"            : probe for an interface at the addr specified,
                                where "base" is usually 0x1f0 or 0x170
                                and "ctl" is assumed to be "base"+0x206
 "idex=base,ctl"        : specify both base and ctl
 "idex=base,ctl,irq"    : specify base, ctl, and irq number
 "idex=autotune"        : driver will attempt to tune interface speed
                                to the fastest PIO mode supported,
                                for all drives on this interface.
                                Not fully supported by all chipset types,
                                and quite likely to cause trouble with
                                older/odd IDE drives.
 "idex=noautotune"      : driver will NOT attempt to tune interface speed
                                This is the default for most chipsets,
                                except the cmd640.
 "idex=serialize"       : do not overlap operations on idex and ide(x^1)

ex.:  "ide0=dtc2278"         : probe/support DTC2278 interface
============================================ Make bootable floppy
/sbin/mke2fs /dev/fd0
[ -d /fd ] || mkdir /fd
mount /dev/fd0 /fd
cp /boot/boot.b /fd
cp /zImage /fd
echo image=/fd/zImage label=linux |
  /sbin/lilo -C - -b /dev/fd0 -i /fd/boot.b -c -m /fd/map
umount /fd
-------------------------------------------- 
lilo -b /dev/fd0 -m /boot/map.fd
-------------------------------------------- make install (kernel compile)
Creating a lilo bootdisk...
mkdir /tmp/boot3292
mke2fs -q /dev/fd0
mke2fs 1.12, 9-Jul-98 for EXT2 FS 0.5b, 95/08/09
mount -t ext2 /dev/fd0 /tmp/boot3292
cd /tmp/boot3292
cp /boot/vmlinuz /boot/boot.b .
lilo -C - <<- EOF2
Added linux *
set +e; cd /; umount /dev/fd0; rmdir /tmp/boot3292
============================================ Serial Console
append="panic=40 console=ttyS0, 38400n8 console=tty0"
serial=0,38400n8
============================================
Creating a lilo bootdisk...
mkdir /tmp/boot4618
mke2fs -q /dev/fd0
mke2fs 1.12, 9-Jul-98 for EXT2 FS 0.5b, 95/08/09
mount -t ext2 /dev/fd0 /tmp/boot4618
cd /tmp/boot4618
cp /boot/vmlinuz /boot/boot.b .
lilo -C - <<- EOF2
Added linux *
set +e; cd /; umount /dev/fd0; rmdir /tmp/boot4618
============================================ lilo.conf
disk = /dev/sda
  bios = 0x80
  sectors = 32
  heads = 64
  cylinders = 632
  partition = /dev/sda1
    start = 2048
  partition = /dev/sda2
    start = 204800
  partition = /dev/sda3
    start = 500000
  partition = /dev/sda4
    start = 900000
disk = /dev/sda
  bios = 0x80
disk = /dev/hda
  bios = 0x81
-------------------------------------------- multi OS
default = linux
# But you want:
 
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.19-6.2.1
label = linux
alias = L
        
other = /dev/hdb4
table = /dev/hdb
label = win95
alias = 95
# And this is the interesting part, where
# that logical drive swap takes place:
map-drive = 0x80
to = 0x81
map-drive = 0x81
to = 0x80
-------------------------------------------- lilo.conf	Serial console
...
message=/boot/message
serial  = 1,38400n8
image=/boot/vmlinuz
	label=linux
	root=/dev/hda3
	append="console=tty0 console=ttyS1,38400"
	read-only
--------------------- /etc/inittab
S1:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty ttyS1 38400 vt100