Warning: /dev/hdb is not on the first disk

Forum: HD Install
Topic: Warning: /dev/hdb is not on the first disk
started by: davmac

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Posted by davmac on Jan. 13 2004,23:58

Folks,

I've got DSL in and running on an old Pentium 200Mhz and its working like a dream. Want to install it on my main machine and am hitting lilo problems. The machine has got two HDs, the first runs Win2000, and I want to install DSL on the 2nd disk (used to have redhat9 on). I start up from the CD and do the following;

sudo cfdisk /dev/hdb

delete anything that's on there, create a new partition, make it bootable, then write and exit.

sudo -u root dsl-hdinstall

After the script runs mkliloboot I get a warning message "Warning: /dev/hdb is not on the first disk"

Later on, when booting the whole shebang just hangs in lilo.

What I suspect is happening is that the DSL install is putting lilo on the 2nd disk (which I know doesn't work) and the remnants of the redhat9 that was originally on the 2nd disk is now b*lloxed.

Tried fixing this by using a windows boot disk and running an fdisk /mbr which gets me loading win2k again, re-run the DSL install and mkliloboot and it just reboots straight back into win2k  

I know I'm doing something very stupid, but I can't for the life of me see it, Any pointers to how I fix it without risking damage to all the stuff on /dev/hda?

Any help you guys can offer will be gratefully received... I am chomping at the bit to get this delightfully elegant distribution on to my main machine...

TIA,

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Posted by davmac on Jan. 18 2004,18:12

Fixed it! Finally and thought I'd post back in case anyone else is having the same problems.

I changed the bios settings so it would boot from the 2nd hard disk rather than the first. Simple I know, but its managed to keep me occupied for more hours than I'd care to think about!

I finally have this delightfully simple and elegant distribution on my main machine  

Woooooooohooooooooo.

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