Re: [Sheflug] Boot Problem: LILO or BIOS?

[Peter Duffy <xxxxx [at] xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 2002-05-17 at 00:00, James Wallbank wrote:
 
> I bought the SCSI hard disks new - so I guess they were totally blank.
> Hmmm... I didn't low-level format them (well at least not consciously)
> do you think that might be relevant?
> 
> I *think* that the system isn't even attempting to boot off sda5 - so I
> guess I'll try poking around in the BIOS settings - but it doesn't look
> hopeful. Even the message "Kernel Panic" or freezing at "LI" would
> encourage me...

Hi James,

A few thoughts:

1) Firstly, is the SCSI stuff on the motherboard, or is it a separate
adapter? (Either way, it will almost certainly be loading some
extensions to the BIOS, which again almost certainly contain an
additional setup program, which, if you can get into it, might give you
some additional clues (with Adaptec and Advansys, it's CTRL-A during
bootup.) (Of course, Dell may have just munged the SCSI stuff into the
main BIOS: I've not a lot of experience with their machines.)

2) Do you have IDE as well as SCSI disks? If so, this may be confusing
the issue: try with just the SCSI disks.

3) I think there's a rule of thumb by which only a disk with SCSI id 0
will be checked for a MBR by default (the setup program sometimes allows
you to change this.) 

Hope something amongst this lot proves productive, anyway. Best of luck
...


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