[vox-tech] BLASPHEMY (i.e., removing Linux from a dual-boot system)

Mark K. Kim vox-tech@lists.lugod.org
Mon, 27 Oct 2003 21:02:37 -0800 (PST)


You can't uninstall LILO like that.  Uninstalling LILO recreates
the MBR using the backup MBR... since the partition you had the original
LILO (which also had the original MBR) is gone, you can't uninstall LILO.

What you wanna do here is REinstall LILO.  Make it boot directly into
Windows without prompting.  Create a lilo.conf file then run:

   lilo -C lilo.conf

The LILO file you want probably should say something like:

   lba32
   boot=/dev/hda
   install=/boot/boot-menu.b
   map=/boot/map

   other=/dev/hda1
   label="win"

or something like that... I haven't tested it so verify it before you try
it.  Use your other Linux systems as a reference, too.

Another option is to use another bootloader to overwrite LILO.  One comes
with FreeBSD, one comes with Debian, and lots available all over the
Internet.  Here's one I've used before that I've liked (but not for your
purpose -- I haven't figured out how to make it boot directly into a
partition but maybe you can):

   http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/index.php3?body=download.html

Of course, you can always boot off of a Windows CD, drop to DOS, then type
`fdisk /mbr`... if you got Windows98 or WindowsME CD laying around
somewhere.

-Mark


On Mon, 27 Oct 2003, Richard S. Crawford wrote:

> On Mon, 2003-10-27 at 20:16, Ryan Castellucci wrote:
>
> > I'm not sure what knoppix has the root password set to, but you can run 'sudo
> > bash --login' for a root prompt.
>
> I managed to get to root by doing "sudo su" in a terminal.  Then I
> tried:
>
> /sbin/lilo -r /mnt -u
>
> and got this error message:
>
> Warning: root at /mnt has no /dev directory
> /etc/lilo.conf: No such file or directory
>
>
>
> --
> Slainte,
> Richard S. Crawford
> AIM: Buffalo2K / Y!: rscrawford / ICQ: 11640404
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-- 
Mark K. Kim
http://www.cbreak.org/
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