[ale] bootstrapping linux (fwd) Easy fix

[Andy]

Greg Hankins wrote:
> 
> Some piece of crap "operating system" (W95) overwrote my MBR so I
> can't boot up linux any more. Furthermore, the rescue disks I made
> when I initially installed linux (version 1.?) won't work with my new
> 2.0 kernel. I downloaded a new boot.img/supp.img from
> ftp.cc.gatech.edu:/pub/linux/distributions/redhat/redhat-4.1/i386/images,
> and can now get my machine to boot off of floppy, but it boots up
> using the floppy as the root filesystem.
> 
> If I try to run lilo while running off the floppy fs, by mounting the
> scsi disk partition which has lilo on it, it tells me
>         /dev/sda : no such device
> (or something like that)
> 
> I tried booting with
> 
>         linux root=/dev/sda1
> 
> from the lilo boot prompt which I get when I boot off the floppy, but I get a
> 
>         kernel panic something something on 08:01
> 
> I found a web page somewhere which suggested that I do:
> 
>         mount -w -n -o remount /
> or
>         rdev /dev/sda1 /vmlinuz
> 
> but neither one works. (mount won't take those arguments, and rdev
> gives me something else, I forget what, but if it's important I can
> try it again.)
> 
> My kernel is /vmlinuz on the first partition of my scsi id=0 disk.
> 
> How can I get out of this, and is there a document which describes
> what to do in this situation so I don't have to keep bugging you guys?
> :)
> 
> thanks.
> 
> --joe

This has happened to me many times before.  If you have Norton Antivirus
for win95 it will detect that your bootsector has been overwritten
and present an option to repair.  Pressing repair will put Lilo
right back and you can continue to boot Linux as you were before.

/usr/bin/andy