[ale] lilo error - "Empty map section"

[John Hyland]

Hi, everybody.  I'm making a kickstart installation for a specialized system.
It basically runs through a fairly typical Red Hat installation and installs
some rpms, all of which are relatively standard except for ZapEnv, which is a
home-rolled rpm consisting basically of a few files.  The installation works
fine, and when it's done I have what seems to be a functional RedHat install.

However, after the install is done, if I try to run lilo I get an error message
reading "Empty map section".  I've read the Lilo User's Guide, the Lilo
mini-HOWTO, and a smattering of other files on redhat.com and linuxdoc.org, and
have not found any reference to an "Empty map section" error.

Has anybody ever seen this before?  Any thoughts on what it might mean or how
to fix it?



The Gory Details
----------------

The system is a Red Hat 6.1 system.  

Here are the system files found in the ZapEnv rpm
-------------------------------------------------
/etc/passwd
/etc/shadow
/etc/fstab
/etc/inittab
/etc/conf.modules
/etc/lilo.conf
/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit
/etc/rc.d/rc.local
/etc/rc.d/fs450.o
/etc/rc.d/focus.sh
-------------------------------------------------

Here are the contents of /etc/lilo.conf
-------------------------------------------------
boot=/dev/hda
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
prompt
timeout=50
default=linux

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.12-20
    label=linux
    initrd=/boot/initrd-2.2.12-20.img
    read-only
    root=/dev/hda6
    append="mem=128M"
-------------------------------------------------

Here is the output of 'lilo -v -v -v'
-------------------------------------------------
LILO version 21, Copyright 1992-1998 Werner Almesberger

Caching device /dev/hda (0x0300)
Caching device /dev/hda1 (0x0301)
...  [snipped for brevity]
Caching device /dev/sdb7 (0x0817)
Caching device /dev/sdb8 (0x0818)
Reading boot sector from /dev/hda
Merging with /boot/boot.b
Device 0x0301: BIOS drive 0x80, 255 heads, 3649 cylinders,
    63 sectors. Partition offset: 63 sectors.
Secondary loader: 8 sectors.
Device 0x0301: BIOS drive 0x80, 255 heads, 3649 cylinders,
    63 sectors. Partition offset: 63 sectors.
Boot image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.2.12-20
Device 0x0301: BIOS drive 0x80, 255 heads, 3649 cylinders,
    63 sectors. Partition offset: 63 sectors.
Setup length is 7 sectors.
Mapped 1219 sectors.
Mapping RAM disk /boot/initrd-2.2.12-20.img
Device 0x0301: BIOS drive 0x80, 255 heads, 3649 cylinders,
    63 sectors. Partition offset: 63 sectors.
Empty map section
Removed temporary file /boot/map~
-------------------------------------------------

Here is the output of 'ls -l /boot/'
-------------------------------------------------
total 2349
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           20 Jul  7 04:56 System.map -> System.map-2.2.12-20
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root       191102 Sep 27  1999 System.map-2.2.12-20
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root         4568 Sep 22  1999 boot.b
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root          612 Sep 22  1999 chain.b
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root            0 Jul  7 05:03 initrd-2.2.12-20.img
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root          237 Jul  7 05:15 kernel.h
drwxr-xr-x   2 root     root        12288 Jul  7 04:49 lost+found
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           21 Jul  7 04:56 module-info -> module-info-2.2.12-20
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root        11773 Sep 27  1999 module-info-2.2.12-20
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root          620 Sep 22  1999 os2_d.b
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root      1544394 Sep 27  1999 vmlinux-2.2.12-20
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           17 Jul  7 04:56 vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-2.2.12-20
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root       622784 Sep 27  1999 vmlinuz-2.2.12-20
-------------------------------------------------

I can provide the ks.cfg file used in the kickstart installation or other
information if anybody thinks it might be relevant.

TIA,
John Hyland

-- 
John Hyland
Software Developer
ZapMedia.com
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