Dear Zentaa & List, Thanks for the advise. I was able to use ControlPanel/YAST2 to install the stock SMP kernel; and I was able to use YAST2s 'bootloader' choice to set LILO up to point to /dev/hda Here is lilo.conf : First try disk=/dev/hdc bios=0x80 disk=/dev/sda bios=0x81 disk=/dev/sdb bios=0x82 boot = /dev/hda change-rules reset read-only menu-scheme = Wg:kw:Wg:Wg lba32 prompt message = /boot/message image = /boot/vmlinuz label = linux initrd = /boot/initrd root = /dev/sdb1 image = /boot/vmlinuz.suse label = failsafe append = "ide=nodma apm=off acpi=off" initrd = /boot/initrd.suse optional root = /dev/sdb1 image = /boot/memtest.bin label = memtest86 However this was unsucessful, lilo started and went into the 'cascade' of 10's Here is more detail on what I know Booting CD1 "Boot installed system" fails Booting CD1 "Manual install' works; I answer 'english' twice, load scsi, network card, usb, and reiserfs modules and then choose "Boot installed sysetem" it (A YAST1 like screen) asks sda1 -- ext2 OR scb1 -- reiserfs ? if I choose sca1 ext2 it replies "Invalid root device' (sda1 is where / is ) If I choose sdb1 reiserfs a lot of scary text runs past and says "Warn fsck.reiserfs failed can't find block-major-58 run manually" at this point I am completely befuddled. so I rebood CD1 choose 'manual install' select english twice, load all modules then select "Install" then a graphical YAST2 like screen comes up and it asks to load "LVM-Mod" which I accept, then I get another choice install "New, or Update, or installed, or abort" I choose "Installed" and finally we are re-booted into my familiar system, but on the default kernel not the one I installed on the sys with YAST2. Interesting that it only asks about LVM in the last scenario, I do have LVM in sys. fdisk -l output appended here: moses:~ # fdisk -l Disk /dev/sda: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 1106 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 * 1 8 64228+ 83 Linux /dev/sda2 9 76 546210 82 Linux swap /dev/sda3 77 1106 8273475 5 Extended /dev/sda5 77 1106 8273443+ 8e Linux LVM Disk /dev/sdb: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 1106 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdb1 1 523 4200966 83 Linux /dev/sdb2 524 1106 4682947+ 8e Linux LVM Disk /dev/hdc: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 1229 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hdc1 1 1229 9871911 8e Linux LVM Disk /dev/hda: 16 heads, 63 sectors, 155061 cylinders Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hda1 1 155061 78150712+ 8e Linux LVM moses:~ # The LVM partitions are Reiserfs, the sda2 and sdb1 partitions are ext2 (sdb2 is /) I am totally confused; I can only hope that those more experianced SuSE'rs can make sense out of this! Thanks for the help! ............. Peteb p.s. after using yast2 to change bootloader I noticed that lilo.conf had not changed so I ran lilo from a terminal and it did change. : disk=/dev/hdc bios=0x80 disk=/dev/sda bios=0x81 disk=/dev/sdb bios=0x82 boot = /dev/sda1 change-rules reset read-only menu-scheme = Wg:kw:Wg:Wg lba32 prompt message = /boot/message image = /boot/vmlinuz label = linux initrd = /boot/initrd root = /dev/sdb1 image = /boot/vmlinuz.suse label = failsafe append = "ide=nodma apm=off acpi=off" initrd = /boot/initrd.suse optional root = /dev/sdb1 image = /boot/memtest.bin label = memtest86 On Thursday 18 July 2002 18:53, zentara wrote:

On Thu, 18 Jul 2002 16:30:12 -0500

Peter B Van Campen wrote:

...

I still have a clobbered system, but I was able to 'boot installed system' by going thru 'manual install' process on CD1. So what I know now is: this

Boot from a cd or install floppy, and when you get the choice, choose "boot installed system". Once you get booted, start yast2 or yast and reinstall the kernel.rpm. After that, choose to install lilo, and put lilo in the mbr of /dev/hda. Those are under SystemAdministration/ Kernel and Boot parameters on suse 7.2. Unless you have an older machine, that should get you to boot from the hard drive. If you have a pre 1998 bios, then write back for a different procedure.