Linux, XP, and VMware

Well as I listed in other posts, I am using XP and I have VMware Workstation 3.0 installed on it. I made a virtual computer for linux (Mandrake 8.0). I installed it and everything, but right after the first screen at startup of the computer, it displays something and just stops there. I don't remember off hand what it says, but I will post it when I get home from college later today. I installed Red Hat 5.2 and it seemed to work fine, although it is kinda old, and it started in a command prompt. At the time I was too lazy to crack open the book for it and figure that out, but as far as I know, that version of linux does work. If you just happen to know what my problem is with Mandrake 8.0, please tell me

well I am home now, and it says "LILO 21.7"

Oh, you mean the LILO Boot!

Yeah I have it.

If you wanted to go to Linux, type "linux" and press enter.
If you wanted to go to Windows, type either "dos" or "window and press enter.
Want to see a list of OS in the LILO, press TAB.
CAUTION! If you press anything other than the keys (ie. LEFT ARROW), it will boot to the default OS (the first one in the TAB list)

You cannot turn this off.
If you wanted to amend this, go into XWindows / KDE / Gnome or anything like this, this go into the c/kontrol center and select the LILO manager (or something like that).

You must be 'root' to access that function.
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Engineer223

well doing those things doesn't do anything on mine because like I said, it freezes up

Hmm...How much RAM do you have? Also, how much SWAP space did you partition off in your hard drive. Are you sure you partitioned things correctly? Try putting Linux on a seperate hard drive, and manually boot from that drive with your BIOS.

Let's see, also, Linux command line is a pretty powerful tool, most likely more powerful than XWindows, or Gnome, or KDE. So, before you learn GUI, learn console, it'll make your life a WHOLE lot easier. :D

yeah, I have enough ram and hard drive space, and stuff is set up right. I kinda know what I am doing, but I just can't figure out what is wrong with it.

Hmm...I guess you might try reloading Linux. LILO is the boot loader, and without it, you can't load it. So, if you want Linux, you need LILO. Maybe the file got corrupted or something? That's the only other explanation I can give.:confused:

k, well I already tried that too

Let's see...The only other solution I can think of is buy a new copy of Linux. You can go on eBay and buy Mandrake for a dollar, although it is burned, and not a totally new copy. Hmm...I'm not a Linux expert though. Try going to a totally Linux specific BBS, and see if they have an answer there. :D

If it freezes up i'm sure it's lilo that fails to boot.
Try a boot diskette to start up linux.

Also, if you set up linux, before you restart, shutdown or anything like that, look into /etc/lilo.conf. Find all info about lilo configuration you can and corrctly st up lilo.

remeber running /sbin/lilo after any changes you make to /etc/lilo.conf.

Be careful! always own a boot floppy.

I already have two copies of mandrake 8.0 so I might try the other one, but I think that it may just need a boot disk