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Title: OS/2, Linux and invalid partition tables

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OS/2, Linux and invalid partition tables

Applicable to
S.u.S.E. version: > 11/95
Kernel version: > 1.2.13

Symptom:

You have installed OS/2 and Linux onto a hard disk. After the Linux installation either

the OS/2 boot manager does not start anymore or
you get the error message Invalid partition table

Cause:

During the Linux installation you have probably declared in the menu for the LILO configuration that either the Linux partition or the logic drives, in which you have installed Linux, should be activated.

The boot loader in the master boot record does not find anymore a valid bootable partition, since the boot manager partition is not activated anymore.

Solution:

First of all: stay calm, your data is still on the disk! It works to activate again the OS/2 boot manager partition and to free the Linux partitions from the "active" status. Please proceed as follows.

Please boot either the Linux installation system on the supplied disk or the installed system on the bootdisk constructed during the installation.
Log yourself in as root.
Call fdisk for the affected disk:
```
fdisk /dev/hda
```
if your Linux disk is e.g. /dev/hda4.
Shortcut: by pushing "m" you can display a fdisk commands' list.
Display with "p" the current partitions. At this point, one should observe which partitions have a star in the 2nd column (boot) and therefore are marked as activated (bootable).
Make sure that only the OS/2 boot manager partition is activated. Please proceed for all partitions marked with * as follows:
Enter an "a" (toggle a bootable flag). Afterwards please declare the partition's number to be desactivated / activated . "a" is therefore a switch that always switches on or off.
At the end, only the OS/2 boot manager partition can still have a * in the 2nd column (list out with "p").
If you are glad with the result, write back the partition table and leave fdisk. Both take place in a washing up with "w".
Reboot inmediately afterwards, without doing anything else in your Linux system.

Now your boot manager should start again and no more error messages should appear.

See also:

OS/2 and Linux with OS/2 bootmanager

Keywords: OS/2, OS2, BOOT, BOOT PROBLEM, PARTITION

Feedback welcome: Send Mail to martin.scherbaum@suse.de (Please give the following subject: SDB-maddin_os2linux2)

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