LILO Error Codes

L99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99
If LILO is unable to load, it returns a hex error code.

One annoying problem is that LILO cannot read the table map. The error looks something like:

L99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 [repeat for 10 lines...]

I solved this problem by writing LILO to the MBR.

e.g:

lilo -M /dev/hdb

The hard-drive could also be named:

/dev/hda /dev/hdc /dev/hdd etc

This error message occurs when lilo is unable to locate the second stage bootloader.

Causes
This error may occur, if the hard drive is in normal mode, but lilo has written the boot record using logical block addressing mode. Switching the bios hard drive parameters to logical block addressing allows the bootloader to start normally. Unfortunately a side effect of this is that now the system may not start properly, because geometry differences prevent the bootloader from locating the partitions properly.

Resolution
It is possible to rewrite the bootloader in normal mode, using the -g switch: lilo -g

Warning: LBA32 addressing assumed
This warning will occur if the disk bios parameter is set "normal" and the geometric disk access has not been specified as a parameter to lilo. It may not be possible to boot the computer if geometric disk access has not been configured, due to differences in disk geometry between geometric and logical block addressing modes.

Resolution
To prevent the warning from occuring, run lilo with the geometric parameter: lilo -g