From: lew.pitcher@digitalfreehold.ca   
      
   On Wed, 24 Aug 2022 04:22:57 +0000, David Chmelik wrote:   
      
   > I had this problem on Slackware 14.2+current and Slackware 15. After I   
   > ran LILO and rebooted, LILO said 'timestamp mismatch' and didn't show   
   > any menu (I have several OSs) and wouldn't boot. No matter what I tried,   
   > it wouldn't fix it. I set the BIOS clock two days ahead (though my BIOS   
   > and OS times are the same.) I zeroed the boot sector, rebuilt my   
   > partition table, reinstalled LILO to the drive. After both these tries   
   > the same happened.   
      
   A quick peek at the LILO loader source (the assembly modules) shows   
   that the "timestamp mismatch" error occurs when the loader compares   
   the timestamps of two files, not by checking the realtime clock.   
      
   Comments in the code, and posts online hint that this is a check between   
   the timestamp on the map file's FAT entry, and a timestamp associated with   
   the second stage loader. If the map file is newer than the loader, then   
   the loader issues the error.   
      
   > The test for timestamp mismatch should probably be optional for LILO in   
   > Slackware. The check serves no useful purpose. Desktop users don't care,   
   > and for servers, they can use other tools after they booted, for   
   > timestamps.   
      
   Not really. The timestamp check ensures that the LiLO boot loader has the   
   proper file location data for the kernel, as the lilo(8) command embeds   
   static file location data into the LiLO boot loader file, and that boot   
   loader file /must/ reflect the location of the /current/ kernel(s).   
      
   > Meantime I installed GRUB2.  (which works)   
   >   
   > What do I need to do to use LILO again?   
      
   Apparently, make certain that you run lilo(8) against the exact kernel/map   
   file image that you intend to boot from. (Exact, as in both locations,   
   contents /and/ timestamps.)   
      
   Hope this helps   
   --   
   Lew Pitcher   
   "In Skills, We Trust"   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)