>>>>> "H" == Hoyt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
H> lilo also failed, with a cylinder too big message. This was
H> probably my fault as I was installing to a partition above 1024
H> cylinders and did not provide for a /boot partition below that
H> since I wanted to see what would happen.
A problem I encountered was a mount table which should look like this:
/dev/hda1 /mnt/dos vfat rw 0 0
/dev/hda2 /boot ext2 defaults 1 1
/dev/hda3 / ext2 defaults 1 1
The install program mounts these with the physical partition /dev/hda3
mounted *over* /dev/hda2 --- a "mount" command shows both /tmp/hda2
and /tmp/hda3 as being the same size as /dev/hda3 (ie, they become the
same partition) and thus also gives the large-disk LILO error.
The only fix I could think of was
1) boot the CD and get to the diskmount stage of the install
2) switch to Alt-F2 and unmount the /tmp devices
3) mknod /tmp/hda b 3 0 and also create hda2 and hda3
4) mount them manually, first mounting hda3 and _then_ mounting hda2
5) return to Alt-F1 and proceed with the installation.
In these days of 8Gb disks and higher as standard equipment, this is a
serious problem with all distros --- the number one question which
comes to me as a Linux support company is "How do I partition for dual
boot?" and none of the distros seem to be aware of the issue.
It's non-trivial and it is not going to go away: To split a disk for a
dual boot where the half-way point is beyond 1024 is a nightmare task:
1) use fips/fdisk or whatever to split into two partitions, both MSDOS
2) Format the new drive D:
3) move all moveable files to drive D: (that alone is a nightmare in
Windows, something difficult even for the highly-trained expert)
4) defrag both C and D drives
5) go back to FIPS, shrink C below the 1000 cylinder limit and add a 5Mb
partition which will become the Linux boot
6) shrink D: to give you a Linux file system
EGAD! Who in their right mind is going to try Linux if this is the
dual-boot install advice? Of course, who in their right mind would be
using Windows anyway, but that is not the question here ;)
To make matters worse, there is no reliable way to automate step 3 ---
I have tried many times to move Windows files to new disks or
partitions, and in the end, I have always had to resort to a full
re-install, losing all my configurations and many user files in the
process. Even netscape and realaudio will fail if any part of them is
relocated.
I think we have to seriously address this question if we hope to
adapt to the modern world of large disks. As far as I can see, we have
only a few choices, and fewer still which are practical
1) We should install dual booting for the novice using loadlin as the
only boot loader option, especially if we can detect in advance
that the target disk partition is out of bounds
2) We need to document the above 6 steps (which still leaves the problem
of mounting hda2 before hda4) and include a much more involved section
on dual booting in the install guide.
3) We should stress a recommendation that a dual boot machine should
consider using a second hard drive before considering LILO as an
option.
4) We could adapt LILO to large disks ;)
--
Gary Lawrence Murphy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> TeleDynamics Communications Inc
Business Telecom Services : Internet Consulting : http://www.teledyn.com
Linux/GNU Education Group: http://www.egroups.com/group/linux-education/
"Computers are useless. They can only give you answers."(Pablo Picasso)
