Mark,
How is the hard drive utilization set up in your motherboard's CMOS now?
LBA has been in general use for several years, and your motherboard is
definitely young enough to have LBA support. If your CMOS shows your hard
drive's CHS and mode both "auto", are you using a hard drive from an earlier
machine? Auto will support the hard drive in the manner it is setup. If the
drive came from a non-LBA capable machine, the new machine will use it
non-LBA. At the end of this message I'm putting a longish rant about shim
programs and LBA. If you are using a shim program you need to read it,
otherwise read it for background. If you have a drive over about 8.4GB and
are using the full capacity without a shim program you are using LBA mode, so
your error message is from another cause. If your CMOS has a hard drive
detection/configuration routine, you can use that to confirm thst your
motherboard is using LBA mode. The instructions in the fourth paragraph of
the shim material which begin, "To see what the BIOS thinks about the new
drive", at the end of this message will tell you if your motherboard is
capable of and is using LBA mode. If there are several choices, one may be
marked with ">", this is what auto would use. When doing anything in the
CMOS, you should KNOW how to get out without changing anything before you do
(or change) anything. If in doubt abort and begin again. Better safe than
sorry [I know, it's an old cliche', but true].
If you have a large drive that was setup as non-LBA that can be fixed,
even a shim can be fixed, but it may be more involved than you want to deal
with. The suggestion of using GRUB sounded good to me [as I am not
knowledgeable about the limitations or capabilities of LILO or GRUB], but if
you want to know more about LBA, ask.
-Gary-
In a message dated 9/12/2000 8:58:42 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
<< That being the case, I have a ABIT motherboard that is about 10 months old
and it is made for a PIII. How can I change the installation so that it
uses Grub or change the bios settings so that it supports Large Harddrives?
I had previously installed the automated version and it worked just fine,
why is there a difference when I install the development version?
Mark
----- Original Message -----
From: "Charles A Edwards" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2000 8:11 AM
Subject: Re: [newbie] More C++ problems
> Mark
> The LBA is causing your problem NOT the # of CDs you install from.
> I did the Dev. install on 2 machines and on both used all 4 Cds with no
> problems.
> If your BIOS does not support LBA(Large Block Address) which is a fancy
> way of saying Large Harddrives then the bootloader you choose to use and
> were you install it are critical.
> Grub has no problem with it but the LILO as shipped with 7.1 does.
>
> Charles (-:
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mark Thurston" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2000 9:50 AM
> Subject: Re: [newbie] More C++ problems
>
>
> > That sounds like a good idea, I am using the Complete 7.1 installation.
> So
> > what packages are on the applications CD? I know that Star Office is
> there,
> > what else is on it?
> > Thanks again.
> >
> > Mark
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Patti Wavinak" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2000 7:28 AM
> > Subject: Re: [newbie] More C++ problems
> >
> >
> > Mark -- which distro are you using? Mandrake 7.1 Deluxe? ISO images?
With
> > the errors you are getting I am guessing the Deluxe package and using
all
> > 4 CD's (install, ext, application 1 and application 2) It has been my
> > experience when you use all 4 CD's you will get this exact error. Try
> > installing the developer version with only the install CD and the Ext CD
> > -- NOT any of the application CD's and you shouldn't have any problem.
> > That is what I had to do anyhow on all 3 of our computers. :-)
> > Let me know how it works out.
> > Patti -- Registered Linux User #184611
> >
> > Original Message dated 9/12/00, 6:06:08 AM
> > Author: Mark Thurston <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > Re: [newbie] More C++ problems:
> >
> >
> > This is Mark again, I tried to install the developer version of
> > Mandrake-Linux so that I could get the developer utilities. Everything
> > went smoothly until I tried to make a bootdisk, it said that the
bootdisk
> > program had failed. I thought, well I will just make one later then.
So
> > on I go to the Bootloader... I tried every possible combination, and I
> > tried installing it twice, the same problem came up, at the Bootloader
> > main options screen I got the following error: "LBA (doesn't work on old
> > BIOSse)" Now this is rather perplexing to me, because I installed the
> > "Automated" version before and I had no such problem. What am I doing
> > wrong? I have to get this working as soon as possible.
> >
> > Thanks
> > Mark
> >
> > >>
Mark,
The shim rant is next.
With a new drive and a motherboard that does not support LBA the first
decision you need to make is whether you are willing to accept and use the
drive capacity that the motherboard sees. Most people want the full drive
capacity. Even if you accept the size limitations there are things you will
have to do later to regain the drives full capacity. A new motherboard is a
good choice because it avoids all of this.
The new drive will probably come with a "shim" (my quotes) program to use
with motherboards that don't support LBA. They are known by different names,
EZdrive being the only one that I can think of at the moment, but they are
"not a good idea" and can be a problem depending (read: will usually cause
problems eventually!). Good backups are MANDATORY!
The shim is a little program that reads in from the drive's boot sector
and handles all LBA translation itself (thus allowing you full access to the
drive); it basically sits between the motherboard and the drive. When they
work they work well (which is most of the time), but when they go wrong you
lose all access to your drive and you lose everything on it (which is typical
when the shim program itself goes wrong or with other hardware problems). IF
you decide to use such a shim program, DO NOT load either LILO or GRUB into
the drive's master boot record as this is where the shim lives and you will
lose all access to the drive (INCLUDING BOOTING FROM EITHER A DOS or LINUX
FLOPPY). Normally to boot from any floppy the the shim must install itself
in memory, the boot process must be stopped and the boot must continue from
the floppy. BE SURE THAT YOU ARE CLEAR ON EXACTLY WHAT THIS PROCEDURE IS
before you complete the installation of the shim, as these vary widely. I
also highly recommend that you make a shim rescue disk if the shim install
offeres you that chance.
[note that CMOS configurations vary widely, and that this discussion is
meant to point you in the right direction only. Go there carefully!] Some
CMOS BIOSes allow autoconfiguration of the CHS configuration and separate
adjustment of the drive's operating mode (i.e. LBA). With another drive
already in place, BE SURE that you write the existing drive's specs down (if
shown) for disaster recovery use, and be sure that you know which you are
changing. To see what the BIOS thinks about the new drive, there may be an
option in CMOS to detect the hard drive. If you use it, do not make a
selection (it often gives several choices). Back out of all pages and exit
CMOS without saving. If you make a selection or cannot (or do not) exit
without saving, you will have to go back into the (typically first page) CMOS
and zero [change back to "auto"] the CHS and mode settings for the new drive,
which will have automatically transfered and installed.
You may recall that there was alot of ...(furor, upset, bad press,
warnings, ...)... about hard drive compression software about five years ago.
A shim is in the same high risk category. -Gary-
