Very Computer

I am trying to installing Slackware Linux on my 2nd hard drive.  The
PC is currently running Windows 95.  Disk drive size is 4 GB.  The
drive is set up with a DOS extended partition -- Logical drive D is
2GB, Logical  Drive E is 1 GB.  This leaves 1 GB free for other
purposes.
The Linux fdisk see no available space on this drive.    According to
the SAMS book I'm using, "You can install Linux on an extended
partition  ... if you're using a logical DOS drive and want to install
Linux in its place, delete the logical drive with MS-DOS fdisk.  Then
you can create a logical drive for use with Linux in its place."  

Do I need to reduce the size the DOS extended partition and then
install Linux or is there a way to install Linux partitions within the
extended DOS partition ?

Thanks,
Jon

Of course, I have two physical hard drives, with one as Linux, and the
other as above.  For just one drive, Linux will run better on its own
native partition, but there IS a distribution that can be installed on
top of DOS in its own directory.  Why you would do this, I don't know;
Linux is my primary OS.  I use Windows very rarely and prefer booting to
Linux.

BTW, you might want to consider reducing your Windows partitions to
around 1G anyhow.  The way you have it is wasting a lot of space due to
sector size.  If you store a file (say, 1 byte) it will still claim the
full sector, leaving the remainder unused.  Smaller partitions (in DOS)
result in smaller sectors, thereby assuring less wasted space.  And I
would give more space to Linux, 2G at least (just my bias speaking,
really).

If I'm wrong, please, somebody correct me! :)
Matthew Vanecek
For professional Website hosting services, visit http://www.mjv.com
Studies in Business Computers at SAC, San Antonio, TX
Visit my Website at http://lonestar.texas.net/~vanec

For 93 million miles, there is nothing between the sun and my shadow
except me. I'm always getting in the way of something...

Matthew,
Thanks for your response.   I should have killed my original posting
but I got involved with Linux and didn't back on line.  Anyway, a few
minutes after a left the ng posting I solved the problem. If there is
space in an Extended partition, you simply use Linux's fdisk to add an
extended, not primary, partition(s).  As this was the second drive,
and I already had 2 DOS Logical drives(hdb5 & 6 per Linux) , the Linux
partitions became hdb7 and hdb8.  No problem from then on.

Re sizes of partitions and block size -- while I agree that saving
disk space is important, at today's drive prices, disk capacity is
almost free (until you run out of space and need to upgrade.)  I
recently purchased the 4GB Western Digital drive for $300.  That 7.5
cents per megabyte. Out of curiosity I checked the slack space on my
system and was surprised by how much there was.  On the other hand,
even with 4K blocks, there is going to be slack space & accessing
larger files requires more overhead than with larger block sizes.
Anyway, I opt for the greater convenience of fewer drive letters.

Thanks again,
Jon

Quote:>AFAIK, no.  What I did was delete the logical drive, resize the extended
>partition w/DOS fdisk, readd the logical drive (I really HATE DOS!),
>replaced files on that drive, and then rebooted to Linux, and setup the
>rest of the free space on that drive as a Linux native partition.

>Of course, I have two physical hard drives, with one as Linux, and the
>other as above.  For just one drive, Linux will run better on its own
>native partition, but there IS a distribution that can be installed on
>top of DOS in its own directory.  Why you would do this, I don't know;
>Linux is my primary OS.  I use Windows very rarely and prefer booting to
>Linux.

>BTW, you might want to consider reducing your Windows partitions to
>around 1G anyhow.  The way you have it is wasting a lot of space due to
>sector size.  If you store a file (say, 1 byte) it will still claim the
>full sector, leaving the remainder unused.  Smaller partitions (in DOS)
>result in smaller sectors, thereby assuring less wasted space.  And I
>would give more space to Linux, 2G at least (just my bias speaking,
>really).

>If I'm wrong, please, somebody correct me! :)
>Matthew Vanecek
>For professional Website hosting services, visit http://www.mjv.com
>Studies in Business Computers at SAC, San Antonio, TX
>Visit my Website at http://lonestar.texas.net/~vanec

>For 93 million miles, there is nothing between the sun and my shadow
>except me. I'm always getting in the way of something...

There's some confusion here: There has to be a primary partition
(probably the drive now called D:) and an extended partition
holding logical volumes (E:).

Quote:>The Linux fdisk see no available space on this drive.    

What is the output of 'fdisk /dev/hdb' if using the 'p' option ?
What version are you using (Linux and fdisk), and did you setup the
Win95 partition with FAT32 ?

Quote:> According to
>the SAMS book I'm using, "You can install Linux on an extended
>partition  ... if you're using a logical DOS drive and want to install
>Linux in its place, delete the logical drive with MS-DOS fdisk.  Then
>you can create a logical drive for use with Linux in its place."  
>Do I need to reduce the size the DOS extended partition and then
>install Linux or is there a way to install Linux partitions within the
>extended DOS partition ?

Michael
--

**************************************************************************
Satellite Safety Tip #4:
                If you see a bright streak in the sky coming at you, duck.

Ok... now.. I have a 2.16G Samsung hd... I've got Win95 on the first
900M's (wanna cut it down to 300, but that's later and I know how. :>)
Anyway... I've not set up Linux on my second partition yet... I've
been running Linux for a year now (Slackware) but only on 2 200M
hd's...  I've installed Win95 on that first partition and used it to
d'ld Slack-3.4... Heh... kinda nice to have the whole dist...
anyway... I had the second partition deleted with fdisk.. and win95
kept telling me there were errors on the drive. Of course that's not
true.. 9Shmive just want's complete control... what I want to know is
if there is a way to shut it up so I don't get those errors... Just
until I completely wipe it... :>

        Gratitude and Salutations in advance