Very Computer

by **Mary Conn** » Wed, 17 Jan 1996 04:00:00

>I'm aware of all the problems with IDE and BIOS restrictions, but I
>planned to do something like this:
>a.) Dump my old Conner, plug in the new 1 Gig HD instead.
>b.) use my Maxtor and the first 1024 cyls of the new HD as DOS partitions
> (this has to work (I think)).
>c.) Install Linux on the rest of the 1Gig HD.
>d.) Boot Linux from floppy
>so Linux would have the 2nd half of the large HD and DOS should have
>no problems with the other partitions.

Yep, that ought to work just fine.

Quote:>Another idea would be to have a really small Linux partition somewhere on
>the first drive to boot Linux with LILO... How small could I make this
>partition?

The root partition has to have everything on it necessary to get the
system up and running to the point where it can mount other
filesystems. You can definitely get away with 16MB (and possibly as
little as 10MB). You will have to mount /var, /tmp, /usr, and /home
as separate filesystems. Do not make /etc, /sbin, /bin, etc.,
separate filesystems as they are needed in the root partition.

Quote:>Do you think this would work? Has anybody had some experience with a
>setup like this?

I do have my root partition separate (though for security, rather than
to get around the cylinder thing), and /tmp and /usr reside on
cyls>1024 (/var is on another drive and I've moved /home under /usr).
This is also an ancient system---almost 4 years old. The whole setup
works just fine. My first install I made the root partition 16Meg and
had plenty of space left over. I had to reinstall due to some
partition stupidity on my part, and made it 32Meg on the second
install, though that seems to be definite overkill.

Quote:>Would I be able to do something like this with OS/2 as well?
>Could I use the OS/2 bootmanager to boot from cyls>1024 (having no
>LBA)?

Can't help ya there. Don't have OS/2.

--

by **Bernd Kuemmerl** » Wed, 17 Jan 1996 04:00:00

Hi there,

I have some questions concerning the old 504 MB problem with IDE and
non-translating BIOSs:

I'm currently running a 486DX2 50 MHz with Award BIOS 4.20 (quite
old). I have two HD's, one is a 329 MB Maxtor 7345 and the other is a
170MB Conner CP30174E, running on an IDE controller. Since I want to
install (well I already have installed it on the Conner, but it's
quite full now) Linux on my system, I was thinking of buying a new
1Gig HD.

I'm aware of all the problems with IDE and BIOS restrictions, but I
planned to do something like this:

a.) Dump my old Conner, plug in the new 1 Gig HD instead.
b.) use my Maxtor and the first 1024 cyls of the new HD as DOS partitions
(this has to work (I think)).
c.) Install Linux on the rest of the 1Gig HD.
d.) Boot Linux from floppy

so Linux would have the 2nd half of the large HD and DOS should have
no problems with the other partitions.

Another idea would be to have a really small Linux partition somewhere on
the first drive to boot Linux with LILO... How small could I make this
partition?

Do you think this would work? Has anybody had some experience with a
setup like this?

Would I be able to do something like this with OS/2 as well?
Could I use the OS/2 bootmanager to boot from cyls>1024 (having no
LBA)?

TIA for any help and suggestions,

Cheers
Bernd
--
Bernd Kuemmerlen
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

| WWW: http://www.urz.uni-heidelberg.de/u/fphys/bkuemmer/WWW/ |

by **David Kel** » Sat, 20 Jan 1996 04:00:00

OS/2 has the 1024 restriction for the operating system. Programs and
files can be stored on HPFS partition over the 1024 limit. OS/2 Boot
manager is very good and will boot linux if you put lilo on super
block of Linux partition. If I can be of any further help. holler.

--
david kelly

ashland,or

by **J.I.Far** » Tue, 23 Jan 1996 04:00:00

I used to have just a 250 MB HDD Conner and I have just put a 1.2 GB
Western Digital Drive in . I boot MSDOS from the 250 MB Conner Drive,
have a 500 MB MSDOS partition on the Western Digital and the rest (700
MB) is a dedicated Linux Partition. So long as you have your Linux
partition starting within the first 1024 cyl then you can use a program
called LOADLIN (comes with most distributions) which will boot your
Linux Kernel from within MSDOS (I have a CONFIG.SYS menu with one option
to boot Linux).
Also I recommend having your swap partition on the opposite drive to the
one with the OS on it. It does speed up my Win 3.1 and Linux
--
J.I.Farr

Very Computer

1Gig HD w/ old BIOS and IDE

1Gig HD w/ old BIOS and IDE

1Gig HD w/ old BIOS and IDE

1Gig HD w/ old BIOS and IDE

1Gig HD w/ old BIOS and IDE