Very Computer

by **Pat Rundal** » Mon, 28 Oct 1996 03:00:00

I downloaded slakware 96 (3.1.0) last week and installed
(successfully I guess) on a DELL Latitude LM laptop with a
1.3 GB harddrive partitioned 700 MB for WIN 95 and the
rest for Linux (20 MB swap).

I then installed LILO (just as I have on other systems) and
tried to boot. When it comes up it says Linux 0.99.15 (or
some such ancient kernal) and it looks like during the boot
that the /etc/mtab could not be written to. Anything I do
gives me a permissions error.

Does anyone know what's going on? I've not had this problem
on other installations. Do I need to repartition the HD
because of this cylinder limit I've read about? (OWWW!)

Many thanks,

Pat

---------------------------------------------------------------
Patrick Rundall

--------------- M O T O R O L A ---------------

by **Pat Rundal** » Tue, 29 Oct 1996 04:00:00

Never one to bow to the pressures of netiquitte, I'll respond to
my own post. It looks like the problem was that I was attempting
to put Linux past the 528MB barrier. Based on nearly all the
install docs I had read (some of which should be updated to cover
this issue!!), I made a ~700MB Win95 partition and made the next
partition Linux native. On my HD, Linux was still below the
1024th cylinder which I read in various HOW-TOs was the limit, but
in fact the limit (at least I've found) appears to be 528Mb.

The difference between my setup and that of some of the how-to
authors must be the heads/sectors/cylinders ratio.

Lesson learned!

Pat

> I downloaded slakware 96 (3.1.0) last week and installed
> (successfully I guess) on a DELL Latitude LM laptop with a
> 1.3 GB harddrive partitioned 700 MB for WIN 95 and the
> rest for Linux (20 MB swap).

> I then installed LILO (just as I have on other systems) and
> tried to boot. When it comes up it says Linux 0.99.15 (or
> some such ancient kernal) and it looks like during the boot
> that the /etc/mtab could not be written to. Anything I do
> gives me a permissions error.

> Does anyone know what's going on? I've not had this problem
> on other installations. Do I need to repartition the HD
> because of this cylinder limit I've read about? (OWWW!)

> Many thanks,

> Pat

> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> Patrick Rundall

> --------------- M O T O R O L A ---------------

by **Len Bayl** » Wed, 30 Oct 1996 04:00:00

>Subject: Slak96 problem: Read-only FS
>Date: Sun, 27 Oct 1996 11:05:32 -0600

Rem out the pcmcia stuff in the rc.S file. It needs to be placed later in the
rc files.

len

>I downloaded slakware 96 (3.1.0) last week and installed
>(successfully I guess) on a DELL Latitude LM laptop with a
>1.3 GB harddrive partitioned 700 MB for WIN 95 and the
>rest for Linux (20 MB swap).
>I then installed LILO (just as I have on other systems) and
>tried to boot. When it comes up it says Linux 0.99.15 (or
>some such ancient kernal) and it looks like during the boot
>that the /etc/mtab could not be written to. Anything I do
>gives me a permissions error.
>Does anyone know what's going on? I've not had this problem
>on other installations. Do I need to repartition the HD
>because of this cylinder limit I've read about? (OWWW!)
>Many thanks,
>Pat
>---------------------------------------------------------------
> Patrick Rundall

>--------------- M O T O R O L A ---------------

by **Pat Rundal** » Mon, 04 Nov 1996 04:00:00

Many thanks - this did indeed solve my problem.
Only remaining problem I have now is that neither XFree86
nor the commercial X-server vendors (Metro-X, Accelerated X)
support the graphics on the Dell Latitude LM (the increasingly
popular NeoMagic NM2070). X-inside is closest to getting it
working, but I'm not sure I'm willing to shell out $100 for
"close".

Anyway, thanks for solving this bug (which I'm suprised doesn't
bite more people).

Pat

> Rem out the pcmcia stuff in the rc.S file. It needs to be placed
> later in the rc files.

> len

> >I downloaded slakware 96 (3.1.0) last week and installed
> >(successfully I guess) on a DELL Latitude LM laptop with a
> >1.3 GB harddrive partitioned 700 MB for WIN 95 and the
> >rest for Linux (20 MB swap).

> >I then installed LILO (just as I have on other systems) and
> >tried to boot. When it comes up it says Linux 0.99.15 (or
> >some such ancient kernal) and it looks like during the boot
> >that the /etc/mtab could not be written to. Anything I do
> >gives me a permissions error.

> >Does anyone know what's going on? I've not had this problem
> >on other installations. Do I need to repartition the HD
> >because of this cylinder limit I've read about? (OWWW!)

> >Many thanks,

> >Pat