Very Computer

        I have a problem.  I'm tring to install Linux on my 486.  I have a
Maxtor 7850 (850 meg hard drive) in the system.  To use to whole drive (since
my BIOS only allows something like a 530meg HD), I have to run a program
called the OnTrack Disk Manager.  It's a BIOS extention written to the MBR
that lets the system use the entire drive.
        Heres the problem.  It looks like with the Ontrack device driver
installed, Linux won't recognise my HD.  It says my main DOS partition is a
type UNKNOWN and will not allow my to set up an unused partition on the drive
to install Linux.
        I guess this is my question?  Is there a patch out to cure this?  Is
there a way around it?
        Please e-mail me if you have any ideas!

Thanks

Jim

Hello Jim,
  Not sure if you have had any answers to your problem? But I hope so, as
I am in the same boat. I just got a Maxtor 1.260 Gig and Maxblast util or
disk manager. I get the same messages. I also see messages like Partition
dosn't start on cylinder boundry and a bunch of other stuff, like 15
heads and so on. There is a txt.file called EIDE.TXT...I believe. Do a
search with Nescape or what ever you use, for Sunsite.???.edu. Can't
remember all of the address at the moment. The search will find it
though, Just follow the yellow brick road from there. I think that my
problem may be a little different then yours, but not sure. If you can't
find find this file, email me and I'll Mail it to you. I didn't seem to
get around the problem with it, but it might give you the info you need.

Good Luck!

Hello Jim,
  Not sure if you have had any answers to your problem? But I hope so, as
I am in the same boat. I just got a Maxtor 1.260 Gig and Maxblast util or
disk manager. I get the same messages. I also see messages like Partition
dosn't start on cylinder boundry and a bunch of other stuff, like 15
heads and so on. There is a txt.file called EIDE.TXT...I believe. Do a
search with Nescape or what ever you use, for Sunsite.???.edu. Can't
remember all of the address at the moment. The search will find it
though, Just follow the yellow brick road from there. I think that my
problem may be a little different then yours, but not sure. If you can't
find find this file, email me and I'll Mail it to you. I didn't seem to
get around the problem with it, but it might give you the info you need.

Good Luck!

Mark

You might want to forward a copy of this to Jim.  

The problem is that Linux does not like the OnTrack disk driver.  You
probably don't have EIDE on your system and you had to load the driver
for DO$ to see the entire partition. I don't know how you can get around
this.  You might want to buy an EIDE disk controller if you can.  Get the
best possible on for you system.  

Best of Luck

Ryan Langford

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All opinons expressed here are mine...
Until further studies can be conducted.
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I'm having the same problem as below, but am running WIN95 on the whole
drive (850MB), and want to use UMSDOS as my file system.  How do I
install Linux?  After I boot, it asks for a path to create the swap
file (in the MSDOS partition) - I enter /dev/hda and /dev/hda1 & it
finds no DOS partition there and puts me at a prompt using the
root floppy as my root.  fdisk shows /dev/hda1 as a "UNKNOWN"
file system using all 8000+ sectors.  Am I missing something here?
how do I create and mount my Linux partitions if all the sectors are
used by this huge unknown partition?  Any help would be *GREATLY*
appreciated!  -Jay