Very Computer

by **Ben Hodso** » Thu, 03 Jul 1997 04:00:00

Dear all,

In about 2 days I will be getting my hands on 3 PCs on which I would
like to install Linux along with NT v4 and Win95.

The PCs are all high end and have 4.2Gb SCSI disks hung off an Adaptec
2940UW controllers. They will come pre-infected with W95.

Question 1:

I am considering the following partitions :

+--------------------------------------------+
| Partition table /dev/hda |
| +------------------------------------------|
| | Partition 1 - Win95 /dev/hda1 | 1.5 Gb
| | |
| |------------------------------------------|
| | Partition 2 - NT4 /dev/hda2 | 1.5 Gb
| | |
| |------------------------------------------|
| | Partition 3 - Linux /dev/hda3 | 1 Gb
| | |
| |------------------------------------------|
| | Partition 4 - Linux Swap /dev/hda4 | .2Gb
| | |
+--------------------------------------------+

All four partitions are primary and created using fips. Any comments ?

Question 2:

From the Lilo v19 manual "Because many SCSI controllers don't support
more than 1 GB when using the BIOS interface, LILO can't access files
that are located beyond the 1 GB limit of large SCSI disks on such
controllers and reports errors in these cases.". Is this likely to be a
problem given that the LILO stuff will be in the Linux partition at 3Gb
?

Question 3:

In terms of booting these OSs. Win95 has to be 'active' to boot, Linux
is fine booting from a non-active partition, What about NT4 ? Or will I
have to try to get Lilo to dynamically activate partitions ?

Question 4:

I will probably use Lilo, is there another boot manager that would be
more suited to this task ?

Thanks for listening !
--
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

_/ Philips Research Labs, _/ Tel : 01293 815000 ext 5750 _/
_/ Crossoak Lane, _/ Fax : 01293 815500 _/
_/ Redhill, _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
_/ Surrey, RH1 5HA. _/
_/ England. _/
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

by **Frank Sweetse** » Thu, 03 Jul 1997 04:00:00

> Dear all,

> In about 2 days I will be getting my hands on 3 PCs on which I would
> like to install Linux along with NT v4 and Win95.

> The PCs are all high end and have 4.2Gb SCSI disks hung off an Adaptec
> 2940UW controllers. They will come pre-infected with W95.

2940UW has been known to have problems with linux in some cases. Probably
better off with a buslogic, but...

Quote:> Question 1:

> I am considering the following partitions :

> +--------------------------------------------+
> | Partition table /dev/hda |
> | +------------------------------------------|
> | | Partition 1 - Win95 /dev/hda1 | 1.5 Gb
> | | |
> | |------------------------------------------|
> | | Partition 2 - NT4 /dev/hda2 | 1.5 Gb
> | | |
> | |------------------------------------------|
> | | Partition 3 - Linux /dev/hda3 | 1 Gb
> | | |
> | |------------------------------------------|
> | | Partition 4 - Linux Swap /dev/hda4 | .2Gb
> | | |
> +--------------------------------------------+

> All four partitions are primary and created using fips. Any comments ?

fips doesn't make partitions. All it does is shrink dos-fat partitions.
You still need to use fdisk in each case.

Quote:> Question 2:

> From the Lilo v19 manual "Because many SCSI controllers don't support
> more than 1 GB when using the BIOS interface, LILO can't access files
> that are located beyond the 1 GB limit of large SCSI disks on such
> controllers and reports errors in these cases.". Is this likely to be a
> problem given that the LILO stuff will be in the Linux partition at 3Gb
> ?

Probably, yes. Best solution would be to make a small (1 or 2 meg)
partition at the begnning to store the kernel in. Not sure how 95 would
react to not being first - I've heard that NT can handle it, though. If
you shrunk the 95 partition down so it's below the 1024 cylinder limit,
though, you could store the kernel image there.

Quote:> Question 3:

> In terms of booting these OSs. Win95 has to be 'active' to boot, Linux
> is fine booting from a non-active partition, What about NT4 ? Or will I
> have to try to get Lilo to dynamically activate partitions ?

Don't know about NT, but lilo doesn't care at all about the 'active'
partition junk.

Quote:> Question 4:

> I will probably use Lilo, is there another boot manager that would be
> more suited to this task ?

Lilo will work, as will NT's bootloader (there's a howto on this at
sunsite). If you want to spend the money, you could also get System
Comander - $50 US, boots all three plus more, heard good things about it
though I've never used it.

--
Windows: I can play Doom! |RedHat Linux 2.0.31pre-2 i486
Linux: I can be a file server, be a Web|Because reboots are for upgrades!
server, run the accounting package with|http://www.wpi.edu/~rasmusin/pgp.html
twelve terminals AND play Doom! |for pgp key. frank sweetser

by Bo » Fri, 04 Jul 1997 04:00:00

Quote:>> | |------------------------------------------|
>> | | Partition 4 - Linux Swap /dev/hda4 | .2Gb
>> | | |
>> +--------------------------------------------+

0.2 Gb for swap? Are you out of your f*cking mind ? :)

Sofar my 0.2 cents.

Bo

--
"Heisenberg may have been here".

by **Uwe Bonne** » Fri, 04 Jul 1997 04:00:00

: >> | |------------------------------------------|
: >> | | Partition 4 - Linux Swap /dev/hda4 | .2Gb
: >> | | |
: >> +--------------------------------------------+

: 0.2 Gb for swap? Are you out of your f*cking mind ? :)
^^^^^^^
THINK BEFORE POSTING! MIND YOUR MOUTH!

: Sofar my 0.2 cents.

Diskspace is cheap, and perhaps Bo has big applications. Coming in trouble
with this big application, perhaps after it ran for 2 weeks and then having
destroyed ones data is much more expensive.

--

Institut fuer Kernphysik Schlossgartenstrasse 9 64289 Darmstadt
--------- Tel. 06151 162516 -------- Fax. 06151 164321 ----------

by **Uwe Bonne** » Fri, 04 Jul 1997 04:00:00

: Dear all,

: In about 2 days I will be getting my hands on 3 PCs on which I would
: like to install Linux along with NT v4 and Win95.

: The PCs are all high end and have 4.2Gb SCSI disks hung off an Adaptec
: 2940UW controllers. They will come pre-infected with W95.

: Question 1:

: I am considering the following partitions :

: +--------------------------------------------+
: | Partition table /dev/hda |
: | +------------------------------------------|
: | | Partition 1 - Win95 /dev/hda1 | 1.5 Gb
: | | |
: | |------------------------------------------|
: | | Partition 2 - NT4 /dev/hda2 | 1.5 Gb
: | | |
: | |------------------------------------------|
: | | Partition 3 - Linux /dev/hda3 | 1 Gb
: | | |
: | |------------------------------------------|
: | | Partition 4 - Linux Swap /dev/hda4 | .2Gb
: | | |
: +--------------------------------------------+

: All four partitions are primary and created using fips. Any comments ?

If you don't want to install OS2, that's fine. However haveing some
Partition 3 extended with both linux partition as logical partitions and
having a small Partition 4 as spare (OS2 Bootmanager or something else) will
make things more extensible. And having the Linux partition slit up in a
small /, /usr, /var /home (e.g. 100/300/100/500) is also a good idea, with
regard of desaster recovery, backup and readonly partitions.

: Question 2:

: From the Lilo v19 manual "Because many SCSI controllers don't support
: more than 1 GB when using the BIOS interface, LILO can't access files
: that are located beyond the 1 GB limit of large SCSI disks on such
: controllers and reports errors in these cases.". Is this likely to be a
: problem given that the LILO stuff will be in the Linux partition at 3Gb
: ?

Don't know.
: Question 3:

: In terms of booting these OSs. Win95 has to be 'active' to boot, Linux
: is fine booting from a non-active partition, What about NT4 ? Or will I
: have to try to get Lilo to dynamically activate partitions ?

Install Win95. Then install NT. NT will manage booting and offer you WIN in
it's boot menu. You can add Linux later to that menu.

: Question 4:

: I will probably use Lilo, is there another boot manager that would be
: more suited to this task ?

I don't think that NT will boot with LILO. Use NT's ntloader (installed by
default with NT installation), and you can extend the bootmenu for Linux
too. I posted that solution several times, so look with dejanews for that
post.

PS.: After installing OS2, my bootinstallation got corupted. Any idea why?

--

Institut fuer Kernphysik Schlossgartenstrasse 9 64289 Darmstadt
--------- Tel. 06151 162516 -------- Fax. 06151 164321 ----------

by **Ben Hodso** » Fri, 04 Jul 1997 04:00:00

First of all thankyou for the responses to my initial posting...

In summary I am trying to end up with a tri-boot system, W95, NT4 and
linux.

The system is a Pentium, with 2940UW scsi controller hooked up to a 4Gb
disk.

The conclusions for anyone who is interested are :

Lilo is still flakey booting NT - I will therefore use the NT
bootmanager with LILO installed to the superblock of the linux
partition. The LILO bootsector is then copied to the NT partition where
it can be got at by the NT bootloader. (I have played with a utility
called bootpart which seems handy:)

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/gvollant/bootpart.htm

The 2940UW has the extended BIOS translation scheme enabled. I happened
to find a collegue at work who has 2x2GB disks with very much the
arrangement I have in mind working well. (Cheers Steve !)

He has had no problems getting linux to boot from a partition about 1.2
Gb into a disk (hence well above the 1024 cyl limit) so it appears that
the 2940UW does not prevent LILO booting linux held at above 1Gb.

In any case rather than :

+--------------------------------------------+
| Partition table /dev/sda |
| +------------------------------------------|
| | Partition 1 - Win95 /dev/sda1 | 1.5 Gb
| | |
| |------------------------------------------|
| | Partition 2 - NT4 /dev/sda2 | 1.5 Gb
| | |
| |------------------------------------------|
| | Partition 3 - Linux /dev/sda3 | 0.8 Gb
| | |
| |------------------------------------------|
| | Partition 4 - Linux Swap /dev/sda4 | .2Gb
| | |
+--------------------------------------------+

I am considering :

+--------------------------------------------+
| Partition table /dev/sda |
| +------------------------------------------|
| | Partition 1 - Win95 /dev/sda1 | 0.3 Gb
| | |
| |------------------------------------------|
| | Partition 2 - NT4 NTFS /dev/sda2 | 0.3 Gb
| | |
| |------------------------------------------|
| | Partition 3 - Linux /dev/sda3 | 0.3 Gb
| | |
| |------------------------------------------|
| | Partition 4 - Extended /dev/sda4 |
| | |
| | +----------------------------------------|
| | | Partition 5 - Win95 Fat /dev/sda5 | 1.0
| | | |
| | +----------------------------------------|
| | | Partition 6 - NT4 NTFS /dev/sda6 | 1.0
| | | |
| | +----------------------------------------|
| | | Partition 7 - Linux /dev/sda7 | 1.0
| | | |
| | +----------------------------------------|
| | | Partition 8 - Linux swap /dev/sda8 | 0.1
| | | |
+--------------------------------------------+

This is a lot more cumbersome but does offer the advantage that all 3
OSs are below the 1GB level (even though this doesnt appear to be a
problem in my case). It also produces the kind of split partition linux
installation that some people have recommended.

Isn't this fun !

Cheers,

Ben.

by **G. Sumner Hay** » Fri, 04 Jul 1997 04:00:00

> >> | |------------------------------------------|
> >> | | Partition 4 - Linux Swap /dev/hda4 | .2Gb
> >> | | |
> >> +--------------------------------------------+

> 0.2 Gb for swap? Are you out of your f*cking mind ? :)

> Sofar my 0.2 cents.

Hmm. I have 64MB of RAM and 168MB of swap; I upped it from
100MB of swap last time I ran myself out of memory. I just
ran out again a couple days ago, so I'll probably be going up
to 256MB RAM and 500MB swap.

(I'm debugging a necessarily huge database program; including
debugging symbols and linking against electric fence doesn't
exactly help the memory problems)

Besides, with that much disk space why not give yourself some
safety room?

TTFN,

Sumner

--

PGP public key and other info at http://www.pathway.net/sumner/

by **Rick Richardso** » Sat, 05 Jul 1997 04:00:00

> >> | |------------------------------------------|
> >> | | Partition 4 - Linux Swap /dev/hda4 | .2Gb
> >> | | |
> >> +--------------------------------------------+

> 0.2 Gb for swap? Are you out of your f*cking mind ? :)

> Sofar my 0.2 cents.

I have .1GB of swap and 64MB's of RAM. .1GB of swap is not
enough if you want to do a lot of work with images using the
Gimp. I have run out of swap several times working on large
true color images.

Of course, under these conditions when you run out of swap,
it isn't an indication that you need more swap space. Its
an indication that you need more RAM. When the Gimp starts
swapping images, performance goes down the tube. A bigger
swap just lets you finish tonights work before you order
more RAM tomorrow :-)

--
Rick Richardson Sr. Principal Engr.

11001 Bren Rd. East http://www.dgii.com/people/rick/
Minnetonka, MN 55343 Tel: (612) 912-3212

by **Chris Wagn** » Thu, 10 Jul 1997 04:00:00

[snip]
>: | |------------------------------------------|
>: | | Partition 4 - Linux Swap /dev/hda4 | .2Gb
>: | | |
>: +--------------------------------------------+

[snip]

I thought the limit for a single swap partition was 128M? Has this
changed, or is it a myth?

--
"From" header is bogus, use "Reply-To" or below email address.
--
Chris Wagner

Very Computer

Lilo booting multiple OSs help

Lilo booting multiple OSs help

Lilo booting multiple OSs help

Lilo booting multiple OSs help

Lilo booting multiple OSs help

Lilo booting multiple OSs help

Lilo booting multiple OSs help

Lilo booting multiple OSs help

Lilo booting multiple OSs help

Lilo booting multiple OSs help