Very Computer

Hi--

I have a Seagate 540 mb IDE drive, and would like to partition it so
that MS-DOS uses 200 mb and the rest for Linux.

Problem: Linux doesn't like cylinders > 1024. During installation, I got
error messages indicating media error on sector 114698, block 57349.
The drive works just fine under DOS.

I have tried to partition my HD so that DOS uses the "high" 200 mb, and leaves
the first 340 mb for Linux, but I was not able to boot DOS.
When booting, LILO came up and I typed 'hda4' to boot from my DOS partition,
but LILO didn't seem to recognize that this was a bootable(?) DOS partition.

Is it possible to let Linux have the first partition of the hard disk, and
still boot DOS?

I don't want to set cylinders to 1024 since I'll lose disk space doing this.

I've tried to get my hands on a proper boot control program but the stores
I've phoned (lots of them too) don't know of anything except what comes
with OS/2 etc.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Odd

P.S. to all the people that replied to my ATI busmouse question: I'll post

|> Hi--
|>
|> I have a Seagate 540 mb IDE drive, and would like to partition it so
|> that MS-DOS uses 200 mb and the rest for Linux.
|>
|> Problem: Linux doesn't like cylinders > 1024. During installation, I got
|> error messages indicating media error on sector 114698, block 57349.
|> The drive works just fine under DOS.
|>
|> I have tried to partition my HD so that DOS uses the "high" 200 mb, and leaves
|> the first 340 mb for Linux, but I was not able to boot DOS.
|> When booting, LILO came up and I typed 'hda4' to boot from my DOS partition,
|> but LILO didn't seem to recognize that this was a bootable(?) DOS partition.

You will need 3 partitions. DOS, Linux 1 (for booting), and Linux 2. It
shouldn't be too big of a deal. Or do what I did. Make the 3rd partition
above the DOS limit a 16MB swap partition. That way you only waste a meg or
so, and all of Linux is in one partition.

clint

Wrong. the BIOS doesn't like cylinders over 1024.. linux has no problems,
but fdisk will warn you nonetheless...

Quote:>I have tried to partition my HD so that DOS uses the "high" 200 mb, and leaves
>the first 340 mb for Linux, but I was not able to boot DOS.
>When booting, LILO came up and I typed 'hda4' to boot from my DOS partition,
>but LILO didn't seem to recognize that this was a bootable(?) DOS partition.

I don't think it will work to put dos in the high 200 MB;

My 540 is configured as follows:

  hda1  msdos partition         ~120 mb
  hda2  linux boot partition    ~42 mb
  hda3  linux swap partition    ~16 mb
  hda4  linux /usr partition    ~372 mb

linux has no problem with cylinders over 1024, as long as the linux boot
partition is located below cyl 1024                                 ^^^^^

--

 A linux machine! because a 486        /    Microsoft is the question.
 is a terrible thing to waste!         /    NO is the answer.

Then you've got a real media error assuming your drive parameters are wrong.
I bet if you could DOS format of that area you'd get '2048 bytes in bad sectors'
or similar.

Quote:>I have tried to partition my HD so that DOS uses the "high" 200 mb, and leaves
>the first 340 mb for Linux, but I was not able to boot DOS.

DOS doesnt work cylinders 1024+

Quote:>Is it possible to let Linux have the first partition of the hard disk, and
>still boot DOS?

Yes

Quote:>I don't want to set cylinders to 1024 since I'll lose disk space doing this.

You must have your Linux boot partition, the partition lilo is installed on
and DOS under cylinder 1024. You must have your last partition starting
below cylinder 1024. I believe you can port logical partitions in a final
extended partition past cylinder 1024, but my book has been 'borrowed'

Alan
--
  ..-----------,,----------------------------,,----------------------------,,

 ``----------'`----------------------------'`----------------------------''

  > |> I have a Seagate 540 mb IDE drive, and would like to partition it
  > so |> that MS-DOS uses 200 mb and the rest for Linux. |>

Sorry to *in here - but I am trying spec a machine to run linux on.
I'm still going through the HOWTOs, but just as a couple of points.

1) I've been offered an EIDE 520MB drive. Are there any problems running
EIDE drives instead of normal IDE ones?

2) Are modern VESA bus machines safe to use? The controller for this EIDE
drive sits in a VESA slot - as does the video card?

The motherboard is a TMC board, OPTI chipset with 486sx2-50.

The video card is a TMC one, using the Cirrus Logic 542x chipset.

The (E)IDE controller is one made by Pine Technology, the drive would be
either IBM or Quantum.

Thanks for any info,

:-)

Roland.

<
<1) I've been offered an EIDE 520MB drive. Are there any problems running
<EIDE drives instead of normal IDE ones?

Nope.  Nothing special about EIDE drives.

<2) Are modern VESA bus machines safe to use? The controller for this EIDE
<drive sits in a VESA slot - as does the video card?

So do mine.  Faster that way!

<The (E)IDE controller is one made by Pine Technology, the drive would be
<either IBM or Quantum.

Get an IDE interface (not "controller") with jumpers for selecting
the transfer timings/speed.  If that can only be done with a DOS driver,
then it's gonna be slower under linux.  Go for the jumpers!

Avoid Quantum.  Several of their models have very poor IDE firmware
they work, but not as well as others.
--

True.

MSDOS/PCDOS/DRDOS, etc. store the offset to the first sector as a 16
bit integer in the BPB block. These systems don't use the values in the
partition table.

The 16 bit int works very well for diskettes and small disk systems such
as the original IBM PC/XT's 10MB drive.

The solution is to put MSDOS as the first partition on the drive. Use the
last 340 MB for Linux, not the first.

--

I had this problem (same 540M HD), and eventually got round it
by telling the BIOS that the drive only had 1024 cyls so that
Linux would boot, but then when I FDISKed it I used all the
cycls and I can read/write them fine.

Someone said earlier that it wasn't linux but the bios which would
complain - in my case I could use all the cyls if I just had DOS
partitions, it was Linux that complained whilst booting.

On a completely unrelated topic, I keep getting the error message
"gs: Malformed ghostview color property." when I try to run
ghostscript - anyone know what's going on?

Mat.

|> 1) I've been offered an EIDE 520MB drive. Are there any problems running
|> EIDE drives instead of normal IDE ones?

No problems. And the EIDE drives can be/are faster.

|> 2) Are modern VESA bus machines safe to use? The controller for this EIDE
|> drive sits in a VESA slot - as does the video card?

Yes.

clint

You may want to try setting the cylinder count to 1024 but increasing either
the head or sector count so uou don't lose disk space.

Thanks everybody for the info.

  > Get an IDE interface (not "controller") with jumpers for selecting

Sorry ;-) I'm more used to SCSI systems.

  > Avoid Quantum.  Several of their models have very poor IDE firmware
  > they work, but not as well as others.

Well my dealer is offering Seagate, IBM or Quantum. I've already said I'd
rather not have a Seagate. Should I then go for an IBM or would the Seagate
be better?

Thanks

Roland.

<
<  > Avoid Quantum.  Several of their models have very poor IDE firmware
<  > they work, but not as well as others.
<
<Well my dealer is offering Seagate, IBM or Quantum. I've already said I'd
<rather not have a Seagate. Should I then go for an IBM or would the Seagate
<be better?

The IBM 1Gig is faster than the Seagate (at least in quoted specs).
Go for it.  If the driver has trouble with it (unlikely), email me and
we'll sort it out.
--

|> Hi--
|>
|> I have a Seagate 540 mb IDE drive, and would like to partition it so
|> that MS-DOS uses 200 mb and the rest for Linux.
|>
|> Problem: Linux doesn't like cylinders > 1024. During installation, I got
|> error messages indicating media error on sector 114698, block 57349.
|> The drive works just fine under DOS.
|>
|> I have tried to partition my HD so that DOS uses the "high" 200 mb, and leaves
|> the first 340 mb for Linux, but I was not able to boot DOS.
|> When booting, LILO came up and I typed 'hda4' to boot from my DOS partition,
|> but LILO didn't seem to recognize that this was a bootable(?) DOS partition.
|>
|> Is it possible to let Linux have the first partition of the hard disk, and
|> still boot DOS?
|>
|> I don't want to set cylinders to 1024 since I'll lose disk space doing this.
|>
|> I've tried to get my hands on a proper boot control program but the stores
|> I've phoned (lots of them too) don't know of anything except what comes
|> with OS/2 etc.
|>
Just off the top of my head I would suggest a possible quick fix:
 a small (like 1M) partition at the begining to boot dos
 a partition or two of Linux
 a dos data partition of the last ~200M

I am currently using the 'loadlin' method to selectively boot between dos
and linux, via the dos 6 menu ability.

|> Hi--
|>
|> I have a Seagate 540 mb IDE drive, and would like to partition it so
|> that MS-DOS uses 200 mb and the rest for Linux.
|>
|> Problem: Linux doesn't like cylinders > 1024. During installation, I got
|> error messages indicating media error on sector 114698, block 57349.
|> The drive works just fine under DOS.

 I have a 750Mb HDD. The answer is this. All your bootable partitions
must be below 1024. Do this. DOS needs a driver to use cylinders above 1024.
No Problem!!

Set your BIOS with all the correct disk information. Use linux fdisk.
set partition 1 as a 200Mb DOS
set partition 2 as a 100Mb Linux,  This will be your root file system.
set partition 3 as the rest of your disk.  This will be your /usr.

Partition 3 is the largest because most of your linux files are in /usr

Lilo & Fdisk will complain about Cyl > 1024. Ignore this. This realy does work.
Now partition 2 & 3 can be any size. Just do not exceed 1024 Cylinders.

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

DOS fdisk will not be able to access you disk partition table.
When you start dos fdisk you will se only disturbing error message. So if your
Linux or dos partitions fail you will not be able to boot your PC with dos
boot diskette and run dos fdisk to repartition your HD.

Take care man !!!

        Marijan Lesko Krleza
        CCS International, Montreal, Canada

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        FreeBSD 2.0 fdisk can repair it. It did it for me:-)

        Jack G*