Re: First 1024 cylinders?

[Bob McClure Jr <robertmcclure earthlink net>]

On Tue, Jun 13, 2000 at 11:05:58AM -0400, Alex Radsky wrote:
> I 've been struggling with Linux for a while now and I'm aware about the
> need to not have Windows installed below the 1024th cylinder if LILO is
> to provide multi boot.  The thing I don't know is what should be
> installed below the 1024th cylinder (or should I say 1025th).  I'm sure
> that some particular part of Linux needs to be located there, but what?

The partition containing the /boot directory needs to be below the
1024 boundary.  If you have room for the whole root partition (/)
below 1024, then that is automatically ok.  In your case, you probably
want to create a small partition (say about 10 Meg) below the 1024
boundary.  You can let Win have the rest of the area below 1024.  The
rest of Linux can be anywhere else on the disk.  The small partition
will be mounted on /boot.

> I have no problem with partitioning, using Ranish's Partition Manager,
> and could easily divide the 1024 cylinder space into smaller partitions,
> if necessary, but I have no idea of what to put there and how large the
> partitions should be.
> 
> I understand that Windows should be installed prior to Linux after the
> initial partitioning, is that correct?

That's the easiest.  Just don't let Win hog the whole disk.  If for
some reason you were to install Linux first, you can still install Win
afterwards IF you have an emergency boot floppy for Linux, because Win
will overwrite the master boot record (MBR).  After the Winstall, you
boot Linux with the floppy, modify /etc/lilo.conf to include the Win
partition, and then run lilo to rewrite the MBR.

> My hard drive is 10 GB, Windows and Linux sharing equally.  Both systems
> work fine.. Corrently, the first 1024 cylinders are occupied by  Windows
> and I boot Linux from a floppy.
> 
> Advice, please?

There are several utilites that can resize a Win partition without
requiring a reinstall of Win.  Partition Magic is one.  Someone will
doubtless jump in and provide several others.

 - Use one of those to shrink the Win partition by about 10 Meg.

 - Use Linux' (c)fdisk to make a Linux partition in the hole.

 - Use mke2fs to make a Linux filesystem on it.

Let's assume it is /dev/hda3 for the rest of this.

# make a temporary mount point for the new partition.
 mkdir /foo
 mount /dev/hda3 /foo
 cd /boot
# copy the boot directory to the new partition
 find . -depth -print | cpio -pdmv /foo
 cd /
# unmount it and remount it on /boot
 umount /dev/hda3
 mount /dev/hda3 /boot

Then use your favorite editor to add the following line to /etc/fstab
 /dev/hda3       /boot      ext2  defaults  1 2

Then run lilo.  Try a reboot without the floppy.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,
-- 
Bob McClure, Jr.            | This is Linux Country.
Bobcat Open Systems, Inc.   | Email viruses?  Hmm.
robertmcclure earthlink net | I've not had a problem with them.