aboot not working or something

[Bryan Dina]

On Mon, 2005-04-04 at 13:34 -0700, Robert M. Riches Jr. wrote:
> > Date: Mon, 04 Apr 2005 16:05:06 -0400
> > From: Bryan Dina <bdina at seresc.net>
> >
> > unfortunately this is not working, I have been reading through the
> > documentation and feel embarrassed to say that I have read in the
> > installation notes what you are explaining to do.  I am having problems
> > getting Disk Druid to recognize the fdisk partitions.... it complains
> > that the disk info can not be recognized and wants to initialize the
> > disk before continuing.  If I do not initialize the disk, it restarts on
> > me, if I do, it erases the disk.  I check with fdisk and the disk
> > partitions have been removed.  When I start over with fdisk, I create
> > two partitions to keep it simple for now (the machine is slow so making
> > errors is not fun), one ext2, and one swap.  I then use "w" to write the
> > table(s), and quit fdisk.  I then swap back over to the installer,
> > select Disk Druid, and again, it complains and wants to re-initialize
> > the disk.  I reboot, and try again with out re-initializing, and again,
> > it complains.... what now???  I really would like to install Linux on
> > this machine! :)
> 
> A couple of suggestions:
> 
>   - Make sure to switch fdisk into BSD mode.  You need to
>     write BSD-style disklabels, not a DOS-style partition
>     table.
> 
>   - After using fdisk to partition the disk, go back into
>     fdisk (maybe "fdisk -l") to check.
> 
>   - You might need to zero out an earlier DOS-style
>     partition table.  I don't remember exactly how to do it,
>     but you should be able to find it in the axp-list
>     archives and/or alpha-related newsgroup archives.  I
>     think the method involves using "dd" to write zeros to
>     the first couple KBytes of the raw disk device node.
> 
> Good luck.

It seems I am seeing some inconsistencies here... I don't see any ways
to switch fdisk to BSD mode, I read on the Neohapsis axp list the
following instructions:

--

When the installer gets to the point of giving you the option to 
Autopartition or use Disk Druid, switch to virtual console 2 - Alt-F2 
in text mode, or Ctrl-Alt-F2 in graphical install. There should be a 
shell prompt sitting there. 

Assuming /dev/sda as the drive to partition, run: 
   fdisk /dev/sda 

At the fdisk prompt, hit "b" to switch to BSD disklabel mode. 

By default, there will be a single partition ('c') occupying the 
entire disk span, marked as type "unused". This can stay. 

Create your first partition (hit 'n', 'a'). To leave room for the 
bootloader, you'll want to start at an offset of about 5 meg. Cylinder 
4 is usually sufficient. For the ending point, you can use the 
+(number)(unit) notation which will work fine. The prompt doesn't say 
so, but using "g" to indicate gigabyte works fine. 

For example, a 10 gig partition can be created by giving the value 
"+10G" when prompted for the ending cylinder. 

Repeat, creating any desired partitions (don't forget to allocate some 
swap space). You'll need to view the partition table ('p') 
occasionally as you go if you're creating more than one to make sure 
you're creating new partitions after the end of your previous ones. 

Once you've got your partitions defined, you'll need to set them to 
the correct type. Hit 't' at the fdisk prompt, then choose the 
partition to change. The list of types can be viewed by entering 'l'. 
For ext2 or ext3 partitions, use type 8. Don't change the type of 
partition "c". 

Once you're all set, use the 'w' command to write out the partition 
table, and quit fdisk. 

Switch back to the installer at this point (Alt-F1 for text mode, 
Alt-F7 for graphical). Choose the "Disk Druid" option. You should see 
a list of the partitions you created. You'll need to go to each one 
and edit it - select the partition and hit "F3". Go into the 
"Filesystem Options" section and choose to format the partition as 
ext3, then go back and select the mount point for that partition. 

You should be able to continue the install from there.

--

My fdisk does not have the "b" option, it does start up however telling
me that I am in BSD disklabel mode... so I figure I am fine there.  I
have never had a partition labeled c that is unused, but I moved forward
anyway.  I created partitions, and then wrote them out as in the
instructions, and then back in the land of the Disk Druid, I go to the
Foreign disk partitions (as they are labeled in Disk Druid), and I can
format them to ext3, however I can not select a mount point... which
makes them useless.  Also, the fdisk and Disk Druid cylinder offsets do
not match.  When I create a partition in fdisk I use +100M, and Disk
Druid sees it as 399M with different offsets... 

so anyway what I have done so far is create a 1 cylinder partition in
fdisk with an offset of 1 cylinder (so start 2 end 2), set its type to
ext2, and wrote that.  Then I went back to Disk Druid, created a new /
partition after that "weird" partition and filled the disk aside from a
small swap partition at the end of the disk.  So I have a 7MB partition
at the beginning of the disk of unused space, a 7MB Foreign partition,
and a 4Gig disk partition mounted at /, and then a 96MB swap
partition... and its installing as we speak... then we'll have to see...

--Bryan