FC4t2 no good without LILO

[Jesse Keating]

On Tue, 2005-04-12 at 13:05 -0700, Dana Lacoste wrote:
> OK, let me get this straight.
> 
> "Some people can't use this at all, it doesn't work at all for them,
> but
> because it works for me they have to use what I use, like it or lump
> it."

I don't quite understand what you're talking about.  Lilo doesn't work
in > 2TB devices.  Neither does Grub.  Currently Anaconda doesn't detect
a > 2TB device in order to act upon it correctly, by setting up a GPT
disk label.  This is because a GPT disk label (necessary for a properly
working > 2TB device) will not work with Lilo or Grub.  You cannot boot
from them.  You can boot from a smaller device.  Currently the plan is
to fix Grub so that it can boot from > 2TB devices, then anaconda
doesn't have to worry about you having a non-GPT disk to boot from, it
will Just Work(tm) when applying GPT to any > 2TB device.  I have to get
my bosses to approve sending the > 2TB box over to Red Hat, should
happen soon.

> I'll try test2 later this week, but I've already had to stop testing
> my
> install of test1 because disk druid trashed my partition table (in a
> well
> known yet still completely stupid manner) on install.  But there's no
> other
> way to fdisk with the installer, so I can't install.

fdisk itself can't handle a > 2TB device.  Especially with a GPT disk
label.  Use parted.  For installing, you have to avoid touching a > 2TB
volume right now.  Thats just the way it is.

> So there's no way to install with some systems because it messes up
> the partition table.

That is correct.  If your system ONLY has a >2TB device and nothing
else, you cannot install to it.  This isn't new, you've never been able
to install to it correctly.

> And there's no way to install with other systems cuz it won't boot
> after
> cuz grub just plain doesn't work.

I'm not sure what this has to do with > 2TB devices, but grub works fine
on less than 2TB devices.  Of course, you have to have your boot order
set right.....

> And the Fedora team is going to fix these problems by eliminating the
> tools that do work?

Lilo doesn't work for > 2TB, and most likely wont as nobody wants to put
in the work to support GPT.

> I think I can see why the "switch to Mac!" articles have been so
> common
> lately.

Funny, I don't recall if you can boot from a > 2TB device in OS X.
Maybe you can, maybe you can't.

> Dana "Hmm, wonder if I can switch back to BSD?" Lacoste
> 
> PS: OpenOffice in minimal install?
> 
> PPS: Perhaps labelling Fedora as a "desktop-only, NO SERVER SUPPORT"
> OS
> would be appropriate?

Perhaps understanding the system requirements better would be good.  Up
until kernel 2.6, >2TB block devices were completely unusable.  With 2.6
we got to use them, and then discovered all kinds of problems associated
with this, file systems, boot loaders, user land tools etc.  It's a long
process to fix all of these, but we're coming a long way.

-- 
Jesse Keating RHCE      (geek.j2solutions.net)
Fedora Legacy Team      (www.fedoralegacy.org)
GPG Public Key          (geek.j2solutions.net/jkeating.j2solutions.pub)
 
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