Subject: lilo installation on IDE disk > 500 megabytes

From: Charles Blair <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 21 Aug 1996 18:44:27 -0500 (CDT)

I am trying to install the 7-14-96 debian release on a machine
with over 500 megabytes on an IDE hard disk.  I want to have a DOS
partition and a linux partition.  At present fdisk shows:

>    Device Boot   Begin    Start      End   Blocks   Id  System
> /dev/hda1            1        1      356   179392+   6  DOS 16-bit >=32M
> /dev/hda2   *      357      357      966   307440   83  Linux native
> /dev/hda3          967      967      999    16632   82  Linux swap

fdisk also displays a warning:

> The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 1025.
> This is larger than 1024, and may cause problems with:
> 1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., LILO)

The lilo documentation says:

>Note that large partitions that only partially extend into the "forbidden 
>zone" are still in jeopardy even if they appear to work at first, because 
>the file system does not know about the restrictions and may allocate disk 
>space from the area beyond the 1024th cylinder when installing new kernels. 

Lilo suggests either using LOADLIN or booting from the DOS partition:

> In order to accomplish this, the DOS partition is mounted read-write, a 
> directory (e.g. /dos/linux) is created, all files from /boot are moved to 
> that directory, /boot is replaced by a symbolic link to it, the kernels are 
> also moved to the new directory, their new location is recorded in 
> /etc/lilo.conf, and finally /sbin/lilo is run.

   I tried creating a subdirectory c:\linux in DOS, then from linux:

     mkdir ./dos
     mount /dev/hda1/linux ./dos
     cp /boot ./dos

At this point, I got some warning or error messages.  It looks as though
file names got truncated, and in some cases discarded completely.

>From ls /boot:

>    System.map-2.0.6     chain.b      
>    any_b.b              map          
>    any_d.b		  mbr.b        
>    boot.0302	          os2_d.b      
>    boot.b		  vmlinuz-2.0.6

>From ls ./dos:

>    any_b.b    map       
>    any_d.b	mbr.b     
>    boot.030   os2_d.b   
>    boot.b	system.map
>    chain.b

    I would appreciate some hand-holding at this stage.  Exactly
what commands do I type to carry out the lilo instructions (specifically,
the symbolic link and copying the kernel)?  Or would I be better off
trying loadlin?

    Sorry this has been such a long post.  Thanks for your patience!

---

From: "Susan G. Kleinmann" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 22 Aug 1996 09:30:07 -0400

Hi Charles --

>      mount /dev/hda1/linux ./dos

Your mount command (as given above) is making a DOS file system accessible
under a Linux directory.  That seems unusual.

If you just want to run loadlin, I recommend something simpler:

In DOS, execute:

mkdir <dirname>

To be specific, I'll use the word lboot for dirname, but feel free to pick
another.

Then unzip lodlinNN.zip into c:\lboot.

Then boot Linux.

mount -t /dev/hda1/lboot /dos
cp /vmlinuz /dos/lboot

Then reboot DOS.

cd lboot

Make yourself a file called "linux.bat", or whatever you like.
Include these two lines:
smartdrv /C
c:\lboot\loadlin  c:\lboot\vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro 

Then execute your batch file by just typing "linux".

Good luck,
Susan Kleinmann

---

From: [email-masked] (Martin Str|mberg)
Date: Thu, 22 Aug 1996 16:28:35 +0200 (MET DST)

Hello.

> >space from the area beyond the 1024th cylinder when installing new kernels. 

I think that your hda2 partition is under the 1024 cylinder boundary. Roar 
those of you debianites that disagree (let us know, i. e.)! 
Is there someway to check this with a program or can you be sure that when you 
have a partition taking up 16MB (the swap) at the end of a disk of this size
that that last cylinder (1025) is only used by that partition?

> file names got truncated, and in some cases discarded completely.

Yes FAT handles only 8.3 names as I'm sure you know. There is a file system
called umsdos that adds this functionality to FAT. But to use this I suppose 
that you would need it compiled into the kernel as we are talking booting 
here. Perhaps a little too inconvenient and wasting of space.

> the symbolic link and copying the kernel)?  Or would I be better off

I saw that there was another reply as well. (S)He (I don't remember the name, 
sorry) had some good ideas as well, like the name of the kernel doesn't 
matter.

>     Sorry this has been such a long post.  Thanks for your patience!

I hope my reach is long enough,

							MartinS