🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <jamespm.2.001534B6@acslink.net.au>, jamespm@acslink.net.au
(James Maurice) wrote:

> hello :-)
> 
> I have a 1.2 gig hard drive, partitioned with 700 meg windows. I tried to 
> install Linux onto the remaining portion of the drive and experienced 
> difficulties.
> 
> Namely when I came to create the Linux swap partition there was only one 
> cylinder (2448) available so I couldnt set up the Linux partition or the swap 
> partition.

Hi James,

700 mb windows? What a shame :)
I'm guessing you have an EIDE drive?

If you have the slackware distribution, there should be an EIDE readme
file.  All of what I'll say here is explained more fully, and I'm sure,
more clearly. If you can't find that file, here's a (garbled and
condensed) version.

Linux has been hoodwinked with the wrong disk geometry. You need to tell
Linux what the disk geometry really is.
I won't go into an explanation of why, but here's how to do it.

When you run fdisk - not dos, the linux one! :), it will give you some
info about the hd.
Something like 64 heads, 63 sectors, 524 Cylinders. 
Write those numbers down. The heads and cylinders numbers need to be changed:
The heads number should be changed to16. The true number of cylinders is
actually (usually) 4 times what fdisk reported (because it said 64 heads,
not 16; 64/16 = 4).
In the above example, cylinders should be (524*4) = 2096.
DON'T change (ever) the number of sectors.

So, reboot, and at the prompt, enter (in this example)
ramdisk hd=16,2096,63
in other words, ramdisk hd=heads,cylinders,sectors.

Now, when you run fdisk, if you print the partition table, it will
probably report a whole heap of errors - partitions over boundaries, etc.

Go into expert mode, and change the number of heads back to 64, and change
the number of cylinders back to the reading you got the first time you ran
fdisk (in this example, 524).
Now, when you return to the main fdisk menu, and print the partition
table, there should be no error messages.

You can now create (and delete) partitions to your heart's content. I've
gone through this process several times on mine and other PCs with EIDE
drives, and haven't had a glitch - yet :)

Note however: LILO will not be able to boot a kernel that resides in a
partition, if that partition starts on a cylinder over a certain number -
which I cannot remember at all. You'll need to check up on this. It's
round about the 500+ mb mark.

Hope this helps. I _really recommend_ that you read the EIDE readme file,
as I'm only telling you this from memory - and since that isn't always
reliable, I won't be held responsible for disasters. In other words, back
up everything you value first!

Good luck!

-- 
Howard Cock
Curriculum Solutions P/L
howardc@castlemaine.net.au  #include <stdDisclaimer.h>