Linux and me confused :(

Slydice

Right i got SUSE Linux Version 6.4

Now thats all well and grand. It installed and thats great .

Here how I installed it,
I used partition magic to clear off 2 GB's from my windows partition and make those 2GB's into "unallocated" memory.

So i put in my cd and i booted from it, Everything went well, then it installed into this 2GB of unallocated memory.

So i was happy . But it said "this partition cannot be booted into directly". So i had to make a boot disk.

Now everything on the OS works grand its just i'd really like to boot without having to use this bootdisk.

Any suggestions?????

BTW consider me very new to Linux. I've heard the words : LILO and Loadlin mentioned but i don't know how they work or what to do with them

PiE

http://www.boards.ie/bulletin/Forum3/HTML/001829.html

Skeptic1

LILO is a boot loader which allows the user to select the OS upon startup of the system. There are limitations on the location of the partitions within a drive for some versions of this. This has been fixed, but I'm not sure which version comes with SUSE 6.4.

Loadlin is a DOS program which will boot a linux Kernal directly from DOS. You can have an Icon on you're windows desktop and boot straight into Linux without rebooting the machine.

If you have Boot Magic, I believe this works as a boot loader and doesn't have the restrictions of LILO. I think this comes with partition magic.

Gavin

The deal is that linux needs to have it's boot partition ( the /boot one ) in the first 1024 cylinders of a hard drive. It sounds like when you cleared off the space, it maybe took it from the end, as a pose to from the start of the hd.

So.. In order to fix it, you can either, shift the 2mb partition to the start of the hard drive, using partition magic or something like that, or just live with it. There are a few other ways of doing it, but that would be the simplest.. that I am aware of anyway.

Sorry... to backtrack a little bit.

LILO is a boot loader. It is basically a small program that sits in the MBR( master boot record of your harddrive ), most of the time anyway.. but ignore that.

So right, when you turn your machine on, the BIOS goes to the MBR to find out where to boot the operating system from. What lilo does is that it has a list of the operating systems on the harddrive and what partitions they are on. It presents you this list and you pick wihch OS and away it goes. Lilo isn't however able to load an OS that goes beyone 1024 cylinders as mentioned above. ( I think that the new versions of LILO can do it.. but not certain for sure ) You could possibly search around for lilo and see what it's webpage says about this. There might be a new version you could install.

And loadlin. Loadlin is able to load linux from windows basicaly. Boot into windows, then run loadlin and the computer reboots with linux.

Think that's around about it.

Gav

Snaga

Just a small amendment to that.

LILO cant(could not - it has been fixed in recent versions) load a linux system that doesnt have the 'Boot' partition start on the first 1024 cylinders of the HD.

So id have it dual booting and have a windows partition of about 5gb(cant remember exactly but it ends before the 1024 cylinder mark), and then have my linux partition tacked on before the 1024 limit.

So your windows partition is probably greater than that limit. Anyone know off the top of their head how big 1024 cylinders is?

po0k

damn beat me to it.....

Could some one tell me how to set up a dual-boot system for Linux (SuSe 7.0 demo i think - off mag cover)? I have no experience mucking about in the MBR and I know about the 1024 Cylinder limit. That's kinda gay too though. Tehy should get rid of it. Toravalds, get off ur **** .
Also what do i need to get my Geforce256 running in OpenGl?
i ahvea spare 5Gb partition available.

Gerry

I moved a partition with win2k on it from the front of the disk so I could fit redhat inside 1024 cylinders, win2k did not like that AT ALL! I think win98 is ok with it though.

JustHalf

Well, I have a 40Gb drive and Linux is in the last 10, and it loads grand!

Slydice

Great but how!!!!!

Snaga

JustHalf - what distro and version are you using?

I havent dual booted since RH 6 when LILO still wasnt updated, Id assume SUSE 7/7.1(if 7.1 is out yet) has it sorted, assuming you want to stick to Suse, a quick look around on google might be able to help you find out.

Cond0r

When you're installing linux(any distro) make a 30mb or so /boot partition, and lilo will boot everything no problem. simple as that

JustHalf

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Snaga:
JustHalf - what distro and version are you using?</font>

Linux-Mandrake 8.0.

Snaga

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Cond0r:
When you're installing linux(any distro) make a 30mb or so /boot partition, and lilo will boot everything no problem. simple as that </font>

Hmmmms - i dunno. If your installing linux on the system first and put your 30mb boot partition then yeah thatll work great, you can divvy up the drive however you like after that.

But if youve a 13gb drive and a 10gb windows partition on it. Then you place a 30mb boot partition on the end of that, its still after the 1024 limit and wont work.....i think.

Kev

i dont know about your fancy pants mandrakes and redhats but i use debian 2.2 potato which isnt updated as often as other distros but the lilo that comes with it doesnt have the 1024 limitation anymore. i have it instaled at the end of a 20 gig hard drive and it works fine. i dont see any reason why all other distros would still have an older version of lilo

Cond0r

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">But if youve a 13gb drive and a 10gb windows partition on it. Then you place a 30mb boot partition on the end of that, its still after the 1024 limit and wont work.....i think.</font>

I have a 10gb hdd, windows is on the first 8gb, and linux is in the last 2, lilo boots it perfectly well for me

Snaga

yea thats great - but youve got to give distributions and version numbers. The thing here is, since what version of each distro did the new lilo come out in.

Slydice is probably using an older verion.

1024 cylinders = 7.8gb if anyones interested.

po0k

How do u set it up to dual boot using LILO?
I have a half arsed distro, something I got on cover of a mag, SuSe 7.1 I think. I need to run it beside Winodws. I have a 5Gb partition after a 20gb windows one. Its an extended or logical one i think, not a primary. I know Linux will install onto this fine, but is there any way i can reformat this partition to the native Linux format?

flamegrill

Just a note:

if you cant even set up a partition for linux to boot from, be it dual boot or not, you should stick to some Microsft product.
end note:

flame

po0k

ahhh, yeah......riiiiight flame....sound, great help. Excellent really. Thanks man.
i know my last post there was a bit hard to understand. Accepted.
CAn I install Linux without it modifying my MBR? I like the nice GUI I have, and I have an inherent distrust of DOS prompts.
You need the /boot partition inside the 1024 limit I think, for almost every distro. Maybe not some newer ones, as I'm not a particularly beardy person.

Loomer

I had I Win95 PC on 2GBs with spare 2GB. Put in the SuSe 7.0 Cds and it did it lovely. I just sat back and drunk tea. I love j00 SuSe. Tried to put Mandrake 6.1? on top of dual boot Win2K Pro/Win2K Server and I couldn't access the later 2

Loomer

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by flamegrill:
Just a note:

if you cant even set up a partition for linux to boot from, be it dual boot or not, you should stick to some Microsft product.
end note:

flame</font>

STFU!!! We are all noobies of something at any given time.Its boards like these that help us get to the 1337 stage

Skeptic1

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by [FCA]SyxPak:
How do u set it up to dual boot using LILO?
I have a half arsed distro, something I got on cover of a mag, SuSe 7.1 I think. I need to run it beside Winodws. I have a 5Gb partition after a 20gb windows one. Its an extended or logical one i think, not a primary. I know Linux will install onto this fine, but is there any way i can reformat this partition to the native Linux format?</font>

Here's your setup as I understand it: You have a primary partition and an extended partition containing one logical drive. Check that this is the case.

I'm not familiar with SUSE but if you delete the partition using the DOS fdisk (first the logical drive and then the extended partition) and then run the SUSE install program, it should spot the free space and prompt you to create the linux partitions here. Basically the dos fdisk program should display just one partition prior to installing linux.

Precautions:

1. Have your Windows CD (with boot disk) handy.
2. Be sure to create a linux boot disk when prompted.
3. Don't touch the 20 gig partition!
4. You are on your own

If the install program complains about the 1024 cylender limit or lilo will only boot windows (not linux) then you will need to upgrade to the latest version of LILO. Details on how to do this is on the SUSE site (searchable). You will need to use your linux boot disk in the meantime.

If your machine won't boot at all then do an "upgrade" of windows using your windows boot disk and CD. This will recreate the MBR and you will be back where you started from.

po0k

Yeah, nearly spot on Skeptic, 20Gb Primary 1st, the 10Gb extended split into 2x5GB loggicals. teh second logical is full of important stuff => can't be deleted till I get a CD copier.
I now know exactly what I need to know:
Can I install Linux on that midle 5Gb logical partition? and then boot into DOS from Windows (or use boot disk) and manually load Linux using LILO?

John

---

No-one ever suspects the Duck
He who must die, must die in the dark even though he sells candles

Skeptic1

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by [FCA]SyxPak:
I now know exactly what I need to know:
Can I install Linux on that midle 5Gb logical partition?</font>

I think you should be able to install linux into the middle 5Gb logical partition. The first step would be to delete this partition using the DOS fdisk and then run the linux install program as described in my previous post. when you run the install program you will probably create two partitions, a linux native partition and a swap partition into the space created by the deletion of the 5Gb partition.

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">and then boot into DOS from Windows (or use boot disk) and manually load Linux using LILO?</font>

You will need to boot into DOS from windows to run the DOS fdisk program. LILO is the standard way of loading both Windows and Linux in a dual boot situation (there are others). If the version of LILO is old then it may not work if your linux kernal resides above the 1024 cylender point. In this case, you have three approaches.

1. Use the linux boot disk created during the linux install program.
2. Boot directly from windows using loadlin (this normally comes on the CD with linux but can also be found on the net).
3. Upgrade to the latest version of LILO.

JustHalf

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Skeptic1:
I think you should be able to install linux into the middle 5Gb logical partition.</font>

Remember, all partitions have to be contiguous.

po0k

I read teh manual that came with the distro, i can install teh whole caboodle in my partition, butits just booting out to it again.
I installed it at roughly teh same space alst time too, but I couldn't get it too dual boot after I installed windows.
Its the booting up affter installed bit i have trouble with. Teh params for teh LILO and loadlin, ie hd0, etc.

Skeptic1

SixPak, are you booting into linux OK with a floppy?

Cond0r

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Loomer:
Tried to put Mandrake 6.1? on top of dual boot Win2K Pro/Win2K Server and I couldn't access the later 2 </font>

Thats because winnt/2k expects you to use its bootloader, not lilo. The NT Loader can be set up to boot linux, though.

po0k

Skeptic`, no Linux isn't actually installed as of yet. In middle of Leaving Cert so waiting for a free weekend.
I'll keep all this in mind though.
I didn't think that the boot sector needed to be inside the 1024-cylinder limit if you were using another thing to boot it, rather then a partition or MBR-style thing. <?>