Partition Setup

[Guest]

I would like to know how i should partition 30 gig drive for linux and win98
should i make linux partition first so it starts at a cylider < 1024, then swap partition then fat32 at end
also what order to install os,i plan on using vmware too
any help will be greatly appreciated
thx
jusme13

 

[Guest]

you will need the linux boot partition to be before the 1024th cylinder. The easiest way to accomplish this is to make a 32MB partition mounted at /boot just for the boot files.
It then depends on how much space you want for Linux/Windows/Common. I do something like this (make adjustments depending on your needs):

hda1...ext2...../boot 32MB
hda2...fat32..../dos 5GB <- will be C:, windows goes here
hda3...<extended> the rest (you may not need to explicitly define this)
hda5...swap.....<swap> 128MB
hda6...ext2...../ 5GB
hda7...fat32..../common the rest <- will be D:

Disk Druid may not give you the two primary partitions (hda1,hda2), but it may not matter - just try it out and see. If windows does not like to be installed into a logical drive, you can force the above arrangement in fdisk (linux) - it's command-line like, but not impossible to figure out; you just need a decent understanding of how the HD actually is partitioned.


The first thing you do is to boot the linux install disk, and run the install, and continue up to the hd partitioning portion. Define the drives you want, then exit out. Remember, you don't need to format the drives, you just have to have them defined.

Then boot a windows disk, and run fdisk. Make hda2 the active partition. It will be the one that says "Primary DOS Partition". Reboot and format the two dos partitions, C: and D:

Now install windows as normal.

Once that is running, go back to the Linux install. When prompted to define the partitions, the only thing you need to do is define the path to which all drives are mounted. Now continue the install as normal.

When you get to the part about LILO, install it in the MBR of hda. You will also need a boot option for hda2 - the windows drive, as well as hda6. Set the default boot option to the OS for which you think you will use the most - it is easy to change later.

Hope this helps.

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I have not yet begun to procrastinate.

 

[Guest]

thank you for the help
another question
does the first linux partition have to be completely below cylinder 1024 or just start under it
ok
thx again
JuS Me

 

[Guest]

Actually, it is just the kernel image itself that must be below that barrier. So theoretically, one could have just one big partition mounted at /, but if the kernel was later updated, and the new files did not reside below the 1024th C, linux would not boot.

Ergo the 32MB partition to square everything away

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I have not yet begun to procrastinate.

 

[Kelledin]

The 32MB partition below the 1024th cylinder is actually not always necessary. Somewhere in the 21.4.x series, lilo gained the capability to boot kernel images beyond the 1024th cylinder via 32-bit LBA extensions. Grub (which I believe is the boot loader used by Mandrake) may have different requirements.

Having the 32MB partition below the 1024th cylinder is still a good idea though, especially if you're planning to experiment with some of the new filesystems available for Linux.

 

[dmcmahon]

You can actually copy the files Linux needs to boot down to a "linux" directory on a windows partition and then boot from that, completely avoiding the cylinder 1024 problem (assuming Windows is your first partition). I generally like Windows in the first 8G, entirely below cyl 1024, then Linux is the second primary partition, and then a swap area (preferably on a different disk drive). The key file for booting is "/boot/vmlinux-XXXX", plus the XXX.msg file you want to use, and the "map" file. You can install Linux and ask that a boot floppy be created, so that you can boot up into Linux once, mount the windows partition as a "vfat" file system, and do the copying. You then run "lilo" with a special lilo.conf file that references the /mnt/windows/linux/xxxx files you copied. It works because lilo doesn't use the file system at boot time anyway -- it just records the physical disk location for all the files involved when you run "lilo -C lilo.conf"; as long as those files are below cyl 1024, it doesn't know and doesn't care that it's not actually on the Linux partition. Let me know if you need more precise instructions, I've done this many times.

 

[silverpig]

I keep it very simple. On my 30 gig hd I have the first 2 gigs as ext2 for linux (although if you were going to use vmware in linux, you might want to make that partition 3 gigs or so), the next 250 megs for swap, the next 6 gigs for C: and the rest for D:

I keep my linux partition as small as possible because windows cannot read the ext2 file system, and I can just keep all my linux downloaded files and what not in a folder on D:\Linux\.

C: is for windows and programs, D: is for data (mp3s, movies, downloads etc). It's worked fine for me for a long time.

Really love your peaches wanna shake your tree.

 

[Rop]

While lilo in most cases now does support booting beyond 1024 the best and sure way to do it is as the second post said. Most current Distro do not bring the newer version of lilo yet so it is best to do it the safe and old fashion way.



Why do I use LINUX ? Cause its the BEST OS
Why do I use Windows? Cause its the BEST Nintendo..

 

[Guest]

And i thought this thread was dead
thanks for the help, that D partition as common area for both OS es sounds good
thanks
JuS cHiLiN