[svlug] 1023 Cylinder limitation

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Tom Harincar (tomh at netzero.net):

> I have a system with a 20 gb ide drive on which I would like to have RH
> 6.1 running in its own 3 gb partition and the balance (the first 17 gb)
> reserved for another o/s.  I have the second partition defined properly,
> but when I try to install RH, the error message is "Install error - boot
> partition too big."  I'm assuming that the problem is due to the 1023
> cylinder limataion because it installed fine on another system with a
> smaller drive. The system bios shows 2637 cyl, 240 heads, and 63
> sectors.  LBA is enabled.

On gathers that this is an x86 system, though you did not specify.
Other platforms do not have this BIOS-related problem.

Do you have any objection to creating a small (e.g., 50 MB) /boot 
partition near the front of the drive?  If so, that's an easy solution.
Make sure, when you compile kernels, that you put them there.

> I seem to recall having read somewhere that its OK to reassign the bios
> disk geometry parameters to bring the cyl count to < 1024 - is this
> advisable?  

This is a kludge called "sector translation", ordinarily not required 
for anything but Microsoft operating systems.  Whether it is "advisable"
is a matter of opinion:  I wouldn't use it, but many people do.  But,
for that matter, I don't load legacy Microsoft systems onto my Linux
boxes, either.

> and is it true that data in the first partition will not be lost?

No, that is false.   You would need to backup and restore.

> Secondly, is there a work-around for this problem if I am willing to
> boot from a floppy?

Yes.

> If so, how do I get RH installed to begin with?

Your distribution's installer should offer you this option at
installation time.  If not, or if you don't want to install again,
just edit your /etc/lilo.conf to reference /dev/fd0 instead of locations
on your hard drive (e.g., in the boot= line, which is probably enough).
Then, run /sbin/lilo -v, to write the bootable information specified
thereby to a floppy.

> Can anyone point me towards relevant documentation on this subject?

See above.

-- 
Cheers,                             "Ceterum censeo Linux propaganda est."
Rick Moen                                        -- Seth David Schoen
rick at linuxmafia.com

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