Boot Partition > 1024 Cylinders

[Pierre M. Camilleri]

Hi Everyone

I am trying to install RH Linux 7.1 on a SCSI hard drive which already contains an NTFS partition hosting W2K Server. I wish to install Linux on the unpartitioned free space. However when trying to create the partition for root (/) using Disk Druid I keep getting the above warning message. How can I get round this problem? The SCSI hard disk has an NTFS partiton size of 9 Gb and the unpartitioned free space is circa 8 GB.
Somewhere I've seen that one can get round this by partitioning using Fdisk. I've tried looking for detailed documentation on how to use Fdisk but wasn't successful.

TIA
Pierre M. Camilleri

[Santosh Nair_1]

Not sure if this will help, but found this link that seems to address you problem:

http://www.exocore.com/linux/lilo1024/

-Santosh

[Jeffrey S. Sims]

Pierre,

I am not sure about using fdisk (I think that would destroy the data on the existing partition), but I know that partition magic will work. I am sure you know that the problem is that the /boot partition needs to be contained withing the first 1024 cyl. So with partition magic you can move your current partition over and leave an empy space of about 20mb at the beginning of the disk. Then when you create your partitions during installation it will automatically put the /boot partition in the space available at the front of the disk.

Also if you have access to Mandrake Linux it comes with a Partition Magic LE on the installation cd.

[Albert E. Whale, CISSP]

For Boot Partitions > 1024 Cylinders you will need either the lba or linear boot options. These topics are discussed in great detail in the Large Disk HOWTO. You can find it here http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Large-Disk-HOWTO.html

HTH - Have a Great Day!

[Pierre M. Camilleri]

Thanks for your replies and suggestions. I've tried applying most of your recommendations but have decided to start booting from Linux boot disk.

Thanks just the same.

Pierre

[Michael Chan_3]

Hi, I've got a 60Gb disk drive. I ran into similar problem. I solved it by just having 30Mb of partition on boot. What you need to do is create a small partition of /boot. The rest you can dice and slice as you want. I hope this helps.

[Lindsay Hill]

I have my Linux partitions past the 1024th cylinder on my laptop. If diskdruid is complaining, then just switch to fdisk. It will do the job for you.

If you run lilo -L, it will allow booting from past cyl. 1024. If you don't use -L, it won't let you do it. If you have already got a working boot disk, I suggest you get Linux running, then set up an /etc/lilo.conf that looks something like this:

boot = /dev/hda
compact
delay = 50 # optional, for systems that boot very quickly
vga = normal # force sane state
root = current # use "current" root
default = 2.4.12
image = /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.12
label = 2.4.12
image = /boot/vmlinuz
label = redhat
other = /dev/hda2
table = /dev/hda
label = w

Just make sure you give the -L when running lilo to install it into your MBR

Lindsay