Linux - Windows XP

[Tarek_1]

Hi there,
i have installed on my pc
Windows XP professional with these partitions:
Disk 40 GB
c 1,5GB --> primary
d 20,5 --> extended & logical
Then i installed RedHat linux 7.2 and i created
/ 5GB --> primary
swap 1GB --> primary
While i try to add another partition to fill the disk space(during installation under linux) i get an error:
Could not allocate partition... But if i put all remaining space under / i don't have problems.
It doesn't allow me to create another partition other than root and swap.
Under linux i see partitions as follows:
/dev/hda1 c
/dev/hda2 extended
/dev/hda5 logical (d)
/dev/hda3 /
/dev/hda4 swap
I also tried to put swap not as primary (because of the maximum allowed under linux are 4 primary partitions, even if d isn't primary!!) but as logical, but i still have that problem.
How can i do to create two windows partitions and 3 linux??
Thanks in advance for your help.
Tarek

[I_M]

Hi,

long time ago, lilo had such a rule that the linux kernel need to be less than 1024 cylinder of the disk.

Now a day this rule for LILO has already gone. But some installer still follow the old rule.
I am not sure if RH7.2 had such a rule.

I have some recommendations.

(1) create linux partition at the top of the disk. then install XP next.

(2) create XP partition at the top, then install Linux next.
When you install, don't select LILO, but select grub instead.
Grub doesn't have the rule that LILO had. So Grub can make your kernel bootable from any where.

(3) Read some HOWTO document at www.tldp.org.
You can find some multi-boot related documents on the web.

Good luck

[Marcin Golembski_1 · Accepted solution]

Tarek,

The problem is that you can have maximum 4 partitions defined in the Master Boot Record (MBR): hda1 to hda4, which you have. All 4 can be primary or, like in your case, three primary (hda1, 3 and 4) and one extended (hda2). If you want to have more than 4 partitions in total, you must put at least 4th, 5th etc. in the extended partition - only you don't have a space there because you've allocated all of it to one 'logical' partition (hda5).

If you are happy to lose your d disk things will be simple: remove all partitions but hda1, create your swap and / partitions as primary and then create the extended partition taking all the remaining space on the disk. After that you can create as many partitions as you want (hda5, 6 and so on) until you fill the extended partition up.

I think it might be possible to preserve the logical disk you currently have while reorganizing your disk but I would need detailed information about the current setup. If you want to take the risk and try it, run 'fdisk /dev/hda' then type 'p' at its prompt and post here the exact output.

Marcin

[S. Kaysersberg]

Hey Tarek,

Marcin is absolutely right, you can only have 4 partitions on your harddisk (primary and logical). So I would do like he told you. But you can think about if you maybe want to create a FAT32 Partition for data exchange between M$ and Linux, instead of a small NTFS and a small EXT2/3 data partition, so you can access them through both OSes (read and write)

Greetz
Kayse

[Tarek_1]

Thanks all.
So i will reinstall Linux and create 1 primary partition (/) and 1 extended in which i create swap and other partition. In this way it should work. I think i have to do it not by DiskDruid but with fdisk.
About lilo i'm having the allocating partition error during redhat installation and before lilo's configuration. Thanks again for your kind help.
Regards
Tarek