That's another neat thing about Linux. Once we get past boot sequence, Main line Linux can read these larger drives reguardless of the BIOS. Can't say the same for DOS/windows systems; they require special drive geometry kludges to accomplish this. On Mon, 23 Jul 2001, Gregory Nowak wrote: > Thanks Steve. > I don't have a spair old drive on hand now. > However, I ended up reinstalling the system, > and mounting the second partition on /extra. > Then, I got the idea to move anything I didn't need for system > startup to /extra/dirname, and create a soft link to it > wherever it should be found in the main tree. > It works like a charm. > I've moved /usr/local, /usr/src, and /home to it. > Can I move anything else that the system won't need for boot up? > > Also, about your 2 gb hard disk ... > I don't think that a 486 bios will support anything higher then 1 gb, > thus your lilo problem. > I know for a fact that pentium based systems > (i mean the very first pentium systems) > won't recognize anything higher then 2.1 gb. > Greg > > > On Mon, Jul 23, 2001 at 06:38:41AM -0700, Holmes, Steve wrote: > > I have an old 486 with a 2 gig hard drive in it and Lilo won't boot the > > thing at all. What I ended up doing is install an old 40 meg hard disk and > > set my boot stuff there and mount the 2 gig as an entire single linux > > partition. Once running, linux will see the entire drive as one partition > > if you want. It got a bit complicated the way I'm doing it but it is > > working good right now. I first discovered this when I upgraded the disk > > drive in this thing from a 420 meg to this 2 gig and then the machine > > wouldn't boot anymore. I could always boot from a floppy and then mount the > > 2 gig as a new partition or I could have the boot disk actually call up the > > other drive so I just kind of moved the floppy based boot system to this > > little 40 meg drive as I mentioned above. Amazing but it works. > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Gregory Nowak [mailto:romualt at megsinet.net] > > Sent: Sunday, July 22, 2001 2:55 AM > > To: speakup at braille.uwo.ca > > Subject: linux on old system > > > > > > Hi all, > > > > I'm preparing to reinstall Linux on my pentium 3. > > I also tried to compile a c++ program > > on an old 486 I've got, and got the same errors. > > Whatever I screwed up, I was sure consistent about it. > > Guess I'll have to compile code step by step > > of the install and upgrade to kernel 2.4.6 so that I can figure out what > > goes wrong where on the way. > > Anyway, my question is this. > > The bios of the 486 doesn't support 32-bit lba. > > Consequently, the bios only sees 504 mb of the drive. > > However, in this machine's past, someone had replaced > > it's original drive with a 814 mb one. > > Since lilo had trouble booting the entire drive, > > I made the boot partition on the first 504 mb, > > used 128 mb for swap, and mounted the rest under /usr/src > > since source code takes up the most space (or so I thought). > > Appearently, my / partion is currently 100% full, > > and /usr/src/ is 93% full. > > When I do the reinstall, what is the best place to mount > > the second partion at? > > Or, what is the best way to setup the drive so that Ican still > > boot it and get the most out of its capcity? > > Thanks for any help in advance. > > Greg > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Speakup mailing list > > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Speakup mailing list > > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup > > _______________________________________________ > Speakup mailing list > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup >
