[techtalk] Partition and Win madness

[Conor Daly]

On Wed, Aug 16, 2000 at 12:54:03PM -0400 or so it is rumoured hereabouts,
 Lilly S. thought...
> Hi all,
> 
> I was so happy yesterday when I found a copy of Mandrake's Linux for
> Windows. So all excitedly i bought it and went home to install it. And
> that's when I ran into trouble.
> 
> Here's the current setup. 
> I have two harddrives A and B (that's not the drive's names).
> 
> A (11 Gigs) has two partitions in it: 1.  Win for 2 Gigs
> 			    2.  Win for 4 Gigs
> 
> B (13 Gigs) has four patitions in it: 	1. Linux Swap 
> 				2. Linux 
> 				3. Linux
> 				4. Linux
> 
> When I tried to install Mandrake yesterday, I asked it to put it on the
> second partition of the A drive, but it came back and said I didn't have
> enough room. I have over 5 Gigs left. I just cannot be out of space. I'm
> thinking it's the Windows limit on showing partitions over 4 Gigs.

I presume that "Linux for Windows" is intended to install on a FAT partition,
using a virtual filesystem.  If that's the case, it's trying to fit Linux into
your 4Gb Windows partition.  If it's trying to use disk space for an ext2
partition, you're probably running up against the old LILO and 1024 cylinder
problem.  LILO needs a bootable partition *below* 1024 cylinders on your hard
drive.  Best option there is to use fips.exe to split your 2 Gb partition into
2; one 1.984Gb and one 16Mb.  This 16Mb partition is to be mounted as "/boot"
and the rest of your partition(s) can go in the empty 5Gb of drive.

> 
> This brings me to my questions:
> 1. Is there a way to make Windows recognize partitions over 4 Gigs?

Errm, Make some >4Gb partitions?  My Windows currently sees;

C:	2Gb
D:	6Gb
E:	4Gb
H:	4Gb	Network Drive
P:	4Gb	Network Drive


> 2. What's the best way of installing Linux for Win considering this setup?
> 
> I would like to have it so that I can have Windows and Linux that sit on
> the same boot, but also have the option of getting into Linux *without*
> windows.
> 

It's doable.  If you're using seperate ext2 partitions for Linux, just use
LILO.  If you use loadlin, you can set up a boot menu before Windows starts
the GUI.  You use the menuitem commands in the Windows config.sys and either
load Windows or run loadlin on the basis of the choice made at boot. I can
post or mail samples if you like.

> Is this asking too much, or someone thinks it's doable?
> 
Or am I missing something about "Linux for Win"?

-- 
Conor Daly <conor.daly at oceanfree.net>

Domestic Sysadmin :-)