You should probably start by suing Uncle Bill... LOL Just kidding.

I dont seem to see any LBA option within my BIOS options. I have an ePox 8RDA+

There appears to be a workaround emerging:
http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/...?id=115980#c71

This doesn't help if you've already FUBARed your partition table, but it does seem to allow you to safely install a dual-boot configuration. And, it seems the problem centers around updating the partition with LBA definitions rather than CHS parameters.

Yah thanks, I already noticed that post last night. But to be honest I couldn't really understand the procedure, maybe you could simplify for me please.

Thank you

http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/...?id=115980#c71


pembo13:

as far as i can tell all you have to do is put in your FC2 cd and at the promt instead of just pressing enter type in "linux hda=2432,255,63" without the quotes. And then you should be able to install FC2 normally and use disk Druid all you like without breaking anything. However i cannnot confrim that this works. Can anyone else give this a try and report back? I havnt got mt FC2 disks from cheapbytes.com yet. (56k so i wasnt downloading all that)

But those kernel parameters work only for a specific hard disk geometry.

Correct. In order to use this workaround, you need to determine your hard drive geometry on a pre-FC2 installation, like FC1, windows, etc. Jot those parameters down on a piece of paper, and enter them as kernel parameters when you boot FC2.

This way the FC2 installer won't write to the MBR/partition table using the LBA geometry which windows won't understand when it tries to boot.

Ok, i have two hard drives Hda with windows 2k and RH8 and Hdc with Mdk 9.2. I want to erase RH8 and create a Fat 32 partition, and then install FC2 on Hdc.

Two questions:

How do i find my disk geometry from inside windows 2000 or linux?

Next question, how would i enter this command for the use on both my hard drives? Like this?: "linux hda=geometry hdc = geometry" ?

Dosnt the code you gave me "linux hda=9729/255/63" deal only with Hda? I have two drives, hda and hdc so i need to tell anaconda the geomentry for both those drives do i not?


Also i used Mandrake Moves's disk drake, Windows's Partiton magic and the command you supplied in redhat and here is what i discovered:

Mandrake Moves Results:

HDA - 1568 , 225 , 63

HDC - 77545, 16, 63
-------------------------------------------------
Partition Magic

HDA- 1568, 225, 63

HDC- 4865, 225, 63
--------------------------------------------------
Redhat 8

HDA -

Physical - 24990, 16, 63
Logical- 1568, 225, 63

HDC
Physical - 77545, 16, 63
Logical - 77545, 16, 63
--------------------------------------------------

Now here is how my partitions are setup:

HDA:
/dev/hda1 - Win95 (Fat32)
/dev/hda2 - Win95 (Ext'd) (LBA)
/dev/hda5- Win 95 Fat32
/dev/hda6 - Linux
/dev/hda7 - Swap
/dev/hda8 - Linux

So for HDA i have my Two windows partitions (I dont really know what the extended LBA thing is) and my linux partitions that Redhat 8 created last summer when i first installed it.

HDC:
/dev/hdc1 - Linux
/dev/hdc2 - Extended
/dev/hdc 5 - Linux Swap
/dev/hdc6 - Linux

This is where Mandrake 9.2 is installed, once again i let the installer set up everything on its own.
-------------------------------------
Now for the geometry of Hda1, are the physical and logical values supposed to be the same? I also noticed that Partition magic is reporting a different value then Mandrake and Redhat are for HDC, i am going to assume thats a error on Partition magics behalf. Also when i load partition magic it tells me that my LBA and CHS values for HDC are different when they should both be exactly the same, it tells me that it knows that the LBA value is correct and wants to know if it should fix the CHS value.

---------------------------------------
Now here is what i want to do if this is possible:
Format all of HDA except my windows partition and create a large fat 32 partition that i can use to back things up to. Windows 2000 is installed on hda1. I am wondering if because the rest of the partitions are in the extended group that i may have to format all of them which i dont mind doing. The other fat32 partition there now is my current backup partition that i was going to make bigger but if i have to do that destructivly that doesnt matter.

I want to erase all of HDC and then create a /boot /root and /swap partition set there which i will installl Fedora Core 2 to.


Thats basically this computers life story. If i really messed it up its not matter as i got it on ebay fairly cheap for the sole purpose of messing with linux on it and thats what im doing .

In the case where there is only a Windows installtion, what's the command/util to find the HDD geometry?

Flak Pyro described his harddrives as hda and hdc....i thought these things went in alpha order, do explain please.

I'd just like to thank the people who thought to allow kernel parameters even during installation so that in the midst of sort of a bug, all hel need not break loose.

well my first hard drive (hda) is on the same ide channel as my cdrom, while my second hard drive (hdc) is on its own channel. Mabey this has something to do with it? Also can someone answer my questions above?

I think this should work in my case, let me know what you guys think:

-delate all of HDC using Partition magic, knoppix or mandrake move.

-make a fat partition on HDC and take its geometry and make sure it is correct, if it isnt let partition magic fix it to the correct vales. (Should be the same as the 2.4 kernel reports.

-take the geometry of hda (1568, 255, 63)

-install FC2 on HDC and insert the kernel prameter "linux hda=1568/255/63 this will allow you to format hda to remove redhat 8 and allow FC2 to write grub to the MBR without messing anything up. During grub config tell grub the kernel prameter hda=1568/255/63 during grub configuration.

-If the HDC geometry is wrong use mandrake move, partition magic or knoppix to find the correct geomerty and put in the FC2 cd 1 and type "Linux hdc =p/r/a rescue

i've done this kind of crap over the years a million times, so i guess i should add some stuff. the linux fdisk doesn't remove any data from a partition when you change the partition table. Ive recreated a messed up partition table many times over the years by deleting all the partitions, then recreating each, one at a time, and tryinng to mount each as i go, to see if i got it right. if you just had one partition on a hard drive taking up the full disk, it should be fairly simple.
you can change the number of heads and sectors per cylinder in fdisk in xpert mode.
delete the partition that's not working. start fdisk in xpert mode and change the number of heads to 255 and the sectors per cylinder to 63. go back to normal mode, and make a partition taking up the full disk. your number of cylinders will be incorrect, but fdisk will correct this for you. save the partition. restart fdisk, and see if the partition looks ok. save and exit again if you wish, and all that misalligned stuff will be gone. maybe xp can handle that and boot.
i have for years always made linux and fdisk change my heads to 255 and sectors to 63 in xpert mode, so that i always know what they are. and i make my partition boundries on even 100 or 1000 cylinder numbers, to keep things straight. i have had to recreate my partition table by hand many times, and the even numbers makes it very easy. less than a 15 minute job, even when i have up to 20 partitions on a drive. i often print out the partition table on a piece of paper too, so i don't have to do the guessing.


Disk /dev/hda: 81.9 GB, 81964302336 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9964 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 260 2088418+ 6 FAT16
/dev/hda2 261 1500 9960300 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hda4 1501 9964 67987080 85 Linux extended
/dev/hda5 1501 3500 16064968+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda6 3501 3700 1606468+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda7 3701 4000 2409718+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda8 4001 9964 47905798+ 83 Linux
/#


i haven't strictly followed my own rules here, but it's close.
just dont' try any of that stuff with windows fdisk. it does other crap that will ruin everything.


Disk /dev/hda: 81.9 GB, 81964302336 bytes
240 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9964 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 15120 * 512 = 7741440 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 277 2088418+ 6 FAT16
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/hda2 277 1594 9960300 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/hda4 1594 10587 67987080 85 Linux extended
Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/hda5 1594 3719 16064968+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda6 3719 3932 1606468+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda7 3932 4250 2409718+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda8 4251 10587 47905798+ 83 Linux


if i take the same partition table into expert mode and change the heads to 240, and print it looks all screwed up like that. that's probably something similar to what is going on with anaconda or the 2.6 kernel or whatever is causing the problem. changing the numbers of heads does that. luckily, you could try a bunch of different settings until it looks right if you wanted to spend the time.

I am thinking that they physical and logical values on the hard drive geometry are supposed to be the same yet partition magic does not report any errors to do with HDA, only the CHS values on HDC.