Re: [newbie] Installation with older Bios
The 3 golden rules of linux. 1. Dont turn off at the switch or plug. Linux doesn't like that :) 2. If it crashes, hold down control-alt-f2 to get to a console where you can fix it. 3. Remember, as long as you are not root nothing you do can mess it up. So feel free to mess with whatever you want :-) On Mon, 25 Dec 2000, you wrote: > > Donald Munson wrote: > > > > OK well I took the plunge and let Mandrake load onto the drive. I > > told it to erase the Dos partition and load to the entire drive. The > > setup went OK (I think?). Now when I boot to Linux I get a command > > line prompt (grub>). What is this and how do I boot into the > > graphical interface. > > > > Don > > > > > > Hi Don, > > While looking at the Grub menu, select Linux and press the key. > Another option is to let it count down from 5 seconds and your Linux box > will begin checking, then boot up to the graphical interface. I usually > let Linux start up by itself. > > Welcome to our humble club. > > -- > Roman > Registered Linux User #179293 > High Energy Penguin Powered Email -- == Goldenpi - linux user, unreal editor, programer in 3 languages and all round geek.
Re: RE: [newbie] Installation with older Bios
> Type startx. OR "r.t.f.d." (DO NOT type that) > > Donald Munson wrote: > > >OK well I took the plunge and let Mandrake load onto the drive. I told it > >to erase the Dos partition and load to the entire drive. The setup went OK > >(I think?). Now when I boot to Linux I get a command line prompt (grub>). > >What is this and how do I boot into the graphical interface. > > > >Don > > __ > www.edsamail.com > >
RE: [newbie] Installation with older Bios
OK well I took the plunge and let Mandrake load onto the drive. I told it to erase the Dos partition and load to the entire drive. The setup went OK (I think?). Now when I boot to Linux I get a command line prompt (grub>). What is this and how do I boot into the graphical interface. Don
Re: [newbie] Installation with older Bios
What you want to do should be quite possible. Back when I switched from Slackware to RedHat 5.0 (long time ago especially seeing that I have been using Mandrake exclusively for a year and a half now) I also got my hands on a 850 MB drive in stuck it in a (now long gone) 486 that had the same problem. I was able, using Linux's fdisk, to use the first half of the drive for Windows 95 and the second half for Linux. This is when I began to really like Linux especially seeing that Windows was bent on thinking that the drive was only 504 megs. What I did way back when to get things to work was to go into Linux's fdisk like mentioned before, hit x for extra functionality, then hit c for change number of cylinders. Of course I had to look at the hard drive and write down the exact number of cylinders. The main problem that you may find with this is that Mandrake gives you a graphical partition utility and I never really probed around to see if there is a way inside of their utility do screw around with the number of cylinders or if it is even necessary. Here are some extra things to consider when looking into this problem. One is that the Linux kernel once it is loaded into memory it takes direct control over the hardware and bypasses such things as the BIOS (in modern PC's the BIOS pretty lame anyway), but the boot loader still needs the BIOS in order to load the kernel in the first place. To be friendly with DOS and to be as consistent as possible with what the boot loader sees (if I got the story straight) the Linux kernel has a tendency to pay attention to what is in the BIOS unless there is nothing in the BIOS. One amusing thing that I have done to get Linux to not get screwed up by BIOS settings on one system that I added a bigger hard drive to (45 GB drive added to a 1 1/2 year old Ultra33 based m/b) is to just disable the drive in the BIOS and let Linux detect the drive by itself. Of course the drive couldn't be booted off of, but then again in this case we where upgrading the disk capacity, so we could get away with it. This also leads to what I mentioned above about manually setting the number of cylinders on a drive. Once the kernel takes charge it will pay more attention to how big the partitions are specified and the geometry specified in the partition table than what's in the BIOS, but if you are booting off the drive, you have to be mindful of what the BIOS says when it comes to stuff that needs to be loaded before the kernel takes control (specially the /boot directory). One other thing to be mindful of is that I did have some experiences with early Pentium m/b BIOS's that had some really ugly problems when it came to detecting and addressing 2+ GB hard drives (or maybe some of the boards that I messed with way back when where just fowled up). It has been a while and I don't remember much in the way of details, but I do vaguely remember cylinder addressing getting all fowled up and tones of corruption and booting problems. > I have an older Pentium 90 that will not fully see a 2.1 GB HD. I > have formatted the HD cleanly and the BIOS will only see the first 504 > MB. I have read in the archives that it is not recommended to install > Linux using a HD overlay. Is it possible to install 7.2 and then > reformat the remaining portions of the HD to get the full benefit of > the 2.1 GB? I would really appreciate any assistance. I don't want to > give this up and I don't want to have to buy a new motherboard and > components just to install Linux.Don
Re: [newbie] Installation with older Bios
I had that once on a 386. this worked for me but is very hardware-specific: 1. find the geomatry settings for the disk 2. set it up as usr done. Probly wont work. - Original Message - From: Donald Munson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, December 25, 2000 6:58 PM Subject: [newbie] Installation with older Bios > I have an older Pentium 90 that will not fully see a 2.1 GB HD. I have > formatted the HD cleanly and the BIOS will only see the first 504 MB. I > have read in the archives that it is not recommended to install Linux using > a HD overlay. Is it possible to install 7.2 and then reformat the remaining > portions of the HD to get the full benefit of the 2.1 GB? > > I would really appreciate any assistance. I don't want to give this up and > I don't want to have to buy a new motherboard and components just to install > Linux. > > Don > > >
Re: [newbie] Installation with older Bios
On Mon, 25 Dec 2000, Donald Munson wrote: >I have an older Pentium 90 that will not fully see a 2.1 GB HD. I have >formatted the HD cleanly and the BIOS will only see the first 504 MB. I >have read in the archives that it is not recommended to install Linux using >a HD overlay. Is it possible to install 7.2 and then reformat the remaining >portions of the HD to get the full benefit of the 2.1 GB? As Bob suggested, there might be a way to upgrade the BIOS by flashing. Usually though, older BIOS's don't support that fancy stuff. An alternative might be to go for a newer Bios, these cost me $20 a while ago. Much better than a new mainboard. Paul -- Air is water with holes in it. http://nlpagan.net - ICQ 147208 - Registered Linux User 174403 Linux Mandrake 7.2 - Pine 4.31
RE: [newbie] Installation with older Bios
Check the bios to see if it can use a different method of seeing the HD, such as LBA or Large or Normal, and try all the options. Another possibility is to upgrade the bios. It may be a flash bios that can be upgraded by running a program, or maybe needs a replacement bios chip. BobC -Original Message-From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Donald MunsonSent: Monday, December 25, 2000 12:58 PMTo: [EMAIL PROTECTED]Subject: [newbie] Installation with older Bios I have an older Pentium 90 that will not fully see a 2.1 GB HD. I have formatted the HD cleanly and the BIOS will only see the first 504 MB. I have read in the archives that it is not recommended to install Linux using a HD overlay. Is it possible to install 7.2 and then reformat the remaining portions of the HD to get the full benefit of the 2.1 GB? I would really appreciate any assistance. I don't want to give this up and I don't want to have to buy a new motherboard and components just to install Linux. Don
[newbie] Installation with older Bios
I have an older Pentium 90 that will not fully see a 2.1 GB HD. I have formatted the HD cleanly and the BIOS will only see the first 504 MB. I have read in the archives that it is not recommended to install Linux using a HD overlay. Is it possible to install 7.2 and then reformat the remaining portions of the HD to get the full benefit of the 2.1 GB? I would really appreciate any assistance. I don't want to give this up and I don't want to have to buy a new motherboard and components just to install Linux. Don
