Is it OK if I install windows first and then install Suse and let Yast do the partitioning for me? If yes, then how can I change the total partition size at that time e.g. I want to change YAST's choice of partition to 10GB from whatever it chooses. TIA Leo zentara wrote:

On Mon, 02 Sep 2002 12:31:08 -0400 Linux Leo wrote:

...

Hi,

I am about to install a new hard drive on my laptop. I intend to dual boot Windows ME and Suse Pro 8.0. The new drive is 20 GB. How should I partition my hard drive? (I intend to divide it into two partitions)

If you want to be on the safe side, make a small /dev/hda1 for /boot. (20 megs) That way if your laptop bios isn't upto the task of handling big harddrives, you can always get dual boot lilo working.

Then /dev/hda2 for windows.

Then /dev/hda3 for swap.(the size of your ram)

The last part depends on how you want to handle your directories. If you just want to throw all the directories into / , then make /dev/hda4 for linux and mount root there.

If you want to have separate partitions for /home etc. etc. then you will need to make /dev/hda4 an "extended partition" and then make as many prtitions in the extended as you desire.

The reason for this, is hard drives can only have 4 primary partitions, /dev/hda1 thru /dev/hda4. If you need more than 4, then you need to make 1 primary an extended type.

I disagree with this. LILO should be able to handle large hard drives. I generally never use a /boot partition. It was added as a hack to get by the large disk restriction in LILO. Windows9x wants to be in the first primary partition. I would recommend: 1. Install Windows. 2. Partition your hard drive with Partition Magic if you have it or 2a. Use SuSE's partitioner manually. 3. Install SuSE. I normally set up an extended partition with both root and swap as logicals. I generally have a separate /home partition. That way I can install new releases of SuSE by blowing away the old root partition and retaining the pre-existing /home. For swap, the old rule of thumb was 3 times memory, but with large memories, you probably need only about 128 to 256 MB for swap. On 2 Sep 2002 at 14:55, zentara wrote:

If you want to be on the safe side, make a small /dev/hda1 for /boot. (20 megs) That way if your laptop bios isn't upto the task of handling big harddrives, you can always get dual boot lilo working.

-- Jerry Feldman Enterprise Systems Group Hewlett-Packard Company 200 Forest Street MRO1-3/F1 Marlboro, Ma. 01752 508-467-4315 http://www.testdrive.compaq.com/linux/

Booting is done through the master boot record. The boot manager (LILO, GRUB, Windows) updates that information. The BIOS has nothing to do with a LILO boot. Windows9x will not boot if it is not the first primary unless you are using an advanced boot manager, such as boot magic. On 3 Sep 2002 at 12:09, zentara wrote:

On Tue, 3 Sep 2002 11:08:03 -0400 "Jerry Feldman" wrote:

...

I disagree with this. LILO should be able to handle large hard drives. I generally never use a /boot partition. It was added as a hack to get by the large disk restriction in LILO. Windows9x wants to be in the first primary

It depends on how old the computer is and the bios. You are fortunate to have newer hardware. The OP didn't say how old his computer is. Lilo has fixed the 1024 cylinder limit, as you say, but there is a new generation of super-huge capacity hard drives coming, and I'm already seeing people with new bioses complaining that it won't boot. A /dev/hda1 as /boot is foolproof, that is why I give the advice to use /dev/hda1 as /boot, it never fails.

-- use Perl; #powerful programmable prestidigitation

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-- Jerry Feldman Enterprise Systems Group Hewlett-Packard Company 200 Forest Street MRO1-3/F1 Marlboro, Ma. 01752 508-467-4315 http://www.testdrive.compaq.com/linux/

On Tuesday 03 September 2002 19.18, Jerry Feldman wrote:

The BIOS has nothing to do with a LILO boot.

LILO uses BIOS calls to read from the hard disk. According to the readme, lilo can handle sectors > 1024 "if the BIOS supports EDD packet call extensions to the int 0x13 interface". //Anders

On Tuesday 03 September 2002 20.11, Jerry Feldman wrote:

In any case, LILO does not use any BIOS routines to boot.

If that's true then my assembly knowledge is rustier than I thought. The .S files in the lilo sources are completely littered with calls to various sub-functions to inx 0x13 and a few calls to int 0x14. As far as I know those are BIOS calls (indeed, the comments in the source say they are as well) //Anders

On Tuesday 03 September 2002 20.48, Jerry Feldman wrote:

The question is when are these actually used and for what purpose. Does LILO actually make the BIOS calls to the BIOS to boot Linux, or to determine the geometry. Or, does LILO itself replace the BIOS calls with its own.

That's a possibility of course. As I read the source (and I should point out that my assembly really is rusty, so this could very well be wrong) lilo replaces int13 if you're booting from a disk other than the primary, and then only to switch the drive maps so it'll look like the first, followed by a call to the original int13. This is the only place I can find where int13 is replaced (this is in chain.S), but as I say it could be wrong. Corrections are welcome if I am. //Anders

On Tue, 3 Sep 2002 13:18:45 -0400 "Jerry Feldman" wrote: . Windows9x will not boot if it is not the first primary unless

you are using an advanced boot manager, such as boot magic.

Not true, here is the partition table of a machine I setup with windows in the second primary. What I've found is that the windows partition must "start" in the old "bootable zone", that is the first 512 megabytes of the disk. I think it puts it's kernel right at the front of it's partition. ################################################ Disk /dev/hda: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 3739 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hda1 1 2 16033+ 83 Linux Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary: phys=(15, 44, 2) should be (15, 254, 63) /dev/hda2 * 3 257 2048287+ 6 FAT16 /dev/hda3 258 1532 10241437+ 83 Linux /dev/hda4 1533 3739 17727727+ 5 Extended /dev/hda5 1533 2807 10241406 83 Linux /dev/hda6 2808 3715 7293478+ 83 Linux /dev/hda7 3716 3739 192748+ 82 Linux swap ################################################## -- use Perl; #powerful programmable prestidigitation