1024 Boundary Problem
 

sorry I dont know how to use this software

sorry about the typos I dont no how to edit a thread after its posted


Anyway I think that is what this is I have been known to be wrong before

Here is what I have a multiple boot configuration with linux and a
couple of windows Os's I do my partitioning with partition magic 8.0
I have 2.2x kernel with a base command line system no gui very simple
usually have numerous logical parts. every thing works fine until I
go to use cfdisk because I like to use it instead of /etc/fstab because
I have found that fstab does not always give me accurate info to tell
what my partition are as linux sees them, but it does not work because
it says the partition table is invalid or corrupt. when I delete the
partitions that are after the 1024 cylinder boundary everything works
again


What is leading me to believe that its the 1024 thing is because
if I partition with just a couple of main parts and 1 logical fat
before the 1024 boundary everything is fine but when I add a partition
after that things go wiggy. I have a redhat 6.0 distro that will not
even install if the hard drive is like this,and it is not until
recently that I started noticing other strange anomalies possibly
connected to this also seems the more I use it the weirder it gets.
The other thing that is strange is when I do the same thing on my
1.2 ghz celeron with 250 mb of ram it does the same thing so I dont
think its the bios I could be wrong about that too. anyway I would
love to get this taken care of I have been living with this for quite
some time now but it is starting to get quite annoying. any help would
be greatly appreciated thanks in advance

Your correct it is a software not a hardware problem. lilo back in the days of Redhat 6 did have the 1024 limitation. All of the files required by lilo need to be in the first 1024 cylinders (8GB) of the drive. The latest version of lilo does not have this limitation. Is there a reason you still need to use an extremely old linux distribution?

BTW fstab in general is a configuration file for how to mount filesystems (partition) to a particular mount point (directory). It does not know or care about how the disk is partitioned. cfdisk is a tool to create partitions on a hard drive.

You might have problems with PM 8 due to the age of RH6.

Oh and there is a little blue button in the lower right hand corner of the frame for editing a post.

hey thank you for the info

the main reason that I have stuck with this distro is because i paid quite a bit for it and paid even more for some of the current versions of linux and have been very disappointed not to mention frustrated. So I am trying to find a way to sort of upgrade what I have, which is running a basic install from a logical fat partition with loadlin and a batch file. I realise this is an old way of doing it but it is far quicker than booting an iso image which I have found takes in some cases as much as an hour to setup and configure not to mention possible hardware incompatabitiy problems. I have not been able to get some of the newer distros like ubunto or kanotix or knopix or what ever because i only have a dial up connection and I am afraid to put out any more money for cd's I have been very disappointed so .... I am just looking for somewhere that i can get some strait answers and go from there. I think I got a newer version of lilo but for some reason I can not get it to compile again another frustration so I kinda gave up on that for now unless you know where I can get a version that will compile with gcc 2.7.0. again I tried to compile a newer version of gcc and ran into problems again with not being able to find libraries or something and well more frustrations I usually download three or four different versions of those libraries and none work so I am bewildered again. I could go on like this all day but that is not accomplishing anything. but suffice it to say I am trying to tackle it one problem to a time and the main problem is eliminating the 1024 thing and going from there.

I like the basic command line asccii interface because I dont like to deal with gui hardware incompatibilities. ascii interfaces are not real eligent to look at but they are very functional and that is what i am after. I hope I have not scared you off with my endless drivel please forgive me but I dont know of any other way to explain myself if you could hang on with me I think I can get this think solved and move on to better and more important thing possibly anyway thank you for your time and patience

oh btw is there another program better suited to showing how linux sees the partition table besides cfdisk I only us it becouse it gives me the info I need very quikly for manually mounting paritions and the like hda1 2 3 and so forth I discovered it by accident and have just been using it for that purpose becouse it works for me

Holy mackeral !!!. RH6 !!!.
The 1024 Cylinder issue was an interplay between BIOS and software, notably the INT 13 DOS call. Similar issues surfaced in Win95.
Given you have hardware from the last few years (the Celeron will certainly be o.k.), as suggested, your problem is the archaic Linux version you're trying to keep afloat.

I really think you're fighting a losing cause trying to shoehorn gcc, glibc, lilo, whatever.
These a seriously old versions that no-one is maintaining anymore. Go get something up-to-date - Ubuntu is good as a general system; hell they'll even ship you the CDs for nothing. If the guy who's paying the bills can pay 20 million bucks to go fly to the space station, they can send you CDs. Start at www.ubuntu.com, and hit the shipit link.
Another option is to grab the CDs off the front of a PC magazine - I've done that a couple of times (for different distros).

Edit: for finding out about your partitions safely, try "fdisk -l" (that's ell, as in list).

hey thank you for the ubuntu link I will try it for sure.

But I really beg to to differ here! I have a directory that I created and I call it.... \base.... it has some bin files scripts notably resc1440.bin and root.bin loadlin and an install.bat. There is also a main archive file called base2_1.tgz which has the root linux file system in it which can be mounted as a loopback device or in ram. what I really like about this method is it gives me my main command line compiler and tools which can be installed on a newly formatted ext2 partition in about five minutes. I really like this setup its fast and I can be up and running getting things done in a hurry I can manually mount any partition anywhare from my command line I would like to update what I have to current standards much the same way that dos 6.2 was updated to dos 7.1. But I have not had much success because of version numbering library icompatibilities or something which really is quite a trivial matter I would think, and should'nt even be, in my opinion.
"Well why dont you build your own then" would be the answer! and that is plausible and poor me being the not that great of a programmer that I am trying the best that i can to put it together.


BTW I have not found another distro that archives the command line and root file system in a separate directory its mainly kept in the form of encrypted .img files or dat files or something similar is this correct? not even the mini distros and rootboot disk have it that I am aware of am I misinformed?



>> PLEASE KEEP THE COMMENTS COMEING I REALLY ENJOY OPEN DISCUSION

for finding out about your partitions safely, try "fdisk -l" (that's ell, as in list).


BTW I still think cfdisk gives a better representation of my hardisk the way linux sees it at least the fdisk -l that I hve does not acurately depict it