Installing Linux problems.
 

I am installing red hat linux 9.0 and i chose a graphical install. I get trhough everything up to the partitioning part. I choose to do a automatic partitioning. It first gives me an warning reading as stated " The partition table on /dev/hda is inconsistent. THere are many reasons why this might be true. Often, the reason is that Linux detected the BIOS geometry incorrectly. Howerever this is not the case here. It is safe to ignore but may lead yp to (fixable) problems with FAT file systems and boot loaders. Using LBA is recommended." After saying that it gives me the option of ignoring or cancel so i click cancel. Then the I have the options of "keep all partitions and use the free space" ; "Remove all linux partitions on this system" (i don't have any so this shouldn't help right?) or "Remove all partitions on this computer"

I choose "keep all partitions and use existing space" because i want to do a dual boot with windows and i hate somthing like 2.6 gigs free. After clicking the [next] option it gives me the following errors " could not allocate requested partitions. Partitioning failed: could not allovate partitions as primary partitions." I click [ok] and then it gives me these following errors " not defined root partition (//), which is required to continue. This can happen if there is not enough space on your hard drive for the installation"

I have 2.6 gigs free how is this not enough for a desktop computer installations? Thanks for any future responses and help.

"I have 2.6 gigs free how is this not enough for a desktop computer installations?"

My Linux system takes 3 gigs.



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Steve Stites

Logical pratition problem !
 

I have had this kind of problems ! The idea is to check what sie of a hdd you have ! if it say 40 gig then make a primary partition for linux and then install windows ! Generally the problem was that linux could handle only the first 2 primary partitions when installed upon . Which is why RH brought the concept of getting linux installed on FAT32 partitions ! I think everone else followed suit ! So the best thing would be to use a primary 2+ gb part for linux , Install windows and then install linux on this partition.

Hope this helps you !


Avinash Shankar:tisk:

Thanks for the reply but i already have windows installed on my computer, and it seems pointless to reinstall it after i install linux. Also what happens if i were to just do the "remove all linux partitions".? I don't have any linux partitions on my computer so if i did that do u think it would like see the free space that nothing is on? I don't know, i really want linux on my computer but its been one problem after another trying to get it installed. Much thanks!

Make sure your 2.6Gb is *unpartitioned* free space.

The inconsistent partition table need not be a problem, and may well be due to Windows reconfiguring the drive during its install. Which version of Windows are you using? Is the Windows partition FAT or NTFS? Note than R/W access to NTFS partitions from Linux is not stable and frankly can be dangerous for your Windows installation.

Many Linux distros (and even the fdisk program) will give you dire warnings abojut trying to create a boot partition which ends above the 1,024th cylinder on the hard disk - with current bootloader versions this should not be an issue. For example, in Lilo you just add "lba32" to the global section (minus the quotation marks of course). The RH9 installer will give you the opportunity to do this if you select "advanced options" in the bootloader page.

Euan

Using a tool like PM !
 

I think Partition magic should solve your problem ! You could resize your c drive and create a linux ext3 and swap partions at the primary partitions of your drive c if you have enough space ! Linux is pretty stable ! And in case you only want to have a working version of linux and dont care much about performance issues then the best thing to do would be to install rh 8 or 9 on your machine in the fat32 partition namely c drive ! This is very safe and believe me I have tried it and it works ... Very minimal performance difference is actually seen ! The only problem would be if you were ever attacked by a virus and your c partition goes for a six your linux might get affected to as it is installed on fat32 partition as your windows drive !

Another distro you can use is knoppix ! very good as it boots from a cdrom drive and you dont need to install it ! all files can be saved in your local hdd and it works very well !

Check it out and dont miss out linux as its the best ever even thou u are forced to you MS s/w.

Avinash Shankar:study:

if you need info on how to Dual Boot windows and linux let me know ill send you inf, its quite simple

I must be missing someting here. Your responses are very easy to understand and all and i really appreciate it, but it still just wont work. I have only a C drive with 3.45 gigs free on it. (I erased some files and made some room for Linux) Now i try to install it and it still gives me the errors i posted in this original message. What is going on? Much thanks.

1.you need to use a third party software like Partition Magic to RESIZE your Windows Partition or reinstall Windows and configure you C: partition to be 4 gigs less than your total HDD capacity.

2. In Windows this free space should be seen as a free unallocated space not formated, partitioned or lettered.

3.Once this is done, you set your BIOS to boot from the CDrom insert your RH CD in the drive and reboot

4. it will boot the RH setup, Partition info for RH....choose atomic...choose keep existing partition...choose hda2 ...
choose GRUB MBL..Choose to KEEP EXISTING MBR (IMPORTANT FOR DUAL BOOT)....at the bottom of Steen make sure the DEFAULT box is checked next to Linux..

you can(NOT Necessary) click modify hda1 and type a name like Win 98..2K..XP..it will show on boot screen this way if you don't it will say DOS for the Windows choice....

and continue you install.....easy...

>>linux steps may be out of order but are complete, pulling off the top of my head...

GL

I agree with rakriege
 

If you read my prev posts ! The problem is linux can access the mbr only from the first 2 primary partitions of a hdd ! so add a 2 gig linux part as promary or best is use partition magic to resize the c drive and then use linux ! if you feel this is not possible then try installing linux on your fat32 partition c drive ! The errors are occuring due to the way windows has partitioned the drive for you .

Hope this helps !


Avinash Shankar:study:

I just installed RH9 on my laptop which had Windows XP prof.

1) I first partitioned using Partition Manager. You could use something else. I just shrunk the NTFS volume and then used Disk Druid during RH9 install, to set the partitions to my liking.

2) Installed RH9 using graphical interface. When I got the message about the BIOS and gemometry not matching I said IGNORE.

3) During install I used Disk Druid to customize my partitions further. I think its better then automatic.

I added partitions as follows: /boot 102MB , /swap 1024MB, /vfat 512MB, / the rest of disk. One of these is an extend partition which Disk Druid can arrange for you. I have /swap and /vfat on extended. Many people will tell you to have more partitions. If this is a big server you may want to do that. E.g. /home to be on its own.

4) I just kept GRUB as boot manager. Decide which OS will boot by default. For example my Windows is default and boots in 10 secs if I dont press key to select which to boot.

Then I installed almost everything. I had 9GB of space on / so I could afford to install everything.

I would recommend you backup any important files (Just in case you press the wrong button) before install.

The install went very smooth. RH9 works like a charm. I switched to using KDE instead of Gnome only because it seems more mature.

Thats it.