[lug] Linux FileServer Problems

Kevin Fenzi kevin at scrye.com
Mon Nov 15 12:47:02 MST 1999


>>>>> "Michael" == Michael Deck <deckm at cleansoft.com> writes:

Michael> I had myself this WD Caviar 1.2GB drive that had Windows on
Michael> it, not bootable. And I had myself a Micron MME200 machine
Michael> with 2 Windows HDD's, both full of data I don't want to have
Michael> to restore from tape. So I said to myself, let's turn this
Michael> baby into a Linux File Server. That'll give me the ability to
Michael> run Postgres on it, and some other good things.

sounds like a good plan. 

Michael> First I disconnected the IDE cable for the 2 Windows HDD's
Michael> and connected up the Caviar as the only IDE HDD. Then I fired
Michael> it up with the KRUD CD in the drive. With no OS on the
Michael> Caviar, it booted RedHat install. Great, I thought, just run
Michael> the install. I repartitioned the HDD as follows

Michael> 800MB Linux native for / 90MB MSDos for /dos 128MB Linux swap
Michael> rest for /home

Michael> And let 'er rip. After a couple of failed attempts (not
Michael> enough space, etc.)  I got to the step where it wants to
Michael> install the boot loader. ERRRK! Can't do it. I can boot off a
Michael> linux floppy and it'll fire up everything nicely, but it says
Michael> "no operating system found" when I try to boot from HDD. I've
Michael> tried /sbin/lilo and it doesn't seem to work. Linux fdisk
Michael> complains about some sector alignment problems, but
Michael> everything in Linux seems to be OK. If I boot Win95 off of
Michael> floppy, its fdisk says it can't even read the drive.  And
Michael> Win95's fdisk /MBR says it can't (or won't) rewrite the boot
Michael> sector.  Any thoughts on what to do to make this thing
Michael> bootable?

humm...sounds like a bios bug. 
Several things to try:

- make sure that the disk is hda (so it's the first disk) and see if
  the bios can load it then. 

- The error you were seeing was really "no operating system found"?
  That isn't in any of the lilo docs I have. Was it getting to a lilo
  prompt even? or just in the bios? 

- It might be a addressing issue. Does your bios have options for
  LBA/Large disk support? Try changing those around...

Michael> Ok, that's problem cluster #1.

Michael> Now, I want to have SAMBA share the 2 Windows HDD's with 5
Michael> total partitions, but without reformatting or any of that
Michael> jive. So I plug in the IDE cable and fire it up. I say

Michael> mkdir /mnt/cdrive chmod 777 /mnt/cdrive mount /dev/hdc1
Michael> /mnt/cdrive

Michael> but it's mounted read-only. I've tried a lot of mount options
Michael> to see if I can make it rw, or even accessible to a group
Michael> other than root, but it won't let me. So I've got SAMBA
Michael> sharing these puppies read-only but not read-write. I'd like
Michael> to put script in rc.local so that the shares are mounted at
Michael> boot time, read-write to everyone on the network. (It's
Michael> firewalled). Suggestions?

Are they FAT16 or FAT32 partitions? 
If it's fat32, you might have to explicitly tell it to use vfat
instead of fat...ie:

mount -t vfat -o rw /dev/hdc1 /mnt/cdrive

Michael> TIA,
Michael>    Mike

kevin
-- 
Kevin Fenzi
MTS, tummy.com, ltd.
http://www.tummy.com/  KRUD - Kevin's Red Hat Uber Distribution




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