[lug] [Fwd: "El-Yacoubi, Mounim" <Yacoubi at parascript.com>]

[D. Stimits]

Ken Weinert wrote:
> I've forwarded this email to the proper list - please subscribe and join
> us. This is definately the correct group to ask questions like in.
> 
> Good Luck.
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> From:
> "El-Yacoubi, Mounim" <Yacoubi at parascript.com>
> Date:
> Thu, 20 May 2004 11:54:49 -0600
> To:
> <info at lug.boulder.co.us>
> 
> To:
> <info at lug.boulder.co.us>
> 
> 
> Hi there,
> 
> I came across your website and found it very interesting.
> 
> I am located in Boulder and I have a question about installing Linux. I hope it's ok to ask here this kind of questions.
> 
> 
> I tried recently to install, at home, Redhat 9.0 on a second hard disk (the first one contains Windows 2000). Everything went fine until I tried to start the computer after the successful installation. Then all I got was the prompt "grub>" or "Li" (depending on which booat loader I chose during  the installation). I heard there's a problem for Linux regarding disk geometry, but all my attempts to fix the problem didn't work.
> 
> Thanks for any advice.
> 
> Mounim
> 
> 

Disk geometry won't be a problem unless you are using terribly old 
hardware from days before hard drives were larger than 640 MB (roughly 
speaking).

You have to realize that in order for any boot loader to transfer 
control to something provided on a hard drive, it has to be able to read 
that hard drive. Not understanding disk geometry would do this, but more 
often it is because of lack of access to a proper driver for the drive 
controller or for the filesystem type. If the driver for the filesystem 
type or for the controller are on the hard drive, then you have a 
chicken-and-egg dilemma...how do you read the driver without knowing how 
to read the disk that has the driver? One would have to know more about 
your hardware and installation to give advice, such as how old the 
motherboard is, if it is too old, is it pentium? Which distribution of 
linux (e.g.,  redhat, KRUD, mandrake, debian)?

Now on some BIOS systems, the part that initially reads the drive and 
the boot sectors, there are settings for support of large disks through 
LBA mode (logical block addressing), versus non-LBA. If the installation 
assumed one mode, but in reality the BIOS setup is in the other mode, 
this will cause failure. You need to be cautious about changing this 
mode though if existing data and Win 2k are of value to you, as a change 
would make what already works fail. If such things do not matter, you 
can simply tell the BIOS to try to force LBA or to force not LBA, and 
try both ways. If it does matter, then during installation you need to 
pay attention at the start of the install when it asks about 
partitioning and filesystems...this is when it might offer LBA options. 
Let's say one option is a default and you went with that...you could 
reinstall linux after choosing the opposite of whatever you chose before.

IMHO, you should join the BLUG list, lots of valuable info on a timely 
basis, low on spam.

D. Stimits, stimits AT comcast DOT net

> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
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