Re: Kernel configuration for IBM A20m and partition question
> Amir Marrei wrote:
> [...]
> > Another question I have is concerning disk partitions and win98: Is it
> > possible that a linux partition causes problems for win98?
>
> Win?? can waste a Linux partition, if you use an extended one: Say you
> have hda1 = C:, and hda2 = extended, containing several logical hda(n).
> Some parts of win98 can believe that an extended partition *must*
> contain a (v)fat D: ; if it is not the first, or if there is none, they
> can try "repairing" hda5...
> A workaround is changing the type of hda2 from 05 to 85 (Linux
> extended), if you have no logical (v)fat partition.
Has in the past been necessary to make a safe dual-boot box which has only
C: ... the offended machine actually *hung at boot* looking for a D: that
wasn't there, even if booting from DOS floppy. Had to use a tomsrtbt to
rescue it.
> > I haven't used this OS, but my wife complains about heavy disk
> > activity on our tp600,
>
> Heavy useless disk activity is a normal behaviour of this "OS" ;^)
> (hit Ctl+Alt+Del to see which programs are running).
(off topic, I know, but he asked)
You can also prevent *some* though not a lot of useless disk activity on
that one, by visiting the Control Panel, in the system section there is an
area marked "Advanced" (should be "black magic" or "wizards only" but ...)
... in there, you can control the Virtual Memoery.
Normally MSwin "decides on its own" - shrinks and grows the swap - and does
this by percentage of a disk. Leading to two dumb things - the swap size
varies, and the disk space wastage if it is not used. There is also a certain
overhead, for that OS family, to handle swap at all, and you can reduce that
overhead noticeably by choosing a specific size, telling it you want to
override its opinion, and make the maximum and minimum size the same. My
suggestion is to make it a maximum of 1.5 times real memory. To give it more
encourages apps to be piggish and that makes you *always* hit swap - a dreadful
slowdown, in addition to the noise. And if you haven't much memory, try to
give it a minimum of 20 MB total to go on. Although it's hard to imagine a
w98 surviving install on an 8 MB box these days.
(back to Linux now)
Contrariwise, Linux need for swap is related more to how many sleeping
processes you like to keep lying around, than how much memory you already
have - unless you have one of the buggy 2.4.x versions. Heh...
> > which is dual boot, and heard from a collegue that the linux partition
> > could be the cause (which seems strange to me, but....).
There are actually MSwin apps which can read ext2 space ... and I know some
people who have used them ... so that certainly cannot be it directly. A
bad IDE controller, however, would infest both OS' with miscellaneous
problem reports :( :( Also beware of virii that may tell the controller
to do something markedly stupid. It is after all still the same drive.
> > Thanks for any help,
>
> You can try changing also the type of primary ext2 partitions to some
> exotic value, as Linux don't worry about, and see what happens?
> (backup your MBR won't hurt).
Best of luck
* Heather Stern * star@ many places...
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