Re: 386 mass storage
I did this with a 386 a few times. Basically, it seems that once the
kernel is loaded the obsolete BIOS is no longer an obstacle. Here's 3
setups I have used.
1) boot from a linux partition at the beginning and then mount large
partition(s).
2) boot from a floppy. The drive had 1 large root partition and a swap
partition.
3) boot from a floppy. The space at the beginning was a bootable ms-dos
and linux used the space beyond that. This is handy because ms-dos would
have needed 'Disk Manager' type of software to use space which the 386
BIOS couldn't handle.
You have to be careful, but if you set it up right the drive can be moved
between the 386 and a newer machine without problems. Nice because it can
take a while to install lots of packages on a 386.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
+ Paul Wade Greenbush Technologies Corporation +
+ mailto:paulwade@greenbush.com http://www.greenbush.com/ +
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
On Sat, 10 Oct 1998, George Bonser wrote:
> The only restriction is that the boot image be within the first 1024
> sectors. Actually, you could add that 6.4G drive as the second disk, and
> boot from your current disk.
>
>
> On Sat, 10 Oct 1998, Patrick Olson wrote:
>
> >
> > At the moment I'm running Debian 2 on a 386/33 with only 600MB of hard
> > disk space (400MB master, 200MB slave).
> >
> > What I'm looking for is a way to allow this machine to take over as
> > fileserver. The current fileserver is a 386/33 running Windows 3.11
> > between crashes. It can access its 6.4GB drive only because of Ontrack
> > Disk Manager.
> >
> > I'd like to put an external drive (about 6.4GB) on this 386. Does anyone
> > have any suggestions for doing this within the parameters that the 386
> > must be able to make full use of the drive under Linux?
> >
> > Ideas I've had include
> >
> > 1. Using Ontrack Disk Manager with Linux. Can it be done?
> >
> > 2. Would the 386 BIOS limit of 1024 cylinders apply to a SCSI drive?
> >
> > 3. Does Linux have a way around this 386 BIOS and it's 1024 cylinder
> > limit?
> >
> > Of course, I'm open to other ideas as well as feedback on my ideas.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Patrick
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