Re: Linux partition question
>From debian parisc on Wednesday, 2003-01-22 at 14:51:35 +0000:
> Hello,
>
> although I've been reading this list for a few months now I haven't
> actually installed in on a i386 pc (although I have installed it on a HP
> Unix server - well smooth). I'm now read to install on my home PC, to
> ensure that my wife doesn't divorce me I need to make sure that I get it
> right. I'm going to resize my windows98 partition to free up 10GB on which
> I will put 2 logical partition of 5GB each (i'll probably run stable on one
> and testing on the other or maybe woody and mandrake). I'm going to use
> Partition Magic 7 to resize it. Having looked at the instructions on
> Powerquest's site it says this
>
> "IMPORTANT! In most cases, the Windows partition and the Linux Ext2
> partition must start below the 8 GB boundary to be bootable. However, if
> your system supports INT13 extensions, then Windows XP/2000, Windows Me,
> and some Linux distributions can boot beyond the 8 GB boundary. Check your
> system documentation to determine if your machine supports INT13
> extensions."
>
> Does that mean that if my Linux partitions are first I can't boot
> windows98? or if I put Windows first (10GB) I won't be able to boot linux?
> and what is INT13?
>
> regards
>
> Leo
If you need some encouragement, I can assure you that I have
a computer that was new in 1998, for which I bought a new 60GB
disk in 2001, that has Windows 98 on the first partition, and
various flavors of Linux on the other 5-6 partitions. My boot
loader is grub, it is installed in the Master Boot Record, and
I boot from any partition I like, whether it is above 8GB or below.
A modern version of LILO should be just as good.
My BIOS is an AMI BIOS dated 1996, but that does not appear to
be a problem. Except in rare cases with really old hardware
(older than mine), and maybe really old software, the 8GB
and other limits are a myth.
My suggestion is that you go ahead and do your install as you
had planned. Usually I use Mandrake for first-time installs
on Windows-only computers, because they have excellent
re-partitioning tools, but if you are familiar with Partition
Magic, that should be just as good.
Conrad
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