db> On Jun 23, 1996 at 12:32, Keith Richardson of 3:711/934.6 wrote:

 KR> as you can see, the problems are mainly over.

 db> Good!  Sorry, I still can't find that magazine article yet.  Although
 db> upon reading the fdisk.c source a little more, it seems that the
 db> format for the partition tables actually sits in the Linux header
 db> files.

 db> (Did you get the netmail?)

yes thanks, i haven't had time to read it all yet.

 KR> i can now access all partitions, although i still can't boot off win95.

 db> No great loss.  ;-)

thats working again, now if i can get the scanner to acquire pictures i'll
be happy, its strange coz the ocr software works ok. oh well hp's tech
support is usually pretty good.

 KR> the problem seem to have been that linux decided that the hard disks had
 KR> 64 heads and 32 sectors, rather than the 256 and 63 that the adaptec
 KR> controller maps them to.

 db> Bummer.  This is what gives me the shits with translated drive
 db> geometries.  :-(

if we could lose int 13 all would be well, linux uses scsi disks in the way
in which they were intended, and i think that w95 does too, its just that
stupid boot up stage.

 KR> when i got to the lilo documentation (how do you start up a printer?)

 db> Didn't I cover that last time?!  Okay, let's start with the obvious -
 db> what sort of printer is it?  Does it support PostScript, or does it
 db> need some form of translation?  I can tell you how to send information
 db> raw to a printer, but you'll want to get something useful out of it...

i hadn't read your message when i wrote mine, thanks for the info

 KR> shows that a single "l" indicates that the initial loader
in the mbr was
 KR> unable to load the next sector in the boot process.

 db> "Next sector"?!  Perhaps the next sector in the partition table
 db> structure...

no, the next part of the loader.

 KR> the lilo loader however must use int 13 until it sets up the scsi
 KR> controller, and thus needs correct geometry.

 db> Yup - I mentioned something about this some weeks ago (although not
 db> specifically related to LILO);  all systems need to boot using BIOS
 db> Interrupt 0x0D so that they can load up the file system and hardware
 db> driver code.  After that, they can do whatever they want (goes for
 db> Linux, OS/2, etc.).

 KR> linux seems a lot like w95

 db> D'you want the Win95 interface (X11 window manager) for Linux?  :-)

it would make it a little more user friendly than  cornered rat (: but it
would defeat the point of the exercise, to become a bit more familiar with
unix.

 KR> things learnt:- when installing linux, take careful note of the disk
 KR> geometry that linux detects, and keep a backup of your mbr.

 db> Odd - I didn't have to do any of this (although as you know, I'm using
 db> a newer version of fdisk and therefore the rest of the system drivers
 db> and kernel have probably been updated, too).

the geometry of your hard disk may have matched uo with linux's guess.

 db> Yes, keeping a backup of not just your MBR, but all your partition
 db> sectors (the extended partition information) is important.  :-)

 KR> what i dont understand, is how lilo worked in the first place.

 db> On the inside edge of operational tolerance?  Some CMOS option
 db> changed?

nothing that i am aware of.

 KR> i still have no idea how a raytracer crashing managed to produce this
 KR> result.

 db> Shit - you too!!  I ran a ray-tracer when I had my last major OS/2
 db> crash.  Nasty stuff, these ray-tracers!  :-)  (Mine was POV-Ray -
 db> yours?)

is there any other? i've been using povray since it was dkb2.2

 db> It could have resulted in some dud sectors being flushed to the wrong
 db> areas of the disk, slightly modified CMOS (happens..) .. these are
 db> computers, Keith, it could have been *anything*!

yep if they didn't do things like that we might get bored, otoh, we may
actually get things done (:

 KR> i think that i may have to invest in a linux manual (if i hurry, i can
 KR> claim it in this year's tax (: ) do you have any particular one to
 KR> recommend?

 db> No - although I'd say think twice before getting "Linux
Unleashed". 
 db> Just think about the sorts of information you want to find (questions
 db> to be answered), then find the book that does that.  May find it even
 db> comes with a CD-ROM, the way things are going these days.

yes i bought "delphi unleashed" and i learned my lesson out of that ):


                                   keith
@EOT:

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