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.

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

(Did you get the netmail?)

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

No great loss.  ;-)

 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.

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

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

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

 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.

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

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

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

 KR> linux seems a lot like w95

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

 KR> the documentation is good - if you can find it.

Too true.

 KR> after that, however, i could boot linux through lilo, but w95 just hung.

Well, at least it's a start.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 KR> thanks for your help the other night...

That's okay - sorry I couldn't have been more assistance;  I generally work
on these sorts of things on-site, and doing it remotely proved a bit
difficult.

 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?

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

Cheers..

    - dave
    d.begley{at}ieee.org

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