The 1024 problem is a very "real" one. On old BIOSes the 1024 cylinder corresponded to 528 MB. Newer BIOSes do translation (they pretend the drive has more heads than it actually does so they can pretend that it has fewer cylinders than it actually does) and the 1024 cylinder corresponds to about 8 GB. Some BIOSes allow you to choose whether translation should be done with settings like "Large" or "LBA" for other BIOSes translation is on by default.
Only LILO uses the BIOS so only LILO needs to know what (translated) disk geometry the BIOS is using. (Well fdisk needs to know the translated geometry when creating new partitions if you want to maintain compatibility with other OSes.) LILO gets the disk geometry from the kernel. For some systems the kernel doesn't default to the same geometry that the BIOS uses. You can fix this by 1) passing the BIOS geometry to the kernel as a boot option, 2) telling LILO the BIOS geometry through LILO config options, 3)using LILO's "linear" option which causes LILO to record linear sector numbers in the map file instead of cylinder/head/sector locations. I prefer option 1) because fdisk will also use the "correct" geometry. Option 3) just postpones conversion of sector numbers to C/H/S locations until boot time (when LILO can get the BIOS geometry directly from the BIOS). It doesn't solve the 1024 cylinder problem (which is a 528 MB or an 8 GB problem depending on your BIOS). I agree that there are problems with the documentation. Too much of it implies that the 1024 cylinder problem = 528 MB problem. Note 1: The DOS program dparam.com (that comes as part of the LILO distribution) can be used to determine the translated BIOS geometry. Note 2: Some very new BIOSes support extended 32 bit C/H/S addressing (up to 2 TB drives) through new BIOS routines. I don't think LILO supports these new BIOS routines yet. Tony Richardson -----Original Message----- From: Hamish Moffatt [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, July 14, 1998 9:37 PM To: p.meidl; debian-user Subject: Re: linux + win95: linux boot partition/ On Tue, Jul 14, 1998 at 06:42:19PM +0000, Patrick Meidl wrote: > after reading the relevant FAQs, HowTOs, installation instructions etc. > I recognized that all bootable partitions must start before the 1024th > cylinder (I would like to use LILO), so I thought the best solution > might be to have these partitions: With LBA this appears to be incorrect. I have previously had systems booting Linux from the last 500mb of a 1.6gb drive; the 1024 limit only takes you to 528mb or so. I boot NT 2gb into a 6gb drive; no problem. I have never encountered any 1024 cylinder problem with Linux. I wish the documentation would not keep spreading these ideas. Hamish -- Hamish Moffatt, [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] Latest Debian packages at ftp://ftp.rising.com.au/pub/hamish. PGP#EFA6B9D5 CCs of replies from mailing lists are welcome. http://hamish.home.ml.org -- Unsubscribe? mail -s unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] < /dev/null -- Unsubscribe? mail -s unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] < /dev/null
