Re: Before you release....

[JF Martinez <jfm2@club-internet.fr>]

   From: "Jonathan Veit" <Jon347@flashmail.com>

>  I havent participated in discussions before, but i signed up for the =
>  list and followed what your doing and pretty interested in it.  I'll =
>  probably participate in beta testing of indy.  However there is =
>  something that bugs me with almost all linux installations. I don't know =
>  if you've heard of the BIOS 1024 bug.... where the bios can not reach =
>  over sector or header 1024 therefor, the BIOS can not boot anything that =
>  is installed that is past this sector.  This becomes not so much a =
>  problem for those who are looking to just have linux on their system as =
>  it does for those who are looking to install linux on a computer with =
>  windows already on it.  This "bug" has occured in three of the four =
>  different machines I have installed linux and I've had to do manuevering =
>  to get it to work.  However if we have a first time user - trying to =
>  install linux on the 2  gigs in the back of his hard drive (ie me two =
>  years ago) and the installation writes over the MBR with lilo, and then =
>  lilo doesnt work, and then the user can not use windows or linux without =
>  again doing tricky maneuvering, we are going to have a possible linux =
>  user pissed and walk away from linux with a bad experience. =20
>     =20

Solving boot problems is not so easy.  In addition to the 1024
cyklinder probelm I have seen people being unable to boot Linux
because it was installed in an SCSI disk (the IDE one being for
Windows) and the SCSI controller was a biosless one so unable to be
used for booting.  Many, many problems.  In addition newer boxes don't
havce the 1024 limit.

>      I haven't seen any installation really confront this however...


And I cannot presentlty with my limited resources and time running
short be able to fix the problem.

	       - Redhat 6.0 wouldn't let you make a linux partition above =
>  the sector 1024 if it knew the bug was there.... however it just =
>  prevents the error from happening not                     solving it.=20
	       - Redhat 6.1 does the same thing.... however, it doesnt =
>  include fdisk as an alternative for partitioning which i will say about =
>  later=20
>      I have seen three solutions....
	       - I think theres a howto article on it some where... but it =
>  takes some work at the lilo.conf which doesnt work when linux isn't =
>  booting
	       - The way I do it, have the floppy boot it.... but this is =
>  sorta tricky... If you want to install redhat 6.1 you have to make sure =
>  you already have a native linux                         partition =
>  already there... since you can't make one inside 6.1 installation with =
>  the bug.  If you don't have the native partition you have to find =
>  another way , fdisk in                 6.0 did the job put they took it =
>  out in 6.1
	       - If you use loadlin instead, copy some files to your =
>  windows partition and someother stuff i dont remeber, but again its not =
>  really a good choice for end users, i=20
		   believe it was posted on www.linuxnewbies.org

>  I don't know how often this problem occurs but I have encountered a few =
>  times.  If we don't find a solution there should be at least a warning =
>  of some type... its better than having someone with a bad attitude about =
>  linux because it destroyed their MBR.  Also adding a nice partition tool =
>  that can resize to the distro might add an extra specialty that makes =
>  our distro favorable might help. Anyway i think i typed way too much.... =
		      =20

Yes.  I will look if I can find something in Mandrake but this Indy
release does not pretend to be a perfect distrib only to spread an
idea: we, the users know better what we need so we build our very own
distrib and also many Linux users don't fit i the Unix user model:
they dion't learn the same way, they don't use for the same tasks,
they don't use in the same places: sticking to Unix does not aloow to
fulfill their needs and slows Linux spreading.


-- 
		Jean François Martinez

Project Independence: Linux for the masses
http://independence.seul.org