From: ianj@citrus.SAC.CA.US ( Ian Justman )
Subject: Re: MSDOS need to be on /dev/hda1 ?
Organization: Citrus Grove Public Access ( 916 ) 381-5822    Sacramento CA.  USA
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 07:50:43 GMT
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4

thsswto@iitmax.iit.edu (William T. O'Connell) writes:
: 
: When I partitioned the harddrive on Linux, fdisk showed MS-DOS on
: /dev/hda4. (I would expect it to be on hda1). Linux boots fine from
: the boot disk created by doinstall :-). But lilo fails (see output below)
: when installed on a floppy :-(.  
: 
: (In addition to lilo's output, I have Fdisk output attached from both 
: DOS and Linux).
: 
: [Q1] Is lilo failing Is this because /dev/hda1 is linux's root partition 
:      and not DOS??

If you're using the lilo install script, then you must change it
to reflect the fact MSDOS resides on /dev/hda4 (remember to keep
an alternate copy just in case you make a serious boo_boo...

: [Q2] If so, is there a simple way to fix this? (or do I need to start from
:      scratch again, ouch).

I agree with the "ouch" part, but it's really easy to fix.  Hopefully...
Depends on your setup.

: [Q3] If the partitions are OK, Any clues while lilo is failing (as
:      he says with enthusiasm).

Check below for instructions on how to fix your system.  If I were you,
I'd use the lilo .6 distribution.  Works like a one-each champ for me.

: Any help would be appreciated.
: 
: - Bill    wto@ihlpe.att.com
: 
:  /* You are not
: expected to under-
: stand this */

Try me!  :-)

: =================================================================
: LILO OUTPUT
: 
: lilo loading ...
:   .. selected vga output deleted ...
: ttys0 at 0x03f8 (irq = 4 ) is a 16450
: ttys1 at 0x02f8 (irq = 3 ) is a 16450
: ttys2 at 0x03e8 (irq = 4 ) is a 16450
: 8 virtual consoles
: lp_init: lp1 exists (0)
: scsi: 0 hosts
: scsi: detected 0 SCSI disks 0 tapes 0 CD-ROM drives total
: memory: 7336/8192k avail (424k kernel, 384k reserved, 48k data)
: floppy drives: fd0 is 1.2m
: floppy drives: fd1 is 1.44m
: sockinit: initializing family 1 (AF_UNIX)
: sockinit: initializing family 2 (AF_UNIX)
: loopback devices init
: warning WD8013 board not found at i/o = 280
: hda:
:  part 1 start 219488  size 20672  and 240160          <- root
:  part 2 start 240160  size 38832  and 272991          <- swap
:  part 3 start 272992  size 142272 and 415263
:   logical part 5 start 272993 size 130111 and 403103  <- /usr
:   logical part 6 start 403105 size 12159  and 415203  <- /tmp 
:  part 4 start 38 size 219450 and 219487               <- DOS
: partition table ok
: MINIX_fs: unable to read superblock
: EXT_fs: unable to read superblock
: MSDOS bread failed
: kernel panic: unable to mount root 

You might want to try the following:

rdev (or rootdev) [imagefile] [rootsystem]

where [imagefile] is the boot image you want to modify and [rootsystem]
is the partition that root is mounted on.  I suggest that once you give
this command that you rerun LILO so it knows about the new modifications
to your kernel.  And just for curiosity's sake, are you running lilo's
install script?

BTW, only the first line or so is actual "LILO output".  The
rest is output by the kernel at boot-time.

: OUTPUT FROM FDISK ON LINUX
: 
: Command (m for help): p
:  
: Disk /dev/hda: 16 heads, 38 sectors, 683 cylinders
: Units = cylinders of 608 * 512 bytes
:  
:    Device Boot  Begin   Start     End  Blocks   Id  System
: /dev/hda1         362     362     395   10336   81  Linux/MINIX <- (root) (10M) 
: /dev/hda2         396     396     449   16416   82  Linux swap  <- swap   (16M)
: /dev/hda3         450     450     683   71136    5  Extended
: /dev/hda4   *       1       1     361  109725    6  DOS 16-bit >=32M     (107M)
: /dev/hda5         450     450     663   65055+  81  Linux/MINIX   <- /usr (64M)
: /dev/hda6         664     664     683    6079+  81  Linux/MINIX   <- /tmp (5M)
: 
: =============================================================
: MS-DOS FDISK OUTPUT
: 
: Partition	Status	Type		Mbytes
: C: 1		  A     PRI DOS		107
:    2  			NON-DOS		10
:    3  			NON-DOS		16
:    4  			EXT DOS		69	<==== this has /usr and /tmp
: 						      why does it say DOS

Ahhhh, the joys of Micky$haft...  :-)

Actually, this is indicating the size of your extended partition.  It
apparently doesn't recognize non-dos logical partitions.  Also, I guess
it blithely assumes that ANY extended NO MATTER WHAT OPERATING SYSTEM CRE-
ATED IT was created by DOS.  I wouldn't worry about it.
-- 
Born to void warranties!	ianj@ijpc.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux