Linux not booting on Gateway E-4000 / Intel 865GLC Motherboard?

[bmcculley at rcn.com]

Couple of other things, not sure if they might be relevent or
not, but I've run into several snags playing around with MBR
and partition tables.

For one thing, as Ben mentioned, some systems are much more
sensitive to partition tables conforming to their
idiosyncratic idea of "well formed" structures.  I've recently
had one system that would not recognize the first partition in
the table unless it was written by the mfr supplied fdisk,
which of course would not write Linux partitions (I was
setting up a dual-boot config), so I ended up using different
fdisk utils for different partitions.

Also, a couple of my newer systems shipped without a restore
CD for the factory preload Windoze config, instead there is a
CD image hidden in a second partition (no telling what happens
when you replace the hd).  If you are going pure Linux this is
no factor, but if you're like me and want to preserve the
ability to revert to the factory-shipped preload (like when
you finally replace the system and sell or scrap it), you
might care.

Finally, something that might be relevent.  I had a problem a
few years ago when I set the BIOS password on an IBM Thinkpad
and later reformatted the hard drive to load Linux.  Turns out
that the particular implementation stored the BIOS password in
a hidden disk location (I suspect the partition table, or
perhaps somewhere else like a last track bad sector table)
that was trashed when the Linux fdisk rewrote things.  Took a
very special vendor service to disable the password protection
on the BIOS.  Reason this might be relevent is that the
Thinkpad in question also had a hard drive password facility
(which I did not enable, but which apparently shared some
logic with the BIOS password facility).

Bottom line is that a lot of hardware vendors seem to believe
that they own the low-level features of their hardware, and do
some tricky non-standard private stuff with them.  Partition
tables and low-level disk structures are prime examples, so
it's good habit to tread lightly.  I've usually tried to leave
the factory preload C drive alone, just to minimize these
kinds of problems, that might be something to think about.

Good luck - and please let us know what the resolution of the
problem is!

--Bruce McCulley


---- Original message ----
>Date: Tue, 3 Feb 2004 22:48:30 -0500 (EST)
>From: bscott at ntisys.com  
>Subject: Re: Linux not booting on Gateway E-4000 / Intel
865GLC Motherboard?  
>To: Greater NH Linux User Group <discuss at gnhlug.org>
>
>On Wed, 28 Jan 2004, at 10:37am, Brad.Portelance at state.vt.us
wrote:
>> Has anyone every had an experience w/the above System /
Motherboard
>> freezing at the BIOS Screen only when there's Linux
partitions on the Hard
>> Drive? If there's any other partition or none at all, then
the system
>> makes it past the BIOS screen with no problem.
>
>  No experience like that, no, sorry.  I have seen similar
weird things,
>though.
>
>  Some suggestions, in addition to the other suggestions that
have been made
>here:
>
>  Try installing a Microsoft MBR.  All you care about is the
bootstrap in
>the MBR; the partition table itself can be edited later in
Linux.  Then
>install your Linux system.  Make your boot/root partition a
primary
>partition, and flag it as "Active".  When it comes time to
install the boot
>loader (GRUB or LILO), write it into the PBR of the boot/root
partition, and
>not the MBR.
>
>  (To install a Microsoft MBR: Boot an MS-DOS or Windows
system.  Floppy or
>CD will work.  Then run "FDISK /MBR".)
>
>  (MBR = Master Boot Record.  The MBR is the first block on a
hard disk.  
>It contains a bootstrap and the partition table.  PBR =
Partition Boot
>Record.  The PBR is the first block in a partition. 
Generally speaking, the
>BIOS loads the bootstrap from the MBR.  That bootstrap then
reads the
>partition table to find the first Active partition, loads the
PBR from that,
>and chains into that.)
>
>  Be careful of your partition table layout.  Linux will
handle some fairly
>crazy partition layouts without a problem, but many other
OSes and programs
>(including MS-DOS) will choke on them.  As a test, consider
creating a
>single large primary partition for your boot/root filesystem.
 For added
>measure, create the partition using Microsoft software.  Do
not create any
>other partitions -- not even a swap partition.  Then do the
Linux mkfs on
>that partition and install everything into it.
>
>   Michael ODonnell is correct in that Linux generally does
not care what
>the filesystem type is.  So, try creating the partition in
Microsoft
>software, with an MS-FAT or MS-NTFS type, and then install
Linux onto it,
>without changing the partition type.
>
>-- 
>Ben Scott <bscott at ntisys.com>
>| The opinions expressed in this message are those of the
author and do  |
>| not represent the views or policy of any other person or
organization. |
>| All information is provided without warranty of any kind. 
            |
>
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