Large HD, old BIOS

[Ed Lawson]

On Mon, 03 May 2004 09:08:21 -0400
Cole Tuininga <colet at code-energy.com> wrote:


> I've tried both.  I've attempted to install Debian woody (using the
> bf24 install set, but doesn't actually see the entire drive) and
> Mandrake 10.0 community edition, both of which seem to want to use

> Figuring that I needed the boot loader (and probably kernel) in a
> lower region of the hard drive, I made sure to create a /boot
> partition at the beginning.  Didn't seem to help....
> 

Did you create a /boot partition at the beginning of the drive of around
50M in size and did you tell the BIOS that you were using LBA when the
drive was formatted using it or vice versa?  I do not recall and too
busy now to check, but I believe the man pages for Lilo will describe
the result you are seeing with just a li on boot.
It is really a BIOS config problem if I recall correctly because even if
Linux will ascertain the HD geometry regardless of the BIOS, you have to
get there first so to speak and that is the job of the BIOS.

Ed Lawson