[CLUE-Tech] LILO Boot Problem

[Jed S. Baer]

On Wed, 12 Feb 2003 06:59:43 -0700
Randy Arabie <randy at arabie.org> wrote:

> I think my options are:
> 
>   --Repartition the disk, creating smaller partitions that the bios can
>   handle. Maybe a /, /boot, and /var (in addition to my swap).

AFAIK, the bios doesn't know squat about partitions. It knows only about
how to get to blocks on the disk, via head/cylinder/sector mapping (or
something like that). The mapping of partitions to areas on the disk is
done in the partition table, and that translation is done by the HD
drivers, before the raw read/write request goes to the BIOS.

My memory might be wrong here, but doesn't the P133 predate LBA? Or, to
put it another way, maybe the HD is just too new for the BIOS? I know,
that doesn't quite jive with your being able run normally after booting
from floppy. But maybe the kernel is smart enough to figure it out, while
LILO is not.

jed
-- 
I wouldn't even think about bribing a rottweiler with a steak that
didn't weigh more than I do. -- Jason Earl