On Mon, Feb 26, 2001 at 06:44:06PM +0100, Bernd Limbach wrote:
> Hi all!
> 
> I just tryed to install NetBSD 1.5 beside an existing Win2k installation on
> my Dell Inspiron 4000 on a 20 GB HD.
> I tried to install several times with several different configs of
> partitions (changed with Partition Magic 6.0), but must say that I am a bit
> condused about the disk geometry stuff, so I would like to ask for help
> here. At least another pointer to information on the web would be very nice.
> 
> First some hardware infos for you and then the things I tried.
> 
> Hardware infos:
> physical geometry according to Partition Magic 6.0:
> 2.432 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors
> 
> partition infos accorsing to Partition Magic 6.0:
> C: WINDOWS2000 (NTFS) [1]
>   1st physical sec: 63 (cyl 0, head 0, sec 1)
>    last physical sec: 10.233.404 (cyl 636, head 254, sec 63)
> UNUSED [2]
>   1st physical sec: 10.233.405 (cyl 637, head 0, sec 1)
>    last physical sec: 30.796.604 (cyl 1.916, head 254, sec 63)
> D: HOME (NTFS) [3]
>   1st physical sec: 30.796.668 (cyl 1.917, head 0, sec 1)
>    last physical sec: 36.949.499 (cyl 2.299, head 254, sec 63)
> E: FAT (FAT) [3]
>   1st physical sec: 36.949.563 (cyl 2.300, head 1, sec 1)
>    last physical sec: 39.070.079 (cyl 2.431, head 254, sec 63)
> 
> [1] My primary partition with C:
> [2] Unused, want to install NetBSD here
> [3] Extended partition with D: & E:
> 
> physical geomerty according to pfdisk:
> -----8<-----
> pfdisk> list
> # Partition table on device 0
> geometry 1023 255 63 (cyl heads sectors)
> #  ID first(cyl) last(cyl) Name # start,          length(sectors)
> 1  7   0           636       OS/2  # 63             10233342
> 2  15 1023     2431     unkno # 30796605 8273475
> # note: first(2): phys=(1023,0,1) logical=(1917,0,1)
> # note: last(2): phys=(1023,254,63) logical=(2431,254,63)
> 3   0   0          0           empty # 0               0
> 4   0   0          0           empty # 0               0
> -----8<-----
> 
> This means that my primary partition is at the beginning of the HD (approx.
> 5GB) and the extended partition is at the end of the HD (approx. 3+1GB). The
> space in between is unused. I moved the extended partition to the end
> because of the physical 1.024 cylinder boundary of the BIOS. This leads now
> to the first question:
> 
> Q1:
> Was that necessary to be able to boot NetBSD (see also Q2)?

No it shouldn't, unless your BIOS is too old. NetBSD should be able to use the
INT13 extention which use LBA mode instead of C/H/S
Also make sure to install the NetBSD MBR (or better, boot selector :) to make
sure you have an MBR which can use the INT13 extention and load the boot loader
past the 1024 cyl limit.

> 
> Now I wanted to install NetBSD using the LAPTOP kernel to the Unused slice
> of my HD. The HD will be detected like pfdisk shows above (1023 255 63),
> which means according to NetBSD/i386 FAQ that the boot partition has to be
> within the first 8GB on my disk. This leads to more questions:
> 
> Q2:
> Is it only possible to use the HD from cylinder 637 up to cylinder 1023 in
> my configuration?

Should be.

> (This actually should give me some 3GB of space. I have the impression that
> only this is possible because I was not able to enter the given sector data
> by Partition Magic while partitioning the disk. See pfdisk above.)
> 
> Q3a:
> If Q2=yes, can I mount the missing part of the unused slice (above 1024 to
> 1916) afterwards when NetBSD is installed and running?
> (This already is probably a FAQ question ;)

Yes. Just edit the disklabel.

> Q3b:
> If Q2=no, what now?
> 
> Q4:
> Does the 540 MB limit mentioned in the FAQ affect my problem?
> (This actually would be impossible within my installation right now, because
> of that 5GB Win2k partition, so I assume I should ignore this.)

No, your BIOS seems to support 255 heads without problems.

> 
> And two more questions for now:
> 
> Q5:
> Would it be much simpler if I would generate another primary partition with
> that unused slice to install NetBSD on?

The NetBSD installer should be able to create this primary partition.

> 
> Q6:
> A SuSE Linux 7.1 installed pretty nice on my Laptop using the Unused slice
> of the HD. Is something similar thought for NetBSD?

I don't understand. Ha yes, you need to explicitlely create the partition,
you can't say "just install in the free space".
I don't think something like this is planned for NetBSD. I don't use this
for linux distribs anyway (I like to know where my data are :)

--
Manuel Bouyer <bouyer@antioche.eu.org>
--