On 07-Nov-05 Anthony Anson wrote:
The message 54874100511070258u5ab67f31oc05ef67f9f817b4@mail.gmail.com from Tim Green timothy.j.green@gmail.com contains these words:
On 11/7/05, Anthony Anson tony.anson@zetnet.co.uk wrote:
I've just cleared a 24 gig partition on hda (E:). Win 2000 Pro on C: - some progs and saved stuff on F:. For some reason, Windows allocated D: to the zip drive... I might re-allocate drive numbers sometime to coincide with the Linux list. How will Debian do it? I might also fit a SCSI CD ROM so I can copy CDs at least. I haven't got a SCSI CD/DVD drive.
If you have an IDE one, then you can get the kernel to "fake" a SCSI interface for software (like xcdroast) which expects SCSI.
There is a module ide-scsi which does this. You need to modify /etc/lilo.conf (if using a LILO booter; get someone else to tell you how to do it for GRUB!) like the following (excerpted from one of my machines):
#Original LILO options image = /boot/vmlinuz label = linux root = /dev/hda3 initrd = /boot/initrd #IDE-SCSI LILO options image = /boot/vmlinuz label = linux-CDRW append = "hdc=ide-scsi" root = /dev/hda3 initrd = /boot/initrd
and then run 'lilo' as root. This has the effect when I boot into "linux-CDRW" that the IDE CD-RW reader/writer (which I have as 2nd IDE [IDE1 according to the gurus!] Master and hence /dev/hdc normally) is "translated" by the kernel to appear as a SCSI device. When I boot into this I run (as root) a script "CDRW_init" which contains
#! /bin/bash modprobe ide-scsi rm /dev/cdrom ln -s /dev/scd0 /dev/cdrom
This ensures (via modprobe) that the ide-scsi module is loaded, removes the symbolic link /dev/cdrom -> /dev/hdc, and re-instates it as /dev/cdrom -> /dev/scd0.
Then, if I want to revert to IDE (i.e. after booting into "linux" or running rmmod ide-scsi), I run another script "CDRW-close" which contains
#! /bin/bash rm /dev/cdrom ln -s /dev/hdc /dev/cdrom
which restores the status quo.
(The reason I need to use IDE as well is that I run an old version of VMWare which does not have SCSI support, so if I need to use the CDROM in Windows I have to have the drive on IDE).
Q: when cfdisking it for Sarge, how will I know (for *CERTAIN*) which one to write to?
Linux doesn't know the drive letter assignments because Windows NT4 and beyond actually store this information in the registry.
Yes, I know this.
Sarge will write to the partitions assigned to it because you tell it which partition is boot, which is root, which is swap, and then optionally which will be home, var, etc.
What I need to know is how I can be certain that I'm writing to the partition I think I am. There are things I don't want to overwrite.
Here can I remond you of my suggestion of tomsrtvt (Linux on a floppy)? This is the sort of situation where it comes into its own, because it lets you run a Linux "without strings" -- you can inspect a machine from the Linux point of view, but before you have installed linux on it, and without making any changes to the hard drive.
If you have your partitions set up but not written to (or even if you don't have them set up), let's assume that you are able to recognise which Windows partition is which by virtue of knowing some files which should be visisble in each.
If the Linux partitions are set up but not written to, boot the machine from the floppy. You have (I think) only 1 hard drive (/dev/hda) but it doesn't matter if you have more -- just do the same for each.
Then. once booted into Linux on a Floppy, run
fdisk /dev/hdc
and then enter "p". This will give you a list of the partitions, their sizes, their beginning and ending cylinders, and their types. The Windows partitions will be recognisable as such from their types, whether or not you have set types for the future Linux partitions.
It will look something like the following:
[root@compo root]# fdisk /dev/hda
Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/hda: 6495 MB, 6495068160 bytes 240 heads, 63 sectors/track, 839 cylinders Units = cylinders of 15120 * 512 = 7741440 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hda1 1 276 2086528+ b Win95 FAT32 /dev/hda2 * 277 839 4256280 f Win95 Ext'd (LBA) /dev/hda5 344 839 3749728+ 83 Linux /dev/hda6 277 290 105777 83 Linux /dev/hda7 291 343 400648+ 82 Linux swap
Partition table entries are not in disk order
Command (m for help): q
[root@compo root]#
Now you know which partitions you can write to for Linux, since you will know which to avoid because they're Windows.
If you've only designated the extent of the Linux area (by shrinking the Windows partitions), then you'll only see detail on the Windows lines. Now you could use the "Linux on a Floppy" fdisk to make the Linux partitions and assign their types if you want to; but the Linux installer should do this OK anyway (just make sure it avoids /dev/hda1, /dev/hda2 or whatever has the Windows stuff on).
Good luck! Ted.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) Ted.Harding@nessie.mcc.ac.uk Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 07-Nov-05 Time: 17:45:24 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------