passing real geometry of hard disk to Linux

[Kevin J. Cummings]

Parameshwara Bhat wrote:
> On Sun, 21 Nov 2004 23:28:20 -0500, Robert L Cochran  
> <cochranb at speakeasy.net> wrote:
> 
>> Well, what is your motherboard name and version and your BIOS 
>> version?  Your present motherboard and CPU must be extremely old by 
>> today's  standards.
> 
> 
> Yes, old but serving my needs. BIOS upgrade not available.

Ah yes, the old 32GB BIOS limitation....

>> What version of Fedora Core are you trying to install?
> 
> 
> FC1, FC2 Both I have tried with exactly similar results

No, I disbeleive.  I went through this with RH9, and I had to build a 
custom kernel.  I had to set the CONFIG_IDE_STROKE directive in the 
kernel config file on RH9 for Linux to be usble to use the entire disk.
This was with a 2.4 kernel.  What I noticed was that I then had to 
change the partition table to make use of the "extra" space now found by 
Linux.  That involed moving partition "data" back and forth between my 
"old" and new disks so I could make use of the extra cylanders and 
rebuild the Extended partition to the right size.  When it came time 
upgraded to FC2, I had already upgraded my MB to a nForce-2 one which 
supported the larger disk size natively.  I did a search for the same 
config option in the FC2 2.6 kernel, and I didn't find it.  I assume 
that its not needed any more as the code controlled by this directive is 
now enabled all the time?  And I haven't had any problems running FC2 
with the stock kernels on my new motherboard (of course, that could be 
becuase of my new BIOS....)

>> Check to see if there are BIOS updates available to you. Update your  
>> BIOS first. Then install Fedora.
>>
>> If you can afford it, a better option might be to replace the  
>> motherboard, CPU, and memory.

roughly $80 for a MB, $80 for 512MB ram, and $80 for a decent CPU/FAN, 
equals about $240 for an upgrade....

> I have other options. Only thing is , other distros of linux -  
> suse,knoppix - at the same kernel level are working with the same  
> configuration.

Yeup, I'm sure its a kernel configuration thing with the 2.4 kernel.  I 
don't think you should have it with the 2.6 kernel....

> It is more a question of curiosity and technology

Good Luck!

-- 
Kevin J. Cummings
kjchome at rcn.com
cummings at kjchome.homeip.net
cummings at kjc386.framingham.ma.us