[Nottingham] /boot below 2GB (was: Linux not recognized/bootable after installation)

[Martin Waryniak]

Hi Paul,

thanks for your anwer. Partition Magic will let me resize my D: 
partition but I don't know whether i can put the /boot partition aheaqd 
of my primary partition c:.
Do you know, is the limit now 8GB or still 2GB? If it is 8GB it wont be 
a problem but if it is 2GB, is it possible to place a partiition before 
the primary one if u still want to use Windows?
Martin

Paul Sladen wrote:

>On Sun, 6 Oct 2002, Martin Waryniak wrote:
>
>Hi Martin!
>
>  
>
>>Toshiba Satelite 3000, 390Mb RAM, P3 850Mhz. [...]
>>    
>>
>
>  Mb  == Megabits
>  MB  == MegaBytes
>
>  
>
>>I installed linux into the partition hda6, with hda5 as swap drive [...]
>>Should I create a separate /boot partition?
>>    
>>
>
>To do with the history and uselessness of the PC BIOS;  LILO (the Linux
>bootloader) can only load the kernel from the hard disk if it it can find it
>within the first 2GB of the disk (is now this 8GB?).
>
>The simplest way to ensure this is the case, is to create a *tiny* 10MB-15MB
>`/boot' partition right at the front of the disk.  The kernel and second-
>stage bootloader can then be loaded off this and and jump to the big
>`/' root partition at the end of the disk.
>
>Somebody who's done this more recently will probably give you a better
>answer.  (Anyone know if can you just get PartitionMagic to lop 20MB off the
>front of hda1?, or is it best to use `Loadlin' if you really can't resize
>the first partition?)  If the limit is now 8GB, just cut 15MB off the front
>of `D:' and pop a small `/boot' in there, either has a logical partition or
>`hda3'/`hda4'.
>
>You should be able to boot by Floppy or CD or Loadlin in the meantime
>(Windows ME needs a patch to allow you to press Shift-F5 on startup and get
>/Real DOS/ though).
>
>Hope that helps,
>
>	-Paul
>  
>