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Linux on T40/p
Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2006 3:39 am
by kungpow
I have been told that if you install linux on a T40/p it will destroy the hidden partition (it should be impossible to have both linux and a hidden partition at the same time).
Can anyone confirm this?
To get a successfull multiboot with winXP and linux should I then disable the Predesktop Area?
Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2006 8:00 pm
by christopher_wolf
There is, I think, a way where you can get both of them on the same HDD without blowing away the HPA; see ThinkWiki in general as well as the following link
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Pre-Installation_steps
HTH
Re: Linux on T40/p
Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2006 8:07 am
by atha
I have Windows and Linux dualboot on T40p and the pre-desktop area is still intact.
I resized (downsized) the Windows partition in Windows using PartitionMagic, so that there was enough space for Linux at the end of the disk (or before the hidden pre-desktop area, HPA). Alternative software should exist, if you one doesn't have Pmagic.
Then I made two partitions (I made small boot (mount /boot) and bigger to hold all the other files (mountpoint /)) for Linux and also Linux swap partition. I set the Linux boot partition as the active partition (bootable). Then I installed Linux distribution (Ubuntu 5.10) into the created partitions. I didn't want to mess up with the partitions from Linux installer to make sure that the HPA stays intact.
The important thing is, that the GRUB (or LILO) should be installed to the beginning of the Linux boot partition. If it is installed to master boot record, AFAIK the procedure will broke the HPA or make it unbootable. When I installed GRUB, the installer asked whether or not to include the Windows partition. Now the computer boots onto the Linux boot partition with GRUB at the beginning, and Windows/Linux can be selected.
Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2006 11:09 am
by kungpow
I have Windows and Linux dualboot on T40p and the pre-desktop area is still intact.
Have you tried to run sudo fdisk -l from Ubuntu? Could be very interesting to see what kind of message you get (if you get the cylinder boundary error I would very much like to know).
And have you tried to use Partition magic from winXP after installing linux ?
Then I made two partitions (I made small boot (mount /boot) and bigger to hold all the other files (mountpoint /)) for Linux and also Linux swap partition.
If I get you right. You first installed winXP onto the whole disk. And then you made these 2 (3?) partitions with partition magic?
You write that you made 2 partitions, but as I understand it you made 3:
1) small boot
2) Bigger to holde files
3) linux swap partition
correct?
The important thing is, that the GRUB (or LILO) should be installed to the beginning of the Linux boot partition. If it is installed to master boot record, AFAIK the procedure will broke the HPA or make it unbootable. When I installed GRUB, the installer asked whether or not to include the Windows partition. Now the computer boots onto the Linux boot partition with GRUB at the beginning, and Windows/Linux can be selected.
The only thing you did to get at working GRUB was to answer yes when the Ubuntu installer ask if you want to include the windows partition, right?
I know this is a rather important part, but it should not be necessay to do anything else to make it work besides from answering yes during the Ubuntu install. Or did you do additionally configurations?
Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2006 12:39 pm
by marvel
Did the video card work right "out of the box" or did you install ATIs drivers? I found that the native drivers gave me better results than ATIs.
Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2006 2:34 pm
by techflavor
Using Ubuntu 5.10, my video drivers worked right out the box. I have been contemplating on installing the ATI ones but now I will look more into it.
Do you have the results from your tests between the two sets of drivers?
Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2006 3:20 pm
by marvel
No, sorry, I don´t. Imo Ubuntu is the best distro for my T40p. But at the moment I´m contemplating migrating to FreeBSD or it´s relatives (PCBSD or DesktopBSD). So far i still have not tweaked my xorg.conf properly, so I might return to breezy.
Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2006 11:13 pm
by atha
kungpow wrote:Have you tried to run sudo fdisk -l from Ubuntu? Could be very interesting to see what kind of message you get (if you get the cylinder boundary error I would very much like to know).
And have you tried to use Partition magic from winXP after installing linux ?
You write that you made 2 partitions, but as I understand it you made 3:
1) small boot
2) Bigger to holde files
3) linux swap partition
That's correct. Here is the output from fdisk -l - I haven't tried partition magic yet. I'll try as soon as I boot into windows again.
Code: Select all
root@t40p:~# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/hda: 56.7 GB, 56746501120 bytes
240 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7330 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 15120 * 512 = 7741440 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 1 5901 44611528+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2 * 5902 5919 136080 83 Linux
/dev/hda3 5920 7330 10667129 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5 5920 7191 9616288+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda6 7192 7330 1050808+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
Basically, hda1 is Windows partition, hda2 is the /boot partition, on which the grub resides also, hda5 is the Linux root partition and hda6 is the swap.
the other files (mountpoint /)) for Linux and also Linux swap partition.
The only thing you did to get at working GRUB was to answer yes when the Ubuntu installer ask if you want to include the windows partition, right?
I know this is a rather important part, but it should not be necessay to do anything else to make it work besides from answering yes during the Ubuntu install. Or did you do additionally configurations?
Yes, I just answered yes to the question to include existing Windows partition in the list and selected the GRUB to be installed onto the second partition.
Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2006 11:19 pm
by atha
marvel wrote:Did the video card work right "out of the box" or did you install ATIs drivers? I found that the native drivers gave me better results than ATIs.
It did work quite fine - But I can't remember if I tried suspend and hibernate with those drivers.But I still installed the drivers provided by ATI, according to the quide at:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BinaryDriverHowto/ATI. I haven't run any benchmarks with either of the drivers. Waking from Suspend/Hibernate seems to work fine with the drivers I used (8.20.8-1, I'm not sure if they are the latest anymore)
OK I checked - the latest are version 8.22.5.
Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2006 2:39 am
by kungpow
Basically, hda1 is Windows partition, hda2 is the /boot partition, on which the grub resides also, hda5 is the Linux root partition and hda6 is the swap.
the other files (mountpoint /)) for Linux and also Linux swap partition.
Did you make all these partitions with partition magic from winXP? Or did you use the Ubuntu installer to make any partitions? In short when you made all the partitions for both linux and winXP did you only use partition magic?
Have you changed anything in BIOS concerning your harddisk? I don't have access to harddisk info so would be nice to know if you did anything special here.
Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2006 3:12 am
by christopher_wolf
You can resize the partitions without using Partition Magic too.
Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2006 4:47 am
by kungpow
I know that, but I would like to know if he only used partition magic.
Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2006 6:59 am
by atha
Yes, I created also the Linux partitions using Partition Magic. During the whole operation, the BIOS settings for the recovery area were as they were by default. I think it's "secure" or "protected" or something like that.
Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2006 11:46 am
by kungpow
Should I make 2 EXT3 partitions and then 1 swap partition after wthe winXP partiton in that following order?
How big did you make the 3 partitions, and did you make them all as logical?
I have tried to make 2 EXT3 partitions (first one as primary and the second as logical) and I have also made a swap as logical. When I make the first EXT3 primary partition active My windows primary partition gets the status "Hidden". Did you experience that too?
Could you by chance describe the linux installation from the CD-ROM in a bit more detail (Which partition you install to and which you leave alone)?
When I run the Ubuntu install CD I would then choose the first EXT3 partiton for Ubuntu, correct? But how do I specify it to be the boot partition?
I am still curious to hear if you can run Partition Magic, it totally stopped working after I installed Ubuntu.
Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2006 12:36 pm
by kungpow
That was far from a good idea.
After installing winXP on the whole disk I used partition magic to make the following partitions in the following order:
1) Ext3 Primary 2 GB
2) Ext3 Logical 9 GB
3) swap 500 MB
Then I set 1) to active which results in my windows partition getting status "Hidden".
I then run the Ubuntu install CD. Choose to edit the partition table myself and choose 1) to be boot, 2) to be root. The I save these settings and install. I choose yes to add winXP to GRUB when it gets that far.
When installation is finished I start Ubuntu and write : sudo fdisk -l and get the below output.
Though the "*" was next to hda2 and not next to hda1 as shown below.
The below output is from the second time I booted Ubuntu. Between booting Ubuntu the first time and second time I tried to boot winXP. The winXP logo is present for some time and then I get a blue screen and an error message that disappears before I see it and the system reboots.
Code: Select all
Disk /dev/hda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
240 heads, 63 sectors/track, 10337 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 15120 * 512 = 7741440 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 8778 66361648+ 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2 8779 9049 2048760 83 Linux
/dev/hda3 9050 10337 9737249 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5 9050 10269 9223168+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda6 10270 10337 514048+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
From you fdisk run there is no "Hidden" keyword on the hda1 partition. How can you make the linux partition active in partition magic without making the NTFS partition "Hidden"?
BTW: When I was using Ubuntu everything seemed to go much faster than before, does it give som performance boost to seperate boot from root?
Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2006 7:12 am
by atha
If you can still access the GRUB without the Linux boot partition active, I think you have installed the GRUB into MBR. It leads to problems like yours, according to thinkwiki articles. (Nonworking recovery and Blue screen Windows XP)
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Installin ... _to_Work_1
I'm not sure, how to fix those issues other than recovery from recovery CD's. Maybe you could try to change the partition type for the Windows from Ubuntu fdisk, setting it to 7 instead of 17.
Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2006 8:02 am
by kungpow
How did you create the 3 partitions?
1) Primary Ext3
2) Logical Ext3
3) swap
??
For the boot partition I have choosen:
Use as: Ext3 journaling file system
Format the partition: no, keep existing data
Mount point: /boot
Mount Options: default
Bootable flag: off
size: 2.1 GB
Is that correct or do I have to enable the "Bootable flag" option?