Linux on T40/p

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kungpow · #1 Post by **kungpow** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 3:39 am

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?

christopher_wolf · #2 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 8:00 pm

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

atha · #3 Post by **atha** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 8:07 am

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.

kungpow · #4 Post by **kungpow** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 11:09 am

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?

marvel · #5 Post by **marvel** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 12:39 pm

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.

techflavor · #6 Post by **techflavor** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 2:34 pm

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?

marvel · #7 Post by **marvel** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 3:20 pm

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.

atha · #8 Post by **atha** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 11:13 pm

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.

atha · #9 Post by **atha** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 11:19 pm

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.

kungpow · #10 Post by **kungpow** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 2:39 am

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.

christopher_wolf · #11 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 3:12 am

You can resize the partitions without using Partition Magic too.

kungpow · #12 Post by **kungpow** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 4:47 am

I know that, but I would like to know if he only used partition magic.

atha · #13 Post by **atha** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 6:59 am

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.

kungpow · #14 Post by **kungpow** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 11:46 am

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.

kungpow · #15 Post by **kungpow** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 12:36 pm

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?

atha · #16 Post by **atha** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 7:12 am

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.

kungpow · #17 Post by **kungpow** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 8:02 am

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?

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