[NTLUG:Discuss] [DISCUSS}

[Juliet Blosser]

On Fri, Dec 03, 1999 at 06:48:32PM -0600, Kevin Brannen wrote:
> David Gadd wrote:
> > 
> > Hello all
> > 
> > I have an old 486 system that has been put together from salvaged
> > computer parts.
> > The BIOS cant see the HD its to big ...
> 
> Not at all, or not all of it?  I suspect the later.
> 
> Linux only uses the BIOS to boot, after that, it'll take care of the
> disk geometry on its own.  That just means that your *ENTIRE* root
> partition must be below the 1024th cylinder.  I have a big root and it's
> only 200M (/usr, /opt, /var, /home are their own partitions).  You could
> do with less than 100M for / if needed.

Just to be picky, actually the partition the kernel is in needs to be
below the 1024th cylinder.  On my machine, I have the kernel in its
own /boot partition which is about 10meg.  

Another thing you might try besides dos is a tiny distribution like
tomsrtbt.  You can find this at www.toms.net.  There are several
others like it, but tomsrtbt is one of the most feature rich for
troubleshooting.