In article <1992Aug28.203237.9239@osf.org> ede@kadabra.osf.org (Ted Ede) writes:
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>
>1) fdisk 'x'pert mode disks allows up to 63 sectors per track.  some
>larger disks ( > 1GB) have more than 63 sectors per track.  Is this
>limit hard or can it be changed?

The limit is caused by the number of bits in the partition table which
are available for storing sectors per track: 6 bits.  Therefore a
sector number >63 is not addressable.  The whole problem of getting a
new partition table format understandable by all operating systems
is going to be a major headache in the future.

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>when I print the partition table it looks like
>               Boot    Begin   Start   End     Blocks  Type
>/dev/sd1a              2       2       16800   8399    MINIX/fs
>/dev/sd1b              1       16801   42000   12600   MINIX/swap
>
>I assume the the 'Begin' of 2 for /dev/sd1a is skipping the boot
>block?

Your partition table is rather strange, but never mind!  When I wrote
fdisk I used 'begin' for the start-of-partition encoded in terms of
geometry, and 'start' for the actual start-of-data encoded in terms
of sector number.  These two numbers need not be the same, though for
Linux fs and swap partitions any difference is simply wasted.

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>I'm also guessing that I can't use this partition for lilo or
>shoelace?

You can use any partition for lilo.  Shoelace is becoming more problematic
all the time, and is better avoided.

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>Can I just make the root partition something other than the
>first partition, e.g. exchange root and swap and then use lilo?  Or must
>I leave one cylinder at the beginning of the disk empty and start root
>at the second cylinder.

If you use lilo, you can start root with any sector on the disk, regardless
of cylinder boundaries.

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>3)  Which should I use, Lilo or Shoelace?  Why?  Will either
>get me a faster boot than using autocon and bootlin?

Shoelace was a holdover from MINIX: it was adapted to Linux to give us the
possiblilty of booting from the hard disk, but it could not be compiled
under Linux, was very tempermental, and is probably not going to work
indefinitely.  Shoelace requires that you use the Minix file system, while
lilo will work with anything.  Lilo also uses a great deal less disk space.


     -- Owen
     LeBlanc@mcc.ac.uk