Re: why multiple ext3fs partions in a single dos partition is good.
Kohtala Marko (Marko.Kohtala@ntc.nokia.com)
18 Aug 1997 13:16:32 +0300
Darren Reed <darrenr@cyber.com.au> writes:
> For those of us who don't run only linux, we may have 3 partitions already
> setup for other operating systems, including DOS/Windows, with one of those
> as an extended partition. Now the real problem is that you can't boot into
> an extended partition, not to mention that I've yet to see an fdisk program
> that will deal with two extended partitions. Now that I think of it, Linux
> is the only PC Unix I use that requires one dos partition per ext2fs
> partition. Solaris/FreeBSD/NetBSD all let you create /, /usr, /var all in
> a single DOS partition.
Booting to an extended partition is no problem. Use Lilo or loadlin
from DOS to get the kernel going. The kernel can use root from
whatever blockdevice you specify, usually your kernel gets compiled
with the default root you have when you compile it. Command line
option can override the default root partition. You also can have your
Linux partions on other disks than the actual boot disk. With Lilo the
only requirements are that the Lilo resides on the boot disk and
kernel resides on some disk+partition BIOS can read it from.
--
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Marko Kohtala - Marko.Kohtala@ntc.nokia.com, Marko.Kohtala@hut.fi