Dual boot question: Was Re: Bad Magic with WinNT (2000)

["arlen fletcher" <arlen.fletcher@att.net>]

So, let me see if I understand this....

I have a 16GB drive partitioned into an 8GB FAT32 partition and an
unassigned 8GB partition.  My BIOS translates the drive geometry to
1024/255/63 (it's really 16383/15/63).  When I try to install OpenBSD 2.9 in
the unassigned area, fdisk says I have only 1 cylinder in which to install
(I presume because I'm up against the 8GB limit).  If I change the ID of the
unassigned partition to A6, fdisk provides the proper offset, but the size
is limited to 1 or 0.  Entering 1 or 0 results in an error message saying
that 1 or 0 are not within the allowed range. [sigh]

My question:  If I reduce the FAT32 partition to 6GB, will I be able to
install OBSD 2.9 on the remaining 10GB? Or will I only get 2GB (the
difference between 6GB and the 8GB limit)?

TIA!!
----- Original Message -----
From: "Rémi Guyomarch" <rguyom@pobox.com>
To: "Jim Clark" <jaymz@conativesystem.com>
Cc: <misc@openbsd.org>
Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2001 4:03 PM
Subject: Re: Bad Magic with WinNT (2000)


On Wed, Oct 31, 2001 at 11:00:37AM -0800, Jim Clark wrote:
> I know this has been covered before, I found just such a message in some
> archives somewhere else.  But I can't find the answer!  Situation is,
> Windows 2000 on a 28g part on a 40g ibm disk.  I want the remaining space
> for bsd.  But when I set up BootEasy, OS-BS, and any other of the many
> bootloaders and try to boot bsd, I get
>
> Bad Magic ...
>
> And it hangs.   I'm not too swift with the bsd fdisk program, but I got it
> to work a few years ago.  And I'm now having to relearn it all over
> again.  Best solution is to format, install bsd AND THEN windows 2000.
But
> I'd rather not...  If someone could point me in the right direction, I'd
> really appreciate it.

IIRC, the obsd boot block / boot manager can't load a kernel beside
the 8 GB limit. And depending on your BIOS, you might hit a shorter
limit. So, the real limit of the boot partition is 'min (bios, 8 GB)'.
Maybe there's some win* partition managers which can move your win2k
partition a few tens MB further from the hard disk start and then you
will be able to put an OpenBSD kernel in the freed space...
Remember: as soon as the obsd kernel is booted, you won't have any
limits anymore, you will be able to mount any partition.

--
Rémi