[plug] Repartioning

[Craig Ringer]

> I think i will just have to stick to what i have for now. Thanks anyway.

There _is_ one other option, and usually pretty easy to test too. Just 
copy the vmlinuz (kernel image) file and System.map of the kernel you 
usually use from /boot to somewhere secure (/root should be good). Edit 
lilo.conf and duplicate the entry for your normal kernel, the one you 
just copied. On the duplicate entry, change the label to "test" or 
something and change the path to the path to your copied kernel image.

Run lilo. It should say it installed "test" correctly too.

If so, reboot and try to boot off "test". If it works, you probably have 
a sufficiently modern BIOS that you don't need /boot below cyl 1024. 
Probably. The difficulty is that the kernel might've just been written 
to blocks on the disk that are placed < cyl 1024, and when your disk 
gets fuller then you install a new kernel - fizz, boot failed. I always 
use a /boot partition anyway for safety's sake and I've only tried this 
once on an older laptop (PII/300) where it worked fine.

The only way to be sure is to test booting off /usr or some other 
partition that _begins_ below cylender 1024. Of course you wouldn't ever 
put your kernel on /usr for anything but a test. Anyway, if it works you 
know that LILO & your BIOS support booting off sectors below cylender 
1024, and if it fails you lose nothing. But keep a boot disk handy anyway.

Example lilo.conf excerpt:
--------------------------

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.19
         label=debian
         root=/dev/hda6
         read-only

image=/root/vmlinuz-2.4.19
         label=test
         root=/dev/hda6
         read-only

--------------------------

results of LILO run on my system with changes above:

Added debian *
Added test
Added debian-old
Added debian-ipsec
Added memtest86

Its worth a try but MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A RESCUE DISK FIRST. Just in 
case. If all goes well, you can probably just do away with /boot - 
problem solved. I prefer having a /boot anyway but doing w/o it is much 
better than a full disk repartition or nightmares with moving partitions 
about.

-- 
Craig Ringer
GPG Key Fingerprint: AF1C ABFE 7E64 E9C8 FC27  C16E D3CE CDC0 0E93 380D
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