Text 6946, 245 rader
Skriven 2006-08-09 21:50:00 av MARTIN ATKINS (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av WAYNE CHIRNSIDE
Ärende: llf
===========
-=> WAYNE CHIRNSIDE wrote to MARTIN ATKINS <=-

 ->  -> There is no hidden partition. It is a figment of your and DOS 5.0s
 ->  -> imagination.

 ->  WC> No, in fact it wasn't.
 ->  WC> It was Linux that was seeing all this and my primary concern.

 -> You most certanly _did not_ report Linux seeing a "hidden"
 -> partition after you dd'ed the drive.

 WC> I'm not in the habit of reporting unverified suspicians
 WC> when troubleshooting.
 WC> I *suspected* it as I suspected the  drive geometry had been altered.

Your suspicions were with due respect built on a lack of knowledge.

 -> WC> I was booting the DOS system disk along the way as a means
 -> WC> to both troubleshoot and to and to look for solutions.

 -> DOS is not a solution on a Linux system. Windows can help you
 -> identify hardware and what IRQ it is using and a bit more.

 WC> I've gotten rid of the DOS partition.

Praise be to the good lord.

 -> So yes there is a reason to have a DOS/Win partition if you
 -> have a Win distro and newish hardware.

 WC> Well Linux has dmesg, lspci ect. which are better.
 WC> I decided to purge DOS completely when Paul Togers tightened me up
 WC> to dd if=filename.img of=/dev/fd0

Hmmm not sure what that one does but if it worked then who am i to 
argue.

 WC> When the implications of that hit home I realized DOS was no longer
 WC> needed for anything.

The more you understand Linux the more you will realize how true 
that is.

 -> WC> Many powerful tools use DOS such as fips and BIOS flashing utilities.

 -> fips is only used when you already have a working DOS/Win setup.

 WC> After this runin I considered it a recovery tool as well.

Yes but only for DOS it's self. 

 WC> You needn't actually have a DOS partition to have FIPS record
 WC> or restore the MBR.

Errr. If you do that the system will crash. I think restorb(?) will
point the MBR to the DOS partition.

 -> As for BIOS flashing well you won't need to go down that raod
 -> for some time.

 WC> I now know how to circumvent that problem within Linux.
 WC> Learned agreat deal in the last few days.

I hope one of them is not to act on hunches unless you are
thoroughly versed on the subject.

 -> I did say that if you _must_ have DOS on that disk then build
 -> it first with Linux but don't expect it to work straight out.
 -> You need to read the fdisk man page first.

 WC> That's why I didn't load 6.22 loading but 5.0 instead after formatting
 WC> with mkfs.msdos

Now your learning. :)

 ->  ->  WC> I need to go to Maxtor's site and find out how many blocks
 ->  ->  WC> there are suposed to be on this drive.

 ->  -> Total waste of time.

 WC> Not with the drive geometry altered.
 WC> I'd think it useful to know what it's supposed to be.

In this situation it would have been of no use.

 ->  WC> As was about 80 percent of my efforts in getting to the heart of the
 ->  WC> matter.
 ->
 -> Old habits die hard. You used DOS to try and fix a problem that
 -> it was never designed to do.

 WC> Didn't use it to fix but rather to obtain iformation.

And it told you that DOS was broken on that disk. You unfortunatly
came to the wrong conclusion.

 -> You're a Linux user now and there
 -> is no escape. The more you use it the deeper it will suck you
 -> into it's vortex.

 WC> Already there.

Welcome. :)

 -> You panicked and went off like a scatter gun. Instead of solving
 -> the problem you caused yourself unnecessary grief.

 WC> Yes but I was methodical enough to keep notes kept in sequential
 WC> order as a memory aid.

Ok. So now you should feel happy to connect your slave drive.

 WC> Looking through them last night I see a number of anomolies.
 WC> One standout is the disk name in Linux fdisk expert mode "Nr AF".
 WC> Recall that DOS label command problem I kept reporting?

See my other message. So now you can see. Just because you don't
understand something you see it dosen't mean there somthing wrong.

 WC> The disk label survived zeroing the drive

But now you know it isn't a problem. Don't forget to see what
i said in the other message about changing a DOS primary partition
when an extended one exits. 

 ->  -> WC> The clues something was afoot in Linux were more subtle.

 ->  -> So subtle you can't describe them?

 ->  WC> Writes to DMI event log on every boot.

 -> Unreadable disk because you zeroed it and probably left LILO
 -> in the MBR.

 WC> Would LiLo survive the disk manufacturer's LLF utility?
 WC> This sounds counterintuitive to me.

I don't know about this LLF utility but lets assume it didn't.

Now in the clear light of day you should see by chasing this
virus you stumped yourself from fixing the MBR.

You couldn't boot DOS so fdisk /MBR was not an option.
You didn't have Linux distro disk so you couldn't use the rescue
facility to switch back to the original DOS MBR. You snookered
yourself. 

There may be a way to do it from Knoppix but i doubt many in this 
echo use it.

 ->  ->  -> Forget DOS. Put the machine back together and partition it Linux
 ->  ->  -> ext2.

 ->  WC> DOS remains.

 -> Fine, but use it for DOS work.

 WC> DOS has been fully purged now I know how to handle image files within
 WC> Linux.

He he. Slow down your getting ahead of me now. :-}

 ->  -> The only crud around that system is between the keybourd and the
 ->  -> chair.

 ->  WC> Uh, motorcycle induced spinal injury.
 ->  WC> I wasn't at fault but thatt doesn't matter.
 ->  WC> Have not been able to use or sit in a chair for years.

 -> Pay no heed to my impertinance. I was letting off steam.

 WC> No probem.
 WC> Do it myself.

    <CUT>
 
 -> That was what i was after. You still have mismatched ram but so
 -> long as it is not a problem now then there is probably no harm
 -> in it. Remember though it can cause problems during intense
 -> read write activity.

 WC> Memtest is pretty intense.
 WC> ISTR having let it run all night never having the patience to sit it
 WC> out.

The first time i used it i had 512 meg to check. It found faults
right at the end. I sure was glad it let it run on even though
i was tempted to kill it. It solved a problem that had plagued
my system for months.

 -> How can you expect people to help you if you keep giving
 -> conflicting advice? In one message you say there is no config.sys
 -> on the floppy or H/D next you say it is on the slave drive.

 WC> Error on my part.
 WC> Forgot there's a basic one on install.
 WC> I knew it wouldn't have the extensive alterations I saw

Frustration often leads to oversights. 

 ->  WC> Mozilla was also picking up Netscape Communicator 4.08's
 ->  WC> preferences ( and malware tagged along) to send me to
 ->  WC> a faux trojan scanning web page.

 -> So where is Moz/Netscape? /dev/hda or /dev/hdb.

 WC> /dev/hdb before I pulkled the drive for good.

Maybe not for good but at least for now. :-}

 -> So why were you using DOS 5.0?

 WC> I didn't until recently know how to use dd to handle image files.

Ok. I think though when you have had a break and are more relaxed
you should hook up the slave drive and practice formating it.

Perhaps you could at get some docs of the web so you can understand
things a little better. 

 ->  WC> Do not go gently into the dark night.

 -> I won't. I'm gonna go out get drunk and start a fight and it will
 -> all be your fault. :-}

 WC> Oh no.
 WC> Don't do that.
 WC> I was 6'6" tall and invariably whenever some guy came into a bar with
 WC> a chip on his shoulder from a problem with his girlfriend or boss at
 WC> work he'd pick out the biggest guy ( usually me) and have at it.

I hear ya. I'm 6'2 and apparently got a target on my face. ;)

 WC> I finally had to pick one place and build the facade of a reputation
 WC> in order avoid further conflict.

I'm too old for all that crap now. Besides some of these young blokes
are liable to stick a glass in your face. Haven't been to a pub in years.

So as Maurice would say.

Life is good.
 
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