Hard drive BIOS settings: Windows vs. Linux

[eco2geek]

Recently, my wife bought a really cheap PC to use at her office. Unfortunately, she wanted Windows XP on it (it came with Linspire 4.5 pre-installed).

Only one problem: the Windows installer would get to the point where it was ready to boot off the hard drive, and fail.

Turns out the hard drive was jumpered "cable select" and the BIOS was set to "CHS." Linux didn't care; I read somewhere that it doesn't look to the BIOS to find out the correct hard drive settings. But Windows did. I had to set the drive jumper for "single drive" and switch the BIOS to "LBA" to get Windows to boot. What a pain.

Score: Linux: 1, Microsoft: 0.

[Cuddles]

Eco2Geek, that could be a plus, or a minus, actually...

Upon installing Knoppix, three versions, and Kanotix, two versions, I found out what you did, that during the install, and boot, of Knoppix / Kanotix, they do not rely on information, or settings from the BIOS...

Good thing is: if something isnt set in the BIOS correctly, Knoppix and Kanotix, wont care, and work around it...
Bad thing is: if you have APM dissabled, and want it dissabled, in the BIOS, Knoppix and Kanotix, will simply ¨bypass¨ this being dissabled, and gladly enable it for you... ( this isnt so good, especially if YOU REALLY dont want it enabled )

For those who use the BIOS correctly, to enable, or dissable, something that the OS shouldnt be doing, this can actually be a bad thing.

Just some thoughts,
Ms. Cuddles

[oscar]

Score: Linux: 1, Microsoft: 1.

[eco2geek]

Point taken, Cuddles, except that, in this case, the computer's manual talks about installing Windows on the box (going so far as to list URLs to the Microsoft Knowledge Base that tell you how to install Windows), but makes no mention whatsoever of having to reset jumper or BIOS settings. Meh.

<edit>
More importantly, the "kernel-parameters.txt.gz" file in the documentation under

/usr/share/doc/kernel-doc-`uname -r`/Documentation/

is sparse, but really good to read to get an idea of what's there (use "zless" as your viewer). (I do believe you have to have the kernel sources installed before you get the kernel documentation.)

So, for example, if you don't want the kernel to use apm, use the kernel parameter "apm=off" in GRUB or LILO.

[Cuddles]

Eco2Geek,

hmmm, if the ¨installer¨ told you to jump off a cliff, would you LOL - just kidding, the installer actually didnt say a thing, huh??? Sounds like a Microsoft product to me [giggle]

I guess the whole point I was trying to make, and failed misserably at it, nothing new, was, that a new person might not know to dissable some things. Whereas, I have had to use that boot: cheatcode from day-one... On my third ¨oldest¨ system, I have a hard drive ( secondary master ), that refuses to accept DMA, so that one, I have to remember to add the NODMA entry into the bottom of my bootmisc.sh file ( hdparm to be precise ), just for that hard drive, mind you...

After you boot a few Knoppix, and a few Kanotix, OS -es, you ¨learn¨ what your hardware likes, and dislikes... But, as my point was, how would a new person know this

Your point to Linux is actually correct though, I wasnt taking that away... Windows has ¨always¨ been the quinticential idolization of new persons, for its easy of use, ease of install, and ease of hardware ¨Plug ´n Play¨, amazing that ¨something¨ was found that it didnt do!

As the score still stands: Linux 1, Windows 0
Ms. Cuddles

[jjmac]

The XP was probably expecting some sought of OEM setup ... where that would have been all done by the retailer.

MS figure the more in the dark the customer is the better it is for them. An just one of the many insideous aspects of that company.

>>
I read somewhere that it doesn't look to the BIOS to find out the correct hard drive settings.
>>

Yes, Lilo/Grub use their own mappings. And if there installed on the mater boot sector, the bios will just load those first-stages and they take over from there.

It means they will be dependant on a viable Linux root somewhere though, to fetch their second-stages from. Hard to get around that one though (grin).

I'm not a great fan of Grub/Lilo mbr installs though. People tend to forget it's there. And if they ever uninstall their Linux, they often forget to reinstall a generic bootstrap to their mbr ... result ... no windows (grin)


jm

[eco2geek]

hmmm, if the ¨installer¨ told you to jump off a cliff, would you

Bill Gates is my leader. I will follow him anywhere. Bill Gates is my lead....Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

how would a new person know this

Most people just want their computer to work without having to learn anything about it. Like an appliance. (Then there are odd people like me who actually enjoy tinkering around with them for hours on end...) To win over those people, I hope to see more PCs, inexpensive or not, sold through retail outlets with Linux preinstalled.

PS -- I have one computer that has a CD drive that the kernel knows about; it says, this CD-ROM drive is "blacklisted," and flat refuses to enable DMA for that drive.