Table of Contents
Advertisement
Appendix D. An Introduction to Disk Partitions
Keeping this in mind, we recommend that, unless you have a reason for doing otherwise, you should at
least create the following partitions:
/boot/efi/, and
(root).
/
For more information, refer to Section 4.17.4 Recommended Partitioning Scheme.
Caution
Make sure you read Section D.1.9 One Last Wrinkle: Using GRUB or LILO — the information there
applies to the
/boot/
D.1.9. One Last Wrinkle: Using GRUB or LILO
GRUB and LILO are the most commonly used methods to boot Red Hat Enterprise Linux on x86-
based systems. As operating system loaders, they operate "outside" of any operating system, using
only the Basic I/O System (or BIOS) built into the computer hardware itself. This section describes
GRUB and LILO's interactions with PC BIOSes and is specific to x86-compatible computers.
D.1.9.1. BIOS-Related Limitations Impacting GRUB and LILO
GRUB and LILO are subject to some limitations imposed by the BIOS in most x86-based computers.
Specifically, some BIOSes cannot access more than two hard drives, and they cannot access any data
stored beyond cylinder 1023 of any drive. Note that some recent BIOSes do not have these limitations,
but this is by no means universal.
Tip
While partitioning your hard drive, keep in mind that the BIOS in some older systems cannot access
more than the first 1024 cylinders on a hard drive. If this is the case, leave enough room for the
Linux partition on the first 1024 cylinders of your hard drive to boot Linux. The other Linux partitions
can be after cylinder 1024.
In
, 1024 cylinders equals 528MB. For more information, refer to:
parted
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/bios/sizeMB504-c.html
All the data GRUB and LILO need to access at boot time (including the Linux kernel) is located in the
directory. If you follow the partition layout recommended or select automatic partitioning,
/boot/
the
directory is in a small, separate partition. Otherwise, it may reside in the root partition
/boot/
(
). In either case, the partition in which
/
you are going to use GRUB or LILO to boot your Red Hat Enterprise Linux system:
On First Two IDE Drives
If you have 2 IDE (or EIDE) drives,
two-drive limit also includes any IDE CD-ROM drives on your primary IDE controller. So, if
you have one IDE hard drive, and one IDE CD-ROM on your primary controller,
be located on the first hard drive only, even if you have other hard drives on your secondary IDE
controller.
,
swap
/boot/
partition!
/boot/
/boot/
(or a
partition for Itanium systems)„
/boot/efi/
resides must conform to the following guidelines if
must be located on one of them. Note that this
91
/boot
must
/boot/
Advertisement
Table of Contents
