Hi everybody! I warn you that this won't be a short post... but I think it's much interesting.
I own an Acer Aspire 2001WLCI laptop (yeah, 5 years old!) and I just installed Fedora8.
The original 40GB disk configuration had 4 partitions: three FAT32 for WinXP Home and a fourth EXT3 for a small linux subsystem (~80MB) which is the infamous "Acer Arcade InstantOn". With my machine turned off, this OS is fired up by a "special" ARCADE key, which turns out to be a second power-button. Arcade provides an image-slider, DVD player, etc. (although NO DivX playback...) The content of this partion is:
Code:
[root@dante ~]# mount /dev/sda4 /media/82M/
[root@dante ~]# ls /media/82M/
boot dev etc lang.def lost+found ram_hdc.tar subfont.ttf unicode.ttf
[root@dante ~]# ls /media/82M/boot/
boot.0304 boot.b initrd.img kernel map
[root@dante ~]# ls /media/82M/etc/
lilo.conf lilo.conf.hdc.2 lilo.conf.hdc.4
lilo.conf.hda.4 lilo.conf.hdc.3 xxxlilo.conf
[root@dante ~]# cat /media/82M/etc/lilo.conf
boot=/dev/sda4
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
lba32
default=icava
image=/boot/kernel
label=icava
root=/dev/sda4
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
read-only
append="quiet video=vesa:mtrr"
vga=0x314
Now, it seems that when I start my machine with ARCADE button, a different boot sequence is started, different from the "standard" boot sequence which leads to starting grub bootloader.
Well, with my old FC6, leaving Arcade Partition as the 4th, I still could use that OS. But when I replaced the original HD with a new 160GB device, I went to reinstalling the original SW with the original CDs and then creating other partitions for data and Fedora8. The actual situation is:
Code:
[root@dante ~]# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x91769176
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 5737 46082421 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 5738 5750 104422+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 5751 14167 67609552+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda4 14168 14177 80325 83 Linux
/dev/sda5 5751 9574 30716248+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 9575 9705 1052226 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7 9706 10980 10241406 b W95 FAT32
/dev/sda8 10981 14167 25599546 7 HPFS/NTFS
Note that /dev/sda4 is the Arcade partition (still the 4th!). With my machine turned off, if I press "Arcade" button, I run through a bootloader (which is not grub, no choices of what to boot...) and get a black-window error:
"Missing Operating System".
Now, I modified my grub.conf as shown:
Code:
[root@dante ~]# cat /boot/grub/grub.conf
# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd0,1)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/sda5
# initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,1)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora (2.6.23.1-42.fc8)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.23.1-42.fc8 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.23.1-42.fc8.img
title Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
title AcerAspire
root (hd0,3)
kernel /boot/kernel ro root=/dev/hda4 quiet video=vesa:mtrr vga=0x314
initrd /boot/initrd.img
and, selecting the third option,
I can run the Aspire Arcade... so, it is not a problem related to SW/bootable partition, etc.
My question is:
is it a problem with BIOS? Can I solve it?
I also searched for something similar to
GeeXboX: can you give me an advice?
I'm eager to enjoy the possibility of playing MP3 and DivX/DVD without starting a regular Fedora8 session!
Linear Mode
