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<title>TitleOfArticle LG #35</title>
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<H4>
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"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
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</H4>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<!--===================================================================-->
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<center>
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<H1><font color="maroon">Product Review: Partition Magic 4.0</font></H1>
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<H4>By <a href="mailto:raym@vnet.net">Ray Marshall</a></H4>
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</center>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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I recently used <a
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href="http://www.powerquest.com/product/pm/index.html">Partition Magic
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4.0</a>, and was quite impressed, although I did run into some interesting
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glitches. <p>
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<center>Background:</center> <p>
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My machine was (and still is) partitioned like this: <p>
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<ul>
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<li> FAT32, containing Win95
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<li> Extended partition
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<ul>
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<li> swap partition for Win95
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<li> swap partition for Linux
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<li> <tt>/dev/hda7</tt> - <tt>/</tt>
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<li> <tt>/dev/hda8</tt> - <tt>/usr</tt>
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<li> <tt>/dev/hda9</tt> - <tt>/usr/src</tt>
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<li> <tt>/dev/hda10</tt> - <tt>/usr/local</tt>
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<li> <tt>/dev/hda11</tt> - <tt>/home</tt>
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<li> <tt>/dev/hda12</tt> - <tt>/wrk</tt>
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</ul><p>
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<li> I also had some unused space above <tt>/dev/hda12</tt>, that I had
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previously been unable to utilize. Not much; less then 100K. <p>
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</ul>
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I very rarely run Win95. I use Linux for everything I do at home.
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Professionally, I am a software/knowledge engineer, using several different
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flavors of UNIX every day -- exclusively unix. <p>
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<center>Documentation:</center> <p>
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There was nothing in the <cite>PartitionMagic User Guide</cite> that was
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of any use to me. I opened it once, looking for references to either
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Linux or ext2 -- nothing in the Table of Contents -- nothing in the Index!
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I did find a few terse references, like "Ext2 is only used by Linux". <p>
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While writing this, I decided to go through the <cite>PartitionMagic User
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Guide</cite> page-by-page, and see what I could find. Besides those few
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references, I found in <cite>Chapter3: Completing Hard Disk
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Operations</cite>, under <cite>Creating Partitions</cite> /
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<cite>Scenarios</cite>, a section titled <cite>Creating Linux Logical
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Partitions</cite>. Although this might be of some limited use to a
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neophyte, it might also lead them down a somewhat limiting path -- only a
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swap, and one other Linux partition. But, that's a judgment call, and
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beyond the scope of this article.<p>
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Pasted onto the cover of the <cite>PartitionMagic User Guide</cite>, was a
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sticker that said: "UPGRADE - PREVIOUS INSTALLATION REQUIRED". So, I
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figured that PM would remove much of the old version, replacing it with
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the new one. I subsequently forgot about V3.0, until many hours later.
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<p>
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<center>Installation:</center>
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<p>
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I booted Win95, and started the PM4.0 installation.
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<p>
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The installation went smoothly enough. Running it, however, yielded a few
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surprises. <p>
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<center>Execution:</center>
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<p>
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First off, I was very pleasantly surprised, and very impressed by the new
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GUI. There are several ways to select a partition, and to manipulate it.
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I particularly LOVE the way one can just move the whole partition (within
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the available space) back an forth. It was very intuitive. I give
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PowerQuest five stars (*****) for the GUI!<p>
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With the GUI up, I merrily proceeded to make all of my desired
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adjustments, asked PM to Analyze them, and was given the go-ahead to
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implement them. <p>
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But, to my surprise, when all was said and done (including an auto-reboot,
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and some complaints from my virus checker), only my Win95's C: partition
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was altered. :-( It was not very nice of PM, to tell me that everything
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was OK, and then ONLY make ONE of my changes. It was also fortunate that
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I had decided to check the results with PM, before rebooting to Linux.
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<heavy sigh> <p>
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I proceeded to make all of the adjustments in the Extended partition.
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Notice, that I said ALL adjustments. That meant changing the sizes and
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locations of every remaining partition. I only realized after the next
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(unexpected) reboot that I had again wasted more time -- that only Win95's
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swap partition actually got adjusted. :-( <p>
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This time, though, I just modified my Linux swap, and root partitions.
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When it was done, no reboot. <a BIG smile, this time>
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<p>
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I then adjusted all of the rest of my Linux partitions! (Remember, this
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was the third time I had done them.) But, my tests of patience were not
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over. While it was chunking away, I got several 120? (I forget the last
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digit, maybe 4) error popups. This error is NOT in the User Guide. So, I
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prayed that it wasn't serious, and clicked on OK. <p>
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[Subsequently I have looked for that error on their web site. So far, I
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have not been able to find it.]<p>
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About two thirds of the way through the implementation of my changes, all
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activity on the status window stopped, right in the middle of processing
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the <tt>/usr</tt> partition, where the bulk of Linux lives. Rebooting at that point
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would have been disastrous! <p>
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Hoping that this was not one of those frequent Win95 unrecoverable hangs,
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I decided to go to the store -- I needed some groceries, anyway. And, I
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needed some fresh, cold, night air, in order to relax. <p>
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I returned about 45 minutes later, only to find the status window exactly
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as I had left it. <What to do... What to do... Don't panic... Don't
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press that button...> <p>
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I suddenly noticed that the "NUM LOCK" light was on, and since I never
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leave it that way, I automatically pressed the Num Lock key to turn it
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off. And, to my surprise, and extreme pleasure, the status started to
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change. <My neighbors might have heard THAT sigh of relief.>
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<p>
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<More of those 1204 errors. Just press OK, and pray.> <p>
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Finally it completed! It looked good. Now I had room in <tt>/usr</tt> to
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upgrade to RedHat 5.2. So, I reboot to Linux. <p>
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<center>Rebooting to Linux:</center>
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<p>
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WHOOPS! Linux didn't come up! At the point where I should have seen a
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"LILO boot:" prompt, I only saw "LI", and everything stopped. Everything
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except the fans, of course. I tried another lilo diskette. Same thing.
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<p>
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I tried the RedHat Boot Diskette (Release 5.1). It said that it didn't
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support the rescue operation, and that I needed the diskettes that I
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created when I installed 5.1. I was sure glad I had done so, even though
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I had never had to use them before now. <p>
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After a brief search for those diskettes, I finally find them. I tried
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the "Boot image" disk first. No good. I tried the "Primary Boot Disk"
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next, and cheers abounded! Linux was now up (and maybe my neighbors,
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too), although on a kernel with reduced functionality. But I was then
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able to rebuild my lilo diskette, and then reboot normally, everything
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working as expected. <p>
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<center>Additional notes:</center> <p>
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Remember my previous reference to "UPGRADE"? Well, I examined the
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<tt>/win</tt> partition from Linux, and I found that PM3.0 was still in
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the "Start Menu", and that PM3.0 used up 4.92 Meg of disk space in
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<tt>/win/pqmagic</tt>, i.e. it was still there. So, the "upgrade" was
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actually an "install". And, now I have 4.92 Meg of space wasted on my C:
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partition. I hope I remember to remove 3.0, when I reboot back to Win95
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in another month or six. <p>
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I also mounted the CD under Linux, and discovered that there is a
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<tt>LINUX</tt> directory. I wonder why I wasn't told about that before.
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<p>
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Examining it's contents, I discovered files named <tt>PQINST.SH</tt> and
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<tt>PQREADME.NOW</tt>. Reading them, I saw problems with both files. <p>
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<ul><li><p>
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In <tt>PQREADME.NOW</tt> it stated "Please remember linux is case
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sensitive." And yet, it refers to items on the CD, using the wrong
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case. Just a couple of examples (one from each file):
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<p>
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<pre>
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cp /pqtemp.ins/cdrom/linux/bootflpy.dat /dev/fd0
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</pre> <p>
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should be<p>
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<PRE>
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cp /pqtemp.ins/cdrom/LINUX/BOOTFLPY.DAT /dev/fd0
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</PRE> <p>
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and<p>
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<PRE>
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cp /pqtemp/linux/bootflpy.dat /dev/fd0
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</PRE> <p>
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should be<p>
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<PRE>
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cp /pqtemp/LINUX/BOOTFLPY.DAT /dev/fd0
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</PRE> <p>
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</ul>
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I manually performed the <tt>cp</tt> commands (with the correct case).
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I then booted from them, to see what would happen. <p>
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<center>Experience with the Linux boot diskettes:</center>
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<p>
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When I booted the "Boot Diskette", it turned out to be a form of DOS from
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Caldera. <p>
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This experience was less then optimal. Before the GUI came up, it
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appeared to stop loading, and there was a sound coming out of my PC,
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something like a horse running in the distance. There was also a black
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rectangle in the middle of my screen. I suppose there was text in that
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rectangle. But, it too, must have been black. <p>
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I pressed <return>, and there was a very brief pause in the sound,
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and the black rectangle flickered. So I pressed it many times, and
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eventually a slightly abbreviated form of the GUI appeared. <p>
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Although most of the GUI was there, the helpers at the bottom were not. I
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guess that made sense, since there was no mouse pointer either. The lack
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of a mouse, made it a bit cumbersome to use, i.e. usable, but not optimal
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-- especially without the ability to have it analyze my proposed changes.
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<p>
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That strange sound, combined with the black rectangle, occurred several
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other times, while I was trying various features. Again, I pressed
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<return> and prayed, until the black rectangle went away. <p>
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Since I had no idea what was happening when I just pressed <return>,
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I elected to just quit, and boot back to Linux without implementing my
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changes. <p>
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<center>Trial with Wine:</center>
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<p>
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<A HREF="http://www.winehq.com/">Wine</A> is a Linux program, within which
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we can run a lot of Win95 programs. It is still under development, so
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many programs do not yet work, or they function with aberrant behavior. <p>
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It took me a while to discover that PM's executable is: <p>
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<pre>
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/win/Program Files/PowerQuest/PartitionMagic4/Win9X/Pm409x.exe
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</pre><p>
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When I tried it under Wine, it didn't run at all. Quite literally, it
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crashed with a segfault. I suspect the problem is in Wine, or with
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something very unusual that PM does.. <p>
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<center>Conclusion:</center>
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<p>
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In spite of the problems I encountered, I still consider PartitionMagic4
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an invaluable tool for the Linux community. <p>
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For the average "User", i.e. those who just use the system as a tool, and
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don't want anything to do with changing its configuration; it seems to
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me that they MIGHT have a need to use PartitionMagic just once, IF they
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didn't allocate their partitions adequately to begin with. But, after
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that, they may never need it again. So, for them, I can not in good
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conscience, recommend the $69.95 (plus $6 shipping) expenditure. Besides,
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they might have much more difficulty getting rebooted back to Linux.
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<p>
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But, for the hundreds (or maybe even thousands) of us who actually get
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into the system, move stuff around, and generally push the envelope of
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Linux, $69.95 is not really that much to pay, for the ease with which
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PartitionMagic allows one to adjust disk partition tables to meet changing
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needs.
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<p>
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Since I had purchased version 3.0 almost two years ago, and therefore
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was able to upgrade for only $29.95 (plus $6 shipping), it was much
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easier to justify the expenditure.
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<P>
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One final note: On the 8th of November (almost 3 weeks ago) I sent much
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of what I've documented above, to Customer Service at PowerQuest,
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imforming them that I was going to submit this to the Linux Gazette. I
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have yet to receive any reply.
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<!--===================================================================-->
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<center><H5>Copyright © 1998, Ray Marshall <BR>
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Published in Issue 35 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, December 1998</H5></center>
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