What's the Dealio with initrd, etc/fstab, initrd.img inittab, vmlinuz, grub and partitions ???

Doing my best folks to find out the inter-operability about these
things...

I would like to post some output of files, but I want to be brief in my
initial post --

Allow me to preface with system info, and install and kernel info;

SYSTEM;
PII, 350MHz / Intel 440BX / 192MB RAM /AGP nVidia TNT Pro(32MB)/
PCI Ethernet NIC / PCI 3Com USRobotic Winmodem / Onboard Ensoniq
AudioPCI 64D SB emulation / USB 1.1 only (onboard) / etc...

HDDs / ODDs;
1x 80GB P-ATA/IDE (hda)
1x DVD-ROM (hdc)
1x CD-RW (hdd)

It's a Dual Boot Debian "Sarge" (3.1 r1) Kernel / Win98 system

~$ uname -a
Linux <localhost> 2.6.8-2-386 #1 Tue Aug 16 12:46:35 UTC 2005 i686
GNU/Linux

Win98 (hda1/5/6 - with Extended on hda2)
Debian (hda7/9/10/11 - with hda8 as /swap)

Here's my partition layout;

~$ sudo cfdisk

Name Flags Part Type FS Type [Label] Size (MB)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
hda1 Boot Primary W95 FAT32(LBA) 10487.24
hda5 Logical W95 FAT32 15734.97
hda6 Logical W95 FAT32 7871.60
hda7 Logical Linux ext3 [/] 5502.72
hda8 Logical Linux swap/ Sol 1497.01
hda9 Logical Linux ext3 [/home] 5000.98
hda10 Logical Linux ext3 [/usr] 10001.95
hda11 Logical Linux ext3 [/var] 10001.95
Pri/Log Free Space 16244.93


Here's the "Print" / "Sector" view of all available;

First Last
# Type Sector Sector Offset Length Filesystem Type (ID) Flag
-- ------- --------- -------- ------ ------- --------- ---- ---- ----
1 Primary 0 20482874 63 20482875 W95 FAT32 (LBA) (0C) Boot
2 Primary 20482875 129098339 0 08615465 W95 Ext'd (LBA) (0F) None
5 Logical 20482875 51215219 63 30732345 W95 FAT32 (0B) None
6 Logical 51215220 66589424 63 15374205 W95 FAT32 (0B) None
7 Logical 66589425 77336909 63 10747485 Linux (83) None
8 Logical 77336910 80260739 63 2923830 Linux swap / So (82) None
9 Logical 80260740 90028259 63 9767520 Linux (83) None
10 Logical 90028260 109563299 63 19535040 Linux (83) None
11 Logical 09563300 129098339 63 19535040 Linux (83) None
Pri/Log 29098340 160826714 0 31728375 Free Space None
------------------------------------------------------------------------


hmmm.....just noticed that hda2 (Ext'd) is listed as "Primary" (what up
with that?) -- maybe that's why you can only have 3 Prim [+] 1 Ext'd ?

I installed answering Deb installer, and I have a Root with password
and a User with password -- so where am I going wrong, ...My HDD is
thrashing something fierce - I know that 192MB is low, and I'm getting
muchmore real soon for this box, but win98 doesn't behave like this at
all...and I realize partitions that are closer to the spindle give much
less performance the closer you get, but not like this. Is it because
of the many various partitions?, or are my /usr /home /var not being
used correctly as owner,userid ?? (i.e; is the system
using/writing/accessing area of the disk it shouldn't have to to obtain
the files and apps it needs - should I've been more concerned with
where /tmp resides ?)

I'm using GRUB - I used grub-install and

I can NOT see any hidden files (the ones that begin with .) in
Konquerer at all.

Ina File Browser (knoquerer) - (btw; I can't figure how to fire-up
OTHER windows/file managers for testing them out..there's a ton in here
somewhere, that I saw. I have no idea where to find things, though I've
been noticing the many(?) symbolic links are certainly doing their job
when I'm in Konsole or Terminal...and I can easily see and open every
file from konsole, but it'd help me to be able to see ALL files in
Konquerer. (I have to use sudo for many things). I noticed some files I
browse to in Konquerer have Lock Icons over them, and I cannot open,
nor access those Directories or Files.

How can I best set up my partitions for Linux? (don't say delete 98,
it's not relevant right now -- besides I have another exact-duplicate
80GB'er, Brand new HDD, sitting in a box, but until I get my new
PSU...you know). I thought having separte: /, /home, /usr, /var, would
be a good thing - what's the Advantages??

Will I be able to Save my settings/tweaks/bookmarks, etc IF I change my
partitioning scheme ? (goodness, this is why I needed to install in the
1st place; rather than LiveCD -- I could not STAND it always losing my
settings and not listening).
I've read man initrd (and many others); It seems I'm booting to initrd
rather than the kernel ?? I have nothing (no /linux) in /usr/src/ :-(

Here's the relevant info from /boot/grub/menu/lst (I added acpi & apm
entries recently - and once I did, I FINALLY had the 4 choices -->
logout of session/shutdown/restart/cancel - rather than the logout only
choice, whew!)..all from within KDE -- BTW, I have x-window-system-core
installed, and also ALL of KDE, KDM stuff. I am using kdm now, not xdm,
and finally, all my settings are sticking.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
## ## End Default Options ##

title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.8-2-386
root (hd0,6)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8-2-386 root=/dev/hda7 ro acpi=force
apm=force
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.8-2-386
savedefault
boot

title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.8-2-386 (recovery mode)
root (hd0,6)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8-2-386 root=/dev/hda7 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.8-2-386
savedefault
boot

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
[ snip separation divider info ]

# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a
non-linux OS
# on /dev/hda1
title Windows 95/98/Me
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dang......I'm sorry - this got way long already....

Ok - that's enough for now (I have much mmuch more to discuss about
acpi, apm, pcmcia, lsmod, modprobe, etc).

Any help at all *on just 1 aspect* will be appreciated.

Please ask any necessary questions, and I'll merrily post the info.
Thanks in advance ;)

.

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