Hei! I try to install Red Hat 8 on a computer where Windows XP already exists. I partitioned the hard disc with Partition Magic and have now 12 GB free space. when I try to set up the linux partitions I get the message 'cannot allocate cylinder based partitions as primary partitions'. First I thought it could be that some boot space is needed in the beginning of the hard disc and I therefore repartitioned with partition magic and moved Windows further up, but that didn't help either. I have not the faintest idea how I can process and will be grateful for any help!!

1.use fdisk and then see if ur partition table is proper.better if u can post the output of "p" command at the fdisk promot.if u r not able to get in to fdisk or disk druid.then i think that u have to probably reinstall everything.

one side note...
I don't know if this counts for preinstalled WIndows, but when I was duel booting my 2k/rh8 machine, I had to install windows first because it demanded that it have a boot sector at the beginning of the disk. If you don't want to lose all the data on you XP partition, you might try a program like GhostBoot, that burns an image of you hard drive to cd's, the you can format your entire hd. If all else fails, try a different distribution (although RH is my favorite).

Eric