In Disk Druid, when trying to set up the Linux partitions on my 20GB hard
drive (split into 11GB Win98SE FAT32 and the rest for Linux) an error
message is given when trying to set up a partition for /boot, or if there
is no /boot partition, for /. This error message states "Boot partition too
big". Even shrinking the partition to 1MB does not solve this problem, so
whatever is causing the generation of this error message is not consistent
with the error message received. I believe my machine (Aptiva 865) has an
extended BIOS to allow access to beyond the 1023rd cylinder, so my Linux
partition starts at cylinder 1444 and ends at 2489.

Scans through the newsgroups reveal this is a common problem with recent
installs, most of which seem to involve Win98, Win98SE and larger drives.
Common suggested fixes include making sure that the /boot partition lies
within the first 1024 cylinders or switching to fdisk.