need to install/dual boot win98...

[bluebell]

...but i'm not quite sure how to go about it. I think i want to use lilo as the boot manager, and i know that my HD has three (primary?) partitions already - dev/hda3 is the 'ext2' main linux partition, and hda1&2 are the boot partition and swap files. do i need to make another partition somehow prior to installing windows? (could anyone give me a few pointers if this is the case?)
or will i be able to do this just using the win98 installation interface (fat chance...)?
i'm using suse, if that's useful.
thanks guys :)
> Bluebell x

[X_console]

I'm assuming your boot partition is Win98? If so, then /dev/hda1 is for Windows. /dev/hda2 is your swap. And /dev/hda3 is your Linux partition. You may want to create additional Linux partitions for reasons of security and stability. However, one partition for Linux will be fine. Once you are more familiar with how Linux works, you may want to try creating more partitions. As it is, I don't want to confuse you further unless you want to know what other partitions you can create.

[bluebell]

thanks for the help :)
i'm not quite sure what you mean by my boot partition being win98 though - nothing on my machine is win98, i only have linux installed. do you mean that i need to install windows on the boot partition? is this where lilo is located, and will it still work if windows is put on the boot partition?

[willk]

Win insists on being at hda1, which is the first partition of the first hard drive. I am sure there is a way to get it otherwise...but it is beyound me and I have not heard of anyone being able to do this.
...probably the best bet here is to just bite the bullet and repartition..
this is what I would probably do. Split your hd into at least 2g partions.
Install WIN, it will be on hda1 by default.
Install the Lin distro of your choice on hda2.
You want to make a boot disk...and you want to note which dirctory "vmlinuz" is.
When it asks about installing lilo, you want it on the MBR...No, it is not going to hammer your system...and can be undone by booting to DOS and useing "fdisk /mbr".

[bluebell]

...I don't understand!!!

:(

All I want to do is KEEP linux (which is on hda3/swap on hda2), but i now need to unfortuanately add win98, i guess on the boot partition. I want to run it so that i can boot whichever one i need to use with lilo when i switch on the machine - this is dual boot, right? :confused: I don't know if i need to prepare anything before installing windows, or if I will just be able to stick the win98 cd in and tell it to install on hda1 - but isn't lilo already on hda1 if this is the boot partition? won't win install over it?
what if lilo was on a boot floppy?
oh dear, maybe one day i will actually understand something :)

[trekker]

Let me give it a shot.

You will need to create a primary partition for win98. U can then install win98 in that partition. Win98 will overide your MBR so after installing win98, you will need to boot up to linux using your linux boot disk and rerun lilo with "/sbin/lilo" at the command line.

That should get you to a dual boot system.

Hope this helps. :)

[bern]

just get another HD for winders....

[bluebell]

ok, i think i see - here's what i'm going to do, could you tell me if it's wrong so i can hold myself back? ;)
i made a boot floppy (just that, no lilo)
now i'm going to install win98 on hda1, the boot partition, leaving the linux swap and linux root partitions intact.
I'm sure there's something pretty wrong with that actually, but i don't know how to make new partitions - yo ho ho.

[Aikidoka]

Ah, I see.

YOur hard drive is partitioned this way:

/dev/hda1 boot
/dev/hda2 swap
/dev/hda3 linux

and you want to add win98 to dual boot.

Ok,

First off, windows wants to be on the first primary partition of your hard drive, right now this is /boot which more than likely is 100mb at most which is not enough for windows to install into. You have to resize all your partitions (can be done but it's a pain) or start over. I'm with Willk on this one, start over from scratch and install windows on your hard drive first. Then, install SuSE and resize the windows partition to about 2g or whatever you want to give it and then create you linux partitions and go from there. Good luck

[bluebell]

thanks aikidoka :)
im a bit worried that win98 will cause problems with the suse install, because of the swap partition fooling the installation into thinking the drive is full (it's written at the end) - i know this aint a m$ board, but do you know how to deactivate the swap file in windows? anyone?
and then it will be back to linux again, huzzah!

[bluebell]

sorry, forgot to ask, how could i view the size of hda1?

[willk]

This WILL work for you, but it IS a bit of work.
First off this is going to totally waste your present install...but I see no other way to do it.
I am assuming your HD is atleast 4 GB.
1.) start up linux.
get to a terminal (command line) No X.
"fdisk \dev\hda"
2.) "p" This will list your partitions
3.) "d" This will ask you which partition to delete. Just step through this till the "p" command shows no partiotions.
4.) "w" This will write the new partition table.
The reason to use the linux fdisk as opposed to dos fdisk is because dos fdisk often dosen't deal with ext2 Partitions well.
Put your windows start disk in and reboot.
When the system is started...
1.) "fdisk"
2.) "create dos partition"
3.) it will ask if you want to use the entire available space "NO"
4.) you want to use at least 1000MB...I always use 2000MB.
5.) exit and reboot.
6.) use you start disk or windows cd disk to boot and install windows.
When that is done use your Linux CD or floppy to boot to the Linux install program.
I am not familar with the SuSe install program...but it will present with a default or a custom install...you want a custom so you can make Linux patitions.
It will show hda1 as being dos.
you should make one for /boot (I always say 10mb) This would be hda2
one for swap...twice the size of your physical memory (if you had 64 mb RAM then you would say 128mb)
one for / (root) 2000 is safe for just about any install and is about twice what you really need for most typical installs.
you CAN make more partitions if you want...but for simplicty...this is good.
Do the install.
When it asks about LILO...you want it on the MBR (trust me!)
Thats about it.
If you mess things up...no big deal...just do it again...EVERYBODY has gone through this.
Good Luck!

[bluebell]

sorry to be dumb ;) but there's a couple of things i don't understand...
what is a win98 'startup disk'? is this necessary? i don't think i have anything like that, just the basic windows cd and nothing else. will i still be able to run fdisk and create a dos partition from the install cd?
and when i delete the partitions using linux fdisk, is my linux basically mashed? :)

[willk]

yes just use the cd...it wii give you few options...chose "start without CD support" to do the fdisk thing.
remeber you have to reboot after fdisk with dos.
2nd boot "start with CD support" then "setup"

During the install it will ask you if you want to make a start up disk...wise thing to have around.

[X_console]

I misunderstood your first question. I thought you already _had_ Windows installed. :) Well, keep in mind that after you install Windows, you'll need to boot with a Linux boot disk and rerun "lilo" to get the dual boot LILO screen up.

[bluebell]

i think i better mention the problem i had when i was trying to partition in DOS fdisk last time - it was to do with the cylinders being set to 3610 instead of 1024 (the HD is 30GB), and it was just flatly refusing to do anything at all. when i was taking a look at the partitions i have at the moment using the fdisk commands you suggested, the first thing it did was to remind me that i was set to 3610 and this might cause problems. do i need to reset/worry about this?

or should i just shut the hell up and try it out ;)

[willk]

go for it....

[62chevy]

I'm with bern if at all possabile get another drive. install it by it's self then install windows. when that's done install your first drive as master and the new drive as slave. windozs will boot from a second drive using lilo. i have this setup on my system right now and it works great!!