dual booting linux and win98/95

[cs30841]

for thoes of you having problems booting two operating systems here is a fix that does not write to the MBR and as long as you have windows 95 or 98 and linux and loadlin. read this article in the NHFs.
http://linuxnewbie.internet.com/nhf/intel/osbooting/loadlin_win.html

This is the easiest way to dual boot. first if you already have lilo or some other boot manager loaded just delete it and in a DOS type fdisk /MBR this will rewrite your MBR. but read this. it is how i boot. and it always works.

[mikeylikesitz]

this may seem gooberish but the best way i have found to dual boot a system for me is a program called System commander. It does write a master boot record but it saves the original for uninstall. The only bad part so far is it has to be install in windows, But im sure there is a way around that(ultra-newbie here). It works great so far. it also allows for 100 diffrent OS system boot. It works the best with more than one pyhsical drives, which in the past was harder because of the prices, but these days, they are getting bigger and cheaper. Like i said it may be gooberish, but it has worked for me great so far.

[LinuxIdiot]

I initially was running Win98 exclusively. After attempting to install Redhat 6.2 several times, and trashing my Win install EVERY time, I finally began using a Linux boot floppy. Want to boot into Win? Remove the floppy. Want Linux? Boot from floppy. This worked pretty well for awhile, but I got tired of the switch, and it ran a bit slowly. So, I used Partition Magic (the full version) to create a 20 meg partition in FRONT of the c:\ partition windows uses. This, plus the use of LILO 21.6 keeps the boot info under the 1024 cylinder limit.
I copied my /boot directory there, and configured the lilo.conf file to allow a choice between Win98, Linux Kernel 2.2.16.3 (I think that's it), and Linux Kernel 2.4.0-test9. So, now, when I boot up, LILO loads, and I can select from either of the Linux kernels or Win98. Works for me.

LinuxIdiot

[roman]

Yeah System Commander is great. Maybe doesn't give you a lot to brag about to your friends. I am booting win98, Red Hat7.0 and SuSe7.0 on my system with it though.

[Bombdude]

I never had too many problems booting between windoze and linux, but I got tired of having to reboot if I needed something out of my windoze drive.

I got VMware, and now I can boot up Windows 2000 inside of Linux, and do whatever I need to. And if I need to move files around, I use Samba to go back to my Linux FS from the Windows Virtual Machine to transfer stuff back & forth.

I have to say....This is truly the best of both worlds! As much as I like using Linux, there are still some apps I have to use that ONLY run in Windoze.

[This message has been edited by Bombdude (edited 03 November 2000).]

[Sterling]

Bombdude - Linux can read most of the same partition formats Windows can, IIRC. I think writing to NTFS filesystems is a bit flaky in the current kernels, but I seem to recall that its been patched up for the 2.4 series.

As for booting between 98 and Linux, I just installed LILO in my /boot partition's boot sector, put that near the start of the drive, and pointed the PQ boot manager at it. Works just fine.

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-Sterling
-This post made with the Lizard! (http://www.mozilla.org)

[rsgunter]

I've used both LILO and Loadlin and they both do a fine job of dual-booting. My only question is why would anyone want to risk destroying their MBR with LILO or System Commander when Loadlin works just as well. I may be missing something, but I prefer Loadlin. It's easy to setup and you can load as many OS's as you want with it. But, most importantly I like that it's much safer to use!

[Sterling]

I put LILO on my /boot partition and used PQ's boot manager in my MBR. No problems yet...

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-Sterling
-This post made with the Lizard! (http://www.mozilla.org)

[WCox]

Been using BootManager since May 1999 booting from the partition /boot. No problems whatsover.

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Hello from Kansas: Using Linux since May 1999

[r1ccard0]

Ok, it's been a long time since I installed linux, back in the old Non GUi days.
I'm using redhat 6.2, and have the follwing:

hda1 win95
hda2 linux swap
hda3 linux ext2
hda4 NTFS (2000AS)

Now I have the 95 and 2000 running, with NTBootloader in the MBR.

My question is using the redhat 6.2 installer, how di I tell it to install lilo in hda3, rather than the MBR?

[Shad]

I use the NT loader with LILO. It just means one extra line to type when I recompile a kernel. Always make a boot disk though. You never know when you might need it.


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Just a Tuna in the Sea of Life

[Sterling]

Well, you could always modify the /etc/lilo.conf file by hand after the install, then reload the stuff in the boot sectors... Not having used Red Hat in a long time (and I'm glad of it), I don't know what their installer's like now.

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-Sterling
-This post made with the Lizard! (http://www.mozilla.org)

[r1ccard0]

well, what does /boot contain ?
Shall I create a partition for this, and lilo will be installed here ???

[thonot]

redhat 6.2's installer provides the option of where to install lilo: either in the MBR or the first sector of your linux partition, at least it does in 'expert' mode.

[r1ccard0]

It was the expert mode I was looking for....
However, follwing the FAQ's I've got a dead lilo, booting only to LI...
I've seen this around in the FAQ, and I have my partition below the 1024th cylinder....
any advice?

[SlCKB0Y]

Originally posted by r1ccard0:
It was the expert mode I was looking for....
However, follwing the FAQ's I've got a dead lilo, booting only to LI...
I've seen this around in the FAQ, and I have my partition below the 1024th cylinder....
any advice?

the first line of the lilo.conf file is your answer

boot = /dev/hda
this installs on the MBR.

But if you specify a partition then it goes on that partition..e.g.
boot = /dev/hda1

[LinuxRox1234]

if you are interested...
Mandrake Linux 7.2 was released not to long ago and i feel is a wonderful os. its new version of DrakX is very nice and a great improvement over the version shipping with 7.1. it ake dual booting into anything a breaze...
peace

[Sweede]

Originally posted by r1ccard0:
Ok, it's been a long time since I installed linux, back in the old Non GUi days.
I'm using redhat 6.2, and have the follwing:

hda1 win95
hda2 linux swap
hda3 linux ext2
hda4 NTFS (2000AS)

Now I have the 95 and 2000 running, with NTBootloader in the MBR.

My question is using the redhat 6.2 installer, how di I tell it to install lilo in hda3, rather than the MBR?



if you want to boot linux using Windows 2000 bootloader do this..

install linux on hard drive, leave the /boot directory on the same partition as /
i will assume that your / partition is /dev/hda5

when it asks to isntall lilo on the MBR (/dev/hda) or the root partition (/dev/hda5),
install it to the root partition.
make your bootdisk so you can boot your partition.

boot into linux, if you want to compile a new kernel, go ahead and do that and get everything all neat and tidy by running lilo to update the boot record (at /dev/hda5)

mount your windows C: drive
mkdir /mnt/windows
mount -t vfat /dev/hda1 /mnt/windows

then run dd to peel the boot record off the drive

dd if=/dev/hda5 of=/mnt/windows/bootsect.lnx count=1 bs=512

edit your boot.ini file
pico /mnt/windows/boot.ini

and add,
C:\Bootsect.lnx = "RedHat Linux"

and your all done.

anytime you update your kernel, just run

lilo
dd if=/dev/hda5 of=/mnt/windows/bootsect.lnx count=1 bs=512

and your done.

you can boot i think up to 15 OS's from the Windows 2000 loader.

something that'd be cool would be doing this.
dd if=/dev/hda5 of=/mnt/windows/bootsect.2.2 count=1 bs=512

[compile a new kernel and update lilo]
dd if=/dev/hda5 of=/mnt/windows/bootsect.2.4 count=1 bs=512

add those two into the boot.ini file and you'll be able to boot between 2.2.x kernel and 2.4.0 kernel at windows boot up.

[cabu1966]

I am running SuSE Linux 6.4 and Win98 SE both on a single 30G drive. SuSE sits on hda1. I boot from a floppy to linux. I used to hate this when I ran Red Hat because there was at least 10 seconds that it read from the floppy. When I installed SuSE the same way it only reads the floppy for a split second then it's rolling off the HD. Anyone know why this is? Just curious...I much prefer SuSE.