New to Linux but learning...

[Nightwing]

...slowly, but I am learning! So far, I am very pleased with Linux. I installed Linux-Mandrake 8.0 on an old box I had and was very pleased with everything I saw. So, I decided to install it on a second PC (as a dual boot) and while the install went fine for both win98 and Mandrake, when I rebooted from Win98 to use Linux, it looked as though it was loading fine then all I got was an "Li" followed by a blinking cursor and I couldnt get past it. Both win98 and Mandrake were installed to differnt partitions on the same HD, so I tried to get to the "Open Windows in Safe Mode" screen or even a Dos prompt but that didnt work either. I have read various articles on the web regarding "Lilo" and am trying to figure the best way to configure it so it will run fine and give me the three options I had expected (to run either Win98, Linux or Dos). I have since formatted the drive again and am running Win98. So, I thought I'd jump online and see if there were any Linux forums and boy was I glad to find this site! I have not partioned the drive and would like to learn how to install Linux correctly as a dual boot from the same HD with numerous partitions. Any help would be most welcome! I'm not anywhere near to pulling my hair out, I love a challenge and can see that Linux will be just that!

On another note, if someone has any suggestions, I purchased a new Maxtor 20 gig hd to install, format and partion prior to the installation. I used the boot disk that is included with the hd and now I cant get rid of EZ-BIOS and still be able to boot. I have followed the instructions at Maxtors site in how to remove (or disable) EZ-BIOS but then all I get is "....Li 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 and on and on. Any suggestions on this problem would be most appreciated as well! Thanks in advance for any help and I look forward to learning what makes Linux tick! Even programming!

Thanks again! :cool:

[0cool]

hey,

sorry i can't help you but I am new at this too, and if anyone out there reads this I would appreciate some info, or at least some kinda site or something with info so that I could successfully install and run Linux on the same hard-drive that I have windows 98 partitioned too. I also wanted to try and do this without spending much money, such as shelling out $50.00 for a dual-boot program. ANY HELP?????
:confused:

[phazeman]

I think you both should go to the NFO section of the linuxnewbie.org, they have an howto's about ...

[Barre311]

Dual boot with Win 98...my speciality. Only because I've reinstalled Mandrake 8 a million times. Well, here's how I did it. I performed this on my roommate's computer which made him very nervous, but nothing went too terribly wrong.

1. Visit www.xosl.net (http://www.xosl.com.) You can download a free boot program that is easy to install and setup. It's also very small and perfect for this.

2. You'll need to partition the HD. I have a 20GB HD and wanted to install Linux on a 2GB part with a 500 MB swap...which is big for a swap. But I don't know any better. Instead of using fdisk, which scares me, I used Partition Magic. Gives you a GUI to help make the part. Just slide the partition over, tell it how to format the part, and voila! If you don't want to buy Partition Magic, you can probably download it from a shady Russian warez site. You didn't hear that from me.

3. Next, install Linux. After creating the new part, reboot with the Linux CD in the drive and it should auto-load into the install menu. Go through the install, making sure that you load LILO on the Linux partition, not the primary Windows partition. Easy.

4. After installing, reboot into Windows. Install XOSL from DOS and reboot. After POST and BIOS runs, XOSL should start with no selections for booting available. Click setup, enter selections for Win98 and Linux, save, and you're on your way. Now you have a dual boot machine with Win98 and Linux, our favorite OS! :)

Wish you guys the best of luck. If you have any questions, you know where to find me. Also check out the NHF's. They are very good.

[ 05 September 2001: Message edited by: Barre311 ]

[bdg1983]

Is EZ-BIOS installed in a hidden partition and has been set as active?

If so, then you should be able to use fdisk to delete that partition and then set your main partition as active instead.