Win98 / Linux dual boot install on a large disk 1

Kudagai · Mar 10, 1999

Does anyone know what considerations are involved in installing Linux on a system that already contains Win98? Win98 will be in a low FAT32 (size?) partition, since I am told that it insists on that. And I intend that the top 8GB of the disk will be the D: FAT32 partition. I desire that the remainder of the disk (the extensible? partition) be Linux. But I also understand that there are a few tricks to doing this, and I don't know them. 
The system has System Commander on it which is what I have been using to manage the partitioning so far.

joe · Mar 31, 1999

really no considerations, but just a few steps. ensure you have room for the linux partitions [you will need at least two -- and they can't be fat32 -- so repartition to get those] and then make sure your lilo boot loader has entries for both win98 and linux so you can dual-boot. or make either a linux boot floppy or a win98 boot floppy, and then you don't need to worry about what lilo does to your mbr.

Kudagai · Mar 31, 1999

Actually, I picked this up from new.redhat.com @ redhat.config. It seems to address the topic in fair detail. (Haven't tried it yet, and I may not if VMWare pans out! [WINE would be nice, but until it's a bit nearer completion, I need something that will do what I need done.] ) 
 
From: Indrajit Raychaudhuri <indrajitrc@hotmail.com> 
Subject: Re: Installing Win98 and Linux on a 17 GB drive doesn't work 
Date: Wednesday, March 24, 1999 7:27 AM 
 
Hi Marc and George, 
 
I think I 'did' face this type of problem a few months back. 
Fortunately I could overcome the problem with kernel-2.0.36 itself. 
May be I could help you out. 
Since you have everything (the entire system) within your control, you can 
try from scratch the following way. 
 
Step - I (the Win98 part): 
------------------------------- 
1. Forget Linux. 
2. First boot into the system using the Win98 bootable floppy. 
3. Run fdisk (the one which comes with Win98 bootable floppy). 
4. Say 'Y' to 'Enable large drive support' 
5. Delete whatever partition you have in the drive. Absolutely no 
partition should be visible in Win98 fdisk. 
6. Now from Win98 fdisk itself, define the 'Primary Dos' partition and 
take the 4000MB you require. 
7. Set the Active partition (one you prepared right now) 
8. Exit fdisk and reboot (you can use the command 'restart') 
9. Now boot again with Win98 bootable and install Win98 from the CD. (all 
sane CD drives are recognised by the bootable floppy) 
 
Do whatever you like now with Win98, it won't have any problem. 
 
Step - II (the RedHat Linux part): 
---------------------------------------- 
1. If you have the RedHat 'Bootable CD', boot from the CD (you may need to 
change CMOS settings to be able to do this) 
2. If you don't have that use the bootdisk and suppdisk (29 Dec version) 
to boot into the system. 
3. Use 'Linux fdisk' instead of 'Disk Druid' to create rest of the 
partition. Though fdisk is a text based tool, it is far saner. 
(I 'did' face problem with disk druid, so avoid that). 
4. Looking at your configuration, it seems this configuration should be OK 
for you. (Use Linux fdisk to create the partition only, exit 
when done and assign the mount points in Druid) If you have any 
problem using fdisk, learn it from ("Linux Installation and 
Getting Started Guide" available from

http://www.linuxhq.com/LDP/)

> hda1 /mnt/win98 4000MB WIN FAT32 
> hda2 / 200MB Linux native 
> hda3 "swap" 100MB Linux swap 
> hda4 <extended> 
> hda5 /usr 1000MB Linux Native 
> hda6 /home 1000MB Linux Native 
> hda7 /var 1000MB Linux Native 
5. Once you are through, install Linux and configure LILO and install it 
in the MBR. Also add the Win98 partition as usual. 
6. That, and other things being over and the system reboots, you should 
have things working. 
 
Try your luck, all the best. 
Hope you won't have to throw you computer out of the window.;-) 
 
Indrajit 
 
 
Marc Gianzero wrote in message <36F5BE93.CEA434A@uci.edu>... 
>Well, I am just about to give up on this system all together! I have 
>literally 
>installed Linux on my system over 20 times with all sorts of 
>configurations 
>without much success. To reiterate my scenario, I am trying to install 
>a dual 
>operating system (Windows 98 and Linux) on my Dell P-2 450mHz, 128MB 
>system with 
>a 17.2 GB Maxtor hard drive (IDE primary). I can install windows 
>without a 
>problem, and even Linux when it is by itself using the partion scheme as 
> 
>follows: 
> hda1 /boot 100MB Linux Native 
> hda5 /usr 1000MB Linux Native 
> hda6 /home 1000MB Linux Native 
> hda7 /var 1000MB Linux Native 
> hda8 "swap" 100MB Linux swap 
> hda9 / 100MB Linux Native 
>My understanding is only the /boot partition need to be below the 1023 
>cylinder. What does this mean -- I thought it meant below 8 GB, but 
>somewhere 
>else it says < 512MB? Either way, I made it the first partition in the 
>sequence 
>so it should satisfy that criteria, right? I booted with "linux 
>hda=16383,16,63" and selected "linear mode" for Lilo installation. I 
>also 
>updated my image boot disk to one dated Dec 29th (as I was told to do). 
>I 
>also installed my Lilo in the Master Boot Record 
> 
>Now, with this configuration, my disk size records properly in partition 
>section 
>of Disk Druid "Drive Summaries" section of my screen. Linux boots with 
>a boot 
>disk and seems to run perfectly. I can even add the 
>"append="hda=16383,16,63" 
>to my lilo.conf file and it boots with just a return at the boot: 
>prompt. 
> 
>However, now I wanted to get back to a dual operating system mode. When 
>I try 
>and install Windows98 after these partitions it doesn't work. The 
>windows98 
>program "fdisk" forces me to remove the "extended dos" partition (which 
>is 
>hda5-9) before it will create a primary dos partition. Then I have to 
>go back 
>and reinstall Linux - which is O.K. if it worked! But it doesn't! I 
>can't get 
>it to boot off of LILO without it locking up at the "L". I thought only 
>the 
>/boot partition needed to be below 1023. My partition scheme now is now 
>as 
>follows: 
> hda1 /boot 100MB Linux native 
> hda2 4000MB WIN FAT32 
> hda5 /usr 1000MB Linux Native 
> hda6 /home 1000MB Linux Native 
> hda7 /var 1000MB Linux Native 
> hda8 "swap" 100MB Linux swap 
> hda9 / 100MB Linux Native 
> 
>What's going on? I then tried and combined my /boot and my root (/) 
>partition 
>to see if this did anything, making my partitioning look like this: 
> hda1 /boot 200MB Linux native 
> hda2 4000MB WIN FAT32 
> hda5 /usr 1000MB Linux Native 
> hda6 /home 1000MB Linux Native 
> hda7 /var 1000MB Linux Native 
> hda8 "swap" 100MB Linux swap 
> 
>O.K. now Linux works! However, when I type "dos" to run my Windows 98 
>boot, the 
>system just hangs. So then I thought maybe Lilo overwrote my MBR that 
>Windows 
>now needs. So I used the "/sbin/lilo -u" under Linux but this just 
>prevented me 
>from booting Lilo off the hard disk. I then tried re-installing Windows 
>98 from 
>scratch but Windows tells me it has to reformat the disk. I reformat 
>the 
>windows partition (hda2) and then it tells me it cannot read the 
>format. I seem 
>to be going in circles. 
> 
>I've installed this darn thing way too many times to make it that 
>important. 
>Isn't there somebody I can talk too about this in person, like a 
>telephone 
>call? I was even told that the newer kernel (2.2x) solves some of these 
> 
>problems I might be having, but how can I download it and install it on 
>my 
>system when my system isn't up and running yet? 
> 
>Please help. 
> 
>Marc Gianzero 
> 
> 
>

Kudagai · Apr 26, 1999

That basically works, but forget LILO! If you install LILO, in the MBR then NOTHING works. It also appears that if LILO is installed in the boot partition (I shrank the Win98 partition to 6GB) then Linux doesn't work. But this may be to to a v. large partition (/work = 1024 cylinders). Actually, I *CAN* force linux to boot, but it complains visciously about bad magic numbers in the disk blocks of type ext2. This doesn't seem to be actually true, as fdisk (after telling it that I have 2048 cylinders) verifies that all is well.

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Win98 / Linux dual boot install on a large disk 1

Kudagai

Programmer

joe

MIS

Kudagai

Programmer

Kudagai

Programmer

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