Re: Windows 2000, Omnibook 500 Install Difficulties
It's a shame that the windows 2000 dosn't boot anymore because the
simplest would have been to repartition using partition magic or something
similar. Then copy all the files needed for the installation, boot images,
and loadlin and start the install from dos, diskette if neccesary.
I managed a similar thing with a libretto ct70
good luck
On Tue, 31 Jul 2001, Adam Kessel wrote:
> Hi All:
>
> It doesn't appear to me that anyone has addressed the difficulty of
> installing Debian on a laptop with no CD-ROM drive, external floppy, and
> Windows 2000 pre-installed (I've checked the lists archive and
> linux-laptop.net, so please point me in the right direction if I'm missing
> something).
>
> Although I can boot the Linux boot disk, when it asks for the Rescue disk,
> the system can never access the external (USB) floppy. I've tried different
> options, including floppy=omnibook, root=/dev/fp0, root=/dev/hda2 (with the
> linux bin files in the root directory of my hard drive), etc..
>
> Ideally, I'd just run loadlin under W2K. Unfortunately, W2K does not appear
> to have any DOS-mode option--if you boot 'safe mode with command prompt'
> you're still in the multitasking environment, and if you boot 'command
> recovery console' you can't execute any binaries.
>
> I sort of found a workaround by creating a Windows 98 boot disk (and running
> in DOS mode), and then was able to execute loadlin from the hard drive.
> This only worked, however, because my laptop came pre-installed with the
> hard drive formatted as FAT32. If it had been formatted NTFS, I would have
> been SOL, right?
>
> Once I booted into DOS mode I tried to split the partition with FIPS, but of
> course there is something towards the end of the disk restricting the size
> of the partition. I defragged in W2K, still no luck. I deleted the W2K
> swap file, still no luck (other than W2K would no longer boot).
>
> Ultimately, this isn't too much of a problem because I don't care about
> keeping W2K once Linux is up (at this point, I'm just deleting all the files
> other than the Debian install, hopefully this will free up the space needed
> to split the partition). But it seems like this is a very difficult
> procedure for a semi-novice who wanted to keep W2K on a laptop, particularly
> if their drive were formatted NTFS and/or they weren't luck enough to have a
> Windows 98 or earlier boot disk.
>
> I would be happy to help create a "Windows 2000 to Linux" mini-howto if we
> can figure this out and if one doesn't already exist. Amusingly, a google
> search for "windows 2000 linux install" gives you "How to Remove Linux and
> Install Windows 2000 or Windows NT on Your Computer" from
> support.microsoft.com.
>
> (who would want to do *that*?!?!?)
>
> --Adam
>
>
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