Re: Debian w/ Win95?
Marcus Johnson <marcus@hbe.org> writes:
> I've got a rank beginner question for y'all: I'm thinking of installing
> Debian on a machine I've got that has Winduhs95 on the primary 4.3 gig
> drive. I don't want to disturb what I've got there (Windoze is so touchy
> as you know), and I'm thinking that it might be best to put it on a second
> drive. So my question is, would that work to put it all on a secondary
> drive or would I need to put part of it on the primary drive? Can
> WinDOHs95 peacefully coexist with Debian Linux? Any recommendations about
> with Debian to go with?
One way that does not disturb your current W95 installation is to use
``loadlin'' which is on your Debian CDROM in the boot directory.
>From the Config-HOWTO:
To boot Linux from DOS/Windows without resetting, put LOADLIN.EXE in a
directory (in the DOS partition!) included in the DOS path; then copy
your kernel to, say, C:\DOS\VMLINUZ. The following .BAT file will
boot Linux:
rem linux.bat
smartdrv /C
loadlin c:\dos\vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 r
If you use Windows 95, set the properties of this .BAT so as it starts in MS-DOS mode.
>From the BootPrompt-HOWTO:
2.2 LoadLin
The other commonly used Linux loader is `LoadLin' which is a DOS
program that has the capability to launch a Linux kernel from the DOS
prompt (with boot-args) assuming that certain resources are available.
This is good for people that use DOS and want to launch into Linux
from DOS.
It is also very useful if you have certain hardware which relies on
the supplied DOS driver to put the hardware into a known state. A
common example is `SoundBlaster Compatible' sound cards that require
the DOS driver to set a few proprietary registers to put the card into
a SB compatible mode. Booting DOS with the supplied driver, and then
loading Linux from the DOS prompt with LOADLIN.EXE avoids the reset of
the card that happens if one rebooted instead. Thus the card is left
in a SB compatible mode and hence is useable under Linux.
There are also other programs that can be used to boot Linux. For a
complete list, please look at the programs available on your local
Linux ftp mirror, under system/Linux-boot/.
--
Manfred
--
Unsubscribe? mail -s unsubscribe debian-user-request@lists.debian.org < /dev/null
Reply to: