Re: newbie curious
Steve Winston <erhu42@yahoo.com> writes:
> I am going to install Debian Gnu-Linux (the version to
> come out bundled with an Oreilly text) on a hard drive
> that already has win98 on it. The same machine has
> linux mandrake 6.0 on a separate hard drive (the
> master drive on this computer), and it works super
> with linux mandrake.
> I have some questions:
> 1. If the computer works with linux mandrake, then am
> I safe to assume that everything will be compatible
> with Debian Gnu-linux?
Maybe. For the most part of it, i think it will work, but i don't know
what version of glibc it uses, or what uses the Debian you are going
to install. If Mandrake uses version 2.1 of glibc, then chances are
that a lot of things won't work with Debian, because current Debian
cdroms uses version 2.0 (the current unstable `potato' uses 2.1).
Also Debian and other distributions have some other differences, like
different places for config files or such.
> 2. Win98 occupies 5gb of a 10gb hard drive. The rest
> of the drive is not partitioned. I will stick the
> debian distribution there. Will the Debian lilo let me
> boot into Win98? Right now, linux mandrake recognizes
> the win98 partition on the slave drive, but when I try
> to boot into windows with lilo, win98 insists it sees
> a nonsystem disk in the a drive and refuses to boot
> up.
> So, I am using the BIOS to switch between the two hard
> drives.
>From this i assume you have something like this:
/dev/hda -> master disk with Linux Mandrake
/dev/hdb -> slave disk with Win98
right?
Windows assumes that it boots from the C: drive, and when you try to
boot it with lilo it sees it is not C: but D: (or other) and refuses
to boot.
I have a similar setup in my box. The goal is to make win98 think that
it is in the master disk. LILO can do this for you, so you don't have
to go to the BIOS every time. I have the following setup:
/dev/hda -> master disk with MS-DOG 6.2 (for some old games and emus)
/dev/hdb -> cdrom
/dev/hdc -> secondary master disk with Win95 (for some games)
/dev/hdd -> secondary slave disk with Linux (Debian 2.1)
My BIOS is old enough so it only can boot off the primary master, but
using LILO in mbr of /dev/hda allows me to boot from either of them.
I include my lilo.conf below.
----- lilo.conf --------
boot=/dev/hda # where Lilo is installed (mbr of /dev/hda)
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
#delay=50
timeout=50 # timeout of 5 seconds
prompt # show boot: prompt
message=/boot/message # message showing options
disk=/dev/hdd # options for the BIOS
sectors=63
heads=64
cylinders=525
other=/dev/hda1 # MS-DOG
label=dos
table=/dev/hda
image=/boot/bzImage # Linux
append="mem=128M"
label=linux
root=/dev/hdd1
read-only
other=/dev/hdc1 # Win95
label=win
map-drive=0x80 # this makes first disk become
to=0x81 # second disk
map-drive=0x81 # this makes second disk become
to=0x80 # first disk
----- end lilo.conf -----
I'm using LILO version 21. The numbers 0x80 and 0x81 refers to the
first and second disks installed (i also have 0x82 for the third).
Also make sure that the Win98 boot partition has the boot flag active
in case it refuses to boot (when you switch from the BIOS, it
activates (or deactivates) the flag of the partition to boot, i
think).
Hope that helps.
--
------------------------------------------------------------
David Muriel.
Debian GNU/Linux 2.1 (slink) + Emacs 20.3.2 + Gnus v5.6.45
------------------------------------------------------------
"Emacs is a religion (take a look at alt.religion.emacs),
it's not your typical software. You should study it like
The Bible and one day you will "believe" in it."
-- from a post in comp.emacs
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