Hi there,

I need to setup a multi-boot system including DOS 6.22, Windows 98SE and the latest version of Debian. I have a Win98SE install CD, a DOS 6.22 boot-CD, and a netinstall Debian CD.

I tried several approaches, but unfortunately always fail. Has anyone done this before successfully and post a short HowTo? The PC I am using has a 156 GB hard drive, and even a 3.5 floppy disk still available.

Werfer

You might try a windows forum for the first two. How old is the computer and what is the hardware. If it's too new, you might have trouble getting DOS or W98 to run and if it's too old, problems with Debian. I'd check the Debian minimum hardware requirements to start. You might be able to get a minimal Debian to run.

Posting some information on what you have tried and what problems you had might help someone to help you. Any success with any of the installs. I expect you would have to install them in the order you listed but can't help any more. Too long since I've installed any windows.

Absolutely - "I tried several approaches, but unfortunately always fail." says nothing.
To install multiple MS/DOS probably requires you to "hide" the first install partition to install the second. Both will have to be primary partitions.

What about running the M$oft as virtual guests under Debian ?.

You are of course correct, excuse me. Here are the details - my latest approach looked like this:

I booted Debian from CD. I then used partman to partition like this:

dev/sda is my drive, it has got 164 GB

/dev/sda1 18 MB FAT 16 primary
/dev/sda2 1 GB FAT 16 primary
/dev/sda3 6 GB FAT 32 primary
/dev/sda4 Extended Logical
/dev/sda5 2 GB FAT 16 Logical
/dev/sda6 150 GB ext4 Logical
/dev/sda7 4 GB Swap Logical

So far, so good. I installed GRUB to the MBR, then installed Debian Linux, and then rebooted. Linux works fine. Now, my plan was to copy GRUB to a floppy disk, and then use this to unhide the partitions in question to install DOS (sda2) and Windows (sda3). And this is where I fail.

Now, after some research, I found out that GRUB has changed quite a bit since I last used it. I tried

grub-mkrescue -o GRUB2.iso
dd if=/boot/grub/GRUB2.iso of=/dev/fd0

According to the latest HowTo, this ISO should be for floppies as well as for CDs. However, I got two "Input/Output Errors" which I assume were caused by bad disks. The third one then genuinely worked fine, but aborted, telling me that there is not enough space on the disk, and that he stopped after 1.5 MB. I then mounted the floppy drive, and was told it would mount in read-only, as the block-device was write-proteced. This is not the case.

So, at the moment, I am stumped. Should I get a new floppy drive? Or should I try moving GRUB to a USB-stick? Is that possible?

I just found out that the mounting in read-only seems to be a bug in Debian. If I use udisks --mount /dev/fd0, it mounts fine in read/write:

http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=61538

So now all I have to find out is how to create a boot disk floppy with GRUB. Will keep trying and posting.

Does that mean you have installed Debian but have not yet installed DOS or windows 98? I would think you would have much better luck doing the opposite. Install DOS 6.22, see if it boots, then install W98 and see it if boots and if you get the option to boot DOS also from its menu. I would think W98 would recognize the DOS but have never used DOS 6.22. If the above succeeds, then you could install Debian to its partition, Grub to the mbr and just do a chainload entry in its grub.cfg file pointing to the windows partition, W98.

Hard to argue with any of that.
Been too long since I messed with any of this, but I can't see the need of a boot floppy. {un}hiding a partition isn't magic, it's simply a different partition type - do it from any Linux bootable media. Likewise fixing grub.
Given that Debian is already installed, flipping the (primary) partition(s) should also work.

@syg00 - I daresay you are right. I will just use the Debian netinstall CD: I will unhide the Fat16, then boot from the DOS-CD to install DOS, then reboot with the netinstall CD to hide the FAT16 and unhide the FAT32, then install Windows98SE from the Windows CD (which should mess with the MBR), then reboot with the netinstall CD one last time to fix GRUB, and rewrite it into the MBR, and then check and edit the grub.conf (which has a different name in Debian.... /boot/grub/something... I'll find out).

Sounds like a plan. I will execute that asap.

The new releases of Debian no longer use Grub Legacy so there will be no grub.conf or menu.lst file but rather a grub.cfg file which is considerably different and more difficult to edit that the old Grub. You should be able to find a lot of information on making changes to Grub2 at the Debian site or if you have problems, post here. I would expect installing DOS/W98 would overwrite anything related to Debian and you would need to reinstall but I don't really know.