Poblem: Grub and Windows multiboot
 

First let me say I use Linux (RedHat Enterprise Edition) and I like it.
My qusetion though, has to do with a Win98 setup - using GRUB.
I have a 200gig disk with three primary windows98 partitions.
These are 1- for Video stuff 2- for Audio recording stuff 3- for Game stuff.
Then there is an extended win partition that contains a logical partition.
(hda4) - ext and (hda5) logical within the extended partition.
I boot from a grub floppy, and select any of the three primary's, and
everything is fine.
The problem is with the extended and logical drive. My hope was to
use this logical drive as a common file resource between the three
primary's. Each boot instance sees the logical drive (D) but:
1. I get an MSDOS compatibility message in Performance Section of
Computer Properties, and
2. I have to format it each time.
Is there a way to share this logical drive with each different instance
of Windows.

Notes: With GRUB
I just use the hide and unhide to select the primary partition to
boot. Along with the makeactive. I do not use map. Is map
necessary?
The Primary's are type c (Win95 LBA) partitions
The Extended is type f
The logical I've tried with both type c and type b (with same results)

Thanks much

Hello,

It seems that this is a WIN problem and not a Linux.

I have myself the following configuration :

Win98 in primary partition

A second partition (extended) divided in
-- a Swap
-- b win 95 LBA

On the second drive I have 4 linux distro's (all in partitions)

On the third drive 2 linux distro's(in partitions) and some spare room

I use 2-b for handling files between win and linux and linux and linux
Sometimes it is very confusing if you have 5 drives with linux configurations.
So I copy the stuff to the windrive and that is also acting as a storage for info.

No problems. Not with win 98 and not with linux. It seems you are doing something wrong with W so you have to google or look at the site at Redmond.

Have a lot of fun...

CloudBuilder

Why I think this is the right place to ask this Q & why we should help:
0. Of course it's a Winders(tm:)) problem, but one that cries out for a GNU solution. (GRUB is part of GNU not Linux -- we only get to use it.) If Redmond had given him a decent bootloader, he wouldn't be here.

1. I think he mentions using & liking RHEL (presumably on a different box) because he knows this but doesn't know where else to turn.

2. I learned several years back the following decision tree for Winders(tm:)) problems:
- easy -> A+
- medium -> MCSE
- difficult -> LUG

3. His Q is well asked & his post show signs he has tried to help himself

I have built many multi-boot machines for myself & others, but I have never had this problem. What is different is that I have had at most 1 Winders(tm:)) partition & never a boot floppy. Still, I too think this sounds like an M$ problem -- it doesn't happen until GRUB has done its job & presumably is out of the picture.

Paul, what Google searches have you done about this? Please list, 1 per line, the exact contents of the search box w/ the quotes intact. For instance I tried:
"MSDOS compatibility" message
& got "... 183 of about 421". BTW
"MSDOS compatibility message"
produced nothing. While
MSDOS compatibility message
produces "... 739 of about 202,000"
it's all in the quotes.

If this doesn't help, then it might be time to find a way to post the exact M$ error msg. & recount the exact steps leading up to it.

Thank you for your input.
I believe you are correct. The error message, is more a warning than an error,
which seems to indicate that my extended drive (d) is in DOS compatibility mode.
I think this means that it is using dos (real mode) driver as oposed to a
32 bit driver. I could be wrong on that. Since all my partitions are ghosted,
and I have a spare disk, and time to mess around with it, I will try loading up
one W partition (Primary) and an extended and see what happens. I know these
are win issues, but I also know that LINUX users are pretty smart cookies, and I
wanted confirmation about grub being OK.
Thanks again

I remember I had something like this but it is a very long time ago. So I don't know any more how I managed.

I would suggest, that you delete the partition and make it again with Fdisk, the dos utility. Start a dos disk, maybe you must use support for large disks....

I had some troubles with partition magic sometime ago, but nowadays, I mostly make my partitions from linux, but fdisk should do the job as well. After all that is the win utility.

CloudBuilder

problem solved
 

Just to let those who responded know:
Using Linux fsdisk in rescue mode, I deleted all the partitions,
and re-partitioned - moving the extended partition from the end
of the disk (5 gigs at the end of a 200 gig maxtor) to the
second partition. So I ended up with:
hda1 -- 12 gigs for games (type c)
hda2 -- 8 gigs extended (type 5)
hda3 -- 100 gigs for audio recording (type c)
hda4 -- 80 gigs for messing with divxx (type c)
hda5 -- the logical contained in the extended for sharing (type c)
Then I re-ghosted my primary's back.
Formatted the logical one time.
And everything is OK. My three win98se setups can now see
the common share.
I don't know if it was a "glitch in the windows matrix" or maybe
an indexing problem (limitation of win98) as to where on the disk
you can place the extended partition.
Thanx again

Fine you got it.

As far as I now, Win98 has a limitation in the size of the HD. (maximum 120gb I think)

You can have however more partitions of that size.

Anyway Have a lot of fun....

CloudBuilder