How to install Linux on dual boot system?
 

Hi all! I'm a newbie to the Linux, hope you guys can help me out. Currently my system was dual boot with Win98 and Win2000, and i plan to install the Linux Mandrake 8 (or Caldera V2.4) on my system. I already make a Linux partition and the size is about 1.6GB, so my question is how to i start the Linux installation on my dual boot system? My friends say you just put your Linux CD(bootable) into the CDROM, then reboot your PC and make the CDROM as the first boot device, then it will boot into the Linux installtion screen. Does this way works? Please give me some clue how it works, thanks in advance!

LM:newbie:

reboot, go into BIOS, look for "boot sequence" or alike, which usually reads A,C. change that to read CD,C. save, exit (reboot), put in cd.
itll work when ure BIOS supports booting off cd, the cd aint faulty, and the cd drive supports it (usually does). older cd drives may have trouble reading certain types of cdr's.

it works because the box will look for a piece of magic code that sez "im bootable" at boot on the cd or drive.

btw, if u install Lilo in the partition u install Mandrake in, not in the MBR (start of harddisk), u will be able to use another boot manager like W2K's bootmanager to boot all kind of OS'es. Installing it in the MBR anyway will crack up W2K, cuz it likes to hog the MBR.

just my 2 cents.

Thanks unSpawn! What you mean is i can straight follow the step you say and install Mandrake 8 into my system, right? But i have a question, can the Mandrake 8 installation find the Linux partition that i already make? Since i cannot see any drive letter(of the Linux partition) in 'MY COMPUTER', so will the Mandrake installation automatically search for the partition? Or i have to do some addition step? Thanks again.

LM
:confused:

The Mandrake expert install will show you the list of all available partitions in your system. If you have formatted your linux partition to ext2 then I think it will appear red, otherwise it will be an unformatted blue or something (not too sure about the colours but there will be a key somewhere!). Just make sure that you select the right one and you'll be fine.

HTH

glj

Can't see Linux Caldera in boot loader after installation.
 

Ok, this is what i did the Linux Caldera 2.4 on my dual boot system:

-Put in the CD
-Reboot the system and make CDROM as first boot device
-Setup screen appear, choose the recommended installation method
-Configure the mouse/keyboard/time zone, etc...

When it ask me whether want to write the boot loader into my MBR, i choose NO. After that, setup complete. System reboot itself, then comes the W2k boot loader, here is the problem, I CANNOT SEE THE LINUX CALDERA INTO THE BOOT LOADER LIST, only Win98 and Win 2000! Now i really don't know how to make it appear into my OS selection list. Please help!!

LM
:confused:

Use the boot floppies you made during installation to boot your linux OS. If you skipped the step to make boot floppies try to make them from within windows.
Usually there is a program called rawrite.exe on the cd along with instructions how to do.

Now you will have to find out if lilo was installed on your system.
Look for the file /etc/lilo.conf
Read it with the command cat /etc/lilo.conf
At the beginning of the file there should be a line reading map or boot.
One of them has the value =/dev/hdxx
If your disk is primary master on the ide-controller then it is /dev/hda<number>
The number show you wich partition linux is installed to.

Now we will have to copy your boot sector of your linux partition to a floppy disk. This is done with the commands
mount /mnt/floppy Assuming that this where Caldera likes to mount your floppy.
dd if=/dev/hda<number> of=/mnt/floppy/linuxboot.sec BS=512 count=1 This copies the first 512 byte of your linux partition to a floppy.

Now reboot, ctrl+alt+del, and start windows 2000.
Copy the file from floppy to your windows 2000 disk and edit the boot.ini file found in the root of your w2k disk.
Add to this line to your boot.ini file:
Linux Caldera 2.4=c:\linuxboot.sec if ofcourse your w2k boot partition is c:

Now when rebooting you should have the linux alternative in w2k boot menu.

Thanks ugge! I have a Caldera boot disk and can boot into the UNIX base prompt, and there is a message

-- You can start KDE with 'kde' or plain X11 with 'startx'.

So i type 'kde' into the prompt, then something is running, then the error comes out

-- Fatal server error, no screen found.

Later when i try the 'startx' command, nothing happen, it come back to the prompt again. So what i suppose to do now, Please help..

Also, what do you mean by following -- "dd if=/dev/hda<number> of=/mnt/floppy/linuxboot.sec BS=512 count=1 This copies the first 512 byte of your linux partition to a floppy"
How do i find out the <number> that you mention above and where should i type all this command, at UNIX prompt that i mention above? Please guide, thanks..

LM

The number is the partition number, and you will find it in your /etc/lilo.conf file.
For example /dev/hda1 is the first partition of your primary master hard disk.
The hard disk located as master on your first ide controler.

If you would have told linux to write to MBR then your lilo, the boot loader, would have been written to /dev/hda wich is master boot record.

If you know how your partitions are set up then you can find the partition number using fdisk from within linux.
fdisk /dev/hda
Now hit p to show the partition table. Hre are all of your partitions, the one with filesystem 'native linux' also knows as ext2 is you linux system and the number/device is found first on that line. Exit without saving.

All of these commands are given at the command promt.
The reason why you can't start X window is more difficult to answer, it wight be that it isn't configured or that it is configured incorrectly.
Try to find answers about X configuration by searching this site. I know that many have had similar problems and you might find your question answered right away.

Thanks ugge! I have try the 'cat /etc/lilo.conf' and 'mount /mnt/floppy' command, it's OK. And i find out my HDA number is 6. So later on i try 'dd if=/dev/hda6 of=/mnt/floppy/linuxboot.sec BS=512 count=1' command, it fail. The error is 'No such files or Directory'. My doubt is, when i execute the 'dd ******' command, is it any space between them? Coz i try many times including with or without space, it just won't work! Can you guide me again, thanks a lot...

LM


:study:

.

Did you make sure that you mounted the floppy drive before you run the command:
'dd if=/dev/hda6 of=/mnt/floppy/linuxboot.sec bs=512 count=1'

Thanks linuxcool! I'm sure i have insert the floppy into the drive when i run the command. Also want to ask how to configure the
X Windows / X Server? Thanks..

LM:p

The thing linuxcool was asking was if you mounted your floppy disk.
Did you run the command mount /floppy or mount /mnt/floppy, I don't know which Mandrake use.
If you have the Gnome working you can mount your floppy by right clicking it's icon and select mount.

By doing this you tell linux that your floppy is inserted and ready to use. You also give it a branch in the filesystem so that you can access the files on the floppy. Before removing your floppy from drive be sure to unmount it or else you might loose data.

Thanks ugge! i have try the command already and can boot into Linux Caldera 2.4 UNIX prompt, but now i'm still thinking how to get into the X Windows.....

LM:confused:

First search the site for your question/situation then if you can't find an answer start a new thread on this question.