Hi,
You will probably need more windows knowledge than anything.

I want to multiboot:
1. Windows 98 (for a couple of old games that don't do network under xp (due to changes in the IPX/SPX driver))
2. Windows XP (because I am still stuck with microsoft- mainly for gaming) 3. Slackware
4. Mandrake
5. LFS
6. and possibly some other distro or bsd

I can probably do this without much difficulty (he says- almost there but already had to install win98, winxp and mandrake THREE times), but here are my problems:
1. I want to only have one bootloader
2. I want to use LILO (looks much nicer than MS bootloader, don't you think?)

Multibooting linux/bsd is easy using lilo. It is also easy to multiboot several versions of linux and one version of windows. But the problem arises when two versions of windows are involved.

Here is what I have done so far:
I made a primary partition (C: )(FAT32) and put windows 98 on it. I then made an extended partition (D: ) as FAT32, ran the XP setup, converted it to NTFS and installed XP on it. I have left a large space at the end of the drive for linux. Currently, the NT bootloader appears on startup and asks me whether I want winxp or win98. Both boot correctly. Before I install linux, replace the NT bootloader and find I can't boot one or both windows versions, does anybody know how to take over the function of the NT bootloader with LILO?

well, install 98 and XP, then linux, use Lilo in the MBR, and on subsequent installs tell it not to install a bootloader. and you end up with Lilo.

OR, don't install Lilo and consider this:
http://www.hk8.org/old_web/linux/lnut/ch04_04.htm

or just keep over writting the bootloader in the MBR (though that is almost certainly NOT a good idea).

Regardling your adventrues in partitioning world, i'd say that going beyond 4 partitions (of which one is probably a SWAP space) might be a bad idea. (that said i've had 7 partitions (3 primary, 4 logical) and all was well, techs blamed that for the Hard drive failing ... uhu ... sure, hard drives die because of partition tables, what a load of crap)

Eitherway, i'd suggest Windows on FAT32, for transparancy to linux and bsd.

have fun.

Thanks chakkerz, but overwriting the NT bootloader means I can't boot XP anymore, as I don't know how to get lilo to do it.

I decided to bite the bullet and install mandrake and LILO. What I now have is a lilo bootloader (in the MBR- where I want it) which gives me the choice of the three mandrake options and windows. When I select windows the NT bootloader (running off c: (hda1)) appears and asks me whether I want to load winxp or win98.

I know how to get rid of the NT bootloader and I know how to swap the bootloaders around (to make the NT bootloader come first with a linux option- selecting that will load LILO), but how do I make LILO load windows xp (on hda5) directly?

Here is my c:\boot.ini file:
[boot loader]
timeout=20
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Windows XP" /fastdetect
C:\="Windows 98"

Here is my lilo.conf:
boot=/dev/hda
map=/boot/map
default="Windows"
keytable=/boot/uk.klt
prompt
nowarn
timeout=100
message=/boot/message
menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="Mandrake"
root=/dev/hda7
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="devfs=mount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda6 splash=silent"
vga=773
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="linux-nonfb"
root=/dev/hda7
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="devfs=mount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda6"
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="failsafe"
root=/dev/hda7
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="failsafe acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda6 devfs=nomount"
read-only
other=/dev/hda1
label="Windows"
table=/dev/hda

My first idea was to add the following to my lilo.conf:
other=/dev/hda5
label="Winxp"
table=/dev/hda

That didn't work. Running /sbin/lilo produced the following error when adding the Winxp option: "Fatal: Partition entry not found."

So I tried making lilo load from the extended partition, rather than a logical drive in it (stupid really, but the NT loader refers to partition 2, so I thought: why not? I think the NT loader actually refers to the second logical drive (including primary partitions))- I changed /dev/hda5 to /dev/hda2 and tried again. Strangely, running /sbin/lilo actually worked! However, selecting the winxp option in lilo just blanks the screen.

I have noticed that the NT loader points to the windows directory on the second partition (hda5). Can I make lilo do this?

Surely it is possible to make lilo take over from the NT bootloader and boot each version of windows directly.

You might want to use grub instead- there was another thread about not being able to boot multiple versions of linux using lilo. If anybody's used lilo to but multiple versions of linux, let me know, and I'll cross post.

crazyeddie740,
YES! Me! Take a look at my lilo.conf. It shows multiple kernel images. The same principle can be used to boot the same kernel image with different options, different kernel images on the same partition and kernel images on different partitions (and therefore different distros). As I said in my other post, booting multiple versions of linux is incredibly easy, just add something like the following for each kernel image:

image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="Mandrake"
root=/dev/hda7
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="devfs=mount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda6 splash=silent"
vga=773
read-only



The original question still remains...
How do I boot XP (on hda5) directly using lilo?