Dual booting Windows 98se and Slax
 

Hello, i'm a windows 98se user, and a real newbie to Linux. I was impressed with the 3DLG ( 3D looking glass) desktop that was used with a Slax distro that came on a DVD from a British magazine, and would like to more permanently install it on a partition of a hard drive where win98se is already installed as the primary OS. This Slax version is a live CD version, that's fully bootable from the CD.

How do i install this version of Slax with the 3DLG desktop to a partition of the hard drive (G)? Although i am comfortable installing windows from scratch, yet i know virtually nothing about Linux, so please keep instructions as simple as possible. Thanks, Andrew

This is the way I've always done dual boot:

install Windows FIRST, during the install partition the hard drive. Say you want to use 50% for Windows and 50% for linux, create a partition for Win that's 50% of the total size and leave the rest as unpartitioned space.

Once Windows is installed then boot off the linux OS cd/dvd and during the install (if its the same as the distros I've used) you will be asked what to do with the partitions on the system. You can either choose remove all linux partitions, or leave partitions intact and use existing free space. This will leave Win untouched, and Grub will autodetect the dual OS.

If you install Linux first, Win tends to bugger up the dual boot.

Slax uses lilo, not grub. It's based on Slackware, so you might not get a wizzy installer. I'm not sure. With Slackware you need to partition the disk manually. Here's a link to the slax documentation. http://slax.linux-live.org/documentation.php

Thanks for the quick responses!

First, windows is already installed on drive C. I want to install Slax
on drive G (this is one hard drive with six partitions, C-H). The hard drive is already partitioned, so i don't need to
do any more partitioning. As for when i boot Slax from the CD, there are no options that i can see that would allow for any kind of slax installation, or any kind of partitioning, in the first few seconds of the booting operation. As for LILO, i don't know what it is, and can't find it in slax once slax is loaded. I've clicked every icon, and looked in every folder, but no lilo. I copied the slax cd to drive G, but this didn't accomplish anything: no dual boot. I did read another post that mentioned GAG (small multiboot manager progrsm), so i downloaded it, but will it work? Is it the best way to do this? Thanks, Andrew

Sorry, i forgot to answer one point simcox1 mentioned: i have already looked at the slax documentation, and specifically in that documantation, the section about using lilo to install slax to a HD. It states that if windows is installed on the HD (say drive C) and if the Slax files are all copied to a folder called 'slax' on another HD partition (say drive G in my case), then all i have to do is boot slax ( whether from the cd or the HD, it doesn't say, but i assume from the CD) and edit my /etc/lilo.conf to look like an example listed in that documentation, which i'm not going to reproduce here. Here's where i'm at a loss: how do you edit that file, and where do you find it? I looked for the /etc/lilo.conf file (or whatever it is) after having booted slax and can't find it anywhere. Also, i figure i need an editing program, but the documentation neither mentions this nor indicates how to find that .conf file. I did correspond with Tomas M. about this, but he basically repeated what the documentation already stated, then he directed me here. Comment: the documentation is NOT for newbies. It assumes one has some working knowledge of slax. I recommend it to be changed, and made MUCH simpler. Even Microsoft tells you step by step how to go into the registry and make changes there to correct a problem/error. That's what i'm asking for: how do i dual boot slax (with the 3DLG desktop) with windows98 already installed, step by step.
Thanks, Andrew

Is anyone out there? Have i broken a forum rule?

I haven't had any further replies....i do want to install
slax along side of windows98, and learn about linux along the way,
but i need someone's instructions on how to do this, since the
slax website's instructions do not explain how to do it.

Can anyone please tell me how to install slax to my hard drive?

Thanks,

Andrew

According to the documentation you just copy it. Then edit lilo.

Here's what I understand you need to do. You've already set up your partitions. The slax documentation assumes you've got a fat32 file system. So firstly copy the entire cd onto the partition you've set aside. Then, using a text editor, make any necessary changes to /etc/lilo.conf. View the current lilo.conf by typing cat /etc/lilo.conf from within slax. (You may not have one yet). I think slax comes with kde as the desktop, so you should have either kwrite, kedit, and/or kate, which are text editors. Use one of them to get lilo.conf right. eg
kwrite /etc/lilo.conf will launch lilo.conf in that editor. Once you've done your editing (see the slax docs for help), type the command slax gives. ie lilo -m /mnt/hda2/SLAX/slax.map -S /dev/null .

According to the slax docs, that will install lilo to the mbr, allowing you to boot windows or slax. The important thing of course is to get lilo.conf right.

Post back with any questions.

Dual booting Slax and Windows98se
 

Thanks for your help, Simcox1! I'll try this tonight.

However, the version of Slax i have has the 3D Looking
Glass (for short, 3DLG) desktop, so it may not have the editors you mentioned.

I look forward to having an alternative to windows, and
perhaps even converting fully to Linux.

I'll post how it goes later...


Andrew

Using Slax from HD
 

How did it go drewinabox?

There are a lot of posts about this subject on the Slax forum, where I believe you will get the answers you need.. http://slax.linux-live.org/forum/index.php

All the best

If you run Slax as a Live CD you can use its cfdisk program to create two partitions off the unallocated space in your hard disk. Say one 5Gb for slax and another 1 Gb for Swap. It is a good practice to reboot after creation of new partitions.

You can then run Slax installer, nominate the partition for installation.

Slax and every member of its family can only put Lilo in MBR so go for it.

Slax should arrange everything including booting Windows automatically. If it doesn't it is a trivial task to make Lilo to dual boot. The installation should take no more than 15 minutes.