linux installation dual boot win98
 

hi, please explain to me in detail how to install,partation etc.
this is with regard to red hat linux 9

please try searching this site, this is asked an awful lot, and is a simple question to resolve.

also moved to correct forum: linux - newbie

Short answer - do a search on this site. There are many threads that will help you out significantly.

Somewhat longer answer - Install 98 SE first. Install RH to the extended partion. Don't worry about the partitioning of the linux install (/, /home, /usr) because even if everything goes perfect, you will probebly re-install at some point as you learn the OS and discover your prefs, needs, etc.

If what I just said confuses you - READ

You can repartion with Partition Magic. PM8 will allow you to format a partition as ext3 and RH will recognize the linux partition and ask to overwrite it during install. PM8 does not support reiserfs.

Sorry to RTFM you, but there's alot here.

Too slow :D

easiest option-> get hold of partition magic..get it free ;-) from click-now.net..then create a linux-type partition of at least 5gb..then pop in the linux cd 1,boot from it and the installation shud start..during install, choose default options when ure unsure...works every time! spread the linux creed in india!

Hi Manju_yl

Don't worry - its easy to dual boot Win98se and ReD HAT 9. First install Win98 making sure you leave free space at the end of your hard-drive for Red Hat - so if you've got say a 40 gig drive install Win98 FIRST - this is important so it needs saying again - make sure you install Win98 FIRST - because otherwise if you installed it second the Win98 bootloader would overwrite the Red Hat one and you wouldnt be able to boot into Red Hat - you'll need to use the dos program FDISK to manually partition for Win98 to enable you to partition just say half the drive for Win98 ( or powerquests Partition mAGIC) - once youve succesfully partitioned say half of your drive with FDISK and installed Win98 - then make sure you set your BIOS to boot from the CD ROM drive ready for installing Red Hat 9 - so alls you do to install ReD hAT 9 after Win98 is just stick your Red Hat cd in the drive and boot up - you'll be taken through some easy menus for things like what language you want to use to install,what your mouse type etc etc etc - it automatically detects/selects the most obvious - its all easy stuff, you shouldn't have a problem with this - you'll then come to a point were it says - where do you want to install Red Hat - CHOOSE FREE SPACE - ie you want to install Red Hat on the free space left over on your drive - it will then ask you - how do you want to partition your drive for the Red Hat install - it will give you two choices: either Automatically or Manuaully - CHOOSE AUTOMATIC partitioning - Red Hat will simply partiton the free space it finds ie if you have a 40 gig drive with Win98 on the first 20 gigs then Red hAT will automatically partition the second 20 gigs for you - then it will ask you : where do you want to install your bootlaoder - just click on the install in the MBR option - Then simply choose what programs you want Red Hat to install - ie do you want it office based or server based etc - just choose the basic install for starters - you can always redo all this at a later date if you want anything fancy installed -after youve chose your packages to install then Red Hat will simply install itself to the second 20 gigs and your in buisness - once its finished just reboot - reset your bios to boot from the hard drive and boot up - you will see the GRUB bootloader menu come up which gives you the choice of going into either Win98 or Red Hat - click on what you want and your away.

If thers any other questions or scenarios you want to mention, feel free,

Good luck with Linux and be patient with it - Skyline

Hi skyline,

thanks very much, for the reply and your suggestions. I have some doubts, I don't want 20 GB for linux, since i have 10 GB primary as win98, out of remaining 30GB, i would like to do logical partations on win98 ie say, 10GB for D drive,10GB for E drive, the remaining 10 for Linux. So should i do the logical partations first on the win98 and then switch on to linux for first i should install the linux and then do the logical partations on win98.

bye

manju

i say that the way to do it is windows first, then linux (as stated). the fdisk program w/ windows will only create 1 primary partition, so you really need to make a primary partition for linux as well. perhaps aefdisk 2.0, or cfdisk** to define the partitions first, then install windows to the first partition, and create mount points in the second primary partition. cfdisk, aefdisk and linux fdisk can be a challenge for the uninitiated.

general idea is to create a second primary partition for linux (i had error statements about installing linux to an extended partition).

other idea is to keep the os partitions somewhat small, so that they fit within the first 8gig (1024cyl- different cylinder definitions???). past the 8gig mark might need to be selecting a "force lba" option to be able to get the linux partition to boot. just something to consider in laying out your hdd, and is an option to make the boot possible.

** not really sure just what type of partition has to be selected to get fat16, or fat32. i think if set up in linux as vfat, it will actually be fat16. i think aefdisk 2.0 it is called "big dos" for fat32, but i'm not sure. more to learn- and i still need to learn linux commands!!! but then knowing as much as possible in hdd prep, and being versatile w/ those partition utilities is a good thing. all the hours, and all the variables encountered. ask a question, and get a reply like it's been asked before- wtf!?!

one thing though, windows won't see the linux partitions, so there won't be any drive letters for the linux partitions.

general idea is to create os partitions w/ a multiboot config, and storage partitions that the os's will use. a fat32 partition is ok for linux iso downloads as well. depends what you want to do w/ the os's. if experimentation w/ linux, then a smaller size for linux will suffice.

Hi manju_yl

I can't see a problem in principle with your 40 gig drive partitioned with 30 gigs for Win98 and 10 gigs for linux - your 30 gigs win98 would be 10 gig primary then a 20 gig extended partition and in that extented partition you would have 2 logical dos drives namely your "D" drive and "E" drives. When I origianlly thought of trying Red Hat 9 my drive only had Win98se on it in a similar setup to yours - I had c primary then 3 logical dos drives in the extended partition namely d,e,f - I just took the view that for starters with Linux I would keep it simple so I changed my Win98se set up to just having a c primary partition because I didnt want to cause any potential complications with the Red Hat install - that was just my initial take on matters, but again I don't see any problem in principle with a Win98 c,d,e in 30g and a 10g Linux on the end. The important thing first is to make sure youve set up your Win98 partitions right, and that thers definately 10 gigs left at the end of your drive - the second important point is that you must install Win98 FIRST for the simple reason that if you installed win98 second then the Win98 bootloader would overide the Red Hat boot loader in the MBR and then when you came to reboot up you would only be able to boot into Windows - so again , install Win98 FIRST and Red Hat SECOND - The third important point is that when you are in the middle of installing Red Hat it will say "Where do you want to install Red Hat" just click on the option "FREE SPACE" then Red Hat will install on the final 10 gigs of your drive - remember , you can always fall back on the "easy" way of dual booting Win 98se and Red Hat 9 namely just a c primary partition say 30 gigs and a 10 gig Linux partition if by any freak chance that you have problems with the multiple Win98 partitions and Red Hat- I dont think you will have problems but its there just in case.

Skyline

linux-win98 dual boot
 

I set up my computer to dual boot with win98 and linux. I did all the things that are mentioned in the bulletins here. When I reboot and choose linix from the menu, it works fine, when i choose win98 I get an error msg:
rootnoverify(hd1,0)
chainloader +1
Invalid Systemdisk

I installed win98 first, and made sure it's working fine. I then installed Linux (Red Hat 7.3). I specified to have the boot loader in the MBR. I had a smooth install but when the system rebooted I was not able to go to win98 anymore.

can anyone help me.

I can be contacted at rickym1@hotmail.com

thanks

ricky, boot into redhat, and make a boot disk. reboot, and w/ a win98se boot disk ( get one here if you didn't make one ), boot up after win98se start up/ boot disk loads type in fdisk /mbr <enter> this should remove the boot loader from the mbr, and if your lucky, win98 will boot up. use the redhat linux boot disk that you made to boot back into your redhat partition. if you retry placing the boot loader in the mbr (probably dev/hda) and it doesn't work, then you can reboot w/ the win98se boot disk to redo the fdisk /mbr routine to remove the boot loader.

if this doesn't work, please say so.

Hi Len,

I did not try this solutin since I found a much easier one.
All I had to do is edit the [B]grub.conf[B] file and change [Brootnoverify(hd1,0)[B] to [B]rootnoverify(hd0,0)[B].

Now I can dual boot, into win98 or red hat 7.3

Thanks for your help

-R

ricky, it's good to see that you've got it figured out. :)

second is [/b] for bold