The arrangement of partitions on hard drives using Win95 and Linux (whatever distribution) seems to be a problem for lots of people. I can't claim to be an expert, but I have one solution to the problem. This works with RedHat and SUSE. You'll need Partition Magic. If you don't have version 3.05, download the upgrade from their web site (it's free): <A HREF="http://www.powerquest.com"><A HREF="http://www.powerquest.com</A">http://www.powerquest.com. Use Partition Magic to setup your drive(s) as follows: |Boot Manager | Linux root / | Win95 | Logical drives | All of the Win95 partitions need to be in a chain. Thus, you will have Linux partitions at the beginning (after boot manager) and end of your drive, with Win95 stuff in the middle. Your root "/" linux partition must be in the first 2.0 GB section of the primary drive. Put it before Win95. The rest of the linux partitions, including the swap, will be at the end. You will have to figure out how much space to allocate, and how many partitions, depending on what you want to install. With Partition Magic it's easy to move things around. Don't be afraid to move the Win95 boot partition over to make room for Linux. Here's how my two drives are setup: Drive 0: | boot manager | Linux root | Windows95 Drive C | Drive 1: | Windows 95 Drive D | DOS mount | Linux /usr | Linux swap | I recommend setting up all the partitions as DOS partitions with Parition Magic. Make those you plan to use for Linux "hidden". Yast will find them. Go ahead and install the boot manager with only Windows 95. When you set up your drives in Linux with Yast, just change the properties of these existing partitions. I am using fat 32 for drives C and D, and fat 16 for the DOS mount partition I use to transfer files between systems. If you're using fat16 for everything, then the setup is a bit more complicated. You can only have four partitions in the special 2.0GB area of the first drive. Thus you will have: | boot manager | Linux root | Windows95 | Extended | you can then break up the Extended partition to however-many partitions you need. Remember that all the Win95 partitions go first, and the Linux partitions go after, at the end. It may sound counter-intuitive to arrange partitions this way. My natural inclination was to have each operating system in its own separate area. Unfortunately, this isn't possible. Both operating systems have to have their bootable partitions in the first 2.0GB space of the primary drive. And you have to have all the Win95 partitions on each drive in a single unbroken "chain". Thus by default, you have to put Linux at the beginning and end of the drive, with Win95 in the middle. When it's time to install LILO, you will have a choice of where to write. Do NOT let Yast write LILO to the MBR master boot record. Instead, write LILO to your Linux root partition "\", (which is in the first 2.0GB area of the first drive). Then, restart Partition Magic in DOS, and add the Linux boot partition to the boot manager menu. The two most frequent problems I've seen: Trying to put the bootable Linux root partition somewhere besides the beginning of the primary drive. Writing LILO information to the Master Boot Record. There are undoubtedly many ways to setup and configure a system, and someone may know of a better way than what I've outlined. Nevertheless, if you follow my directions you will be able to set up a dual boot system without destroying anything. Note that if you need to reinstall Win95 in the future, it will warn you and then overwrite your boot manager. This is not a problem. You can simply reinstall boot manager after the re-install is done. Alan Riggins -----Original Message----- From: owner-suse-linux-e@suse.com [<A HREF="mailto:owner-suse-linux-e@suse.com]On">mailto:owner-suse-linux-e@suse.com]On</A> Behalf Of Joseph Beaman Sent: Friday, June 26, 1998 5:51 PM To: suse-linux-e@suse.com Subject: RE: [S.u.S.E. Linux] thinking about suse Sure, I have windows 95 installed on the first partition of my hard drive. I am using partition magic 3.0, and it's boot manager is installed on the second partition. The third partition is my linux swap partition, and finally I have my linux native partition on the remainder of the drive. All of this is below 1024 cylinders, as LILO requires, but then I try to boot with Linux (SUSE), I get stuck at the L (in LILO). Now, I have no problems with Redhat with the same configuration, but with SUSE I have to use a boot disk to load. Joe
-----Original Message----- From: owner-suse-linux-e@suse.com [<A HREF="mailto:owner-suse-linux-e@suse.com]On">mailto:owner-suse-linux-e@suse.com]On</A> Behalf Of Ken Schuller Sent: Friday, June 26, 1998 5:19 PM To: suse-linux-e@suse.com Subject: Re: [S.u.S.E. Linux] thinking about suse
Joseph Beaman wrote:
SUSE is more readily configurable in terms of its Windows Managers, etc, but RedHat seems to have fewer difficulties coexisting with other operating systems (like Win95 or WinNT).
Care to elaborate? I haven't had any difficulties at all- I'm curious about what you're referring to.
Ken --
Ken Schuller
Network Systems Specialist
NovaNET Learning, Inc.
<hint> Take out the spam foil to reply via e-mail. </hint>
Incidentally, I speak for me. That's all. No one else.
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