[ltp] Re: multi booting Linux, NT4, and DOS/Win98

[Michael B. Haynie]

IIRC, I only had to install the linux MBR, and edit lilo.conf. 

The system started life with NT and a crufty version of System Commander
already installed. I used PartitionMagic to shrink the NTFS partition
from 8GB to 2GB (being generous to NT, for no really good reason :),
then installed RH6.1 in the usual way, allowing it to install its own
boot loader in the MBR. I then made the changes you see below to
lilo.conf. I have made similar changes to an origonally NT only system
on one disk, and one with dual disks, with only slight changes, all in
lilo.conf

The most important part is the change-rules section, which tricks NT
into thinking that its partition is the only one there. The other=
section labled NT uses the new NT rule to accomplish this. The other=
section labeled DOS will boot DOS on an old system commander partition
which I could not get to work after hacking on it for several days, but
it provides an example of how to boot a DOS/Win98 partition.

The file below is for my desktop system which is a vanila Intel board. I
think that the info below should work fine for a TP as well, since there
is no hardware specific information other than partition/device names. I
did read the various HOWTOs and mini-HOWTOs along the way to figuring
this out, along with the lilo documentation. It only took 2 days to work
it out :-/

Lilo is really pretty clever, once you figure out the right incantation
<g>.

HTH

---/etc/lilo.conf-------->8---------------
boot=/dev/hda
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
prompt
timeout=50
default=linux

change-rules
  type=NT
    normal=0x7
    hidden=0x17

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.12-20
	label=linux
	initrd=/boot/initrd-2.2.12-20.img
	read-only
	root=/dev/hda5

other=/dev/hda2
	label=dos

other=/dev/hda1
	label=nt
	change
	  partition=/dev/hda1
	  set=NT_normal
------------>8------------

Harry Mangalam wrote:
> 
> I've only had experience (mostly bad) with NT4; none with Win2K.  It may
> have been that I was just infinitely thick, but after reading the
> aforementioned "booting with NT" mini-howto and trying a few times to do it
> the right (lilo on hda), I finally had to allow NT to boot linux via lilo
> on hda3, the linux partition.
> 
> I was under the constraint that NT was already loaded and I didn't want to
> re-install NT after Linux.
> 
> Would welcome pointers to doing it the right way.
> 
> hjm
> 


--Michael

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress
depends on the unreasonable man."
                          - George Bernard Shaw
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