Win4Lin User's Guide

When to Load the Windows CD

The Windows 95 or 98 CD needs to be loaded only once on your system. What this does is copy the Windows installation files onto your hard disk so you can later install Windows without requiring the CD again. This step also automatically installs MS-DOS from the Windows installation files. So this is the first step you must do in order to use DOS or install Windows.

If the Windows CD is already loaded

To protect against accidental reloading of the CD, if the Windows CD has already been loaded, you have to do a special step to do a re-load. If the GUI has "reload" check box, then you need to select it. If the GUI does not have such a check box, then from a Linux command line, you can execute the command:
	unloadwindowsCD
This command removes all the loaded Windows files so you can do a new, fresh load from a Windows CD.

Normally you have to be logged as root to load or re-load the Windows CD. Note, instead of logging in as root, you can use the command "su -".

Warning:

Warning:

Supported versions of Windows

Win4Lin supports the following versions of Windows:

Win4Lin does not support the following:

For Windows 95 you must also supply a matching Windows 95 boot floppy (also known as a Windows Startup Disk).  If you have a bootable Windows 98 CDROM, you do not need a boot floppy.  If you do not have a bootable Windows 98 CD, you must supply a Windows 98 boot floppy.

Notes about using a "Windows 95 to Windows 98 Upgrade" CD:
The "Windows 95 to Windows 98 Upgrade" CD is not bootable, so you have to supply a matching Windows 95 or a Windows 98 boot floppy. To be able to install Windows after loading this upgrade CD, you must have a qualifying Windows 95 installation CD to complete each installation process.

If you have a computer running the same version of Windows that you want to load into Win4Lin it is easy to create a boot floppy. Follow these steps to create a Windows boot floppy from Windows:

  1. Double click on "My Computer".
  2. Double click on "Control Panel".
  3. Double click on "Add/Remove Programs".
  4. Click on the "Startup Disk" tab.
  5. Insert a floppy in the drive.
  6. Click the "Create Disk" button, and follow the instructions.
If you do not have a Windows boot floppy or your machine does not have a floppy drive, you can use an "image" file of a boot floppy that has been created on another Linux machine. On the other Linux machine, this is done by using the "dd" command to copy the entire floppy contents into a Linux file. For example if the Linux device for the floppy is "/dev/floppy" and you are copying the contents to the file "floppy.copy", you would use the command:
	dd if=/dev/floppy of=floppy.copy
Copy this floppy image file to the machine that you are loading the Windows CD on. The installation procedure will prompt you to type in the name of this file.

Loading the CD

Follow these steps to load the Windows CD:

  1. Click on the appropriate radio button to specify where to load the Windows installation files are to be loaded from. You have two choices:

  2. If you choose to load from a CD-ROM device, insert your Windows CD into the drive and select the appropriate CD-ROM device from the drop-down list.

    If your CD-ROM device is not listed, you can choose Other. A type-in box will then appear, and you and can either type the Linux device name or use the Browse button to find it.

    If your Windows CD is mounted in a Linux directory either on a local or a remote machine, you can choose to install from that directory. Type in the full path name for this directory in the From Directory text box or use the Browse button to search for it.

  3. Click Load to start the loading of the Windows installation files. When you must supply a boot floppy you will be asked if you have a Windows boot floppy. If you do, then insert the floppy in the "A" drive, answer 'y' and then follow the prompts. If you do not have a floppy, answer 'n', and when prompted type in the filename of the boot floppy image file that you have previously prepared. (See the instructions above.)

The whole process should not take more than a few minutes. If you see no activity for a minute then some problem has happened, and you should cancel the loading buy pressing control-c in the window or killing the window if that does not work. Sometimes if the Windows boot floppy does not match the Windows CD, then the loading can fail. Or it could be an intermittent problem (such as errors reading the CD). So retrying might get the load to work.