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
- You can re-load the Windows CD if you suspect that Windows
installation files and the installed DOS files were deleted or corrupted.
- You can re-load the Windows CD if a previous load failed.
- You can re-load the Windows CD if you would like to use a different
version of Windows than the one currently installed.
Note that re-loading the Windows CD also reinstalls the MS-DOS from the CD.
If the new version of MS-DOS is not compatible with the previous Windows,
then already installed Windows instances will not work anymore!
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:
If you do not use the "-" parameter of the su command
it can result in Win4Lin related
files being created in your own home directory that are owned by root.
In this case, when you try to start DOS or Windows it can
result in warning messages or failure to start.
So when using the su command before using Win4Lin
you MUST use the "-" option.
Warning:
Each of the various versions of Windows include an MS-DOS which is
generally NOT compatible with other versions of Windows.
So if you re-load the Windows CD, and users already have Windows installed,
to be safe you should make sure you are re-loading the same version as before.
Supported versions of Windows
Win4Lin supports the following versions of Windows:
- Windows 95 "classic" (aka "retail")
- Windows 95 OSR2
- Windows 98
- Windows 98 second edition.
- Windows 95 to Windows 98 Upgrade CD
Win4Lin does not support the following:
- Installation from a Windows "Companion" CD is not supported.
- Installation from a pre-installed native partition is not supported.
- Upgrading existing installation of Windows 95 to Windows 98
is not supported.
- Other Windows "upgrades" may not work.
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:
- Double click on "My Computer".
- Double click on "Control Panel".
- Double click on "Add/Remove Programs".
- Click on the "Startup Disk" tab.
- Insert a floppy in the drive.
- 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:
- Click on the appropriate radio button to specify where to load
the Windows installation files are to be loaded from.
You have two choices:
- Load from CD-ROM device
- Load from a directory
- 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.
- 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.