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- The Linux DOS-Win95-OS2-Linux Mini-HOWTO
- Mike Harlan, r3mdh@imperium.net
- v1.3, 23 JUL 1997
-
- (Many changes since v1.2, 21 JUN 1996!!)
-
- ____________________________________________________________________________
- _
- Disclaimer: Any damages inflicted on any machine by you as a result of
- your reading of this HOWTO is still YOUR FAULT. When you
- read
- about deleting partitions and formatting disks, be smart.
- Realize that doing any of the above will result in loss of
- data.
- So, BACKUP SOON, BACKUP OFTEN. This is your second-to-the-last
-
- warning.
- ============================================================================
- =
-
- Stuff to make the lawyers happy:
-
- Unless otherwise stated, Linux HOWTO documents are copyrighted by their
- respective authors. Linux HOWTO documents may be reproduced and
- distributed
- in whole or in part, in any medium physical or electronic, as long as this
- copyright notice is retained on all copies. Commercial redistribution
- is allowed and encouraged; however, the author would like to be notified
- of
- any such distributions.
-
- All translations, derivative works, or aggregate works incorporating Linux
- HOWTO documents must be covered under this copyright notice. That is, you
- may not produce a derivative work from a HOWTO and impose additional
- restrictions on its distribution. Exceptions to these rules may be
- granted
- under certain conditions; please contact the Linux HOWTO coordinator at
- the
- address given below.
-
- In short, we wish to promote dissemination of this information through as
- many channels as possible. However, we do wish to retain copyright on the
- HOWTO documents, and would like to be notified of any plans to
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- the HOWTOs.
-
- If you have any questions, please contact Greg Hankins, the Linux HOWTO
- coordinator, at gregh@sunsite.unc.edu</a> via email, or at +1 404 853
- 9989.
- ____________________________________________________________________________
- _
-
- Updates from v1.0:
-
- * Updated my e-mail address. My address has changed from
- r3mdh@dax.cc.uakron.edu to r3mdh@imperium.net.
-
- ____________________________________________________________________________
- _
-
-
-
- Now................. on with the show!
-
-
- After many days of struggle and frustration, I finally figured out how to
- accomplish what I wanted. I have a 1.2GB HD and 16MB RAM PC. I wanted to
- have 4 operating systems on my system: MSDOS v6.22, Windows 95, OS/2, and
- Linux. Until now, I have found no Linux HOWTO to perform the task of
- getting
- each and every one of these operating systems on one machine and still
- have
- the ability to boot each (it is possible to write the OSs to different
- partitions, but getting them to boot and not hang at the "Starting MSDOS"
- message, for example, is something that I had to figure out. Well, after
- much trial and error, I have come up with the following recipe to perform
- this feat:
-
-
- Before I begin going through the procedure step-by-step, let me first clue
- you in on what I eventually wish to accomplish:
-
-
- <NAME> <SIZE> <LABEL> <PARTITION NUMBER>
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------
- MSDOS v6.22 11MB P1 Primary Partition 1
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------
- Windows '95 350MB P2 Primary Partition 2
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------
- OS/2 Boot Manager 2MB P3 Primary Partition 3
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------
- DOS/Win Data 511MB E1 Primary Partition 4
- OS/2 Warp 3.0 127MB E2 Extended into 4 logical
- Linux Slakware 3.2 Swap XMB E3 drives (sub-partitions)
- Linux Slakware 3.2 Native 219-XMB E4 labeled E1-E4
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
- What does all of this mean? Well, let me talk you through it. First,
- we need to use up all 4 partitions on our 1 harddrive. Partitions 1
- through 3 are PRIMARY partitions. We will store MSDOS, Win95 and the OS/2
- Boot Manager (which inefficiently requires its OWN partition) on these
- partitions, respectively. We then have 1 partition left. But, we want
- to have a drive just for DOS/Win95 data (this gives us a large place to
- dump all of those ZIP files we so often download from the Internet as well
- as a place to store Win95 programs and data that we don't have enough
- room for on the Win95 partition), OS/2, and Linux (both a Linux native
- as well as Linux swap partition).
-
- Now, I've been getting a lot of grief through e-mail lately about why
- I have a separate partition for Win95 and one for DOS and one for
- Win95/DOS data. Here's my answer: having separate Win95 and DOS
- partitions isn't for everyone. Perhaps you don't even use DOS anymore.
- Perhaps Windows '95 is your answer for any software written for a
- Microsoft
- platform. Well, there are some people out there who still use DOS and
- can't live without it. Whether it's because DOS can run 16-bit
- applications
- faster and more efficient, or because the certain DOS program that you
- may use won't run under a Windows environment (the Gravis Ultrasound
- soundcard setup program comes to mind), you simply MUST be able to boot
- into DOS from time to time. This HOWTO was written with those people
- in mind. If you still have difficulty swallowing the fact that the word
- "MSDOS" is included in this HOWTO, then feel free to sit down and write
- a Linux-Win95-OS/2-only HOWTO. :)
-
- Now, back to the diagram above. Like I said, we have 1 partition to cram
- 4 things onto: DOS/Win data, OS/2, and Linux native & swap. This can
- be done by creating what are called logical drives (or logical partitions,
- depending on which book you read) within the 1 primary partition. When
- we create these logical drives within a primary partition, we refer to
- this primary partition as an EXTENDED PARTITION (because it is extended
- beyond the scope of a single, primary partition and instead contains
- up to 3 subpartitions (logical drives)). Confused? If so, you might want
- to read the OS/2 manual about this topic. It will explain it better than
- I have here.
-
- Now, you might be scratching your head saying "he wants to cram 4 things
- onto that extended partition, but he just got done saying we can only have
- 3 subpartitions to put them on!" This is true, at least in MS-DOS's and
- OS/2's reasoning. But, here one of the many powerful advantages to Linux
- comes to save the day. Linux can create more than 3 subpartitions on an
- extended drive. Just how many, I don't know. But, I know it can create
- at LEAST 4 (what we need). So, when we go through the steps of the
- installation procedure below, keep in mind that when we create partitions
- using an MSDOS or OS/2 program, we will only create 3 logical drives.
- Then, when we go to Linux, we will split one of them into two.
- Essentially,
- you can think of it as "tricking" MSDOS and OS/2 into seeing only 3
- logical
- drives, but in reality (and to Linux), there will be 4.
-
- Now, let's move on to the step-by-step procedure:
-
-
-
- NOTE: Numbers in parentheses were the number of megabytes that I used on
- my
- 1.2GB harddrive.
-
- 1. Run view.exe on the Linux Slakware CD and create the Linux Boot and
- Linux Root floppies. For some reason, the Linux bootstrap program
- calls the Root disk the Ramdisk floppy. I'll refer to this disk from
- now on as the Ramdisk (Root) floppy.
- 2. Backup any information that you wish to keep to tape (or whatever
- media
- you have available to you).
- 3. Boot your original MSDOS installation floppy, disk 1.
- 4. When "Starting MSDOS" appears, press F5 to bypass config.sys and
- autoexec.bat.
- 5. Run a:\fdisk.exe.
- 6. Delete all partitions (you have been warned: DELETING / MODIFYING OF
- ANY
- PARTITION WILL RESULT IN THE LOSS OF ALL DATA ON THE DISK!).
- 7. Add an MSDOS primary partition. (11MB)
- 8. Format this partition.
- 9. Run a:\setup.exe to install MSDOS on this partition.
- 10. Boot OS/2.
- 11. Select Advanced installation.
- 12. Run FDISK (this will eventually popup for you if you run through the
- OS/2 installation.
- 13. Add 1 primary partition after the MSDOS one. This will become our
- Windows 95 partition. (349MB)
- 14. Add the Boot Manager to the next primary partition. (2MB)
- 15. Add an extended partition.
- 16. Add a logical drive to the extended partition. This will become the
- data portion of our MSDOS system. (511MB)
- 17. Add another logical drive to the extended partition. This will become
- our OS/2 HPFS (High Performance File System) partition. (127MB)
- 18. Add 1 last logical drive to the extended partition using the remaining
-
- space on the drive. This will later become 2 partitions under
- Linux -- our swap partition and our native Linux partition. But,
- since OS/2 (and DOS as well) can only write up to 6 partitions per
- drive (3 primary and 3 logical drives housed within 1 extended
- partition), we have to create only one at this time. And we DO have
- to create this partition. Don't leave this as free space and expect
- Linux to be able to create the two partitions. Due to the way that
- OS/2's FDISK works, where you add your last logical drive to the
- extended partition marks the END of the extended partition. You
- cannot add partitions beyond this point. So, in other words,
- creating this one last logical drive serves as a space-filler for
- Linux. Later we will delete this partition and add 2 new ones in the
- space that it once took up.
- 19. Add partitions 1, 2, and 5 to the Boot Manager.
- 20. Make partition 5 installable.
-
- Your FDISK screen should now look like this (or something like this):
-
-
-
- FDISK
-
- Disk 1
- ___________________________________________________________________________
-
- Partition Information
- Name Status Access FS Type MBytes
- ___________________________________________________________________________
-
- MSDOS Bootable C: Primary FAT 11
- WIN 95 Bootable : Primary FAT 350
- Startable : Primary BOOT MANAGER 2
- None D: Logical Unformatted 511
- OS/2 Installable E: Logical FAT 127
- None F: Logical Unformatted 219
-
-
-
- 21. Continue on with the OS/2 installation process.
- 22. Reboot and select partition 2 (Windows 95) from the Boot Manager.
- 23. When the missing operating system error pops up, boot your MSDOS
- installation disk. We selected this partition in order to "hide" the
- MSDOS partition. OS/2's Boot Manager is a bit strange. For every
- bootable partition you have (in our case, MSDOS and OS/2), you can
- have only one of them visible at a time. What this means is that if
- you boot into one partition, MSDOS for example, the other partition
- (Win95) is invisible. The MSDOS partition and Win95 essentially SHARE
- a drive letter. That's why under "Access" above, MSDOS has drive
- letter C and Win95 has no drive letter. Under the current
- circumstances, MSDOS is visible with drive letter C and Win95 is
- invisible with no drive letter. If we were to boot Win95, the
- opposite
- would be true: MSDOS would be invisible with no drive letter and Win95
- would be visible with drive letter C. **An invisible drive cannot
- be accessed AT ALL.** If you wish to copy files between two drives
- in which only one can be visible at one time, you must use a common
- (non-bootable) drive to swap files. In our case, the DOS/Win95 Data
- drive (drive D 511MB above) will serve as this common drive. You
- might be asking "Won't we eventually be booting Linux also?" The
- answer is yes, we will. But let's not get into that just yet.
- 24. Install MSDOS to Partition 2 (we'll need this in order to install
- Windows 95).
- 25. Boot Partition 2.
- 26. Install Windows 95 to this partition (if you are running the upgrade
- version of Win95, you may need to have your Win3.1 installation disk 1
- ready to insert).
- 27. Boot Partition 1.
- 28. Format Partition 4.
- 29. Restore DOS data from tape (if any) to partitions 1 and 4.
- 30. Boot the Linux Boot Floppy.
- 31. Follow up with the Linux Ramdisk (Root) floppy.
- 32. When you log in as root and get to the # prompt, type "fdisk" and
- press
- enter.
- 33. Delete the last partition (the one we created in step 18).
- 34. Add 1 16MB partition and tag it as filesystem type Linux Swap. (17MB)
- 35. Add 1 last partition with the remaining cylinders on the disk and tag
- this as filesystem type Linux native. (198MB)
- 36. Write the changes to the boot sector and reboot.
- 37. When you get to the # prompt again, run setup.
- 38. Install Linux to the last partition.
- 39. When you install LILO, be sure to install it to the root of the last
- partition (NOT to the MBR, as you will destroy all of your previous
- work in this HOWTO if you do so). Add only the last partition to
- LILO and set the timer to zero. By doing this, when you select Linux
- from the OS/2 Boot Manager, LILO will activate and will then boot
- Linux from the logical drive on the extended partition. Since Linux
- is the only partition that we wish to activate from LILO, we don't
- need a timer on it (unless you have more than one Kernel that you
- wish to load. In this case, you may want to set the timer to
- something more than 0 seconds).
- 40. Activate the Linux swap partition (refer to the Linux Installation
- and Getting Started Manual by Matt Welsh for this).
- 41. Boot OS/2.
- 42. Run FDISK.
- 43. Add Linux to the Boot Manager using the Linux NATIVE partition (type
- 83 not 82!).
-
- Your FDISK screen should now look like this (or something like this):
-
-
-
- FDISK
-
- Disk 1
- ___________________________________________________________________________
-
- Partition Information
- Name Status Access FS Type MBytes
- ___________________________________________________________________________
-
- MSDOS Bootable C: Primary FAT 11
- WIN 95 Bootable : Primary FAT 350
- Startable : Primary BOOT MANAGER 2
- None D: Logical FAT 511
- OS/2 Bootable E: Logical HPFS 127
- None : Logical Type 82 17
- Linux Bootable : Logical Type 83 198
-
-
-
- ...And you're done!
-
-
-
- Send any comments/suggestions/problems (as a last resort, please!) to me
- at
- r3mdh@imperium.net.
-
-
- Mike Harlan
- 23 JUL 1997
-