Fw: [plug] Hard Drives

[david.buddrige at mitswa.com.au]

I just get lilo to boot wndows by default... can do this by moving windows
section to top of lilo.conf

cheers

David Buddrige
Software Engineer

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Matt Kemner [SMTP:zombie at networx.net.au]
> Sent:	Monday, June 28, 1999 9:50 AM
> To:	plug at linux.org.au
> Subject:	Re: Fw: [plug] Hard Drives
> 
> On Sat, 26 Jun 1999, Trevor Phillips wrote:
> 
> > An alternative that I use, is to use loadlin and boot Linux from "DOS".
> 
> I'm amazed there aren't more people using this :)
> 
> Especially when the reason for Windows is because you have other family
> members that use the computer, a config.sys menu is a much nicer interface
> for them than making them type "win" at the LILO prompt.
> 
> I've got this system set up at home
> 
> For those who are interested in setting something like this up, the steps
> are:
> 
> 1) Find yourself a copy of loadlin.exe and put it, along with a copy of
>    your kernel, on your FAT partition. (I use C:\LINUX, and call the
>    kernel vmlinuz)
> 2) Create a batch file eg linux.bat that contains:
> 
>    @echo off
>    C:\LINUX\LOADLIN C:\LINUX\VMLINUZ root=/dev/hda2 ro
> 
>    change the root= to point to your linux partition. The ro tells loadlin
>    to load the partition read only (required for fsck)
> 3) Edit your C:\MSDOS.SYS
>    You will need to make it non-system, non-hidden, non-readonly first
>    The steps are:
>    attrib -s -h -r msdos.sys
>    edit msdos.sys
>    attrib +s +h +r msdos.sys
>    You will want to change the line that says "BootGUI=1" -> change to 0.
>    This tells Windows to boot into DOS only.
> 4) Edit your C:\CONFIG.SYS so it looks like:
>    [MENU]
>    MENUITEM=Win, Windows
>    MENUITEM=Linux, Linux
>    MENUITEM=DOS, DOS Only
> 
>    [WIN]
>    DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS /testmem:off /v
>    DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS /v
>    DOS=HIGH,UMB
> 
>    [DOS]
>    DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS /testmem:off /v
>    DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS /v
>    SHELL=C:\COMMAND.COM C:\ /E:600 /P
>    DOS=HIGH,UMB
> 
>    [LINUX]
>    SHELL=C:\COMMAND.COM /C C:\LINUX\LINUX.BAT
> 
> 5) Edit your C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT to look like:
>    @echo off
>    if not %config% == WIN goto skip
>    C:\WINDOWS\WIN.COM
>    :skip
> 6) When you reboot, you should now get a menu giving you 3 options.
>    The first (WIN) will load into Windows, the second into Linux
>    and the third into DOS.
>    If you add the line:
>    MENUDEFAULT=LINUX, 60
>    To the [MENU] section (ie just below the MENUITEM lines) then if no
>    keys are pressed in 60 seconds, Linux will be loaded by default.
> 
> Another advantage of using this sytem, is that if you want to try out a
> new kernel, all you need to do is copy the new (b)zImage to C:\LINUX\NEW
> Then boot into DOS using the menu above, and run
> C:\LINUX\LOADLIN C:\LINUX\NEW root=/dev/hda2 ro
> 
> That way if it works, you can replace "vmlinuz" with "new" but if it
> doesn't, all you need to do is reboot and the system will boot straight
> back into your old kernel. (After choosing "Linux" that is :)
> 
>  - Matt