Loadlin (Re: [plug] Mandrake 7.2 install hassles)

[Dennis Plester]

Thanks Matt.

I've sometimes wondered about loadlin in the past, as it overcomes Windows
annoying habit of overwriting the MBR too, doesn't it.

I'm will definitely give it a go. Thanks for the advice regarding the kernel
image too, as I've found that the initial install didn't put one in the
expected place either. I've since been checking the Mandrake 7.2 bug list,
and my problem has occurred with other users too.

If I have any problems, I might write back to you directly if that's OK.

Thanks again,

Dennis.


	-----Original Message-----
	From:	Matt Kemner [SMTP:zombie at wasp.net.au]
	Sent:	Friday, 10 November 2000 9:25
	To:	'plug'
	Subject:	Loadlin (Re: [plug] Mandrake 7.2 install hassles)

	On Thu, 9 Nov 2000, Dennis Plester wrote:

	> So as far as I know, I now have a Mandrake 7.2 system ready to
fire, but no
	> grub or LILO set up. Is there an easy way to get the install
bootloader
	> section to do its thing by itself without going through the
install again?
	> My system has Win98 in the primary partition

	The easiest way (IMO) would be to grab a kernel image and use
loadlin to
	boot from DOS straight into Linux

	In fact if you dual boot between win98 and Linux a lot you may find
it
	easier to set up a dual-boot menu using the menu facilities in
config.sys,
	which is a lot more userfriendly (to the uninitiated) than LILO

	First you convince win98 to boot into DOS rather than the GUI by
editing
	c:\msdos.sys and changing the line that says BootGUI=1 to 0

	Secondly you edit config.sys so it looks something like:

	-----------------cut here------------------------
	DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
	[MENU]
	MENUITEM=Win,Windows
	MENUITEM=Linux, Linux
	MENUITEM=DOS, DOS
	MENUDEFAULT=Linux,20

	[WIN]

	[LINUX]
	SHELL=C:\COMMAND.COM /C c:\linux\linux.bat

	[DOS]
	-----------------cut here------------------------

	Make sure you have a C:\COMMAND.COM
	You may need to change the SHELL= line so it points to whereever you
have
	a command.com

	Thirdly you edit autoexec.bat so it looks like:

	-----------------cut here------------------------
	@echo off

	if %config% == Win goto win
	goto end

	:win
	c:\windows\win
	:end
	-----------------cut here------------------------

	Fourthly, create a C:\Linux directory which contains loadlin.exe, a
kernel
	image (usually called vmlinuz) and a small batch file called
linux.bat
	which contains:

	-----------------cut here------------------------
	@echo off
	C:\Linux\loadlin C:\Linux\vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro
	-----------------cut here------------------------

	Change /dev/hda2 to your primary Linux partition.

	Then, if you reboot you should get a menu with 3 options, the first
of
	which will boot into Windows, the second runs the shell script that
calls
	loadlin, and boots into linux, and the third boots into the DOS
command
	prompt only.

	If you don't know where to find loadlin (should come on your Linux
CD) it
	can be downloaded from most Debian mirrors, or from my FTP site
	(ftp://live.wasp.net.au/pub/linux/loadlin/)

	You should be able to find a kernel on your install CD

	 - Matt