Dual boot without CD-ROM?

Forum: HD Install
Topic: Dual boot without CD-ROM?
started by: bigkahuna

Posted by bigkahuna on Jan. 12 2005,06:55

I've searched the past posts, and I must be missing something.

I've got an old notebook computer (pentium 133, 40mb ram, 2 gb hd currently running Windows 95) that I want to install DSL on. It has a removeable floppy/CD-ROM, but it is -not- hot swappable. It also will -not- boot from the CD-ROM. It also is not tied into any network, and I do not have another computer that I can swap hard drives with.

I also have another notebook that has separate CD-ROM and floppy that I can use to help setup the older system. I have successfully run DSL off the CD on this system, although I will not be installing it on this one.

My question is this: how do I setup the old computer to dual boot off the hard drive so I can then install DSL from CD?

I have DSL 0.9.2 on CD and downloaded "rawwritewin.exe". I've also downloaded the latest boot-0.8.0.img file.

Please keep your answer as simple as possible, as if you were talking to a complete idiot... 'cause when I comes to Linux, I'm afraid that's exactly what I am

Thanks,

Paul

Posted by bigkahuna on Jan. 12 2005,08:10

Well I think I kinda figured it out on my own. I tried a couple things I saw in past posts and darned if it didn't work!

Now I have to figure out how to get this system to dual boot off the hard drive so I can use the CD-ROM.

Any advice?

Paul

Posted by tjm4fun on Jan. 12 2005,11:10

you could install lilo on the harddisk, with default setting to the windows directory,
but I am not sure how you would configure it to boot DSL from the cd.
If you installed dsl to the hd, it would be a simple job to config lilo.

this lilo config file would work, after you modify the line root=/dev/hda8
to whatever hda number you installed dsl to. if you installed to disk,
you can (with root authority) edit the file /etc/lilo.conf to look like this:
(with out the ---------) just marking out the text. Also. check your /boot directory and verify that linux24 is your kernel. this is from the 8.2 dsl, so the kernel may have been renamed.
--------------------------------------------------------------
prompt
timeout=6000 #sets timeout before default is booted.
default=Windows # label to the default os
vga=791
boot=/dev/hda #install to the MBR

lba32

other=/dev/hda1
label=Windows

image=/boot/linux24 # verify that it is still linux24
label=DSL
root=/dev/hda8 # change this to the hda number of your install
read-only
----------------------------------------------------------------

After that, you will need to install lilo to the MBR. be sure you have a good w9x startup disk in case you need to back this off. (run it and use fdisk /mbr to restore the windows boot record) .
With the lilo.conf file in /etc, and still logged in as root (or su'd),
just type lilo. you should see 2 added messages and it should complete. next reboot should bring up the lilo boot loader and you will see a menu with windows and DSL as choices. selct your os, and away you go!
It's been a while, so I might have goofed up, but you may have to run lilo with the -M switch the first time. (lilo -M /dev/hda), to install it to the MBR.

Posted by bigkahuna on Jan. 12 2005,15:14

Thanks.

I probably goofed and got DSL running more by accident than anything else.

I created a boot disk on my newer system and copied the knoppix. file to a directory called c:/knoppix/. I didn't create a new partition, but it still seemed to work.

What I'll do today is clean up the old system's hard drive and create a new partition for DSL. It's got a 2 gb hard drive, so I'll probably create a 500 mb partition (I've got Partition Magic to help do this).

Sound right?

So do I then copy KNOPPIX. to this partition or?

Also, what is MBR? Member's Root?

Thanks,

Paul