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!!)
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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.
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Stuff to make the lawyers happy:
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Updates from v1.0:
* Updated my e-mail address. My address has changed from
r3mdh@dax.cc.uakron.edu to r3mdh@imperium.net.
____________________________________________________________________________
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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