[I Fix 4 U]

Sorry about the duplicate thread but i think the linux gurus would better answer my question so i posted in this section just incase since this does involve both OS's i do believe it is valid.

Ok heres how it is, I have two harddrives one 120gb and my 160gb. My system boots from my 160gb which starts GRUB. Grub successfully boots XP on the first harddrive, and linux on the second. Can i install win98 and add it to the list of bootable operating systems at startup?

[utanja]

Originally Posted by iXneonXi

Sorry about the duplicate thread but i think the linux gurus would better answer my question so i posted in this section just incase since this does involve both OS's i do believe it is valid.

Ok heres how it is, I have two harddrives one 120gb and my 160gb. My system boots from my 160gb which starts GRUB. Grub successfully boots XP on the first harddrive, and linux on the second. Can i install win98 and add it to the list of bootable operating systems at startup?

yes....of course.....but why would you want to to that...unless you have something on win98 that will not run under XP....

[I Fix 4 U]

could we skip to the answers and stuff because that didnt help. I want 98 because my xp was preloaded with crap and i have 512 mb ram but when i startup i only have 200 usable and i know theres no problem because cacheman will free it. XP just uses to much memory. Video games would be better in 98 it hardly uses any mem.

[saikee]

I think it is theoretically possible but I haven't done it myself.

Win9x needed to be installed in the first primary partition and running satisfactorily in the second hard disk (may need to swap disk position with XP on the cable as Win9x/Dos don't like boot from a slave, or alternatively take the xp temporarily out if both disks were set to cable select thus allowing the 2nd disk to become a master on being a single).

Reconnect everything as before and add these line to your bootable Linux's /boot/grub/menu.lst

title This is my Window 98
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
chainloader +1

I know XP's mbr can be reinstored by just a DOS floppy Fdisk /mbr so the Windows 98 should have no problem as it can find MBR of its knid in both disks. The only thing that I am not sure is that Windows needs a couple of hidden files and it may try to get it from the boot disk hda (the XP one) instead of hdb. XP apparently always search the boot disk and not the one it was forced to reside on. The hidden file for XP is the New Technology (NT) type and the old Win9x may object to it.

Windows is so inferior in booting and coexistence with its own kind. In Linux you can boot one system up, change root (chroot) to another Linux to use a second desktop.

[I Fix 4 U]

The only way to boot windows is if it resides on the mbr? Because i'd have to remove grub to install windows 98 on the second harddrive because grub is in the mbr and in the /boot directory of my / partition. I know i had to have XP alone on the first harddrive because it needed the mbr but what about 98 is there a way to direct boot it instead of chainload or if not is there a way to avoid the mbr because if 98 erases that---BOOM--there goes GRUB and i'd need a boot floppy. EGADS!

[saikee]

I don't know much about your set up but is it losing Grub a big dea? You only need one Grub boot disk to call any Grub-based Linux by boot it and issue a command configfile (hd1,1)/boot/grub/menu.lst (assuming it is on the second hard disk 2nd partition) and restore Grub with Grub-intall /dev/hdb.

You need a boot manager to manage XP, Win98 and Linux and only a Linux bootloader can do it. In order to boot the Linux bootloader can be in either disk and in any primary or extended partition as long as you can arrange with the BIOS for it to be boot ahead of the XP and Win98. You should therefore able to make both disks MBR inactive and boot to an active partition (must be a primary or the extended) with a Linux bootloader.

[I Fix 4 U]

OK i'm gonna sum that up. Should I make a grub bootdisk, install win98 (which will erase grub from the mbr to install windows' bootloader), use the bootdisk to restore grub > which is the 1st partition of my second harddrive (hd1,0) but i tweaked grub to think it is (hd0,0). So the config would be in (hd0,0) /boot/grub. Does that mean each time I use grub or windows i have to use a bootdisk or does that just mean once i restore grub it will chainload windows? This is a tricky task and as your information was good, i couldn't quite understand what you are saying so could you please reply with an easy to understand answer.

[saikee]

One of us is not quite sure about the setup and it could me. However see how this grabs you.

In side any Linux that use Grub, say it is in hdb10 (10th partition of the 2nd disk) you can put Grub in virtually any place but the following 3 are the most popular

(1) grub-install /dev/hda # This is in MBR of first disk, or second disk MBR if it is hdb

(2) grub-install /dev/hdb10 # This is to place Grub inside its own partition

(3) grub-install /dev/fd0 # This places Grub onto a floppy.

You can boot Linux with (1) if that disk is the bootdisk. Put the floppy in is the same. In the (2) the Linux does not boot but can be chainloaded by putting these 3 lines in a bootable Linux's menu.lst
-----------------------------------------
title THis is my Linux in hdb10
root (hd1,9)
chainloader +1
------------------------------------

Remeber Grub counts from Zero instead of 1.

If XP and Win98 don't boot you add these lines to the menu.lst too

-----------------------------------------
title This is XP known to be in hda1
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

title This is my Win98 in hdb1
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
chainloader +1
---------------------------------------

Thus really you can boot them anyway you want, as long as they have been working individually before.

The boot Grub disk I mentioned my last post is different to the one above. It is a general purpose one and does not boot a Linux automatically but can be use to boot many indirectly. It has only the stage1 and stage2 files and can be generated in any LInux that support Grub, put a floppy in and type

dd if=stage1 of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 count=1
dd if=stage2 of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 seek=1

You need to do this as a root user and in the directory that has the stage1 and stage2 files which are inside /usr directory. They can be found by typing

find /usr -name stage1

The simple boot Grub floppy is the most power tool I have found in Linux because I can use it to recover every Linux that use Grub with the configfile statement. I am still using the very first one I made!

In conclusion I feel pretty relax to lose Grub (or Lilo for that matter) to do an experiement because it can be reinstalled any time I want.

[I Fix 4 U]

Thanx I'll try that.

I will create a grub floppy incase i nuke my harddrive and then a /boot partition (hd1,x). Next, I'll make the grub partition active and set it to chainload fedora's grub which will be set to default fedora timeout 0. I will then install windows 98. This will rewrite the mbr but i see it doesnt matter, am I correct? Finally I will edit my grub configuration to chainload xp, fedora, and 98. Think it will work?

[saikee]

Sorry iXneonXi for not picking up the thread for a while

OK I think your idea is slightly more complicated than needs to be.

I have never created a partition for Grub but I know some people do. I simply use the Grub inside each distro and so it can be anywhere and can be any distro.

In each Grub you can chainload every bootable system in your PC, as long as you know their partition numbers.

I would strongly recommend to leave Win98 in the first primary partition to avoid the Window-related problems because many of its modules go blindly into first partition to search their master and the hidden files.

If we can't throw away the MBR any time we want in Linux we aren't in Linux yet. This is my view. Restoring MBR is no different from restoring Grub or Lilo. The MBR area can be overwritten as often as we want. We never destroy the MBR. We simply overwrite one bootloader with another. It is the inferiority of Windows bootloader that people do not expect a bootloader can handle more than two systems.

As you are using the slave to boot (I assume) you can actually install Fedora's Grub into the MBR of the slave drive (say grub-install /dev/hdb if hdb is the bootable drive) to do what you have described. The previous FC2 Grub bootloader you planted in the XP primary disk is simply inactive.

The bit I am not sure of is how you connect the the drives and the behaviour of your mobo, as some mobo disallow a slave to boot. However if the Win98 disk is the master of the second IDE, which has a right to boot, then your system should work.

[I Fix 4 U]

I dont know how my computer detects them but in bios setup i just simply select the seagate (linux and misc.) to be the primary boot device. Fedora Core's Root (/) is the first partition and it contains grub. It was installed to the seagate's mbr (not xp's, xp is on my first harddrive and i'm not messin with it). After Root i belive it is the swap partition. Then the /home partition. Next is a fat partition i made for windows. Will i still be able to install windows or will i have to repartition and kill my data?

[saikee]

Oh so you are one of those creating several partitions for one Linux. I never bother. One partition for the lot. /home, /root and /anything are under /. Swap is the only exception.

May be you should do a fdisk -l and see how the partitions are arranged.

If you have a partition for /, swap, /home and a fat then you may have used up all the 4 primary partitions. Windows can't survive in partition unless it is a primary one.

If I were in your shoes I would just make a new /home directory inside the FC2 partition and copy everything into it by drag and drop. I think /home is only used as user data area and is functionally no different to your fat partition which I assumed is for storing data in fat format. I then have the old /home to format and to install Win98 inside. There could be problem as FC2 is in the way and so I would run FC2 and make its partition unbootable and the slot reserve for Windows bootable. To by pass the XP I need to tell the BIOS to boot the Seagate disk ahead of the disk with XP.

If this work out then I can make FC2 bootable again and alter its /boot/grub/menu.lst to include the new Windows.

There may need a trick to boot two Windows I think as two Windows cannot co-exist. Thus when booting one Window a "hide" command may have to use to hide the other. Grub HOWTO describes this aspect in details

[I Fix 4 U]

ok create a /home directory in the "/" partition and move my home files there. remove /home and replace it with fat. then install win98 there and make 98's partition active? that would make linux unbootable... in grub there is an option to boot win98 and hide the xp?

ps do you have an instant messaging screenname because if so we could get this over with in about 5 minutes since you are so good at it (complement).

[saikee]

I am using the wife PC which can be accessible by messenger.

I think you got most of my suggestions except there is no need to to replace the fat partition. I am assuming your /home is big enough to hold Windows.

During Windows installation its partition must be active and that is why FC2 needs to be made temporary unbootable.

[I Fix 4 U]

ok well if you do have an im s/n please just tell me because i do have a few things left to sort out and then i'll try it. just tell me if you dont feel comfortable with chatting and i wont ask again i just think it would be more productive if we were im'ing.