[northpo]

I am adding a 10 GB slave drive to my system that has Win 98se installed on the master drive. I'll be installing Ubuntu and WinXP on the slave drive. I'll be using fat32 for XP's install since all the other systems on my network are fat32.
Figure I'll split the slave in half, 5GB for Ubuntu, 5 for XP.
Got a few questions though.

1. Can this actually be done with XP's or ubuntu's boot manager, or will I need a different boot manager program? Or will I have to settle for switching between disks?

2. With 98se already installed, do I install Ubuntu or XP first on the slave drive?

3. Do I pre-partition and format the slave drive or can I do that during the insall of
XP or Ubuntu?

4. Also, I can't remember, do one of the partitions on the slave need to be made active?

5. Does Ubuntu automaticlly create a multi boot file like XP does, or will I need to download a boot loader for Ubuntu and set it up?

I guess I should mention I'll be loading ubuntu from the live CD, version 6.06 LTS.

Thanks for any help

[saikee]

I think XP needs more than 5Gb to operate properly. You can put Ubuntu in 5Gb.

(1) Yes you can do it but different scenarios may be resulted depending on how you approach the set up.

(2) I think XP will try to load its NTLDR into the Win98 when you install it into the slave drive. XP wants to take over the first partition of the master or the "c" drive. It will refrain from doing so if you have Win98 there because MS system does not trash its own kind. You should be able to install it into a primary partition of the slave drive and then end up with NTLDR dual booting Win98 and XP. Your "C" will be Win98 with XP in the "D" drive.

As an alternative you can tell the BIos to boot the slave first so that XP is installed into a "C" drive housed in your current slave, which become the first bootable disk as long as the Bios is concerned. In this scenario XP will probably not booting Win98 and you need to tweak Grub to boot Win98 later.

(3) Generally you are better off by having the partitions arranged first before the insallation as XP has a habit to grab the whole disk (in fact given half a chance every OS will do that but XP is particularly bad in this respect). Also you need two partitions for Ubuntu. A swap of about 0.5Gb and about 5Gb for the Linux. You can pre-partition the disk with any Linux Live CD. The Bash "cfdisk" program is the best in the business and available in every Linux. You don't need to format any of the partition. It is always the installer's duty to format it. Don't kid yourself that an installer trust you to format the partition properly for the system to reside in.

(4) Which MS system you boot to first must be made active. Linux doesn't need such arrangement.

(5) A Linux installer is duty bound to check every partition and includes it as a booting choice if it finds a boot loader inside. Every MS system stores its boot loader inside the boot sector of the partition so every Linux can pick it up for booting.

You should install Ubuntu last and let its boot loader Grub into the MBR.

If NTLDR manages both Win98 and XP then you will have two choices in Grub; Ubuntu and Windows. When booting Windows then NTLDR will give you the choice between Win98 and XP.

If you tell the Bios to boot the the slave first then Grub will boot only Ubuntu and XP and your Win98 will be temporarily out of action. To include Win98 you need to add these line in the /boot/grub/menu.lst of Ubuntu

title My Win98 now in the second disk
root (hd1,0)
makeactive
map (hd1) (hd0)
map (hd0) (hd1)
chainloader +1

The tweaking is necessary because Win98 has been relegated to the 2nd boot disk status and will not boot because the Bios will try XP/Ubuntu disk first because it is at the beginning of the booting queue. Grub puts this right by jumping directly into it. Also the two map statements switch the disk order so that XP partition, as made in Fat32 recognisible by Win98, becomes the "D" drive on a boot up. The map statements only switch the disk order temporary just before the booting and the hardware reverts back when you exit the OS. Without the two map statement Win98 on booting up will not like to find XP first occupying the "c" drive.

Good luck!

[northpo]

Exactly the kind of answers I was looking for. Thank you.
I'll read your reply very carefully and give it a shot. I've cloned my original drive that has 98 on it, so if I make any mistakes I won't be banging my head on the desk.
I'll give this a go and post back with the outcome.

[saikee]

Whatever you do just don't format any partition that has an operating system inside.

Not able to boot it doesn't mean the system has been damaged. In fact every operating system can be rescued and booted. Damage if any is always self-inflicted.

In you case I recommend to equip yourself with the two most lethal weapons in booting

(1) A Linux Live CD
(2) A Grub floppy created according to Chapter 3.1 of Grub Manual. If you have no floppy drive burn it into a CD. Information in Grub Manual again.

There is no PC system on earth that the latter cannot boot. A Grub floppy has Grub unattached to an operating system. You use Grub as a mini operating system. A Grub floppy can boot any of the MS systems.

The former is useful to access any Linux that cannot be booted, amend its booting configuration file and to restore its boot loader. You need it because some Linux use Lilo and not Grub. With a bit of skill you can actually use the Grub floppy to boot any Linux including those relying on Lilo as the boot loader.

[northpo]

For the two Linux partitions(E, F), do I want the swap partition before the linux partition, or does'nt it matter?

[saikee]

Swap and Linux partition can be anywhere and in any disk. They also do not comply with MS convention of "C, D,E..." drive. That is why I urge you to use cfdisk program in Linux.

Linux identifies the mastser and slave disks of the primary IDE channel as hda and hdb. The master and slave of the secondary IDE are called hdb and hdc. You are likely to use one or two of these 4 positions for the CD drive.

Linux identifies the partitions by number. As a disk can have a maximum of 4 primaries and so hda1, to hda4 are reserved for them. A logical partition always starts from the 5th position even if there is no primary partition created. MS system runs out the partitions after all 28 alphabets are used up. Linux allows up to 63 partitions in any IDE disk but for Sata the limit is restricted to 15 to be compatible with SCSI disks. Linux hard convention is much more powerful and flexible than the one used by MS systems.

If you use cfdisk to create the partitions they will be automatically type 83 suitable for Linux installation. For swap you need to change it to 82. For XP you change it to type 7 for NTFS. You will found Win98 being a Fat32 has a type number "c". The cfdisk program has a function to display over 100 partition types supported by Linux.

Linux is superior to MS systems by being able to reside anywhere in the hard disk. MS systems only bootable from a primary partition or has a implanted the boot loader in the first primary partition.