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I now have Win98SE and XP installed in dual boot. Win98 is on C: and XP is on D:. I want to install Linux on E: and I want to have a boot menu, where I can choose between these 3 OSes. All partizions are FAT32 and I dont want to change tha, because I want to access all partitions w/ all OSes.
You should also know, that I am a Linux n00b. I mainly nred to learn Linux because I need it for the uni.
This is very easy to set up. I have the exact setup that you want. I'm tripple booting Win98, WinXP, and SuSE Linux. I have also used other Linux distros in this setup.
When you install Linux you will need some unused space on your present hard disk or another hard disk. You can also resize one of your Windows partitions to make room for Linux.
Mandrake is a good distro to start out with and has the tools to resize a NTFS or FAT32 partition. If you already have space set aside for Linux you are ready to move on to the install. You will need about 5GB to do a descent install.
When you install Linux you will be asked if you want to install a bootloader. The choices are LILO or GRUB. It doesn't matter which one you choose but I prefer LILO. Allow the bootloader to be installed into the master boot record of your Win98 drive.
When you boot your PC you will then be presented with a menu asking if you want to boot to Linux or Windows. If you choose Windows then the linux bootloader will hand off to the NT loader which will give you the choice between Win98 and WinXP.
You will be able to read/write your Windows FAT32 partitions with Linux but you will run into problems trying to get Windows to read your Linux partiton. I've never tried to set up Linux under FAT. The ext3 file system is so much more superior than FAT or NTFS.
For a nice demo of the Mandrake install process including resizeing partitions and installing the bootloader look here:
http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/demo...ke9.0/Install/
It's a little dated (Mandrake is up to 9.2 now) but the process is nearly identical.
Mike :)
EDIT: If you should need to resize a windows partition make sure you back up all data and run scandisk and defrag on your drive before the Linux install.
I have done this now: I deleted the logical drive E: w/ fdisk (no data was lost on D: because of this) und I made 3 new logical drives instead of the old one: one w/ 2GB as swappartition, one w/ 3GB for Linux and the rest as a FAT32 partition w/ 27GB. The first two I made to the swap and native partitions and the setup program automatically converted them to ext2.
Now I can choose different Linux-bootoptions and Windows in the bootmenu. When I choose Windows, I get the WinNT bootmenu, were I can choose between WinXP and Win98.
Kewl, MrBurns. :cool:
Which distro did you end up choosing?
Mike
MandrakeQuote:
Originally posted by Xeroid
Kewl, MrBurns. :cool:
Which distro did you end up choosing?
Mike
Here's what you need to view Linux partitions from Windows:
http://uranus.it.swin.edu.au/~jn/linux/explore2fs.htm