On Fri, 28 Dec 2001 10:36:58 -0500 (EST), Thomas Mueller wrote: > Sam Heywood,
> Couldn't you get both Linux and DR-DOS 7.03 installed on your hard disk without > installing Windows at all? There is probably a way to do it, but I don't know how. The book that comes with the CD-ROM provides instructions on how to partition your hard drive for Linux by using a Windows program named Partition Magic. Certainly there are some alternative DOS or Linux programs that could partition the hard drive for Linux, but the book doesn't tell me about them, or where to get them, or how to use them. Also the book explains how to install a multi-boot loader named BootMagic which is installed from Windows. After I have partitioned my drive and installed OpenLinux and BootMagic I can delete all of Windows stuff and install DR-DOS 7.03. Certainly there are some alternative DOS or Linux programs that could write a multi-boot loader gizmo into my MBR, but I am a newbie to multi-boot loaders and I don't have a book on them. My limited knowledge of multi-boot loaders all comes from the book that comes with the OpenLinux CD-ROM. The book doesn't tell me about any multi-boot loaders other than BootMagic. Richard Menedetter opines that the OpenLinux distribution on the CD-ROM is very good, but the book that comes with it is crap. That is his word for describing the book. I could think of even some far worse and more appropriate terms. > If you can't boot the Linux CD, make the necessary > installation starter diskettes, then use Linux fdisk or cfdisk to partition the > hard disk for both DR-DOS 7.03 and Linux. The book explains how to make the installation starter diskettes when you can't boot the CD-ROM. I had trouble making the starter diskettes because of a typo in the instruction for the command to enter, but I somehow figured out how to do it by experimenting with commands by trial and error. The book does not explain how to use Linux fdisk or cfdisk. The only fdisks I know how to use are the various DOS fdisks supplied with various DOS versions. > After installing Linux, and you may > even be able to run mkdosfs on the DOS partition(s), install DR-DOS 7.03. You > would have to go back into Linux to run LILO again to make both DR-DOS 7.03 and > Linux bootable. DR-DOS 7.03 should have no trouble with a DOS partition created > this way. You certainly don't need MS-Windows to install LILO as boot loader. The stuff you are explaining in the paragraph above goes over my head. I am still a newbie at this point and I can't understand it. The book doesn't explain how to use LILO. All I know about LILO is that it got installed on a floppy when I created the starter diskette for the CD-ROM. BTW, I cannot visit this Linux machine every day to investigate it further. The machine is running in a home far from where I live. I can visit this machine only occasionally. One of these days soon I will install OpenLinux on one of my own machines. BTW, I wish someone would write a book on "Linux for Dummies" that would be just as easy to understand and just as informative as the dummies' books for DOS and Windows. Thanks for your questions and comments, Sam Heywood -- This mail was written by user of The Arachne Browser - http://arachne.cz/
