On 1/24/07, Amos Shapira <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I've just realized that maybe the original subject was wrong and therefore
pointed repliers to the wrong direction. What I was after is to actually be
able to run something under Win98 which will start the boot sequence of
Linux over the network and end up with NFS-root. So far it looks like LTSP
and maybe loadlin can help me achieve that.
On 24/01/07, Peter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> On Tue, 23 Jan 2007, Amos Shapira wrote:
>
> > On 23/01/07, Peter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> >> I have used it to boot full knoppix on PIII 450MHz with only 64MB ram
> >
> > Was it a laptop? Laptops have tendency to contain "special" and
"nouvelle"
> > hardware, the kind that requires "special vendor CD with addition
hardware
> > drivers" when re-installing windows and kept Linux away from laptops
back in
> > the bad old days.
>
> Are you afraid to try ? ;-) It was not a laptop, it was a bare board in
Yes, certainly. I don't have the means and the time to fix it if it breaks.
> a cardboard shoe box in the beginning. And yes, you are right, laptops
> had/have 'interesting' hardware variations. But there is only one way to
> find out if *your* laptop is one of them. Which you have to do about now
> because you need to know the exact netcard type and version (PCI ID is
> enough but not always) when you use rom-o-matic.
Ha :) This laptop is so old that it doesn't have an integrated network card
- the net card is a PCMCIA 10/100 addition I bought her around 2003.
> etherboot deals with the generation of boot ROMs, some of which are
> altered such that they can be brought up from floppy for testing.
So maybe I didn't understand what it is. I'll just try to stick to whatever
LTSP does because it sounds like just what I need.
> > Again - I prefer to let my wife boot into Win98 and then decide whether
she
> > wants to switch to Linux, I'm afraid picking from a boot menu or having
to
> > reboot to do that will keep her away from trying this.
>
> Use stronger persuasion. Or wait for the next Win98 crash when there
> will be no other option until you find the time to ... reinstall.
Actually, surprisingly I can't remember when was the last time we had to
re-install her Windows - I converted her to Firefox and Thunderbird (before
she moved to gmail) and have anti-virus and anti-spyware running all the
time.
It does start to show some weird behaviour in the last couple of weeks which
might make her a bit more receptive for a change.
> Something or other. One way to turn users off wrt. Linux is to force it
> upon them. Same for anything else. Like Vista for example. I hope.
As you say - *forcing* things on her only makes her push back, that's why
the option to "just run" linux without scaring her by erasing her Windows
looks so attractive at this stage.
> AS I SAID BEFORE it might but it involves a reboot, strictly speaking.
> Once inside a system there is no way to change to another system without
Bzzt. Wrong answer - Win98 is actually DOS, which uses "real mode"[1], so
things like loadlin (which was probably what I was looking for when asking
my first question) are possible.
> you want, the user will THINK it's a reboot anyway. And he will be right
> about it. To mitigate the pain you can make a nice splash screen with
Not quite, IMHO. It isn't exact science but I want to assure my wife that
when she powers on her laptop she'll get the same familiar Windows boot
sequence without a change.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_mode
Cheers,
--Amos
How about using the dos boot loader to load a PXE loader that will
then load a Linux image from your LTSP (or similar) server ?
This can (theoretically) be achieved with either :
1. Using the windows "rbfg.exe" to create a "boot disk", then calling
it from the dos boot loader. [1]
2. Using better tools for the above [2], note the option to create
"DOS executable rom image"
3. Burning the PXE code some where on you system, then using the BIOS
PXE to boot into linux [3]
[1] http://pxes.sourceforge.net/howtos/ms_only_environment/
[2] http://rom-o-matic.net/5.4.2/
[3] http://www.etherboot.org/wiki/start
Also look check http://netboot.sourceforge.net/english/index.shtml
HTH
--
Cheers,
Maxim Veksler
"Free as in Freedom" - Do u GNU ?
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