Well, I now have Win4Lin installed... but this was no simple
undertaking. I will detail out for you the stumbling blocks I ran into,
so that you can be prepared in your attempt.
First: Problem with Mandrake 8.0 pre-fab kernel.
There wasn't one on the CD. Per a trouble ticket I opened via
Netraverse's website, I found that the CD's shipped before the Mandrake
8 kernel was ready. Not to big an issue, I can understand that. Just
don't say it supports Manrake 8.0 on the box when it is something you
actually need to download, please.
If you are behind a corporate firewall with only http and ftp
proxies... Too bad. The customized kernel (and it's bare patch
file(s)) are not yet available for download except via the Win4Lin
Installer. While I did find the URL they used in the installer, you
can't get to it yourself... it's a private account. And yes, the
binaries and logs do not detail that account information (which is a
GOOD thing, security wise).
After bringing the machine home, and placing it on my DSL, the
installer was happy to update itself and then download the kernel
package and an updated Win4Lin. Cool... but it makes me wonder why I
bought it on CD ($10 more) when it re-downloaded it anyway. Ahh well, I
digress.
Second: Boot loader problems with new kernel
I happen to be using Grub, not lilo. I happen to prefer Grub's
flexability if my system doesn't boot, that's all. I had rebooted and
re-ran the installer like I am supposed to do... But the kernel still
wasn't Win4Lin ready. This problem wasn't obvious either.
The installer got 50% through copying my Windows 98SE CD, when it would
die... telling me I didn't have a valid Dos or something like that. So
after poking around a bit, I ran 'winsetup'. I used its menu to try and
load the Windows CD image, but it did the same thing... But aha! In
the little text window, it gave me the error I needed... I wasn't
running with a Win4Lin ready kernel!
So I check my /boot area and everything seemed to be there... minus a
new initrd image (I need that, Netraverse, btw). So I edited my
/boot/grub/menu.lst to add a 'Linux-Win4Lin' entry. I modeled it after
what they put in /etc/lilo.conf. So at that point, I wanted to make my
new initrd image... That's the third problem. Suffice it to say I did
get all this working, but it's time to talk about problem three.
Third: 'mkinitrd' couldn't find the reiserfs module.
Of course it couldn't. Netraverse had compiled it directly into this
new kernel and not as a module. "How odd," I thought, "since it's
supposed to be a drop in replacement kernel..." Oh well. There are two
solutions for this.
1. You can copy over your previous kernels reiserfs module and
directory...
(/lib/modules/2.4.3-20mdk/kernel/fs/reiserfs/reiserfs.o.gz) into the new
kernel module area...
(/lib/modules/2.4.3-20mdk-win4lin/kernel/fs/reiserfs/reiserfs.o.gz)
Then do your mkinitrd... Then gunzip your new initrd image, mount it
loopback and remove the module and it's reference in the config file (I
forget it's name). Unmount the image file, re-gzip it and make sure
it's named to what you put into your bootloader config file. (This is
how I did it)
2. You can try to edit the mkinitrd script so that it doesn't care
about the module. I seem to remember with Mandrake 7.2 that I major
problem doing this... I think it was because it called something else
that was a binary instead of a script... Can't remember.
I ran into more configuration stuff of my own because I am using the
Windows 2000 bootloader to choose and load a bootsector image file (per
the linux+nt Howto's). But that was just having to boot into Win2k to
update my Grub bootsector image. I'm thinking many of you will not face
that problem since Win2k is, well... Again, I digress.
Fourth: NVidia made X drivers die.
That's right! I had to kiss my freshly installed NVidia OpenGL drivers
good bye. The NVidia kernel module refused to load do to 'bad
symbols'. So I tried to recompile it for this new kernel... ahhhh
There's a catch! My kernel source isn't patched (not yet, anyway). So
the compile fails, too.
After some grumbling, I reluctantly revert my /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 to
use the generic 'nv' driver and comment out the 'Load "glx"' line.
Okay, so X is up... just no 3D. **sigh**
Fifth: Dhcp client config broken.
The actual Windows 98SE install went great. Without a hitch, even...
But when I finally started Windows... No lan.
Don't get me wrong, the drivers were there. They were properly
configured for dchp, too. But unlike my daughters PC down the hall...
It could not, would not, get an IP. I dinked with it a bit, even
disabled the DNS tab of the network setup, but no.
I resigned my self to setting it up for a static IP, static route and
two DNS entries. Rebooted and hey! It worked! I now have a working
Win4Lin 3.0 on my Mandrake 8.0 box. Granted as soon as it could browse
the web, I wrote this Installer Review... So I haven't installed
software yet. But this is how you get this far!
Oh, and one last note... If you are using one of those Promise ATA100
cards... Be sure to add your idex=0xaddr,0xaddr line to your new
bootloader entry. I remembered to, but it struck me that many folks
might not remember.
Enjoy!
*Brandon Darbro
TheDarb
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