In order:
1. Put the CD-ROM in a computer running Windows. You'll find some readme
files in the root directory of the CD-ROM. You will need to create the boot
disks, but the CD includes a program called "rawrite" that will do it for
you. With RedHat 4, you will probably need to create a disk that is
somewhat customized to your particular system. The readme file will explain
how to do that. Later versions of RedHat use more generic boot disks.
2. Linux does require a swap partition. You will have to create a Linux
(type 82) and a swap (type 83) partition to install the OS. There is no
workaround. But since you can have up to four primary partitions on a given
hard drive, this should not be a problem. I would create a partition of
either 64MB or twice the system memory (whichever is smaller) for the swap
partition and the rest for the system.
3. There is no particular problem, however you should install the OS's in a
particular order: Windows 98, then Windows 2000, then Linux. That way LILO
(LInux LOader) will allow you to boot between Linux and Windows and Windows
2000 will allow you to select which version of Windows to run.
4. I'm not sure how you can do that. If your client is going to install
Windows NT or Windows 2000 after you've installed Linux and Windows 98, then
he will have a problem booting to Linux. This is because once he installs
Windows NT/2000 it will overwrite the master boot record, causing LILO to
disappear, along with the mechanism to load Linux. At that point, he will
have to boot with a Linux boot floppy and do a little bit of work to
reinstall LILO. My recommendation would be that if your client has a copy
of NT that you get it and install it for him. Multiboot systems like this
absolutely must follow a specific order of installation, or you must use
something like Partition Magic.
I also strongly recommend against formatting an NT system partition with
NTFS. In the event of a problem, the system is much easier to troubleshoot
if the system partition is formatted with FAT. Remember, at this point only
NT and 2000 can see NTFS. A DOS boot disk cannot, so if your customer has
important files on a damaged NTFS partition and cannot boot to NT, he will
be in big trouble indeed!
Drew Dunn
-----Original Message-----
G'day all,
I have a task asked by client to partition a 8.4G harddisk for win98, NT
and Linux multi-boot system. I have already partitioned and formatted
one FAT32 (3G) and one NTFS (2.5G). but the Linux the client provided to
me (Red hat 4) has a problem. He only gave me 6 CDs without any boot
disk, I cannot boot from the Linux CDs either.
My questions are:
1) how can I make Linux partition while I don't have any Linux boot
disks?
2) the client also asked to do a SINGLE Linux partition for the rest of
HDD, but all I heard from this list and other Linux people is Linux
needs a swap partition for installation and running. So I think it is
impossible to do what client asked for, however he said he saw someone
else did this (single partiton) before. So, is it possible to do so?
3) As a part of the partition processing, I had to install win2000 (beta
3 built 2081) in order to do the NT partition. My next step is to
install win98 on the FAT32 partiton, is there any problem with win2000
and win98 dual-boot? is there any problem with Linux boot if I can
manage the Linux partition? I ask this question because I have to test
everything before hand over the computer.
4) I don't have partition magic, and I want to format the NT partition
so when I give the machine to client, he will get a clean NTFS partition
(I can't give win2000 to him), how can i do that?
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