Win95 + WinNT + Linux multiboot using LILO mini-HOWTO
 Renzo Zanelli, [email protected]
 v1.0, 26 March 1998

 This document describes how to use the to multiboot between Windows
 95, Windows NT, and Linux.
 ______________________________________________________________________

 Table of Contents


 1. Introduction

 2. Installing the Operating Systems

    2.1 Installing Windows 95
       2.1.1 Installing Windows NT 4.0
          2.1.1.1 Installing Linux

 3. The Linux part

 4. The Windows NT part

 5. The Windows 95 part

 6. References

 ______________________________________________________________________

 1.  Introduction

 There are a number of documents available that describe in detail how
 to multiboot just about any number of OS's using NT's OS loader.  When
 I finally bought Windows NT, I already had Windows 95 and Linux
 installed on my system and I was using LILO to multiboot between them.
 I decided to add Windows NT to LILO instead of using NT's OS loader.

 Originally I had Windows 95 on my first IDE disk drive and Linux on my
 second IDE disk drive.  The Linux drive became my third IDE drive and
 I installed a new IDE disk for Windows NT as my second drive.  Even
 though I haven't tried this in different configurations, I believe the
 order with which each OS is installed or which drive it is installed
 on is unimportant.

 Just remember to create those emergemcy bootup floppies when each OS
 prompts you to!

 Because I used Gilles Vollant's BootPart utility and BootPart only
 supports drives up to 4GB in size, this may not work if you have
 drives of larger capacity.  If you need to work with drives greater
 than 4GB, contact Gilles directly (see BootPart documentation for
 Gilles' e-mail address).

 2.  Installing the Operating Systems

 When you install the OSes, make sure that all are installed on
 bootable partitions.  I installed both Windows 95 and Windows NT on
 Fat 16 partitions, so this procedure works on Fat 16 drives.  If you
 decide to use Fat32 for Windows 95 and NTFS for Windows NT, check to
 see if your version of Linux supports them and, if so, to what extent.


 2.1.  Installing Windows 95

 Install Windows 95 on your first drive.  This will be your C: drive.
 Remember to create the Windows 95 boot floppies when prompted to do
 so.

 I have found that it is better if the Linux drive is removed from the
 system when installing Windows 95, so that it is never detected and it
 doesn't exist as far as Windows 95 is concerned.

 At this point, if you did everything correctly, you should be able to
 boot Windows 95.

 2.1.1.  Installing Windows NT 4.0

 Install Windows NT 4.0 on your second drive.  When you create the
 partition on this drive, make the partition bootable.  Not all
 versions of Linux support NTFS, so I created a FAT16 partition, just
 to be on the safe side and because I wanted to exchange data between
 the Windows drives.

 When Windows NT installs, it will detect the presence of Windows 95
 and will create an entry for it in the NT OS loader and you should see
 three entries in the OS loader menu as follows:


      Windows NT Workstation Version 4.00
      Windows NT Workstation Version 4.00 [VGA mode]
      Microsoft Windows

 At this point, if you did everything correctly, you should be able to
 multiboot to Windows NT and Windows 95.

 2.1.1.1.  Installing Linux

 Install Linux on your third drive.  When I installed Linux, I only had
 Windows 95 installed so I only added the Windows 95 partition to Lilo.
 You can go ahead and install all OSes while installing LILO, or edit
 the Lilo configuration file later.  However you decide to do it, I
 will show you how the /etc/lilo.conf file is supposed to look in the
 next section.  Once Linux is installed, you should be able to boot to
 Linux.

 3.  The Linux part

 This will involve editing the /etc/lilo.conf file and reinstalling
 LILO.  The following should already be present in /etc/lilo.conf:


      boot=/dev/hda

 The Linux stanza should also be already present:


 # Linux stanza
 image=/vmlinuz
 root=/dev/hdc1
 label=Linux
 # End Linux stanza

 Now add the Windows 95 stanza:


      # Windows 95 stanza
      other=/dev/hda1
      table=/dev/hda
      label=Windows95
      # End Windows 95 stanza

 Now add the Windows NT stanza:


      # Windows 95 stanza
      other=/dev/hdb1
      table=/dev/hda
      loader=/boot/any_d.b
      label=WindowsNT
      # End Windows 95 stanza

 Now run LILO again.  At this point, if all is well, you should have
 Windows 95, Windows NT, and Linux as selections from LILO.  You should
 be able to boot to Linux and Windows 95 (which should give you the
 Windows NT OS loader).  To make the Windows NT entry operational, you
 still need to do some work on the Windows NT side.

 4.  The Windows NT part

 Before you can continue, you need two do two things.

 The first is to download and unzip Gilles Vollant's BootPart utility
 which can be found at  <http://www.winimage.com/bootpart.htm> with
 some information on how to use it.

 The second thing to do is copy (do not delete them yet!) the following
 files to the root of the Windows NT drive:


      Boot.ini
      Bootsect.dos
      Ntdetect.com
      Ntldr

 These files are the Windows NT loader.  They are located in the root
 of the Windows 95 drive and were placed there by Windows NT when you
 installed it.

 Once this is done, boot to the Windows 95 DOS prompt (press Shift+F5
 when Windows 95 loads) and issue the following command:


      BOOTPART WINNT BOOT:D:

 Now you must edit Boot.ini in your Windows NT root directory.  You
 must edit three lines, one in the [boot loader] section and two in the
 [operating systems] section.

 This is the original Boot.ini:


      [boot loader]
      timeout=30
      default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT
      [operating systems]
      multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows NT Workstation Version 4.00"
      multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows NT Workstation Version 4.00 [VGA mode]" /basevideo /sos
      C:\ = "Microsoft Windows"

 This is the new Boot.ini:


      [boot loader]
      timeout=30
      default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
      [operating systems]
      multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows NT Workstation Version 4.00"
      multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows NT Workstation Version 4.00 [VGA mode]" /basevideo /sos

 Notice that all instances of rdisk(1) have been changed to rdisk(0)
 and the line referencing Windows 95 has been removed.

 After saving Boot.ini, if you did everything correctly, you should now
 be able to boot to Windows NT from LILO.

 5.  The Windows 95 part

 Create a bootable DOS floppy from the Windows 95 DOS prompt (press
 Shift+F5 when Windows 95 loads).  It is important that this floppy be
 created at the DOS prompt, not from a DOS window inside Windows95!  Do
 not boot to Windows95 until this step is complete!  Copy the file
 C:\WINDOWS95\COMMAND\SYS.COM to the floppy (substitute your Windows95
 path if different).  Now boot from the floppy and enter the command:


      SYS C:

 This should have removed the Windows NT OS loader and you should be
 able to boot directly into Windows 95 from LILO.

 You can now remove the NT loader files:


      Boot.ini
      Bootsect.dos
      Ntdetect.com
      Ntldr

 6.  References

 Thanks to the following people (in no particular order):

 James C. Bevier & D. Michael McFarland.  In a message exchange on the
 reddhat-list they provided some information on how to boot NT from
 Linux.

 Gilles Vollant.  BootPart is a very useful utility and Gilles makes it
 available for free with some nice documentation.  Thanks Gilles.

 Mike Harlan.  By reading his 'Linux-DOS-Win95-OS2' mini-HOWTO, it
 helped me make some assumptions about LILO's behavior.

You are viewing proxied material from ftp.icm.edu.pl. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.