Linux & FAT32??

Didnt know where else to put this so it just got dumped here...

I just installed Linux for the first time, and i put it on a clean fresh hard drive. It was fine but if i wanted to boot win98 i had to swap hardrives (not much for me because i always have my box open). but then i discovered how to use the linux booter to display a boot menu. I added the other harddrives no problems and got the menu working but then it wouldnt boot...the win98 drives were FAT32s. anyone know how to get around this without losing all of my data?

"I would find this humerous if not for the pig on my back..." - Dilbert 1996

I don't quite understand what you did. You installed both hard drives and used a boot loader?

Which boot loader? How are your drives setup... which one is master, which one slave, and how do you have your boot loader configured?

You can boot a m$ and *nix and the file systems don't matter. The linux box will only be able to mount a fat32 w/o kernel tweaking anyway(if you are booted into linux).

OS: Corel Linux
Primary Master: Linux
Primary Slave: CDROM
Secondary Master:Win98SE OS (FAT32)
Secondary Slave: FAT32

I used the LILO booter with corel linux.

Check to see that your lilo.conf file is configured like it describes here.

Make the appropriate changes to suit your system.

http://www.acm.uiuc.edu/workshops/li...tall/lilo.html

Like... here

Quote:

---

# Win95 bootable partition config begins
other = /dev/hda1
label = win95
table = /dev/hda
# Win95 bootable partition config ends

---

change to the appropriate settings for your slave drive.

Usualy the drives are like this..

/dev/hda Primary Master
/dev/hdb Primary Slave
/dev/hdc Secondary Master
/dev/hdd Secondary Slave

so your windows partition in lilo.conf should (propably) be like this..

other = /dev/hdc1
label = windows
table = /dev/hdc

OK, this happened to me one time so i am not sure if this is what you are talking about.

Linux, hates windows. and when you put a windows boot into the linux boot, particularly GRUB, it wont accept it. the way i got around this was, re-installing linux from scratch(new partition ect.) and during the installation add the windows boots. it should work properly after that. just after its been installed and then you add a windows boot it seems to play up??

Hi, this is my firt post in this forum!!! And started with a Linux topic. What a joy!!

The problem here is that Win98,95,Me does not boot if it is not the primary master in the first partition. Yeah that's Lame but I have probed with a lot of configs and Win9x,Me jus worked that way. Windows 2000 Worked just fine in any partition of any Drive master/slave, primary/secondary.

My suggest.

Crappy one:
deinstall all OSes and reintall so the Win98 is in the first partition of the first Drive. The problem of just moving around the drives is that Lilo or Grub look out for the root directory called /dev/hdax so if you move it as secondary or slave it will be /dev/hdb or /dev/hdc so it woul not boot. Do this:
make a boot disk with the Lilo command as root writing the new config in the disk something like this (this is my conf)
--- lilo.floppy.conf ---
boot=/dev/hda
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
prompt
timeout=50
message=/boot/message
linear
default=linux

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.2-2
label=linux.bak
read-only
root=/dev/hdb5

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.18-19.7.x
label=linux
root=/dev/hdb5
read-only

other = /dev/hda1
label = windows
table = /dev/hda
--- EOF ---

lilo -vC lilo.floppy.conf

fool around with the disks and put the disk as
Win primary master
Lin secondary master
other ones as u wish
use the fdisk of the boot flopy disk as this fdisk /MBR. this will reformat the main boot record for the win98 Disk
boot Linux with the floopy and reinstall the Lilo or Grub.


The Easy one

Upgrade the win 98 or install Win Nt/2k (I don't know if Xp boot anywhere. I don't recomend WinMe)

Hope it is usefull

Thanks alot u guys ill try ur suggestions and see how it goes. It was my first try at installing linux (even first time using linux). By the way I think my lilo.conf file was set win98 for hdb from memory so yeah ill have to check that.

It probably has nothing to do with FAT32 anyways...

i always install the windows os first in the first partition then linux. linux is more flexible than windows and i have never had any probs.!. once i installed linux first and i had the same problem . so i agree install windows first then linux

So How do i setup Lilo on the win98 drive as the booter??

just install lilo to the master boot record.. thats what i do apparently it is a bit dangerour but i have never had any problems with it

A really slick way to deal with multiple OSes is to use a program called VMWARE. You can avoid all of this mess when you use VMWARE. It creates virtual partitions within your Windows environment. Then you can add as many OSes as you like. I have XP, 98, RH8, BSD4.7 and DOS 6.22 all on my laptop.

FWIW

thanks guys your a lot of help!