Any Linux/Windows Expert?

Hi, People. I got a bit of a problem:
I have a dualboot machine running RH Linux (I think it's 6.2/6.3 Red Hat) and Win98 and a DSL connection. While trying to set up the machine for DSL on the Win side, I couldn't and I got a error message saying that I need the DUN program. I did my research (on another computer), found it and downloaded it to a floppy disk. When I got back to my machine, I tried to open the program from the floppy disc but couldn't ( I got an error message saying that The A drive is write-protected? ). I rebooted the machine and at the Lilo boot, when I typed DOS, I got a message saying "Invalid system disk. Replace the disk and press any key".
The problem is that I have no idea what that means ( I'm a newbie to Linux), I don't know what to do to be able to boot in DOS and any help setting up the DSL connection on either OSes will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance

You need to take out the floopy, boot to win98 through LILO, and then hit F8 before windows loads, then you should get options to boot to DOS or safemode, choose DOS and there ya go.

~edit, actually, I'm confused after rereading your post, when you have Win loaded and you try to access the floppy is that when you get the "write protected" message? And the non system disk error, is that whenever you try to boot to Windows now?

I got the "write-protected" message when I first inserted the floppy in my A drive. I rebooted after that and at the Lilo boot, when I type DOS, I get this: "Invalid system disk. Replace the disk and press any key". Therefore, the only option I have is to boot on Linux. My other question is: How can I install my DSL service under Linux?
Thanks in advance.

Do what bludgeon said. take your floppy out of the drive, then do what you need to do to get back to windows. After your booted up then you can put the disk back in the drive, and install dial up networking. If your trying to put files onto the disk make sure that the little tab is flipped to unlock on the floppy.

For making a DSL connection in Linux, I believe that you go under Network Services and create a new connection, then there should be something that pops up and guides you the rest of the way.

The problem is that I already took the floppy out, but when I try to boot on Win, I get the "invalid system disk error". I don't know what that means nor do I know how to fix it.
And by the way, thanks for the Linux DSL installation tip.

"invalid system disk error" means just that, there isn't a valid OS installed on the disk for the system to boot. . .are you getting this message after you get the boot menu, or is it as soon as you turn the comp on?? If it's right when you turn the comp on, see if you can still boot into Windows and Linux w/ a boot disk, which you hopefully created. . .if you can still boot w/ the disks then you have to fix the MBR, which there is a couple of different ways you could go about doing. . .otherwise the easiest way to fix your problem is to reinstall both OSes. First install Win98 and then RH, choosing to use the RH bootloader, I think it's lilo. . .lilo should find Win w/ no probs and you'll be set.

I get that message at the Lilo boot when I try to boot under Win. Otherwise, it boots just fine under Linux. And Unfortunately, I don't have a boot disk nor do I still have the Win98 CD. The other question I have is : How do I set up DSL on Linux? Because I just can't get the setup.exe application to start from the installation disk?
Thanks

Eh, if you don't have a boot disk for Win98, make one froma public computer w/ 98 on it, maybe at your school and see if the Windows files are still there, if they are 'fdisk/mbr' and you should be able to load windows again, but you'll have to reinstall lilo, or just boot linux from your boot disk. . .as far as DSL, I'm not that privledged, google should be able to help you with that though.

I'd be willing to bet that there was a virus on your floppy disk. You had written
something on that disk, but when you tried to access it, your computer said it
was write protected. You couldn't have put anything on it to start with if it
had been write protected. Then, right afterward, you couldn't boot windows,
but you can boot linux ok.

This tells me that your MBR (master boot record) is probably ok, because that
is where LILO resides, and LILO is working fine. You probably have a problem
in the windows partition boot sector. Do as you have been advised, and get
a win98 rescue boot disk and boot from it. (Make sure that you do write-protect
it.)

But instead of issuing the FDISK/MBR command, first try SYS C:
This restores the c partition boot sector and boot files, IO.SYS, MSDOS.SYS,
and COMMAND.COM.

BTW, you should have already had DUN on your computer, what happened
to it?

And do run a virus scan after you get back up and running.
:cool:

Rcgreen, I think you are right. But the problem is that i got this box second-hand thus I don't have no boot disk. Is there another alternative?
Maybe, something I can do from Linux?
And for the DUN, I don't know what happened to it. All I know is that when I started installing my DSL, I got an error message saying "No DUN software was found".
And btw, thanks for your help.

When I finally got aDSL from my ISP i got no help whatsoever from them. They are Windows and Mac heavies.

This is what I did on a RH7.3 box with no other net connections

# = whatever your prompt is

#ifconfig eth0 0.0.0.0 up
#adsl-setup
some checks are made here, you'll get some verbosity

USER NAME (enter your user name)
INTERFACE eth0
some verbosity about on demand or continous connection, no equals continous
DNS do you know the IP addresses of the primary and secondary DNS servers or are you
lucky and your ISP does it automagically. If you are lucky just hit return. Otherwise
enter the adresses as prompted.
PASSWORD enter as prompted
FIREWALLING verbosity choices are 0 (none), 1 (typical standalone), 2 (Gateway for a LAN)
verbosity and you get a y or n prompt

assuming you typed y

#adsl-start

you should be in business


credits to Red Hat linux unleashed

Vercetti, do like said sys c: from a boot floppy. You can get boot images from the net http://www.bootdisk.com/ has the common disks for download.

If all that does not work, it could also be possible that your DOS/windows entry in the lilo boot menu no longer points to the right partition. This way you will get an error cause no operating system can be found. So make sure the settings in your lilo config file are correct. You can find this file in /etc
/etc/lilo.conf needs to have a correct entry to your windows boot sector.
example:

other=/dev/hdb1
label=windows


A sample setup of a dual boot lilo can be found here: http://nodevice.com/sections/Docs/LILO-README

after changing lilo, run lilo at the linux prompt
/sbin/lilo