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Thread: how to make pc have 2 operating system

  1. #1

    how to make pc have 2 operating system

    hi there,i wanted to make a standalone machine with 2 os one with win98 and the other with linux but i wanted to load both os in the same time so that i could just switch between them when ever i want and without rebooting can somebody help me out here

    What i can figure out is writting the MBR(master boot record) such that it can load the 2 os in the same time
    but after this point i am blank.......
    plese do help me out

  2. #2
    Senior Member
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    I've never heard of loading two OS's at the same time. I don't think it can be done. If you want to chage from one to the other, you will have to reboot.

    Greg
    \"Do you know what people are most afraid of?
    What they don\'t understand.
    When we don\'t understand, we turn to our assumptions.\"
    -- William Forrester

  3. #3
    has anyone tested out "WINE" yet ,i think this software can load 2 os @ the same time but i cann't get hold of a copy of wine and wanted to know how does it work

  4. #4
    Senior Member
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    No, I haven't heard of WINE nor have I tried it, but a quick search in the ever-trusty GOOGLE and I found some info on it. It doesn't actually load two OS's at the same time, it is used on Linux to run Windows applications.

    Some info from http://www.osfaq.com/article.php3?sid=63:

    ******
    A company called Codeweaver has released a preview version of there upcoming WINE program for running Windows apps on Linux. WINE is a open-source project that runs Windows applications by converting Win32 calls to native Linux calls. Due to the complexity of using WINE, many Win users have been left out. Codeweaver's have added ease of use to the project by providing wizards that aid in the installation of Windows software on Linux. Expect to see the complete version by the first half 2001.
    ******

    Greg
    \"Do you know what people are most afraid of?
    What they don\'t understand.
    When we don\'t understand, we turn to our assumptions.\"
    -- William Forrester

  5. #5
    Senior Member
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    I don't think there is anyway to load 2 os at the same time. There are only emulators that well, emulate the os. Search google for other alternatives for Wine. Most of these only run through linux though, becuase windows wouldn't be able to handle it. (or it'd crash alot)
    script language=\"M$cript\";
    function beginError(bsod) {
    return true; }
    onLoad.windows = beginError;

  6. #6
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    it seems that you would need one os at least loaded before the other. I tried this trick a few years ago using two cdroms and guess what - crash.
    Trappedagainbyperfectlogic.

  7. #7
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    BOCHS is a good emulator... It emulates the entire x86 CPU, so you can run any OS you want on it, more or less... It runs from within Linux (although there may be a windows version of it as well) and as I speak I am installing Windows 95 into a disk image within my Linux Mandrake machine, running Bochs.

    http://bochs.sourceforge.net

    The other common emulator is VMWare, although it's not free.
    One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them.
    One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
    (The Lord Of The Rings)
    http://www.bytekill.net

  8. #8
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    The guys are right, you can't load two OSs at the same time. But you can load an OS on top of the other. To do this you have to have an application that simulates the hardware functions. The layering will be like this:

    -Second OS-
    -application that simulates hardware-
    -1 OS-
    -hardware-

    I've heard good things anout VMWare, www.vmware.com, available for both Windows and Linux platforms. It will do the hardware simulation for you. Keep in mind that you'll need a very fast computer if you wan't to load heavy applications on top of the second OS.

    Good luck!
    ---
    proactive

  9. #9
    Senior since the 3 dot era
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    You can load two operating systems together!
    never heard of virtual machines running on a mainframe?
    VMWare gives you the possibilty to run several OS's on the same box at the same time.

    What is VM Ware?
    This is NOT an emulator; it is a hardware multiplexing executive. That means that guest OSes actually run on the bare silicon, with all their I/O (disk, mouse, keyboard, NIC, video, etc) running through virtualized devices hosted by the executive software which, itself, runs in the native operating system. Thus, the CPU burst performance of the guest is practically that of the host OS. However, device performance can vary greatly, depending on how well your system devices work with VMWare's virtualization of them. For instance, I noticed considerable performance degradation when accessing floppies and when doing complete screen redraws (for example, when switching between each of RedHat's default of 4 desktops). Hopefully, this will be improved with further releases, as the VM device drivers improve. However, doing CPU bound processing (like unsharp mask in GIMP) is really close to native speed, since it operates primarily on the CPU and in memory (and hence operates like any other multi-tasking program under NT).
    You can run VMWare on a linux as host or on a windows as host

    Whether you work in development, quality assurance, or IT, you can run the operating systems you need -- all at once. With VMware for Windows NT and Windows 2000, you can create a set of virtual machines -- then use them to work the way you want. Flexibly. Safely. Securely.
    get it here: http://www.vmware.com/


  10. #10
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    I'm going to assume sandy meant to have two os running at the same time.

    It is possible some of us have misunderstood the term "loading" to be installing. You generally can't load two os at the same time due to mbr access situations. You can certainly have two (or more) os running concurrently often with an emulation or similar type of arrangement as referred to by VK.

    have run more than one diverse os at the same time, with varying degrees of success and, yes, it does work well on a mainframe or very fast unit. Some of the "big" iron runs many os if one so desires.

    let us know how you fare in this.

    Trappedagainbyperfectlogic.

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