[techtalk] Other OSes on a Linux box

[Samantha Jo Moore]

I have a few words to add to the LILO/NT/LINUX thread.  I just finished
configuring 4 DELL laptop workstations with both NT 4.0 and Redhat 6.1.
The first one was a pain in the you-know-where.  The rest went as easy
as could be.

Like Caitlyn said, NT thinks it's the only thing in the world, so it tries 
to take over every piece of disk that it sees.  It also thinks it owns the 
MBR so it overwrites whatever is there without making a backup first.  On 
top of all, the NT installation program has a MAJOR bug!  It asks you to
select the partition on which you want to install NT, but it ignores that
and always looks at the first partion on the disk and if it's not labeled 
as a FAT or NTFS it whines and whines and whines about it!

So...  What I found that works to put both OSs on the disk is:

 1- Install NT first, creating only the root partition for NT using the 
    NT installation software.

 2- Reboot ('cause NT wants you to)

 3- Reboot again ('cause NT likes to do this)

 4- Reboot again and again and again ... ('cause NT thinks it's a lot 
    of fun!)

 5- After you're done rebooting over and over (geez!) install
    Linux.  Partition the rest of the disk using Linux's partitioning
    tool.  When the Linux installation asks you where you want to put
    LILO tell it to put it in the MBR.  LILO will then be configured
    to start either your new installation of Linux or NT (labeled as
    "dos" in the LILO menu).

 6- Like Courtney said, keep your prayers going all the time, especially
    if you have to tinker some more with NT.

As far as MS drivers for different hardware go, this should not be a 
problem.  Every hardware manufacturer I know provides Windows drivers 
with their hardware.  You can also download them from their respective
web sites if you don't have the original diskettes that are usually
supplied with the new hardware.  It's drivers for Linux that you will
have problems getting.

Good luck.
Samantha


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