# How To Install Linux On 98 Drive?



## Randolf34 (Nov 28, 2005)

have look at this site to see what linux version had been saved to hard drive.
ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/damnsmall/

98 drive already have two drive partition. C + D C has 98 on it. the question
is how find installer that can dual boot and save 98. disk images have been
saved to cd.


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## saikee (Jun 11, 2004)

Are you talking Win98?

What is stopping it multibooting with Linux?

I have a Win98 in hda3. From hda6 to hda43 is lined with Linux distros except 5 empty slots between hda33 and hda37. This is just one of the disks in the box.

All Win98 needs is just a primary partition, to be chosen between hda1, hda2 and hda3, if the last one is to have a few logical partitions.


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## johnny_frog (Mar 27, 2005)

I'm not 100% sure what your question is....

If you are looking for info on bootloaders check out below...
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX/os.html#OSBOOT

If you are looking for info on installing... 
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX/os.html#OSINSTALL

I don't know what options DSL gives with regard to resizing existing partitions before installing, take a look at this post for some ideas
http://forums.techguy.org/t416023.html

hope this helps...


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## Randolf34 (Nov 28, 2005)

this is what text file says but without saying which red hat version it is.
We honnor the GPL and will send anybody the sources to the GPL software in Damn Small. 
If you want to recive copies of the software please send us $7 (cost of media and shipping) 
and we will gladly mail you the sources.

Please send the check to:
Lizard Biscuit
P.O Box 4504
Foster City, CA
94404
what is the sources? how do you which boot loader to use? would like not to erase 98.
drive has two partitions for 98 with 98 on first one. thank you for replies.


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## Old Bob (Dec 18, 2004)

Randolf34,

What is on the D:\> partition ??
Is it something you can "live without" ??

If you are willing to give up the D:\> partition, you can format it [with a Win98SE boot floppy] and install just about any Linux distro.

Even if you want to keep both C:\> and D:\> partitions you could still try installing Linux using "free space".

Most Linux distros start with partitioning information and ask "how you want to partition hard drive.

1) Use ENTIRE hard drive = Caution: this will wipe out Win98 !!!
2) Use "free space" on hard drive. This is what you want.
3) Specify partitions. This is tricky !! Linux will show partitions as hda1, hda2, etc.. NOT as C:\> or D:\> you have to know what you are doing !!!

After you decide on partitioning [if it involves "dual booting" - you are keeping Win98] the distro will use a pre-determined bootloader either LILO or GRUB.

A distro I would recommend is Xandros -

http://www.edmunds-enterprises.com/linux/modules/cart/index.php/ba/pdtl/product/269

It is ONLY $2.49 here.


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## Randolf34 (Nov 28, 2005)

http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/4/i386/iso/ from this site, a
download of two sets of iso type disk images is in progess. the syslinux will go on the
70gb that makes up the second partition. duplicate folders of all linux materials are on
both partitions for storage or application.

the zandros-301-ocd-install.zip, service pack2 zip.torrent and with bit torrent-4.2.0
have been downloaded as well as the isolinux.bin. almost 6gb has been compiled in the
effort to put a zipsaw puzzle together. besides the mozilla downloads with the latest of
firefire 1.07 browser and thunderbird 1.07 latest, win98se sits alone on the first.

lilo=22.7.1.scr.tar.tar already sits in one folder. will that work with xandros? once the
correct cd series is written, 98 can be scrubbed until new partitons are made if there
is a need for that. 50gb primary can be cut if needed on the 120gb drive.


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## lynch (Aug 3, 2002)

Randolf34 said:


> http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/4/i386/iso/ from this site, a
> download of two sets of iso type disk images is in progess. the syslinux will go on the
> 70gb that makes up the second partition. duplicate folders of all linux materials are on
> both partitions for storage or application.
> ...


All that stuff ( except the Xandro stuff)will be on the Fedora CDs. You dont need to download all that stuff.And what do you mean by "2 sets of iso type disk images"? these are the only ones you need:
FC4-i386-disc1.iso 06-Jun-2005 22:54 635M 
FC4-i386-disc2.iso 06-Jun-2005 22:55 638M 
FC4-i386-disc3.iso 06-Jun-2005 22:56 638M 
FC4-i386-disc4.iso 06-Jun-2005 22:57 630M 
FC4-i386-rescuecd.iso 06-Jun-2005 22:52 84M 
You dont need to get the SRPM images.
lynch


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## Randolf34 (Nov 28, 2005)

having not being sure at the time, both sets, one with the srpms were grabbed too on
this site here at http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/4/i386/iso/
the srpms were the ones started first just to be sure. they can be removed if needed.
thanks for the response there.

the results will be posted when those are run from cds. 98 doesn't support some new
hardware while still needing the old 16 and 32 bit apps. a firend was sayiing get other
version. but, red hat is free to download. also got some gnu/damian or puppy files in
another folder for a possible third os? new one looked better at 5.2gb than 21mb pup!


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## Randolf34 (Nov 28, 2005)

still trying to get correct img file on floppy. have been using rawritewin under 98 for
making boot floppy. these files have been writen to cd-rs.

FC4-i386-disc1.iso 06-Jun-2005 22:54 635M 
FC4-i386-disc2.iso 06-Jun-2005 22:55 638M 
FC4-i386-disc3.iso 06-Jun-2005 22:56 638M 
FC4-i386-disc4.iso 06-Jun-2005 22:57 630M 
FC4-i386-rescuecd.iso 06-Jun-2005 22:52 84M 

presently have lilo-22.7.1.src.tar saved to disk.


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## Randolf34 (Nov 28, 2005)

cannot find iso9660 cd disk image despite all folders browsed and the isos above.


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## saikee (Jun 11, 2004)

Normally you burn the iso image into a CD, boot it up and go.

There are many distros out there that has only one CD and give you as much function as FC4. FC5 is out too in a DVD iso image and works great.


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## Randolf34 (Nov 28, 2005)

disk not detected when booting cd. that was the fc4-i386-disk1.iso cd. a red hat boot
floppy loads installation program well along with hardware detection phase. but, it fails
to recognise the fc4 isos as valid. disk not detected when rescue cd booted either.

what distro will work with these isos? still searching for linux partitioning tool "part". no
link has been found for downloading it as of yet. also have slackware files onhand.


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## lynch (Aug 3, 2002)

You have to burn the iso image to a CD; not just copy the image. There should be several folders and files on the burned DC, not just the one iso image file.
lynch


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## Randolf34 (Nov 28, 2005)

the only two on cd-r #1 are the fc4 iso image and isolinux.bin. there is only 31.5mb of free space left after those are burned.


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## saikee (Jun 11, 2004)

spoon feeding again! for the 3rd time.

Choose "To burn image". No just "burn" it!


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## Randolf34 (Nov 28, 2005)

you must mean C:\Program Files\B's Recorder GOLD5\DOC\manual\index.html where it
says to create from standard bootable image. if they are no good they are backups to
copy to hard drive again. what version of linux has both damsmall and syslinux files in
the folders after download? plus there is slate isos too.


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## Randolf34 (Nov 28, 2005)

B's puts it's own boot disk files on it to make it into a backup disk not a loader. when
it started to load B's took over forcing the need for a floppy or windows installer that
can open the tars and create linux on the second partition.


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## saikee (Jun 11, 2004)

If you see a Linux offered with an iso image for download. That image when burnt to a CD will be bootable and you will be offered either

(1) an installer guide you through the installation procedure, as FC, Suse, Mandriva, Debian...

or

(2) The Linux will run as a full blow system on a CD withou the need of installing into ahard disk. At its desktop, or in the system icon somewhere there will be a script like "HD install", "install me" etc so that by clicking it you will be greeted by an installer. This will be the cases with Knoppix (its installer called knoppix-installer I think), Mepis, Puppy and Damn Small Linux....

In all cases it is the nstaller that take you by the hand through the installation process. A good installer only asks 4 to 5 questions.

Only a Linux specifically states as a "Live CD" that you may not find an installer there.

You can forget about making a boot disk and all its craps and just look for .iso files. I never bother with one. If there is a boot disk worths to make it is the Grub floppy as I have never found a PC system that cannot be booted by it. You can make one your self with any Live CD that supports Grub. Just follow Chapter 3.1 of Grub Manual. It boots my Win98 too!


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## Randolf34 (Nov 28, 2005)

On a UNIX-like operating system, that is done with the following commands: presents
a slight problem with 98. too bad a dos/windows installer isn't around. 98 is likely to get
phazed out though. it was the dos partition for old 16bit dos apps that was needed.


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## saikee (Jun 11, 2004)

So what is the problem of FAT16 partition which you can create and format in Linux, in addition to DOS and Windows? There is nothing to worry with Linux because it can boot dead systems too.

I still keep FAT16 partitions for DOS and Win3x in the box as with a free software called "Grub4Dos you can hoop around between all Dos, Win3x and Win9x without a reboot. You can round up every system sold by M$ and put it in a box and Grub, even without the use of the MBR and in a floppy, can still boot all of them.


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## johnny_frog (Mar 27, 2005)

Randolf34, I dunno what burner you are using but the following should give you an idea...

http://gulliver.trb.org/publications/burning_iso.html


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## Randolf34 (Nov 28, 2005)

just about everything seems to run on a fat16. while looking for instructions for boot,
one article claimed a good 10 partitions could be thrown on a drive. still got dos, 3.1,
95, 98 and dam small to run if the part can be found. chainlinking is the term used.

the part by name is the linux partition making tool. yet the wd drive lifeguard utility is
also able to make size changes by manual entries. but that is strictly fat32. it's easy to
put a fat16 on the front end a few times up to 2gb. the lifeguard can go much further.

at this point, 98 is left on to install linux somehow even with dos if needed. 98 won't
run the new hardware though. so linux looked good. got a link for grub4dos?


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## Randolf34 (Nov 28, 2005)

sony crx225 cd-r/rw or sony dru530a dvd-r/cd-r writers with B'sRecorder GOLD just
updated which now has support for data dvds. but the B's put it's own files on when a
try at burning an iso as a bootable is run. probably have to install off of the drive to a
second partition from the first.


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## saikee (Jun 11, 2004)

Look each M$ system needs a primary partition to survive in and there is a maximum of 4 primaries in a hard disk so push all your Linux into the logical partitions which you can created up to a total of 63 by giving up one primary to form an extended partition.

I think the maximum number of partitions in an IDE disk should be 59 with the maximun number reached being 63 in Linux. Only 15 partition numbers are allowed in a Sata/SCSI disk. 

I have hda1 to hda60 in mine but hda4 being an extended partition holding no storage. Yes you can chop up your disk any way you want and the best tool in the business I think is "cfdisk" and "fdisk". Both are available in any distro (Red Hat family uses sfdisk instead of cfdisk!), including of course Live CDs.

Only Linux partition tools like the above can create partitions for DOS, Windows,BSD, Soloris and Linux, although in formatting Linux supports only the FAT systems. 

No good in makng a FAT16 partition bigger than 2Gb because DOS/Win9x will not mount is as they do have the capability to address it. You can create >2Gb FAT16 partitions in Linux too but only Linux can use it and that defeats the object of the exercise, I think.

Grub4Dos is really a tool to launch Grub within a FAT16 partition but it is cool because

(1) DOS can't see beyond 2Gb but Grub4Dos can boot any distro at the end of a 300Gb disk, a system in Sata and virtually any system Grub can boot.

(2) You can place a copy of Grub4Dos in all the FAT partitions of DOS, Win3x and Win9x so that you can boot to any one, use Grub4Dos to leap to another. From another system use Grub4Dos again to hoop to yet another and so on. Kind of a weird experience moving around without a reboot.

(3) You can live without the MBR completely! Just boot to a DOS, cd to the C: drive and go from there to anywhere you want.

(4) You need Grub to hide partitions that can complete for the "c" drive position. To boot to a slave, 3rd and 4th disk you need to use Grub's map statement to re-map the drives on-the-fly so that you can boot any M$ system up to a "C".

(5) In Dos you can write a batch file to automate booting with Grub4dos so that booting can be done with the minimum effort.


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## lynch (Aug 3, 2002)

What program are you using to make the FC4 CDs?
Take a look at this:Cd ISO burning HOWTO


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## Randolf34 (Nov 28, 2005)

found that grub_for_dos translation on one place called sarovar.org that will be given
the try upon review of these already downloaded iso files. one thing about 3.1, 95, 98,
and ms dos 6.0 is that none have to auto loaded. a few edits make them all dos. but,
a pair of 2gb fat16 parts never hurt on a 120gb drive.

at this point, getting linux in there as a possible replacement for 98 is a thought. but,
seeing 3.1 running again with 95 or 98 is a switch. the loadin.exe.gz was another item
reviewed too. these two together should work out if the dam small works.

with almost 5.5gb of files something should. download of debian with jigdo-win came
was done before spotting the dam small site. getting familiar with linux is a task right
now before going after the latest red hat build. that will come later. sometime?


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## Randolf34 (Nov 28, 2005)

you may or may not have heard of B'sRecorder GOLD. Easy cd creator is familiar from
about four or five years back. but the B's comes with the sony drives. believe it or not
it could not burn anything to dvd until today! and the bootable burns on cd-rs could
not be fully run due to B's own two files for boot floppies on them.

version 5.0 did not support dvd writing until an update grabbed from the latest 8.0 is
now giving support for this. it had been updated to 5.4 withot that. 6.0-70 unsure. it
would be good to have a recovery disk at some point. but like saikee is saying a good
tool like grub4dos can take care of not needing any specific software to burn images.

if i get a few extra partitions by splitting one down, there will room for a few linuxes.


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## lynch (Aug 3, 2002)

Why not just install somthing?


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## Randolf34 (Nov 28, 2005)

that's one idea to get going on. three or four windows with a few linuxes. grub or lilo?
debian or dam small on the list.


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## Randolf34 (Nov 28, 2005)

still trying to get an image to boot. just found another with freeDOS that was the one
to make things easier. in windows, there's a winimage that takes the img file to write a
boot floppy that requests one iso. let's try ? the syslinux didn't work. the web site link
for grub_for_dos was lost before that could be saved.

Both dam small and syslinux img files have been tried from the current directory in the
linux folders downloaded with no result. now a freedos cd image for running linux from a
cd drive has failed as well. instructions were to copy not bootable when writing for the
freedos.iso to be able to boot that image. nada. neither worked.


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## lynch (Aug 3, 2002)

You set _have _ your computer's BIOS to boot from cdrom, correct? Does anything bootable work on your computer?
It sounds like your trying to boot an image from within windows, which wont happen.


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## Randolf34 (Nov 28, 2005)

it is set to boot from the cd. even the floppy drive for the img versions tried. the new
one just burned to cd is from freeDOS that writes folders not iso files to disk. 98 is the
problem with 2gb of ram onboard where not enough memory errors prevent using a win
ttype installer. plus ubutu can't finish download to install itself when that version was a
new try. that will install on the spot except for 98.

the floppy version needed a cd rom driver to access the drive when it already loaded
it's own generic version. there's no worry about 98 since there sound with a new card.
no support there. linux offered a way out of MS headaches like that for another os to
be run on a second drive instead of xp on fat32. older dos apps can run to some linux
platforms along with some other non ms programs.


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## Randolf34 (Nov 28, 2005)

Anyone for a disk throwing contest? the latest cd-r with freeDOS no boot! it's a good
thing they come in 100 packs. the next one will set as a non-bootable type. don't have
roxio here to try that out.


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## saikee (Jun 11, 2004)

Randolf34,

If I were in your position with Win98 limited by the 2Gb FAT16 partition I would get hold of a Live CD, any freebie one from a magazine will do, use the Linux cfdisk program to delete the unwanted hard disk space, create say a 8 Gb new FAT32 partition, make it bootable, hide the existing FAT16 partition temporarily, format my FAT32 partition in Linux using

mkdosfs -F32 /dev/hdax where x in hdax corresponds to the newly created FAT32 partition.

I can then install Win98 on the new partition with plenty of room to download iso images.

If I am happy with the Win98 in 8Gb FAT32 partition I would download DOS 7.10, which come with Grub on board, and put it in the old 2Gb Fat16 partition to manage all the systems.


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## Randolf34 (Nov 28, 2005)

the 98 installation is on a 50gb fat32 partition where 2gb of that was hidden by the
westen digital lifeguard drfat32 partitioning utility. so far a utility to create virtual type
drives for mounting the iso files has been used to copy files from those to new folders.

once linux can get up and running, 98 if on a fat16 will get bumped by win3.1 since it
can't run on a newer model sound for old dos apps. the older 3.1 will sit there on a 2gb
without causing memory errors like 98 does with over 1gb of ram installed.

at this time the idea is to find what works to get linux installed and running. after the
drive can be split into 20 partitions if need be. VISTA? that may be replaces 98 on the
second primary. linux would then be on the remaining fat16 and fat32s that were made
at a later time. this is not the primary but primary slave drive on this system. the older
MS Dos 6.22 will be on one partition for 3.1 since will be one fat16 there.

98 already has 7.1 built into it. part244 or another one can remake several partitions.
one utility just found can shrink a partition down or increase it with no effect on 98 or
other versions installed. if the 98 can be shrunk to 10gb, it will be storage for linux files
that have been downloaded. the 70gb can be shrunk to run one linux with new ones on
the drive added for different versions of linux. 

now to see if the files copied from mounted iso's can be installed on the hard drive.


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## Randolf34 (Nov 28, 2005)

One thing did come out of this so far was the ubuntu boot floppy. with 98 on one drive
and XP on the primary, there is no longer a need to change the boot order in order for
the switch from XP to 98. upon booting from floppy, the hardware listing there allows a
choice of which drive to boot up.
it lists the same drives twice.
hd0=0
hd1=0
hd0=ntfs
hd1=fat32
Upon choosing the cd rom with the iso image in the drive, no go yet. mounting a drive
is basic with the isobuster and winima80 utilities. there the files/folders can easily be
dragged into folders on the actual hard drive. but still waiting for a gui to appear.


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## Randolf34 (Nov 28, 2005)

What a difference with Roxio. Now the images can be loaded and written to disk at the
same time. Ubuntu live went well. However, despite a good install of Fedora, the second
drive wouldn't boot with the grub bootloader. Trying to debug this now.


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## saikee (Jun 11, 2004)

If you want a tool that can boot any systems in a PC then make a Grub floppy by following the steps of Chapter 3.1 of Grub Manual. I can boot any of the 70+ systems with just this floppy!!!

All you need is stage1 and stage2 files by Grub and they are available in the Ubuntu LIve CD. Boot the Live CD up and ask Linux to find which directory has it by typing

find / -name stage1

you then change directory it and follow Grub Manual to "dd" the two files into a floppy.

With the Grub floppy booting into a Grub prompt you can ask Grub to tell you the partitioning scheme of your second drive (Grub count from 0 so 2nd drive =(hd1)) by typing

geometry (hd1)

Grub boots a Linux (Fedora uses Grub) according to the instructions laid down in /boot directory and is in a text file always called /boot/grub/menu.lst.

You can ask Grub to tell you which partition has menu.lst by typing at Grub prompt

find menu.lst

If Grub reports say (hd1,1) that mean 2nd partition of 2nd disk got it and you can ask Grub to list its content by typing

cat (hd1,1)/boot/grub/menu.lst

Write down the instructions starting with the first "titile statement to the first "initrd" statement.

You can then type these 3 to 4 lines to boot Fedora "manually" yourself, by just adding "boot" as the finishing line.

As an example and assuming you have Fedora C4 with its root partition at (hd1,1), the following lines type at Grub prompt should fire it up

root (hd1,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.11-1.1269_FC4 ro root=/dev/hdb2
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4.img
boot

The same floppy will boot your Win9x if it is in first partition of the first disk with 3 lines

root (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
boot

Basically you just change the first line to tell Grub where is the "root" of the system you want to boot. Chainloader +1 always work for M$ systems as each always has a boot loader inside the root partition.

Learn to use the Grub floppy. It is the most lethal weapon in bootiing, for any PC system!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## lynch (Aug 3, 2002)

Smart Boot Manager


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## saikee (Jun 11, 2004)

Smart Boot Manager is smart alright as it only does chainloading or boot to another boot loader. That is only 50% of the work carried out by Lilo or Grub as both of them can boot additionally any system "directly" by calling its kernel.

At a next level of booting one needs to use the Kernel of Linux A to boot Linux B and fine-tune the parameters at kernel loading to get systems booted beyond 137Gb barrier and in high partition numbers. 

Grub can "chainload" any system with 2 lines at Grub prompt

chainloader (hdi,j)+1 
boot

Even j is the 60th partition!


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## lynch (Aug 3, 2002)

It's so he can boot from a cd.


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## Randolf34 (Nov 28, 2005)

Ubuntu live cd came right up without issue when the Roxio 8 was used. Fedora was in
the next line following ubuntu install after a fat16 was put at the front of the drive. In
Fedora, the Grub prompt now comes up when using the ubuntu boot floppy. It seems a
bit like Fedora went on well. 98 was wiped due to no drivers for sound available.

98 was having to many errors due to having more than 1gb of ram installed. Yet, 3.1
purrs like a kitten. That is now drowned out with the grub prompt. The 2nd and 3rd of
the three partitions are now vfat32 for linux. Fedora had a 6.2gb install. That stalled a
first install on a smaller part now redone to 10gb.

The next step is to get those commands familiarized to see if the installation went on
good for the three versions planned. The win3.1 addon was mainly for looks on the old
dos platform there. That's the first 2gb only at this point. Next to try some comands to
see how things go. Post results shortly.


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## Randolf34 (Nov 28, 2005)

Commands not recognised at Grub prompt. Errors 15, 24, and 27 continue to appear.
Either it is an unrecognised command or an unknown system when trying access drive. Another attempt to make up a boot floppy with the Fedora grub will be tried.


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## saikee (Jun 11, 2004)

Look at Grub Manual for the error messages. There is no better teacher than the PC as it always tells us the exact problem. 

Type "help" at Grub prompt will show all commands available. 

One Grub floppy "unattached" to a system is all you need.

In general a Linux with Lilo as its boot loader will has Lilo control file in /etc/lilo.conf. For Grub it will be /boot/grub/menu.lst. You can use the "cat" command to view any of these two files to see exactly how the Linux was booted.


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## Randolf34 (Nov 28, 2005)

The main problems here are the missing menu.lst when entering at the grub prompt as
well as a few others. The grub boot loader seems to have been installed to a parition.
It shows up when booting from the drive. But it may not have been installed to the mbr
the way it should have gone in.

When booting from the primary drive into XP it only shows a fat32 D drive listed. But, a first partition was a fat16. There are supposed to be four vfat32 partitions according
to the Ubuntu and Fedora partitioning done. The root partition issue kept coming up.

The red hat 9.0 installer in Fedora brings that up. Trying to get a second nature on a
linux command list will take time however. There was a problem trying to find menu.lst
with the commands here and in an article read on how to use the grub floppy. Fedora
went on last. But still may not be complete.


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## saikee (Jun 11, 2004)

The menu.lst is always stored in /boot/grub directory.

If you are in a Bash shell (command prompt)

more /boot/grub/menu.lst will list the file out
vi /boot/grub/menu.lst will enable you to edit it.

You have to do a fdisk -l in Bash shell and list the content here if you want other's help to sort out your partition arrangaement. The Listing of menu.lst also helps.

There is a amazing amount you can do with a Grub prompt (from the floppy). All the instructions are in the Grub Manual. The one I have has the same number of pages that you can read from the Internet.

For example, if you are sure hda5, (hd0,4) to Grub, is the root partition for Fedora with all the necessary Grub files, then typing 

root (hd0,4)
setup (hd0)

can ask Grub to put the Fedora boot boader into the MBR.


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## Randolf34 (Nov 28, 2005)

Fedora detects and upgrades installation but will not load. Upon reaching the grub on
booting from the second drive, the unhide (hd1,0) hide (hd1,2) worked well. The fat32
listing in explorer went to the first part's doswin31 label. Grub couldn't find a kernel was
the following error after printing out the 26 page readme text file.

To access the fat16 part you boot with the ms6.22 startup floppy where you manually
change drives. The option to make a boot floppy in Fedora ver. 4 upon bootup with cd1
followed by cd #2 wasn't even there. The Grub4dos floppy didn't work with Fedora as
of yet. No partition exists, unrecognised command, and a few numbers came up.

The Linux online manual gives the error descriptions of the stage2 errors seen. To set
the Fedora boot loader up, the manual puts it like this.
#!/bin/sh

# Use /usr/sbin/grub if you are on an older system.
/sbin/grub --batch <<EOT 1>/dev/null 2>/dev/null
root (hd0,0)
setup (hd0)
quit
EOT

Fedora's version of grub seems to add a little more on the command line. Yet Fedora's
site has little information for anything else but installation and projects.


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## saikee (Jun 11, 2004)

I think your problem is not knowing your own partitioning scheme. Why don't you let Grub earns its keeps? Boot the Grub floppy up and ask Grub where the hell is Fedora's /boot/grub/menu.lst by

find /boot/grub/menu.lst 

Grub should report back with a partition number like (hd0,5). You can then tell Grub that is the root partition you after and ask it to use the corresponding configfile.

root (hd0,5)
configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst 

Adjust the (hd0,5) to the one report by your Grub prompt and Fedora should fire up.


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## Randolf34 (Nov 28, 2005)

That will be looked at too. There's certainly room here for trying anything at this time.
With two hard drives connected while that show as (hd1,5) or (hd0,5)? XP is default on the primary while Linux will be running on the secondary drive. The secondary can be split into 100 partitions if needed. The primary is storing the iso images until Linux
is up and running. Plus the initial downloads were backed up on disk.

The results from the next try will be posted shortly.


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## Randolf34 (Nov 28, 2005)

Unable to mount partition, menu.lst not found, fat detected on (Ex0) or something like
that saikee. Can you keep a fat16 on the front end while splitting vfat32s over the rest
of a 120gb drive? Something didn't get copied right even though the Fedora indicated a
good install to the #5 partition. If it takes a few wipes of the drive, i'm game for it!


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## Randolf34 (Nov 28, 2005)

Adding one other thing was the partition not found error seen. Fedora partioned and
formatted according to what was seen.


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## saikee (Jun 11, 2004)

If you have installed Fedora in the second disk then the /boot/grub/menu.lst would be in (hd1,4) and not (hd0,4). (hd1,4) means the 5th partition of the 2nd disk as Grub counts from 0. You have been searching the wrong disk by the look of it.

An iDE disk can have the maximum partition number 63 in LInux. For that you have to give up all the primaries and start the first partition as a logical. As the extended partition itself does not hold data an IDE disk effectively has only usable 59 partitions (hda5 to hda63 inclusively).

A Sata is a SCSI variant and is only permitted o have a maximum of 15 partitions in Linux.

All these will be visible to you when using the cfdisk in Linux.


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## Randolf34 (Nov 28, 2005)

Well? The drive just got blasted when all those missing parts are now to be replaced.
98 just went back on in a 10gb first partition with six others made for LInux. The #7 is
for storage only at this point with roughly 60gb to shuffle.

Shortly, Fedora will go on before Ubuntu. That may have been one issue there. Upon a
reinstall of Fedora prior to the drive wipe, nothing seemed to go right. WD's lifeguard is
not even recognised by 98 when it partitioned and formatted the drive. fdisk had to be
used on the 98 part to finally get the first os running. Good old ms.

Fedora will format the next 10gb where fdisk and WD couldn't do it. At this time, the
cfdisk is being located for use with the others like Ubuntu, damm small, graves, and a
few like Knoppix will be run as live cds. WD had it's own boot loader upon initially going
after the 8 fat32 parts. The last part will stay at the 60gb for now.

The drive utility did show a small part at the beginning of the drive that could be used
as a logical if it has enough room. If not, the next after 98 will have to be set aside for
the logical if the root doesn't take on the smaller amount here. Now let's see how the
next Fedora attempt works.


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## Randolf34 (Nov 28, 2005)

Hope i can find a good deal on 100 pack tdk cd-rs. When you get faulty iso images, it
can make you hot under the collar. First one software wouldn't burn them right. Now it
appears the Fedora downloads didn't make the grade.

Currently the BitTorrent will get some replacements easy enough. Each one wil now be
gone through over and over with the image tests. It's not the Roxio 8. That went right
on without any issues.


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## saikee (Jun 11, 2004)

Do a MD5SUN check on an iso. Every distro site supplies this number to enable the user to check the inegrity of the transmitted iso file. The MD5Sum check pprograms are freely available in many site.

I only do it myself when a CD distro doesn't work and on DVDs. I never had a problem with burning (possibly not notice it) with Ahead Nero but occasionally a daft transmisson. I would say 95% iso go in without any hicup. Never had an experience of a bad CD either.

You will be branded as an outcast in this forum like me and possibly hated if you start to "retain" every operating systems you install. 

As Dos, Windows, BSD and Solaris need primary partitions to install and boot from you will be better off putting all Linux in logical partitions. As logical partitions come from an extended partition which can only be obtained by giving up one of the 4 primaries in a disk. Therefore you can have the maximum of 6 primaries in two disks. Do plan your systems ahead. I never mix my personal data with a system so 1Gb for Dos, 3Gb for Win9x and 5Gb for Linux work fine for me.

Dos and non-NT versions of the Windows can be moved around without the re-installation. Their boot loaders can by transferred by the DOS's "sys" command to enable Grub to chainload them. Really tough NT versions of Windows can still be transferred and bootable using the "dd" command in Linux. Unless you move the systems to another PC you should be able to move any of them around between disks and partitions.

I only had problem with NT versions of Windows when moving a the hard disk from one computer to another. 90% of the Linux can be put right without the need to re-install them. Some of my distros have passed through 3 different machines and are still the original one I installed.


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## Randolf34 (Nov 28, 2005)

Do you have any links for the MD5SUN utility? The partitions made for Linux have not
been formatted by any distros as of yet. But after having backed up all types of video,
software, and various types of files onto cd-rs and now dvd-rs, you occasionally get a
bad disk or bad write.

The verification of a download would be even more important than going through many
blanks just for one iso image to be a success. When any initial partitioning and format
is performed on the second drive, the primary is disconnected. That isolates it from any
change by what is done on the secondary drive. It also stores the Linux utilties at the
present time. The live cds are running fine though except for MEPIS.

With the MEPIS you need a logon account setup with the image. The logon failed. The
two emailed passwords didn't work after two attempts at one site. But other live Linux
cds will be made. Meanwhile, the dos and windows version were found at:
http://linuxiso.org/viewdoc.php/verifyiso.html Now to check the other iso images.

Retaining operating systems won't be a problem here. It has more to do with being a
little more familiar especially when people are always asking for help. "Gee my doesn't"
or " Can you look at..." is always being asked. Linux provides an escape.


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## saikee (Jun 11, 2004)

Think I got mine from  here .

To install a distro you "DONOT" need to format it as every distro will not trust you and does it again. Also some distros may like Ext2, Ext3 and Reiserfs so just partition it with partition 83 will do in every case. It is a good policy to have a firm view on where you want a distro to go and the installation can be considerably simplified.

I would in your case go for an external hard disk. All mine were in caddies which can be inserted and pulled out from mobile racks permanently fixed to the PC. I also screw a couple of mobile racks on 5.25" external hard drive enclosures to enable me to use any of my disks as either internel or external drive. The disks are jumpered as "cable select" and automatically become a master or slave according to the position of the mobile racks.

The pass word for Mepis is "root". I thought it is obvious at the boot screen. For a Live CD there is always something somewhere to tell you how to get in.

I am passing knowledge I gained from taught by others in the forum. Think that is one of the big advantages in Linux with nothing hidden for a commercial reason. If there is a better way to doing thing it will be reported and made public.


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## Randolf34 (Nov 28, 2005)

That can be agreed with readily. The link was the same for the md5sum which seems to check text and call errors for anything seen like addresses for cd copies. Both the
dos and windows versions were downloaded. It verifies all parts received?

Room for an external usb drive isn't there. At first the second drive was in a 5 1/4' bay
adapter under the cd-r/rw drive. With a newer cd-r/rw slaved off the hard drive. When
it was first put there, files were then copied to the new drive. Then comes a dvd-r/rw.
The case sits inside a cabinet that is part of the pc desk.

The partitioning mentioned was the work of the drive utility since cfdisk has not been
downloaded. Those were made to reserve space but not formatted. Only the 98 part is
ready since 98 is running on the first. At the dmm small site, the folders were separate
from each other as you downloaded the various files and images. How can you tell that
everythiing is there when it is only an image sought?

The mounting of an iso takes place first in order to burn to disk. After it is on disk, you
can explore the folders and files seen then. But how you can verfy the iso before it is
even mounted as it sits in download folder? Md5sum doesn't verify each iso by itself. It
only verifies how many were downloaded.


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## saikee (Jun 11, 2004)

MD5Sum check------------

Do it in command prompt 

md5sum filename.iso

It will take some time then a long number is displayed. Compare it with the one supplied by the site.

Best to check it before burning into a CD


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## Randolf34 (Nov 28, 2005)

When going to use the md5summer.exe for windows, even in the command prompt, a
text file that accompanies the image is the only thing opened. This will verify the image
number. But how do you verify that the downloaded image is intact? With Fedora, five
cd images are clearly listed and downloaded. You know if the right ones are there.

Upon installation, you can use the disk checker tool to verify each disk. That is after
the disk is written. How do you verify that the iso image is not damaged or incomplete
before the cd is burned is the question? The md5sum doesn't test the image itself. The
try with a command prompt in windows brought up a binary code error there.


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## Randolf34 (Nov 28, 2005)

Upon using the Windows version of md5summer it opens to 100% in the screen where
it then asks which directory to save it in. The save is seen as being empty. A copy of
the Fedora core 3 failed to download a complete image. Now another copy of core 4 is
on the way to see if it is a working not failed copy.

The live cds run well except for the MEPIS. When using a user name and root as the
password it scrolls down to another prompt where "....root..." becomes the user name.
The enter of root in the password part fails. Which is better to use for downloading the
iso images is another question regarding either internet explorer or BitTorrent?


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## saikee (Jun 11, 2004)

I think you should find the MD5SUM program already install. I usually go into the command prompt and type

MS5SUM Linuxname-vesion_no-i386-ba-ba-ba-disc1.iso

and the disk will go into a frantic mode. When it dies down I would see a long number appears in the screen, usually in about half a minute.

Firefox is the one I use for downloading. You need to point a gun at me to force me to expose the PC to the virus attack by using IE.


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## Randolf34 (Nov 28, 2005)

The use of IE and the BitTorrent have been nothing but a headache when after a day
of time the complete iso doesn't work after a cd is burned. Winiso, Fireburner, Fireman,
and Isobuster have all looked at an image but the media checker says a bad disk. Any
Windows MD%SUMMER use seems to only make a 157kb copy of the iso.

Where do you get the Firefox? The latest Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird are already
on the system. Does that download the images any faster than a torrent? Slackware
also had a torrent. But when double clicking on BitTorrent took over the show.


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## saikee (Jun 11, 2004)

I think the download speed is dictated by your Internet service provider. It just IE has so many holes and not worth of using especially when you have Firefox.

Bitorrent is a lot slower but quite reliable. I take it you have no booting problem by now.


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## Randolf34 (Nov 28, 2005)

It is only taking a few days to download just four iso images that are just over 600mb.
XP's service pack 2 at 269mb never took over 20minutes. At present trying find the log
for Bittorrent that indicated an error after Slackware was finished downloading.

The latest version of Firefox is currently downloading the Fedora core 4 in another try
at getting a working burn of these images. Generally downloads all over the place are
quite fast even with IE6.0 without issues. But the servers at the Linux end seem more
or less to be the cause for the time it's taking.

So far every live cd has had success except for the MEPIS logon. But that is a sideline
from the Fedora problem where disks are failing every time an image is burned to disk.
And, the downloads are clean. The Media Checker keeps saying clean disk, try again or
image has failed. The cd-rs are not the problem. The downloads are direct from:
http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/4/i386/iso/

The need for verifying the downloads as to being complete is what is needed. All the
MD5SUMMER utility does in Windows is to make a copy while in XP. XP is being used to
download and write to disk. The SHA1SUM file list comes along with the downloads.


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## Randolf34 (Nov 28, 2005)

These are the numbers according to the site shown here in the SHA1SUM folder.
3fb2924c8fb8098dbc8260f69824e9c437d28c68 FC4-i386-disc1.iso
31fdc2d7a1f1709aa02c9ea5854015645bd69504 FC4-i386-disc2.iso
032455cdf457179916be3a739ca16add75b768b7 FC4-i386-disc3.iso
f560f26a32820143e8286afb188f7c36d905a735 FC4-i386-disc4.iso
736e1555e88740d6131c5c84fbe69ed1073ba82d FC4-i386-rescuecd.iso

Now to see if they download intact before burning to disk.


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## Old Bob (Dec 18, 2004)

Randolf34,

You can get Firefox here.

http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/all.html


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## Randolf34 (Nov 28, 2005)

Old Bob said:


> Randolf34,
> 
> You can get Firefox here.
> 
> http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/all.html


 That's a good reference. But the Firefox just finished redownload of the five
Fedora iso images. Now to get them verified. They downloaded faster with a
Firefox browser than the initial download with IE6.0. The MD5SUMMER.exe was
used to scan them each after they were downloaded to the desktop. That is
the Windows version of this utility.

So far they look like good and clean fresh copies. But will the Media Checker
again fail them when they are burned to disk? The images are correct from a
quick and fresh save. Do you need something else to go along with them?


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## saikee (Jun 11, 2004)

Just burn the discs.


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## Randolf34 (Nov 28, 2005)

Well here's the problem after a fresh download of the disk #1 iso. It will still give that
failed message when the Media Checker is run when booting to install the core 4. What
is needed is a way to check the image to see if it is intact after download.

All four images are ready to burn to disk. The downloads went good without any type
of interference with the connection despite the solar flare up that just occured. A new
burn of the first image will show if the image was intact after the burn. Roxio loads the
image readily with the burn to cd easy enough. If the disk passes on the next attempt
the other four(including rescue cd) will go ahead. Hope to get it right this time.


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## lynch (Aug 3, 2002)

Download the sha1sum file. It looks like this:


> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
> 
> 2f151a7329846da685c2a72fcb40eba3e8a355a0 FC4-i386-DVD.iso
> ...


 The ones in bold are the sha1sums for the 4 ISO files you downloaded. Here is a link for a windows-based sha1sum checking utility. ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/binary/sha1sum.exe


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## saikee (Jun 11, 2004)

May be I should do it but I never carried out the media check after the very first one I did. It just took too long. Majority of distros don't do such media check anyway.


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## Randolf34 (Nov 28, 2005)

----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

2f151a7329846da685c2a72fcb40eba3e8a355a0 FC4-i386-DVD.iso
aa82f4be0be901777537b6ad0906c4f3c2d84bc3 FC4-i386-SRPMS-disc1.iso
e43a0db88bf537f6dab6e49513c6391a4aa9b549 FC4-i386-SRPMS-disc2.iso
37c0a3dacf0e803e402474ecca6a16bf177490b4 FC4-i386-SRPMS-disc3.iso
72fd68d72a2c7563b74073c25dccb903a2a34a01 FC4-i386-SRPMS-disc4.iso
3fb2924c8fb8098dbc8260f69824e9c437d28c68 FC4-i386-disc1.iso
31fdc2d7a1f1709aa02c9ea5854015645bd69504 FC4-i386-disc2.iso
032455cdf457179916be3a739ca16add75b768b7 FC4-i386-disc3.iso
f560f26a32820143e8286afb188f7c36d905a735 FC4-i386-disc4.iso
736e1555e88740d6131c5c84fbe69ed1073ba82d FC4-i386-rescuecd.iso
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.1 (GNU/Linux)

iD8DBQFCpdjJtEJp0E8qb9IRAunQAJ9jUj+Oaixsc3NnvaK02/CvOU6SVgCfVgMS
lDTAIErqWlDdYTpglgEjfAA=
=+hVy
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Was the immediate result along with the "SHA1SUM.URL OK" seen in the text file made
by the SD5SUMMER.exe which only verifies that the downloads were correct. The four
i386 along with the rescue cd images were the actual downloads. But why does that
"failed media" keep coming up if the burns were good?

For some reasons XP wouldn't browse the second drive where the core 4 had been installed on the previous attempt to see if all files were intact and correctly installed.
This is why a tool for checking the images themselves is needed to verify file integrity
to insure that the images are complete with nothing missing.


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