[NTLUG:Discuss] installing redhat 6.1 on 2nd hard drive

[Kyle_Davenport@compusa.com]

>On Sun, Mar 26, 2000 at 01:15:44PM -0600, John M. Mauldin wrote:
>> ok here is a rank beginner question.
>>
>> just got redhat 6.1 and want to know if i have one harddrive with
>> windows 98 on it and another that is empty can i install without
>> a whole lotta trouble the redhat on the second drive without
>> disturbing my windows 98 system?
>
>Yes.  The RH6.1 installation will recognize the Win98 file system, and
>offer to create a new Linux filesystem.  You will also get the option
>along the way to boot either system ("dual booting") from your
>existing Win98 drive.

>As always, it would be smart to back up anything important on your
>Win98 disk.  Installing dual boot functionality will necessitate
>writing to your "boot" disk, and  there is always a very small chance
>something might go wrong...

I've got one for you:  I'm a linux old-timer, and I thought I'd seen it all, but
a friend installed Redhat linux on another partition of his only hard drive
shared with win98.  Everything worked after the install - he could boot into
linux or win98, but he wanted to changed the default on boot back to windows and
edited the /etc/lilo.conf file (incorrectly, I don't remember how).  On reboot,
it still went into linux, but when he chose "dos", it couldn't find windows.
(woops).  I had him do the "fdisk /mbr" from a win98 rescue disk boot,
repeatedly, and it changed nothing (just comes up to "li" and hangs).  But that
lost his boot into linux (his linux rescue disk couldn't find root???)  So he
reinstalled linux, which apparently (not supposed to) wiped out /boot/boot.####
- the original copy of the mbr.  That meant "lilo -u" no longer worked...  The
really peculiar thing, is that I could boot with win98 diskette and see all the
necessary files on c:.  I'm suspicious that window's fdisk says "Use LBA for
windows98 drive..." when it starts up, and I can't "mount -t vfat..." from
linux...  Finally, I was a little dismayed that I couldn't find any
documentation on the web (_anywhere_) on this problem.