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2. The Procedure

NOTE:

Numbers in parentheses were the number of megabytes that I used on my 1.2GB harddrive.

Now, let's move on to the step-by-step procedure:
  1. Run view.exe on the Linux Slakware CD and create the Linux Boot and Linux Root floppies. For some reason, the Linux bootstrap program calls the Root disk the Ramdisk floppy. I'll refer to this disk from now on as the Ramdisk (Root) floppy.
  2. Backup any information that you wish to keep to tape (or whatever media you have available to you).
  3. Boot your original MSDOS installation floppy, disk 1.
  4. When ``Starting MSDOS'' appears, press F5 to bypass config.sys and autoexec.bat.
  5. Run a:\fdisk.exe.
  6. Delete all partitions (you have been warned: DELETING / MODIFYING OF ANY PARTITION WILL RESULT IN THE LOSS OF ALL DATA ON THE DISK!).
  7. Add an MSDOS primary partition. (11MB)
  8. Format this partition.
  9. Run a:\setup.exe to install MSDOS on this partition.
  10. Boot OS/2.
  11. Select Advanced installation.
  12. Run FDISK. (this will eventually popup for you if you run through the OS/2 installation)
  13. Add 1 primary partition after the MSDOS one. This will become our Windows 95 partition. (349MB)
  14. Add the Boot Manager to the next primary partition. (2MB)
  15. Add an extended partition.
  16. Add a logical drive to the extended partition. This will become the data portion of our MSDOS system. (511MB)
  17. Add another logical drive to the extended partition. This will become our OS/2 HPFS (``High Performance File System'') partition. (127MB)
  18. Add 1 last logical drive to the extended partition using the remaining space on the drive. This will later become 2 partitions under Linux — our swap partition and our native Linux partition. But, since OS/2 (and DOS as well) can only write up to 6 partitions per drive (3 primary and 3 logical drives housed within 1 extended partition), we have to create only one at this time. And we DO have to create this partition. Don't leave this as free space and expect Linux to be able to create the two partitions. Due to the way that OS/2's FDISK works, where you add your last logical drive to the extended partition marks the END of the extended partition. You cannot add partitions beyond this point. So, in other words, creating this one last logical drive serves as a space-filler for Linux. Later we will delete this partition and add 2 new ones in the space that it once took up.
  19. Add partitions 1, 2, and 5 to the Boot Manager.
  20. Make partition 5 installable. Your FDISK screen should now look like this (or something like this): 
    
                               FDISK

Disk 1
___________________________________________________________________________

Partition Information
Name            Status          Access          FS Type         MBytes
___________________________________________________________________________

MSDOS           Bootable        C: Primary      FAT              11
WIN 95          Bootable         : Primary      FAT             350
                Startable        : Primary      BOOT MANAGER      2
                None            D: Logical      Unformatted     511
OS/2            Installable     E: Logical      FAT             127
                None            F: Logical      Unformatted     219
  21. Continue on with the OS/2 installation process.
  22. Reboot and select partition 2 (Windows 95) from the Boot Manager.
  23. When the missing operating system error pops up, boot your MSDOS installation disk. We selected this partition in order to ``hide'' the MSDOS partition. OS/2's Boot Manager is a bit strange. For every bootable partition you have (in our case, MSDOS and OS/2), you can have only one of them visible at a time. What this means is that if you boot into one partition, MSDOS for example, the other partition (Win95) is invisible. The MSDOS partition and Win95 essentially SHARE a drive letter. That's why under ``Access'' above, MSDOS has drive letter C and Win95 has no drive letter. Under the current circumstances, MSDOS is visible with drive letter C and Win95 is invisible with no drive letter. If we were to boot Win95, the opposite would be true: MSDOS would be invisible with no drive letter and Win95 would be visible with drive letter C. An invisible drive cannot be accessed AT ALL. If you wish to copy files between two drives in which only one can be visible at one time, you must use a common (non-bootable) drive to swap files. In our case, the DOS/Win95 Data drive (drive D 511MB above) will serve as this common drive. You might be asking ``Won't we eventually be booting Linux also?''. The answer is yes, we will. But let's not get into that just yet.
  24. Install MSDOS to Partition 2 (we'll need this in order to install Windows 95).
  25. Boot Partition 2.
  26. Install Windows 95 to this partition (if you are running the upgrade version of Win95, you may need to have your Win3.1 installation disk 1 ready to insert).
  27. Boot Partition 1.
  28. Format Partition 4.
  29. Restore DOS data from tape (if any) to partitions 1 and 4.
  30. Boot the Linux Boot Floppy.
  31. Follow up with the Linux Ramdisk (Root) floppy.
  32. When you log in as root and get to the # prompt, type ``fdisk'' and press enter.
  33. Delete the last partition (the one we created in step 18).
  34. Add 1 16MB partition and tag it as filesystem type Linux Swap. (17MB)
  35. Add 1 last partition with the remaining cylinders on the disk and tag this as filesystem type Linux native. (198MB)
  36. Write the changes to the boot sector and reboot.
  37. When you get to the # prompt again, run setup.
  38. Install Linux to the last partition.
  39. When you install LILO, be sure to install it to the root of the last partition (NOT to the MBR, as you will destroy all of your previous work in this HOWTO if you do so). Add only the last partition to LILO and set the timer to zero. By doing this, when you select Linux from the OS/2 Boot Manager, LILO will activate and will then boot Linux from the logical drive on the extended partition. Since Linux is the only partition that we wish to activate from LILO, we don't need a timer on it (unless you have more than one Kernel that you wish to load. In this case, you may want to set the timer to something more than 0 seconds).
  40. Activate the Linux swap partition (refer to the Linux Installation and Getting Started Manual by Matt Welsh for this).
  41. Boot OS/2.
  42. Run FDISK.
  43. Add Linux to the Boot Manager using the Linux NATIVE partition (type 83 not 82!).
Your FDISK screen should now look like this (or something like this): 

                               FDISK

Disk 1
___________________________________________________________________________

Partition Information
Name            Status          Access          FS Type         MBytes
___________________________________________________________________________

MSDOS           Bootable        C: Primary      FAT              11
WIN 95          Bootable         : Primary      FAT             350
                Startable        : Primary      BOOT MANAGER      2
                None            D: Logical      FAT             511
OS/2            Bootable        E: Logical      HPFS            127
                None             : Logical      Type 82          17
Linux           Bootable         : Logical      Type 83         198
...And you're done!

Send any comments/suggestions/problems (as a last resort, please!) to me at [email protected].

Mike Harlan, 11 NOV 1997

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