Multiboot - What Order to Install OS's

[ParatoOptimal]

I want a multiboot system with 98se, XP-Pro and Lindows (or another Linux you may recomend). What is the order of installation when including Lindows/Linux and will XP's multiboot list the Lindows boot option?

I know I have to install Windows flavors in the order they were released (older before later) and that 98SE has to go on the active partition. 98SE requires FAT32 (I think; or maybe my version of Ghost does and that'ss why I always put 98SE on FAT32. I could be wrong.)
When should I install Linux or Lindows?
98SE first, Lindows second and then XP???

XP, the XP programs and Data partitions will all be NTFS.

I'm thinking of putting OS's on individual partitions with programs on separate partitions and data on other partitions.
Thatway I can Ghost an image of a clean OS with all progs installed.
If I have an OS problem, I can flash the clean Ghost image and not have to reinstall all the progs that are corruption free on other partitions.

In the past, I've mostly used 98SE as my main Windows OS.
When it gets too finicky or problematic, I flash back to a nonproblematic 98SE installation.
I want to switch over to XP as my most often used OS.
I need 98SE to use some old hardware.
I want to use/learn/have available Linux.
I want to use Ghost to bailout and start fresh when neccessary without losing data or having to do complete reinstalls of apps..

I've been told that commercially available boot managers wont suit my needs or have problems with the different OS's I want to install. I've been told to rely on mutilboot feature built into XP. I've had 98SE and XP on here for quite a while. I'd like to start fresh on a new HD and include Linux.

Ideally I suppose I should have a removable HD rack to boot from with a separate HD for each OS with CD-R or DVD back-ups of those drives with all progs and data on permanently installed HDs.

Thanks

 

[phisrow]

You'll want to do 98 first, then XP, then the Linux of your choice(I'd recommend something that isn't Lindows, personally.) Linux installs generally use GRUB, these days, for booting and OS selection, which handles Windows booting just fine. The Windows bootloader tramples all over everything and, while I've heard the occasional dark story about someone getting it working, really doesn't play nice with Linux.

Most user friendly distros will more or less automatically detect your Windows installs and add them to the Grub menu. Even with the distros that require manual configuration, it isn't all that hard.

 

[ParatoOptimal]

If I install 98SE and then XP, XP will create a multiboot in the boot.ini before I install Linux. Will that mess things up?

I got lindows one version ago for $10.
I have an old Red Hat and at least one other distro.
I forget which but it's also an old version.

What Linux do you recommend?

 

[bersl2]

Originally posted by: phisrow
You'll want to do 98 first, then XP, then the Linux of your choice(I'd recommend something that isn't Lindows, personally.) Linux installs generally use GRUB, these days, for booting and OS selection, which handles Windows booting just fine. The Windows bootloader tramples all over everything and, while I've heard the occasional dark story about someone getting it working, really doesn't play nice with Linux.

Most user friendly distros will more or less automatically detect your Windows installs and add them to the Grub menu. Even with the distros that require manual configuration, it isn't all that hard.

NTLDR must load an image file from a FAT32 or NTFS file system. This means that you have to install GRUB into a partition's boot sector, then use dd to extract the boot sector to a file, then transfer the file to a Windows partition. Very ugly. Please use GRUB as your primary boot loader.

 

[P0ldy]

You don't need a retail bootloader (if there be such a thing). Use Grub or LILO if you're installing Linux.

 

[drag]

Originally posted by: ParatoOptimal
If I install 98SE and then XP, XP will create a multiboot in the boot.ini before I install Linux. Will that mess things up?

I got lindows one version ago for $10.
I have an old Red Hat and at least one other distro.
I forget which but it's also an old version.

What Linux do you recommend?

Ya..

Generally you go from dumbiest to smartest. Window's Bootloader is nearly useless for loading non-microsoft operating systems up without a great deal of tweaking. Linux's grub or lilo bootloader can work just fine.

So that would be install in this order:
windows 98
windows xp
Linux whatever

Generally any extra OSes that you have installed are detected and setup in the bootloader automaticly in a Linux install. If that doesn't happen then it's a small matter to manually add the non-linux entries to the grub/lilo config.

Also be very carefull not to accidently format or overwrite the windows stuff with Linux. Shouldn't be difficult as long as you pay attention and read the dialogs.

If you want to uninstall Linux later it will probably render the linux bootloader fairly worthless, especially if you use grub, because it needs that configuration file to know what is going on with the system.

After you uninstall a Linux and you want to restore the Windows 2k/XP NTLDR boot loader you can do that thru booting up with the windows cd and getting to the recovery console then running the fixmbr command. It looks for the Windows ini boot configuration file and builds the bootloader according to that file, I beleive. There are lots of microsoft articles on their knowledge base about using the recovery console and fixmbr command among other things.

So you want to make sure that you know how to get into recovery console off of the install cd and that it works before you install Linux, just incase something goes wrong so you don't end up without a bootable machine. Just watch out for erasing those windows partitions by accident.

A nice Linux distro to start out with is Ubuntu, but any modern system will work fine.

Just make sure that whenever you use a linux distro that it's the newest version they offer. (unless its brand brand new, like a week or two old.. it's either use that or the slightly earlier version just incase any new bugs crop up right away.. later its easy to upgrade, usually) That's always important. Things like Redhat 9 are obsolete and unsupported and should be avoided unless you have a very specific reason for needed to install it.

Installing Linux over a existing Linux install shouldn't need any special attention taken to the bootloader.. generally install programs are very smart about that sort of thing.

 

[The Linuxator]

Always install older to newer when it comes to microsoft, once done install linux , why?
Becasue windows will not recognize the linux fle format, so If you install linux first windows might overright it or change your boot entries. Linux does the opposite, when I was installing FC4 , it's setup asked if I wanted to use GRUB, I selected yes,
then it asked me to modify the boot entries inorder to select what is the default boot and change names that appear in the bootlist, once done you will get a nice list of OS to use and easily selecting between them. MEPIS also did the same thing easily and so did SUSe basically most linux distro's wll make it easy for you.

 

[imported_Phil]

What hardware do you need to use that is only supported on Windows 98?

 

[fuzzynavel]

the one problem that I can see you having if you are switching between win 98 and XP is that if you save stuff to the win XP partition then it will be in NTFS format and I don't think that win 98 can recognise NTFS partitions... Unless there is a patch that I don't know about (never looked into it before!)

 

[The Linuxator]

Originally posted by: fuzzynavel
the one problem that I can see you having if you are switching between win 98 and XP is that if you save stuff to the win XP partition then it will be in NTFS format and I don't think that win 98 can recognise NTFS partitions... Unless there is a patch that I don't know about (never looked into it before!)

Yes I have should have asked you. Why do you need win98 anyway since you have XP ?

Do you have some old program that doesn't run on xp/2k ?

 

[ParatoOptimal]

Yes, I know 98SE on FAT32 wont see the XP NTFS partition
I currently have that configuration.

I have an Epson Scanjet 2000 that works fine in 98SE.
It wont work at all in XP via the paralell connection.
I did find someone online who claimed he got his to print via the USB connection but the diagnostics, cleaning, etc software that came with it wouldn't work.

Will FAT32 98SE and NTFS XP be able to "see" the Linux partition?
Will Linux be able to see the 98SE and XP partitions?

Thanks

 

[phisrow]

Win 98 and XP pretty much don't see Linux partitions in any useful way. I think there might be some kind of third party bolt-ons that can be used to read common Linux partition types; but I havn't messed with that. If you install the Linux on a FAT32 partition Windows will be able to see the files; but that solution is not pretty. Linux, for its part, can read and write FAT12/16/32 without any problems and can read NTFS easily. NTFS write exists; but is considered somewhat experimental.