I am quad-booting 98SE/2K Pro/XP & SuSE 7.2. In fact, I'm in my SuSE right now typing this message and came over here to find out more about RC2 since I have the screens up and am ready to download it. I was confused on the download page about one reference to having enough space to "download and install XP". Which is contrary to what I remember about the RC1 install and contrary to the info further down on the page about burning an iso image. I was going to download this thing to my 2K advanced server where my burner was, but I don't surely want it to start doing some wacky installation there after it downloads.
Anyway - regarding multibooting XP with Linux.... This is what I did, and I'll be somewhat detailed and honest
(I haven't done that much with any of it since I just did this a couple weeks ago - and no comments about the NTFS vs FAT32 debate - I'll be converting at some point):
1.) Created a bunch of FAT32 partitions (this is a 30gig drive) so that each OS had a "system" one and a "data" one. So for the win ones, I have a 2gig + a 5gig for each of the 3. I saved the 8 gig remaining at the end of the drive for later, when I fdisked a bunch of partitions for the SuSE install.
2.) Installed 98SE first.
3.) Installed 2K Pro second and let it control the dual boot. Still left the partitions FAT32.
4.) Installed XP Pro RC1 next and had it control the triple-boot.
5.) Fdisked a couple of partitions using a 98SE disk to create what would become a "/boot", "/", "/usr", "/home", and swap
6.) Booted up with a SuSE boot disk and had it do an FTP install. At some point during the install, I could specify the file system for each partition, plus the mount points for each.
7.) Here's the critical part - I told SuSE to put Lilo on a boot disk. Now... when it asked how to configure the labels, I had it so that it would find my "dos" label on "/dev/hda1" (which is where my 98SE is and apparently where XP must have some pointer that utilizes a boot.ini to actually boot the XP).
I know this is confusing, but here is my lilo.conf:
# LILO configuration file
# Start LILO global Section
# If you want to prevent console users to boot with init=/bin/bash,
# restrict usage of boot params by setting a passwd and using the option
# restricted.
#password=bootpwd
#restricted
append="vga=0x0303"
boot=/dev/fd0
#compact # faster, but won't work on all systems.
lba32
vga = normal # force sane state
message=/boot/message
menu-scheme=Wg:kw:Wg:Wg
read-only
prompt
timeout=100
# End LILO global Section
#
image = /boot/vmlinuz
root = /dev/hda11
label = linux
#
other = /dev/hda1
label = dos
table = /dev/hda
Now SuSE has done this tweeking of Lilo where I get a somewhat graphical-looking boot screen from the floppy boot, with a graphical menu to select either "Linux" or "dos". If I pull out the floppy and boot, I basically get the XP boot.ini menu with the choice of "Windows XP Professional", "Windows 2000 Professional", and "Windows". Basically, due to whatever the heck XP does with a "GPT" (- Partition Table - forgot offhand what the "G" was), I didn't want Lilo doing anything near the drive until I knew more about what it is that XP is doing.
This works perfectly as a quad-boot...IF you want to "put up with" the floppy. I know others have gone through and tried to modify the boot.ini and so forth, but to me, this was the quickest way and once booted, the floppy can come out.
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