[UCLA-LUG] adding (gulp!)..Windows

[Dan Helfman]

On Mon, Apr 17, 2000 at 11:42:39AM -0700, elliot jordan wrote:
> I installed Caldera 2.3 using the custom installation leaving a dos/windows 
> partition to hda1 (unformatted, no mount point, about 2G in size). I have 
> the CD for Win95 and 98 upgrade but I don't think they are bootable. How do 
> I load the Win 95/98 into the new partition--I need to get to the DOS 
> prompt. Or is there another way to get a DOS prompt from Linux.
> 
> The Linux works well but a few of my apps still require Windows only.
> 
> Thanks for your patience with all my newbie questions at the meetings and 
> installfest..you guys are da best!     Elliot

How are you booting your Linux installation? If you're using a boot floppy,
you should be fine, but if LILO (the Linux boot loader) is installed on the
Master Boot Record of your harddrive, then you may have some problems..
certain versions of Windows have been known to overwrite the Master Boot
Record during installation, which would leave you unable to boot Linux the
normal way. This is why we usually recommend that you install Windows
*before* you install Linux (if you're going to use Windows at all), because
Windows doesn't like playing nicely with other operating systems.

However, it is possible to make a boot disk for Linux in case Windows does
overwrite the MBR. In Red Hat or Mandrake, I believe you can just type
"mkbootdisk" at a prompt and follow the instructions.

Note that if all you need is a DOS prompt and not a full-blown Windows
install, you might want to check out the dos emulator called dosemu. It
comes with many Linux distributions.

-- 
Dan Helfman
UCLA Linux Users Group: http://www.linux.ucla.edu
My GnuPG key: http://torsion.org/witten/public-key.txt