[lug] Cannot dual-boot Linux + Winblows 95

[John Karns]

On Wed, 16 May 2001, Dhruva Reddy said:

> I have a machine that primarily runs Linux, but I have
> also dedicated ~300MB to a Winslow 95 partition.  When
> I install Win95 and let it take over the MBR, it boots
> with no problem.  But once I install LILO, and select
> Win95, it seems to start booting Winshmoes, but then I
> get a message saying something about a general
> protection fault, and that Winbloat must be restarted.
>
> I have done this successfully several times, and this
> is the first time I have any trouble.  Has anyone seen
> this before?

I don't recall seeing this particular problem before.  However, 300MB does
seem a little small for the partition.  Could be that 'blows is running
short on swap space.

An alternative (a bit more kludgey) method to dual boot is to use
loadlin, a DOS executable that will boot Linux from DOS.  This way you
could:

- leave the MS boot loader in place.

- Set up c:\msdos.sys to display a boot menu

- set up a .bat file, say c:\linux.bat which would call loadlin with the
   proper parm's

- to boot Linux, boot dos 1st, then run the bat.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
John Karns                                              jkarns at csd.net