[Someone suggested I make this into a HOWTO. I'm happy for someone
else to do that. In the meantime, I'm posting a new revision with
minor changes to step 3 and 7.]
"You hear maniacal laughter..."
Under no circumstances run NT's disk administrator to format
partitions. It asks if it can write a signature "which will cause
absolutely no harm." When it did this, it hosed the partition table
and neither NT nor Linux booted afterwards. Therefore, you'll
probably be limited to one FAT NT partition unless NT 4.0 fixed
these things. Also remember that even if you do get the Disk
Administrator to work, you'll want at least one small FAT partition
to use as a staging area for exchanging files between Linux and NT.
If I read my notes right, the following is a fine distillation of
many days and nights of pulling out my hair to get things working:
Note that step 6 is pertinent only to the following setup: Debian
Linux 1.1, Linux 2.0.0, HP Vectra XU 6/150, Adaptec AIC 7880 Ultra
(BIOS 1.2S-HP), Quantum Fireball 1080S, Phoenix compatibility BIOS
GG.06.02. NT 3.5.1. The examples show a SCSI disk (/dev/sda);
substitute /dev/hda for your IDE drives.
1. Install Linux (hold off on installing everything until you win
the Linux/NT battle). Do all your disk partitioning in Linux,
including your NT partition (make it FAT). I was not successful at
making more than one NT partition. I also made it the first
partition, but I don't know if that is essential or not.
2. Add the "linear" flag to /etc/lilo.conf, change boot=/dev/sda (I
was not successful at installing LILO on the Linux
partition--/dev/sda3 in my case) and run "lilo". If your partition
table is screwed up by NT you'll either need to use "ignore-table"
or follow the directions in Step 7. See also "fix-table". The LILO
HOWTO is your friend. You'll have to use the editor ae. You'll
live.
3. Save the MBR with this: dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 count=1
Use a floppy. Trust me. Also do this each time you change the disk
partition table.
4. Install NT, part 1. When it goes to reboot halfway through the
process you'll boot into Linux.
5. Add NT stanza to /etc/lilo.conf, e.g.:
other=/dev/sda1
label=NT
table=/dev/sda
and run lilo.
6. Reboot, select NT from LILO, and finish NT install. You'll need
the "Boot Disk XU, HP Vectra AIC 7880 Driver A.01.02" floppy to
install the ethernet drivers and the "XU/VT Drivers and
Documentation" CD (directory video/disk4 if a recall correctly) to
install the video drivers for the Matrox MGA Millennium.
7. Back to Linux, run fdisk and ensure you don't get "partition
doesn't end on cylinder boundary" on your Linux partitions. You'll
still have this error on the NT partition though, but this seems to
be OK.
/dev/sda1 1 1 322 329301 6 DOS 16-bit >=32M
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary:
phys=(321, 39, 9) should be (321, 63, 32)
Cfdisk reports strangeness, but it seems OK:
Unusable 0.04*
/dev/sda1 Primary DOS 16-bit >=32Mb 321.59*
Unusable 0.39*
If you do get the cylinder boundary warning on your Linux
partitions, it is sufficient to use cfdisk to do something innocuous
like changing the boot sector.
If, however, NT has really screwed you over and cfdisk can't even
run, complaining that it cannot open /dev/sda, then you'll need to
take more extreme action. You'll need that MBR you saved
previously. Clear and restore the MBR (but not the signature) with:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1
dd if=/dev/fd0 of=/dev/sda bs=510 count=1
8. Install the rest of Linux. Easy, huh?
If you prefer to have NT write the MBR instead of LILO, you may have
to resort to the following to clear the MBR first:
a) dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=446 count=1 (in Linux) or perform
a low-level format with the SCSI utilities. I've heard that a
low-level format of an IDE disk is fatal, so don't do it.
b) fdisk /mbr (you've obviously already created a DOS boot disk that
contains fdisk).
c) delete NT partition and create it again in NT install.
d) continue with NT install.
Bill Wohler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ph: +1-415-854-1857 fax: +1-415-854-3195
Say it with MIME. Maintainer of comp.mail.mh and news.software.nn FAQs.
If you're passed on the right, you're in the wrong lane.
