Let Linux and Windows coexist with the same machine

There is no doubt that Windows is a powerful operating system, both in terms of compatibility and ease of use. Very good, but have you noticed the Linux that is quietly emerging in the market? As an excellent operating system, everyone should not give up, but I only have one PC, one hard disk, how to do it? Here, take Red Flag Linux Desktop 2.0 and Windows 98 as examples to introduce the coexistence of Linux and Windows.

What is LILO

All Linux systems have a system tool LILO (Linux Loader, sometimes called Linux Loader). LILO is a program that runs at system startup and allows you to choose the operating system used to boot your computer. You can use LILO to boot several different operating systems, such as Linux and MS-DOS, Windows 98, and so on. Before installing LILO, you should know which partition has an operating system installed, and you should also know where to install LILO. With LILO you can define a default operating system to boot and a delay to boot the operating system. When configuring LILO, you can specify the operating system in the boot menu. LILO can be installed in the system's master boot record (MBR) or the first sector of the Linux root partition (for example: /dev/hda1). The MBR is a special area in the system that is automatically loaded by the BIOS and is the earliest boot location that LILO can control. If you choose to install LILO on the MBR, LILO will display a Boot: prompt during system boot. You can enter the operating system to boot at the prompt. Red Flag Linux 2.0 can manage LILO with a graphical launch configuration tool, Klilo, which makes it easy to manage LILO.

Partitioning of Hard Disks

Red Flag Linux has its own file system (Linux/Ext2), which requires it to have its own partition type, so in most cases, it cannot Red Flag Linux is installed on the MS-DOS or Windows 9x partition, and some empty partitions must be reserved for Red Flag Linux on the hard disk.

Red Flag Linux can be installed either on the primary partition or on a logical partition. If you have reserved a free partition for Linux on your hard disk, you can skip this step. If the hard disk partition space has been allocated to MS-DOS and Windows 98, you can allocate hard disk space for Linux in the following ways:

1. The safest and most convenient way to install: Use the FIPS (First Interactive Partition Splitter) program that comes with the Red Flag Linux CD. The FIPS program is a powerful MS-DOS utility program that re-partitions the MS-DOS primary partition without deleting the original data of the hard disk (note: FIPS cannot partition the MS-DOS extended partition); for DoubleSpace, Stacker, Drivespace compressed disk, FIPS can only be divided into its host disk. Method: Copy the Errors.txt in the Restorrb.exe, Fips.exe, and /dosutils/fipsdocs directories in the Dosutils directory on the CD to the DOS boot disk. Next, use the Scandisk (or Norton's NDD) provided by MS-DOS or Windows 9x to check the hard disk to be partitioned and fix the error. And use Defrag (or Norton's Speedisk) to organize the hard drive, so that the second half of the hard drive does not have any MS-DOS files. If you saved MS-DOS files, use the "attrib -r -s -h image.idx" or "attrit -r -s -h mirosav.fil" command to change the properties of these files to read and delete them. Delete the definition lines of Image or Mirror and other anti-virus programs in Autoexec.bat or Config.sys to prevent them from restoring the original hard disk partition table when FIPS restarts the machine. Finally, start the machine with the FIPS boot disk. Run FIPS, which allows you to write a backup of the Boot and Root areas of the hard disk to a file named Rootboot.00x (any number in x=0 to 9) on the floppy disk.

If you get any errors when using FIPS, you can boot from the floppy disk and execute Restorrb to restore the original configuration on the hard disk. It should be noted that if there are multiple Rootboot files on the hard disk, Restorrb will let you choose which configuration file to restore. Enter the cylinder at the beginning of the new partition, use the left/right direction keys to increment or decrement the cylinder count, and the remaining partitions and the size of the new partition will be displayed in the program, which will help you choose the right cylinder, you also You can use the up/down direction keys to increment ten cylinders at a time and press [Enter] to confirm. Then choose to re-edit the partition table or continue, if you type "c", FIPS will calculate the modified boot partition, check again and prompt the user whether to continue; if you type "y", FIPS will write these changes to the hard disk and End; restart the machine and use Fdisk to check if the new configuration has taken effect.

At this point, a primary DOS partition has been divided into two partitions: DOS/Windows file system partition and a free partition, this free partition can be used as a Linux partition.

2, more convenient installation method: do not need to make too much change to the hard disk. Move all the data on a logical disk under MS-DOS to another partition, delete all the files on the partition, and install Red Flag Linux on this partition. In addition, if you have the ability to add a hard disk, you can also directly assign this hard disk to Linux.

3, the most conventional, most troublesome installation: re-partition the hard disk. This method requires you to back up all the data on the hard disk, repartition the hard disk, and reinstall MS-DOS, Windows 9x/NT and other operating systems and application software.

There are two ways to run LILO. One of the simpler ones is to run the Setup program on the first installation, run it automatically after partitioning, installing the package, or select Configure in the main menu of Setup.