On Sat, Sep 11, 1999 at 09:13:58PM -0400, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Hey all, > > I am trying to install Debian for the first time (first time installing any > GNU/Linux OS) on an old crappy 486 laptop currently running DOS/Windows3.1 > off 4 Megs of RAM (like I said, crappy), and I was wondering if there was a > way to install Debian, and still keep it able to boot into DOS. Perhaps I > could partition the drive in half and have one on each? If I did that, > though, how would I be able to choose which one to boot from?
You certainly can. :) There is a howto- that explains many more things than I can possible remember, but the basic steps include a scandisk (or chkdsk) and then a defrag, and then using a utility such as fips or partition magic or partition manager (URL posted here in the last day or so..) to make your DOS partition smaller. The default boot loader, lilo, is smart enough to be able to boot both dos and linux. Or, you could use chos or grub (in development..) or linload. you might like linload more (or is it loadlin? I always get those two screwed up :) because it actually loads linux after DOS has booted -- no mucking with partition boot tables, or the master boot record, etc. (Yes, it completely replaces DOS once you run it. :) > Also, does anyone know if a Mac will recognize Debian formatted disks (if it > has it's own format at all - hey, I said I was a newbie!) and files (assuming > there are converters available out there..). I suppose if there wouldn't be > any conversion problems, I wouldn't need to keep DOS, anyways, actually.. > heh.. Well, linux and mac can both read fat16 floppies. So, all your DOS formatted floppies will work on both (for recent macs, that is..) linux can also be configured to read macintosh floppies (does that require 2.2.x?) have fun :) -- Seth Arnold | http://www.willamette.edu/~sarnold/ Hate spam? See http://maps.vix.com/rbl/ for help Hi! I'm a .signature virus! Copy me into your ~/.signature to help me spread!
