Win95 + WinNT + Linux multiboot using LILO mini-HOWTO
Renzo Zanelli, rzanelli@southeast.net
v1.0, 26 March 1998
This document describes how to use the to multiboot between Windows
95, Windows NT, and Linux.
______________________________________________________________________
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Installing the Operating Systems
2.1 Installing Windows 95
2.1.1 Installing Windows NT 4.0
2.1.1.1 Installing Linux
3. The Linux part
4. The Windows NT part
5. The Windows 95 part
6. References
______________________________________________________________________
1. Introduction
There are a number of documents available that describe in detail how
to multiboot just about any number of OS's using NT's OS loader. When
I finally bought Windows NT, I already had Windows 95 and Linux
installed on my system and I was using LILO to multiboot between them.
I decided to add Windows NT to LILO instead of using NT's OS loader.
Originally I had Windows 95 on my first IDE disk drive and Linux on my
second IDE disk drive. The Linux drive became my third IDE drive and
I installed a new IDE disk for Windows NT as my second drive. Even
though I haven't tried this in different configurations, I believe the
order with which each OS is installed or which drive it is installed
on is unimportant.
Just remember to create those emergemcy bootup floppies when each OS
prompts you to!
Because I used Gilles Vollant's BootPart utility and BootPart only
supports drives up to 4GB in size, this may not work if you have
drives of larger capacity. If you need to work with drives greater
than 4GB, contact Gilles directly (see BootPart documentation for
Gilles' e-mail address).
2. Installing the Operating Systems
When you install the OSes, make sure that all are installed on
bootable partitions. I installed both Windows 95 and Windows NT on
Fat 16 partitions, so this procedure works on Fat 16 drives. If you
decide to use Fat32 for Windows 95 and NTFS for Windows NT, check to
see if your version of Linux supports them and, if so, to what extent.
2.1. Installing Windows 95
Install Windows 95 on your first drive. This will be your C: drive.
Remember to create the Windows 95 boot floppies when prompted to do
so.
I have found that it is better if the Linux drive is removed from the
system when installing Windows 95, so that it is never detected and it
doesn't exist as far as Windows 95 is concerned.
At this point, if you did everything correctly, you should be able to
boot Windows 95.
2.1.1. Installing Windows NT 4.0
Install Windows NT 4.0 on your second drive. When you create the
partition on this drive, make the partition bootable. Not all
versions of Linux support NTFS, so I created a FAT16 partition, just
to be on the safe side and because I wanted to exchange data between
the Windows drives.
When Windows NT installs, it will detect the presence of Windows 95
and will create an entry for it in the NT OS loader and you should see
three entries in the OS loader menu as follows:
Windows NT Workstation Version 4.00
Windows NT Workstation Version 4.00 [VGA mode]
Microsoft Windows
At this point, if you did everything correctly, you should be able to
multiboot to Windows NT and Windows 95.
2.1.1.1. Installing Linux
Install Linux on your third drive. When I installed Linux, I only had
Windows 95 installed so I only added the Windows 95 partition to Lilo.
You can go ahead and install all OSes while installing LILO, or edit
the Lilo configuration file later. However you decide to do it, I
will show you how the /etc/lilo.conf file is supposed to look in the
next section. Once Linux is installed, you should be able to boot to
Linux.
3. The Linux part
This will involve editing the /etc/lilo.conf file and reinstalling
LILO. The following should already be present in /etc/lilo.conf:
boot=/dev/hda
The Linux stanza should also be already present:
# Linux stanza
image=/vmlinuz
root=/dev/hdc1
label=Linux
# End Linux stanza
Now add the Windows 95 stanza:
# Windows 95 stanza
other=/dev/hda1
table=/dev/hda
label=Windows95
# End Windows 95 stanza
Now add the Windows NT stanza:
# Windows 95 stanza
other=/dev/hdb1
table=/dev/hda
loader=/boot/any_d.b
label=WindowsNT
# End Windows 95 stanza
Now run LILO again. At this point, if all is well, you should have
Windows 95, Windows NT, and Linux as selections from LILO. You should
be able to boot to Linux and Windows 95 (which should give you the
Windows NT OS loader). To make the Windows NT entry operational, you
still need to do some work on the Windows NT side.
4. The Windows NT part
Before you can continue, you need two do two things.
The first is to download and unzip Gilles Vollant's BootPart utility
which can be found at <http://www.winimage.com/bootpart.htm> with
some information on how to use it.
The second thing to do is copy (do not delete them yet!) the following
files to the root of the Windows NT drive:
Boot.ini
Bootsect.dos
Ntdetect.com
Ntldr
These files are the Windows NT loader. They are located in the root
of the Windows 95 drive and were placed there by Windows NT when you
installed it.
Once this is done, boot to the Windows 95 DOS prompt (press Shift+F5
when Windows 95 loads) and issue the following command:
BOOTPART WINNT BOOT:D:
Now you must edit Boot.ini in your Windows NT root directory. You
must edit three lines, one in the [boot loader] section and two in the
[operating systems] section.
This is the original Boot.ini:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows NT Workstation Version 4.00"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows NT Workstation Version 4.00 [VGA mode]" /basevideo /sos
C:\ = "Microsoft Windows"
This is the new Boot.ini:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows NT Workstation Version 4.00"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows NT Workstation Version 4.00 [VGA mode]" /basevideo /sos
Notice that all instances of rdisk(1) have been changed to rdisk(0)
and the line referencing Windows 95 has been removed.
After saving Boot.ini, if you did everything correctly, you should now
be able to boot to Windows NT from LILO.
5. The Windows 95 part
Create a bootable DOS floppy from the Windows 95 DOS prompt (press
Shift+F5 when Windows 95 loads). It is important that this floppy be
created at the DOS prompt, not from a DOS window inside Windows95! Do
not boot to Windows95 until this step is complete! Copy the file
C:\WINDOWS95\COMMAND\SYS.COM to the floppy (substitute your Windows95
path if different). Now boot from the floppy and enter the command:
SYS C:
This should have removed the Windows NT OS loader and you should be
able to boot directly into Windows 95 from LILO.
You can now remove the NT loader files:
Boot.ini
Bootsect.dos
Ntdetect.com
Ntldr
6. References
Thanks to the following people (in no particular order):
James C. Bevier & D. Michael McFarland. In a message exchange on the
reddhat-list they provided some information on how to boot NT from
Linux.
Gilles Vollant. BootPart is a very useful utility and Gilles makes it
available for free with some nice documentation. Thanks Gilles.
Mike Harlan. By reading his 'Linux-DOS-Win95-OS2' mini-HOWTO, it
helped me make some assumptions about LILO's behavior.
