Will I lose dual boot ?

[Don Phillipson]

Problems here with a 2.8 GHz PC, set for dual boot,
Win98SE and Xandros Open 4 (Debian). The original
idea was to use one to restore the other, in case of
need. This has not quite worked . . .

1. I need to reinstal Win98. This is tricky, cf. the NDIS
error on PCs faster than 2.2 GHz (divide by zero hence
crash at one of the two reboots integral to the installation
process.) I succeeded in 2005 by sheer repetition, no
NDIS error at the 5th or 6th attempt . . . but have ever
since been reluctant to try again. But it seems I am now
obliged to do so (by stem errors caused by a failing power
supply, now replaced.)

Xandros was installed second, and added its own boot
manager which works well. Will I destroy this if I:
1a. simply reinstal Win98 ?
1b. do a DOS fdisk /mbr before reinstalling (in case
that is where the trouble lies) ?

2. Still a novice in Linux I do not know how to
2a. Restore the Xandros boot manager for dual boot
if it is overwritten as above.
2b. Restore Linux boot access to two CD drives and
floppy. They used to be correctly mounted at boot,
one DVD RW, one CD RO, one floppy RW. But this
no longer happens, and I had a lot of trouble mounting
these drives. I tried rewriting fstab but this failed at the
next boot.
2c. Restore the audio playback system (for radio via
Internet, playing MP3 and WAV files etc.) This was
automatically set up by Xandros installation and worked
well via Firefox to BBC Internet, saving and editing via
Audacity, and playback e.g. in RealPlayer. After
maybe three months disuse, the Xandros system
now is mute (and its own help files no help.)

I would be glad of advice especially ## 1 above.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

 

[philo]

Re: Will I lose dual boot ?


"Don Phillipson" <ey925@ncfSPAMBLOCK.ca> wrote in message
news:uRMSYDKVIHA.4196@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> Problems here with a 2.8 GHz PC, set for dual boot,
> Win98SE and Xandros Open 4 (Debian). The original
> idea was to use one to restore the other, in case of
> need. This has not quite worked . . .
>
> 1. I need to reinstal Win98. This is tricky, cf. the NDIS
> error on PCs faster than 2.2 GHz (divide by zero hence
> crash at one of the two reboots integral to the installation
> process.) I succeeded in 2005 by sheer repetition, no
> NDIS error at the 5th or 6th attempt . . . but have ever
> since been reluctant to try again. But it seems I am now
> obliged to do so (by stem errors caused by a failing power
> supply, now replaced.)
>
> Xandros was installed second, and added its own boot
> manager which works well. Will I destroy this if I:
> 1a. simply reinstal Win98 ?
> 1b. do a DOS fdisk /mbr before reinstalling (in case
> that is where the trouble lies) ?
>
> 2. Still a novice in Linux I do not know how to
> 2a. Restore the Xandros boot manager for dual boot
> if it is overwritten as above.
> 2b. Restore Linux boot access to two CD drives and
> floppy. They used to be correctly mounted at boot,
> one DVD RW, one CD RO, one floppy RW. But this
> no longer happens, and I had a lot of trouble mounting
> these drives. I tried rewriting fstab but this failed at the
> next boot.
> 2c. Restore the audio playback system (for radio via
> Internet, playing MP3 and WAV files etc.) This was
> automatically set up by Xandros installation and worked
> well via Firefox to BBC Internet, saving and editing via
> Audacity, and playback e.g. in RealPlayer. After
> maybe three months disuse, the Xandros system
> now is mute (and its own help files no help.)
>
> I would be glad of advice especially ## 1 above.


If you do an fdisk /mbr you will wipe out the linux boot loader (lilo or
grub)
Many linux distros have the ability to boot from the cd and then repair the
mbr...
but I am not familiar with the particulars of Xandros.

Truth is that if I had a PC that's 2.2ghz I would not use win98 at all...
I'd go with win2k or XP.

As to Xandros...I would not use that either... I recommend PCLinuxOS.

It's free and it works great.

I have been using Linux (at least part time) for years...and found that
Xandros...
though it has a very nice and refined GUI...was the only Linux distro that
crashed on a regular basisp-========================

 

[Don Phillipson]

Re: Will I lose dual boot ?

"philo" <philo@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:erT%23iKQVIHA.5524@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...

> If you do an fdisk /mbr you will wipe out the linux boot loader (lilo or
> grub)
> Many linux distros have the ability to boot from the cd and then repair
> the
> mbr...
> but I am not familiar with the particulars of Xandros.

Noted: I have the distro CD thus can try.

> Truth is that if I had a PC that's 2.2ghz I would not use win98 at all...
> I'd go with win2k or XP.

My original decision:
-- sticking with Win98SE because three or four essential
apps do not run reliably under XP whatever the "compatibility"
settings; also this PC was custom built (by a friend of a
friend who knew rather less than he thought . . . )

> I have been using Linux (at least part time) for years...and found that
> Xandros... though it has a very nice and refined GUI...was the only Linux
> distro that
> crashed on a regular basisp-========================

Yes indeed . . .
1. The free trial offered by Xandros two years ago was
so programmed that it did not mount its own swap file,
hence severe running problems (until users learned
the syntax to fix this for themselves.)
2. The free version distrib. on CD by a German Linux
magazine ran much better; but has turned out faulty;
and on first installation failed to see (and offer to
load Linux on) the second hard drive.

I am thinking of buying locally a 1.5 GHz box sold with
gOS (Ubuntu) see http://www.pccyber.com/ -- but need
to do some homework first to estimate how well it will run
Win98SE as well as Linux, accept an Audigy sound card etc.
Thank you for helpful comments.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

 

[philo]

Re: Will I lose dual boot ?


"Don Phillipson" <ey925@ncfSPAMBLOCK.ca> wrote in message
news:uS1XWESVIHA.2368@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> "philo" <philo@privacy.net> wrote in message
> news:erT%23iKQVIHA.5524@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>
>> If you do an fdisk /mbr you will wipe out the linux boot loader (lilo or
>> grub)
>> Many linux distros have the ability to boot from the cd and then repair
>> the
>> mbr...
>> but I am not familiar with the particulars of Xandros.
>
> Noted: I have the distro CD thus can try.
>
>> Truth is that if I had a PC that's 2.2ghz I would not use win98 at all...
>> I'd go with win2k or XP.
>
> My original decision:
> -- sticking with Win98SE because three or four essential
> apps do not run reliably under XP whatever the "compatibility"
> settings; also this PC was custom built (by a friend of a
> friend who knew rather less than he thought . . . )
>
>> I have been using Linux (at least part time) for years...and found that
>> Xandros... though it has a very nice and refined GUI...was the only Linux
>> distro that
>> crashed on a regular basisp-========================
>
> Yes indeed . . .
> 1. The free trial offered by Xandros two years ago was
> so programmed that it did not mount its own swap file,
> hence severe running problems (until users learned
> the syntax to fix this for themselves.)
> 2. The free version distrib. on CD by a German Linux
> magazine ran much better; but has turned out faulty;
> and on first installation failed to see (and offer to
> load Linux on) the second hard drive.
>
> I am thinking of buying locally a 1.5 GHz box sold with
> gOS (Ubuntu) see http://www.pccyber.com/ -- but need
> to do some homework first to estimate how well it will run
> Win98SE as well as Linux, accept an Audigy sound card etc.
> Thank you for helpful comments.
>
>

Well you sure have good cause to keep win98.

Ubuntu is probably a better Linux distro than Xandros...
but I presonally prefer PCLinuxOS.
At any rate, Ubuntu seems to get quite a bit of praise

 

[Lil' Dave]

Re: Will I lose dual boot ?

"Don Phillipson" <ey925@ncfSPAMBLOCK.ca> wrote in message
news:uRMSYDKVIHA.4196@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> Problems here with a 2.8 GHz PC, set for dual boot,
> Win98SE and Xandros Open 4 (Debian). The original
> idea was to use one to restore the other, in case of
> need. This has not quite worked . . .
>
> 1. I need to reinstal Win98. This is tricky, cf. the NDIS
> error on PCs faster than 2.2 GHz (divide by zero hence
> crash at one of the two reboots integral to the installation
> process.) I succeeded in 2005 by sheer repetition, no
> NDIS error at the 5th or 6th attempt . . . but have ever
> since been reluctant to try again. But it seems I am now
> obliged to do so (by stem errors caused by a failing power
> supply, now replaced.)
>

My experience has shown locally on a 2.4 GHz cpu system, NDIS will always
crash at windows 98 boot time. A simple fix is to replace NDIS with the
98SE or ME version. Normally, I use 98SE. I used the update 98SE CD that
only works in the 98 environment.

> Xandros was installed second, and added its own boot
> manager which works well. Will I destroy this if I:
> 1a. simply reinstal Win98 ?
> 1b. do a DOS fdisk /mbr before reinstalling (in case
> that is where the trouble lies) ?

A 98 install does 2 things regarding booting. It changes the mbr pointer.
It changes the partition boot record to point at the msdos boot files.

Can't help with Linux or related stuff.

Dave