The easiest way to coexistence in NT and Linux is to install LILO in the boot area of the Linux primary partition when installing Linux LILO. Then use the Win98 boot disk to restart, run FDISK Set the Linux primary partition to Active so that you can first enter the LILO selection when the system is started. If you do not select Linux, enter NT Loader.
However, sometimes it is necessary to use NT Loader to guide Linux for convenience, the following is the method of implementation.
The most important point you should firmly remember is that many software products use only the valuable main guidance records on the hard drive. NT is like this, no room; Linux can also be like this, if you like it. The machine's BIOS will perform information stored in the currently activated partition to initialize your desired operating system.
After NT installation, the MBR will be modified to guide a program that is NTLDR under the root of the activation partition. The original MBR will be saved in a small file called Bootsect.dos. After the NT installation is complete, you must remember that this MBR cannot be overwritten, otherwise NT will not be able to start. In case, NT's users need NT emergency repair disks (Emergency Repair Disk, Erd).
After remembering these, you should pay attention to setting LILO *** can not *** to install it in the MBR, but put it into the Linux root partition. In this way, for NT, it will not bring problems; and Linux does not have MBR to live.
When NTLDR starts, NT users see "OS Loader V4.xx", it switches the processor to 386 state, and launch a very small file system. Then, it will read the boot.ini file to see if there are other operating systems exist and display a selection menu. Here is a typical boot.ini:
[boot loader] timeout = 30 default = multi (0) disk (0) rdisk (0) partition (2) WINNT [operating systems] multi (0) disk (0) rdisk ( 0) Partition (2) Winnt = "NT V4 is here" Multi (0) Disk (0) RDisk (0) Partition (2) Winnt = "NT V4 Vgamode" / BaseVideo / SOSC: = "DOS Is here
Boot.ini has two parts. "Boot Loader Section" section Specifies the table of stay time on the menu on the screen, and the default menu option. The "OPEARATING Systems Section" section specifies the optional operating system type. It can be seen that the machine can start NT (in standard mode or VGA security mode) and DOS. From this example we can infer, DOS starts from the hard disk C: (the first partition of the first hard disk), and NT starts from the second partition. Typical installation, a C: partition will be formatted with DOS's FAT file system, and then NT is mounted in another NTFS (NT file system) partition.
If the user selects the startup NT, another program NTDetect.com will start hardware check. If everything is normal, the NT core will be loaded, as we all know.
Reconfers to see if it is not NT. At this point, NTLDR needs to know which guidance sector necessary for non-NT OS boot is. At this point, the corresponding boot sector image must be in a small 512-byte file. For example, to boot DOS, NTLDR will look for a boot sector image file called Bootsect.dos. This image file is generated by the NT installer. So, what is the guidance of Linux? This is very simple, just a guiding sector image file, aunt, called bootsect.lin (how to get this file later). Bootsect.lin must be placed in C:, and to modify boot.ini. At this point, the "Operating Systems Ection" section should look like this:
[Operating Systems] Multi (0) Disk (0) RDisk (0) Partition (2) Winnt = "NT V4 IS Here" Multi (0) Disk (0) RDisk (0) Partition (2) Winnt = "NT V4 vgamode" / basevideo / sosc: = "dos is here" bootsect.lin = "now Linux is here"
Modify Boot.ini, you can use any normal ASCII text editor (such as Notepad). The normal attribute of this file is system-hidden-read-only, so you must use the 'Attrib' DOS command or in NT to change the properties in the File Properties dialog box.
Now let's turn your attention to Linux. We need to install Linux, customize LILO, generate bootsect.lin files.
The first step is to install Linux. We all know how to do: choose the right system, swap, and user partitioning for Linux, run the installer, and so on. Everything goes well, this step can be done within 45 minutes.
Take the next step to customize LILO. We know what to do, but pay attention to * cannot be loaded into the MBR (unless you want to swallow NT :-)). When setting LILO, choose to install it to your Linux's root partition. If you still don't know how to set Lilo, spend a few minutes to read how-to literature, or use some good installation, I use suse, so my installer is 'Yast' (YET Another Setup Tool) ).
After LLILO is customized, (for the text is convenient, it assumes that Linux root partition is / dev / hda3) We must use 'DD' to generate boot record image files. After root login, press the following: #D = / dev / hda3 bs = 512 count = 1 of = / dosc / bootsect.lin
If FAT C: Partition Mount is not available, this partition cannot be accessed because this partition is formatted in NTFS. At this point, you can write bootsect.lin to a DOS mode formatted disk, or other partitions that NT can read. If bootsect.lin is not placed in C:, you should remember that the Boot.ini file should be modified accordingly.
