On Tue, 11 Dec 2001 00:26:16 +0100 (CET), [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Richard Menedetter) wrote:
> Hi Cristian! > 11 Dec 2001, Cristian Burneci <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > CB> I am astonished by this method Caldera has chosen in order to install > CB> Linux. Red Hat is able to install itself on an empty disk, containing > CB> all the tools necessary to partition it. > So does Caldera :))) > I use also Redhat at home, but I once needed Linux on a notebook, and had > only a CD from a local computer magazine containing caldera linux. > No problem whatsover to install it. (no need for dos/windows) > But I like Redhat much better ... According to the book you can install Caldera OpenLinux directly from the CD-ROM only if you can boot to the CD-ROM. Otherwise you have to install Windows in order to install Partition Magic so that you can partition your hard drive for installing OpenLinux. Also you have to install Windows in order to install a program named BootMagic so that it will write a boot loader onto the MBR. There are probably some work-arounds to avoid this hassle. Maybe there are some DOS programs or some Linux programs that can do this for me, but the book doesn't offer any suggestions for work-arounds. As I am a complete newbie to Linux I can't yet figure out a work-around for avoiding the need to first install Windows. It seems that the book assumes that the user of OpenLinux would want to have a choice of booting to either Windows or OpenLinux. I want to set up the PC so that I will have a choice between booting to DR-DOS or OpenLinux. I am astonished that Caldera's OpenLinux package doesn't tell the user how to do this. I have successfully set up the PC so that I can do this. What I did was to first install DR-DOS so that I could install Windows 95. After installing Windows 95 I installed OpenLinux. Next I booted from my A drive with a DR-DOS sytem disk and ran "sys C:". Then by using DR-DOS I tried to get rid of the wincrap because I didn't want Windows. A problem remains in that I can't get rid of the wincrap, LFNs, and empty Windows directories, etc. Until I can get rid of the wincrap, CHKDSK won't work because CHKDSK doesn't like LFNs. LFNs are one of the worst bugs in the Windows system. They were invented most probably for the purpose of causing much aggravation and consternation for people who like to work within DOS. Windows 3.1 was compatible with DOS and it didn't use LFNs. IMNSHO, Windows 95 and above should have been designed with the same DOS compatibilities as Windows 3.1. Another great advantage of Windows 3.1 over Windows 95 and above is that Windows 3.1 will let the user choose which version of DOS he wants to use for running the Windows GUI program. Also IMNSHO, the anti-trust laws ought to prohibit MicroSoft from resorting to the anti-competitive practice of allowing only a specified MS version of DOS to run the Windows GUI program. Sam Heywood -- This mail was written by user of The Arachne Browser - http://arachne.cz/
