Hi!
I've been doing the same thing you're doing, going from DOS/WIN95 to
Linux. I had the same reserations about using LILO (the docs actually
have a warning about it!). However, it's not that bad after all.
First of all you machines BIOS needs to support your HDD without any
drivers installed in the boot sector. Some 486 and older boards will
not accept anything above 504MB without special drivers which install
in the MBR. If you have Pentium there'll be no problem.
Once you partitioned your drive and created Linux partitions you
might as well install LILO. It's the most convenient as far as I am
concerned. I named my WIN95 boot name 'win'. For some reason it
defaults to win at bootup which is just fine for me since I am the
only on using Linux on my box.
The DOS fdisk command will restore the MBR. Just type:
fdisk /MBR
and fdisk will restore your MBR for use with DOS or Windows.
After I found that out I didn't mind experimenting with LILO at all.
I am using Red Hat 4.0 and LILO works fine. I also have an older
Slackware set and LILO (and some other things) aren't working. So for
now I am sticking with Red Hat. Sometime soon I'll be changing things
to a newer Red Hat version. I ended up with somewhat useless
partioning sizes. I guess that's what learning is all about :-)
Regards,
Adi
> I just finished installing Red Hat 4.2 on my second IDE
> HD(hdc), sharing my PC with Win95 :( sorry. I chose 4.2 so I
> could boot LILO from a floppy and 5.0(the other version I have on
> CD) does not let you install on a floppy, or so it seems. I don't
> want to mess with my MBR and I know a floppy won't last forever,
> SO; is there a way I can make duplicates of this floppy, either in
> Linux or from the CD. None of the three books I have on Linux
> offers any help on this(Sam's Teach Yourself Linux In 24 Hours;
> Linux For Dummies; Red Hat Linux Unleashed; and Running Linux
> 2nd. ed.) I come straight from Win 95, so you may understand
> why I don't want to dedicate my PC to Linux(yet!). Linux seems
> VERY foreign and odd to me at this point, but I love the idea.
>
> Also, which Distribution of Linux would be good for a
> Win95/GUI neophyte? Thanks in advance.
