I just have to share this with someone. Ya know, the more I learn about Linux
Mandrake the more I love it!!
Up until this weekend I ran a dual boot system of Windows 98SE and LM7. I'm an
IT professional, and since I need to get certified in it, I decided to blow
away my 98 partition and install 2000. What a mistake that was.
First, I have to say, if Win2K is Microsoft's best attempt at a stable OS then
they need to stop smoking crack. That is the WORST operating system I have ever
used, couldn't use my CD burner, and it kept on randomly hanging on me. It
truly is pathetic.
Personal obervations aside, I do need to run a Microsoft operating system. So I
killed 2000 and reinstalled 98 tonight. As suspected, it wrote over LILO and
couldn't boot into Linux afterwards. Luckily I created a Linux boot disk,
thinking that would easily solve the problem....
....Nope. I learned while installing Linux the first time that there is a
conflict between my video card and my HDD controller. Thus, without a special
vga boot parameter I get a kernel panic saying it can't mount my root drive.
Adding the parameter vga=0x0301 works flawlessly.
Unfortunately this parameter does NOT work with the boot disk I created. When I
try to use the vga parameter it tells me "valid vga options are ask, enhanced,
or a decimal number." I converted 0x0301 to decimal - no go. Tried all sorts of
options...still nothing worked. I was one step away from thinking that I would
have to reinstall from scratch when I tossed in my CD and did an upgrade.
Lo and behold, that upgrade process is the SMARTEST thing I have ever seen. It
checked my existing rpm database, found that I had everything already
installed, kept my entire configuration, allowed me to put LILO back on, and
voila! I'm back in Linux 5 minutes later and I couldn't even tell that it did
anything.
Brilliance! Pure brilliance! From a technical standpoint thats very well
thought out. Anyone feel brave enough to try the same thing with NT or 2000?
Its nice to be /home again.
-Necro
