Hi to All
I have been running Mandrake, first 7.0 and now 7.1, quite happily on a
modified Quantex 450 PII.
Since there have been recent post from users having problems with 7.0 and
Win2000, and also post regarding VIA chip sets I decided to install 7.1 on
my second home system which contains both.
I built the system myself and the specs. for it are:
Processor......Althon 650MHz
Motherboard.FIC SD11 / VIA 686A chip
Memory........192MB (3 64MB 168pin DIMMs)
Video............Creative Blaster NVIDIA TNT/ 16MB
Sound...........Creative SBLive Value
CD-ROM.....Creative Blaster 48x
Removable ...NEC 100MB ZIP drive
Hard Drives..2-12.5 IBM Deskstar UDMA66 7200rpm
Monitor........19in ADI MicroScan 6P
I had installed on the system Win98 and Win2000, both on the first hd and
I was using the Win2000 bootloader.
To install Mandrake 7.1 I chose the Automated mode. There were several
reasons for this. It's easy, all my recognised hardware would be auto
configured / mounted, I wanted Grub to auto install, and if I used another
mode and had to choose pkgs. I would not know what even half of them were.
I let the installation auto-allocate and use all the 2nd hd the
remainder of the installation process was as smooth as silk and took about
35 min.The process completed and the system was ready to be restarted. One
moment of truth had arrived. Would Grub and the Win2000 bootloader be able
to co-exist?
With a click of the OK button Linux shuts down and the system reboots.
The Welcome to Grub interface appears and I am offered 4 boot options;
1) linux
2) safe mode
3) windows
4) floppy
I let linux remain the default OS and it loads cleanly, OKs all down the
line. The KDE login screen appears and I do so. And again with Mandrake I
am tickled pink, everything from the the amount of system RAM to the
smallest partition on my hd has been configured/mounted and with a click of
the mouse are ready for use.
I logout and choose re-start and watch to see if the VIA 686A chip causes
any shutdown problem. Everything unmounts as it should all in their own
order. Restarting and shuting down several times I experience only clean
mounts and unmounts.
When the Grub screen next apears I choose to boot windows. The Win2000
bootloader appears offering me the choice of Win2000 or Win98. I choose
Win2000 and it to boots as it should.
Two conclusion which before I thought to be true, I now hold to be true;
1) Problems with Mandrake/linux and VIA chips do not occur with the 686A
chip
2) Any problem Mandrake 7.0 and Win2000 have is caused by Lilo. Win2000's
MBR/bootloader is a different animal than that of Win98 or WinNT and when
Lilo is installed instead of replacing or overwriting the MBR, Lilo causes
it to become corrupted and Win2000 to be inaccessable. This problem does not
exist in 7.1 when Grub is used as the bootloader.
For someone who is not asking a question or giving an answer, I agree
that this is a long email, but if you will bear with me, I need to stand on
the soap box for just a momment.
I am a [newbie] and I will always be a [newbie]. There will always be
much more that I do not know or understand about Linux than I will ever have
the time to learn. When I run an installation and it offers choices for
Custom and Expert with a disclaimer that unless I really know what I am
doing or really am an expert I should not install in this mode. I believe
it. If more people would only select the Recomended (in 7.0} or Automated
{in 7.1} installation method there would fewer people needing to post
problems to this list and many more people like me. A very happy Linux
Mandrake user.
Thanks for letting me take up your time.
Charles
:-):-):-):-):-):-) I'm all smiles
