Linux+WindowsNT mini-HOWTO
Miroslav "Misko" Skoric, m.skoric@eunet.yu
v2.6, 13 May 2001
This mini-HOWTO covers some ways on how to install both Linux and Windows NT on the same computer and how to boot either of them from within LILO menu. There is also another mini-HOWTO "Linux+NT-Loader" that covers how to boot either of them from within NT Loader menu. As I consider Windows 2000 to be NT 5.0
this mini-HOWTO also covers upgrading from NT 4.0 to 2000.
Bill Wohler wrote in his v1.1 of The Linux+WindowsNT mini-HOWTO:
"Due to hardware or software problems or user headroom, I pulled my
hair out for several days trying to get both NT and Linux happily
settled on my new HP Vectra PC at work."
I could say that was true in my case too, but you really have
a way to make both Linux and Windows NT co-existing on the same
machine and to switch from one of them to another.
"Under no circumstances run the Disk Administrator from NT 3.51 to
format partitions. It asks if it can write a signature "which will
cause absolutely no harm." When it did this, it hosed my partition
table until fixed by steps 3 and 7 below. Because of these
problems, I was limited to one FAT NT partition. Also remember that
even if you do get the Disk Administrator to work, you'll want at
least one small FAT partition to use as a staging area for
exchanging files between Linux and NT until Linux has an NTFS
filesystem."
Well, NT's Disk Administrator is sufficient tool to check what
situation on your hard disk(s) you have, before and after you used
an utility called Partition Magic by Power Quest. This utility
might be needed to 'shrink' your NT (either NTFS or FAT) partition,
in order to get some free space for your further Linux' partitions.
(After a while, I recognized that 'shrinking' used partition
might not be needed. Actually, if you start from 'scratch', it
might be the best way to re-format your whole disk(s) using
FDISK command. You should make a DOS boot floppy diskete
where DOS commands FDISK and FORMAT have to be also copied.
More details later...)
"I installed Linux first and then NT, but based on my experience, I
might now be able to install NT first and then Linux."
Of course you all are able to install Windows NT first and after that
Linux. We'll see how to do that and how to use LILO (Linux
Loader) to chose which operating system to boot. But, before that
we'll see the procedure that Bill Wohler, the previous maintainer of
this mini-HOWTO, has been using:
1. Install a minimal Linux (hold off on installing the rest until
you win the Linux/NT battle). Do all your disk partitioning in
Linux, including your NT partition (make it FAT). I was not
successful at making more than one NT partition. I also made it the
first partition, but I don't know if that is essential or not.
2. Edit /etc/lilo.conf and use boot=/dev/sda (I
was not successful
at installing LILO on the Linux partition--/dev/sda3 in my case) and
run "lilo". You'll have to use the editor ae. You'll live.
3. Save the MBR with this: dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 count=1
Use a floppy. Trust me. Also do this each time you change the disk
partition table.
4. Install NT, part 1. When it goes to reboot halfway through the
process you'll boot into Linux.
5. Add NT stanza to /etc/lilo.conf, e.g.:
other=/dev/sda1
label=NT
table=/dev/sda
and run lilo. If lilo complains about this (I forget the message),
add the "linear" flag to /etc/lilo.conf near the "compact" keyword.
Furthermore, if your partition table is screwed up by NT you'll
either need to use "ignore-table" or follow the directions in Step 7.
See also "fix-table". The LILO HOWTO is your friend.
6. Reboot, select NT from LILO, and finish NT install. You'll need
the "Boot Disk XU, HP Vectra AIC 7880 Driver A.01.02" floppy to
install the ethernet drivers and the "XU/VT Drivers and
Documentation" CD (directory video/disk4 if I recall correctly) to
install the video drivers for the Matrox MGA Millennium.
7. Back to Linux, run fdisk and ensure you don't get "partition
doesn't end on cylinder boundary" on your Linux partitions. You'll
still have this error on the NT partition though, but this seems to
be OK.
/dev/sda1 1 1 322 329301 6 DOS 16-bit >=32M
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary:
phys=(321, 39, 9) should be (321, 63, 32)
Cfdisk reports strangeness, but it seems OK:
Unusable 0.04*
/dev/sda1 Primary DOS 16-bit >=32Mb 321.59*
Unusable 0.39*
If you do get the cylinder boundary warning on your Linux
partitions, it is sufficient to use cfdisk to do something innocuous
like changing the boot sector.
If, however, NT has really screwed you over and cfdisk can't even
run, complaining that it cannot open /dev/sda, then you'll need to
take more extreme action. You'll need that MBR you saved
previously. Clear and restore the MBR (but not the signature) with:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1
dd if=/dev/fd0 of=/dev/sda bs=510 count=1
8. Install the rest of Linux. Easy, huh?
If you prefer to have NT write the MBR instead of LILO, you may have
to resort to the following to clear the MBR first:
- dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=446 count=1 (in Linux) or perform
a low-level format with the SCSI utilities. I've heard that a
low-level format of an IDE disk is fatal, so don't do it.
- fdisk /mbr (you've obviously already created a DOS boot
disk that contains fdisk).
- delete NT partition and create it again in NT install.
- continue with NT install.
Epilogue: After first posting this message, I heard from several
folks that they had no problems with NT's Disk Administrator, and
were able to install either NT or Linux first without any problems.
Hopefully, you'll be in this camp, but if not, perhaps this campfire
story will be of some use.
Since the first edition of this mini-HOWTO, others have written
similar documents as well. Please be sure to consult them. If your
experience differs from any presented, then you should submit your
own mini-HOWTO or submit a revised version of this document to the
HOWTO maintainer (reference this sentence) and send a carbon copy to
me as I don't have the time to maintain this document. Someone
should eventually combine all of these documents into a single
coherent HOWTO.
Finally, I'm afraid this document details all I know about this
subject. I should point you to an appropriate Linux newsgroup for
further information. I use NT about one day a year. Under duress.
- First of all, I would suggest you to install a fresh copy of
Windows NT 4.0 on your hard disk. I suppose that you already
made a backup of your important data, so the NT installation
shouldn't be a problem. During the NT installation, setup is
not going to ask you where to place NT's boot loader, so it
would be placed into the MBR (Master Boot Record) of your hard
disk. But, there is a possibility for a previous content of
the MBR to remain within the MBR (especially any previous
Lilo), so I would suggest you (before installation of NT) to
boot the computer with a DOS floppy diskette having DOS version
of FDISK. At the prompt a:\ just enter the command:
fdisk /mbr and restart the computer again (without
that floppy).
- After you have successfully installed your NT, you will see that
it uses the whole hard disk or a specific partition of the hard
disk (depending on what you decided during the setup process).
So, it is advisible to 'shrink' the partition where NT resides
in order to make some free space on the disk. Onto that free space
you will install your Linux. After you have your NT configured
and running, you have to boot your computer using a floppy
diskette with Partition Magic utility by Power Quest. It is a
graphical tool able to see all partitions on all hard disks you
have. The best thing is that you can make some changes with your
partitions but not to destroy your existing data. One of the
available changes is to make your existing partition(s) smaller,
so to get some free space on the disk(s) for other purposes.
Although you are advised to make a backup before you make any
changes to the partitions, I usually practise to 'shrink' NT's
partition(s) before I install anything else onto this NT (so, if
needed, a repetitive NT re-installation wouldn't be a problem).
Well, Partition Magic (or any other similar utility you are
familiar with) will shrink your NT's partition (either NTFS or
FAT) to a smaller measure and place it to either the beginning
or to the end of the previous measure. It means that you may
choose to have your 'shrinked' NT partition at the beginning
or at the end of your disk (I usually choose NT to be at the
beginning, so the ending part of the disk will become a 'free
space'). After the 'shrinkin' is finished, you may re-boot your
NT in order to check the new situation: you may use Windows
Explorer or Disk Administrator for that.
- As it was said in Introduction, it might not be needed
always to use such tools like Partition Magic. It is better to say
that this tool is of a great value in all those cases you have been
running Windows NT for a long time, so you don't want to start
from 'scratch'. For example, you are fully satisfied with your
beloved NT and related applications. You are not likely to kill
NT, but you have recognized that you have enough unused
space on NT's partition(s) (i.e. NT's partition(s) might look not
much populated). That case, Partition Magic is your choice.
But, if you do start from the beginning, or you don't mind
re-formatting the disk, it might be suitable to get a blank
floppy diskette, make it to be DOS bootable and copy two DOS
tools on it: FDISK and FORMAT. So, restart your computer with
such floppy and at A:\ prompt enter fdisk.
There you'll find several options that allow re-partition of
your hard disk(s). Now you could make a part of the disk a FAT
partition (where you'll later install your beloved NT). The rest
of space you'd better leave alone (i.e. do not attempt making
Linux partition(s) right now, using DOS's version of FDISK). If
you really want to make Linux-type partitions now, you
should look after Linux version of FDISK.
- So far so good. Next step is to install your Linux. Case you
are familiar with RedHat distribution (I hope with other distros
is the same or similar), you start by putting your installation
CD in the drive and re-boot the computer). Well, when you are about
to choose what type of installation it will be (Gnome or KDE
Workstation, Custom, etc.) you may choose whatever you planned
before, but I would suggest to install a Workstation at first.
This is good because Linux setup will find automatically the
free space on the (first) hard disk, make all partitions needed
for Linux, format them properly, make majority of options by
default so you won't have much pain during the setup (later,
if you want, you may either add missing components or
re-install RedHat Linux as Custom over the existing linux
partitions). Lilo should go to the MBR.
- Don't forget to make Linux boot floppy diskette. You'll never
know when you may need it. If something goes wrong with the MBR,
and you don't have boot floppy, your Linux might become not accessible,
so you might have to re-install it again.
- After it looks that Linux installation is finished, you are going
to re-start the computer and there you will only see Lilo
with only one entry to boot: Linux (or maybe more than one Linux
entry, in case your hardware is multi-processor one or so). But, don't
panic! Your Windows NT is still there - where you had installed it
before Linux. You should become some familiar with Linux as soon
as possible, in order to be able to find and edit your new
/etc/lilo.conf file. When you open this file for the first time,
you'll see that there is only one (or more) Linux entry. Well,
you should know the exact position (read: a partition) where
Windows NT has been installed, so you could add an appropriate
entry into
/etc/lilo.conf file. After you make those changes,
restart Lilo with a command: /sbin/lilo and, after the next
re-boot, you will have both 'linux' and 'nt' (or 'dos' or similar)
entries under Lilo menu.
- My added NT entry is:
other=/dev/hda1
label=nt
So, the whole /etc/lilo.conf looks like this:
boot=/dev/hda
timeout=50
prompt
default=linux
vga=normal
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.12-20
label=linux
root=/dev/hda3
other=/dev/hda1
label=nt
- Some more explanations regarding details from my
/etc/lilo.conf
file: After I have installed Windows NT, I assigned the letter C:
to that drive. Beside that, I wanted to have another NTFS
partition in order to store and backup important files, case I
have to re-install NT on C: for some reason in the future. That's why
I've made another NT partition, that has been assigned as D: disk.
Both NTFS partitions are approximatelly 3 GB each and Linux setup
found them as /dev/hda1 and /dev/hda2 partitions. The rest free space
on the disk was cca 2 GB, where I have made the /root partition of
near 1.9 GB and /swapp part of cca 100 MB (/dev/hda3 and /dev/hda4
respectively). Lilo went to the MBR and all has been running fine.
For your information, I wanted to make these linux
partitions that time. Later, I found that it was not needed, so
now I let Linux setup to make partitions from the free space in
a way it likes to do that. I trust it :-)
Notice: Folks, you see, at my place, one of computers has several
SCSI disks. That's why I put the word 'SCSI' in parentheses. There I
have several SCSI controllers, SCSI CD ROM drive and SCSI Tape drive.
So, it doesn't mean that *you* will be using SCSI parts at all.
You'd rather handle more than one IDE disks, but I hope that install
process shouldn't change too much, if any.
- First of all, I would suggest you to install a fresh copy of
Windows NT 4.0 on your first hard disk. I suppose that you already
made a backup of your important data, so the NT installation
shouldn't be a problem. You can easily copy your data on your
second hard disk or so. During the NT installation, setup is
not going to ask you where to place NT's boot loader, so it
would be placed into the MBR (Master Boot Record) of your first hard
disk. But, there is a possibility for a previous content of
the MBR to remain within the MBR (especially any previous
Lilo), so I would suggest you (before installation of NT) to
boot the computer with a DOS floppy diskette having DOS version
of FDISK. At the prompt a:\ just enter the command: fdisk /mbr
and restart the computer again (without that floppy). If you
want to be sure about your machine is 'clean', you may also
delete any existing partition(s) on your other disks, during the
Windows NT Setup in case you have *not* made any backup on
other disks.
- After you have successfully installed your NT, you will see that
it uses the whole hard disk or a specific partition of the hard
disk (depending on what you decided during the setup process).
So, it is advisible to 'shrink' the partition where NT resides
in order to make some free space on the disk. Onto that free space
you will install your Linux. Well, you may also think of using
other disk(s) you have for Linux (so did I). That case, you
would start your linux installation and tried to use, for example,
/dev/sdb (or sdc, or sdd, or else in case of SCSI system) or
/dev/hdb (or hdc, or hdd, or else in case of IDE system). Looked
that Linux installation accepted whatever I chose, but somehow
after all was finished, when I did that, LILO was not able to
do anything. Actually, it always stopped after 'LI' so it was not
possible to start Linux at all. Finally, after pulling my hair
out, I decided to make it all on the first disk. So, after
I had NT configured and running, I had to boot my computer using
a floppy diskette with Partition Magic utility by Power Quest.
It is a graphical tool able to see all partitions on all hard disks you
have. The best thing is that you can make some changes with your
partitions but not to destroy your existing data. One of the
available changes is to make your existing partition(s) smaller,
so you can get some free space on the disk(s) for other purposes.
Although you are advised to make a backup before you make any
changes with your partitions, I usually practise to 'shrink' NT's
partition before I install anything but NT itself (so, if
needed, a repetitive re-installation wouldn't be a problem).
Well, Partition Magic (or any other similar utility you are
familiar with) will shrink your NT's partition (either NTFS or
FAT) to a smaller measure and place it to either the beginning
or to the end of the previous measure. It means that you may
choose to have your 'shrinked' NT partition at the beginning
or at the end of your disk. I usually choose NT to be at the
beginning, so the ending part of the disk will become a 'free
space'. I discovered some problems if the 'free space' is made
at the beginning of disk (later we'll talk about). So, after the
'shrinkin' is finished, you may re-boot your
NT in order to check the new situation: you may use Windows
Explorer or Disk Administrator for that. You will also note how
NT can 'see' all (other) disks you have in your machine (either
partitioned or as 'free space' areas).
- Once again, as it was said earlier, it might not be needed
always to use such tools like Partition Magic. It is better to say
that this tool is of a great value in all those cases you have been
running Windows NT for a long time, so you don't want to start
from 'scratch'. For example, you are fully satisfied with your
beloved NT and related applications. You are not likely to kill
NT, but you have recognized that you have enough unused
space on NT's partition(s) (i.e. NT's partition(s) might look not
much populated). That case, Partition Magic is your choice.
But, if you do start from the beginning, or you don't mind
re-formatting the disk(s), it might be suitable to get a blank
floppy diskette, make it to be DOS bootable and copy two DOS
tools on it: FDISK and FORMAT. So, restart your computer with
such floppy and at A:\ prompt enter fdisk.
There you'll find several options that allow re-partition of
your hard disk(s). Now you could make a part of the disk a FAT
partition (where you'll later install your beloved NT). The rest
of space you'd better leave alone (i.e. do not attempt making
Linux partition(s) right now, using DOS's version of FDISK). If
you really want to make Linux-type partitions now, you
should look after Linux version of FDISK.
- So far so good. Next step is to install your Linux. Case you
are familiar with RedHat distribution (I hope with other distros
is the same or similar), you start by putting your installation
CD in the drive and re-boot the computer). Well, when you are about
to choose what type of installation it will be (Gnome or KDE
Workstation, Custom, etc.) you may choose whatever you planned
before, but I would suggest to install a Workstation at first.
This is good because Linux setup will find automatically the
free space on the first hard disk, make all partitions needed
for Linux, format them properly, make majority of options by
default so you won't have much pain during the setup (later, if
you want, you may either add missing components or re-install
Linux as Custom over the existing linux partitions). Lilo should
go to the MBR of your first disk.
- After it looks that Linux installation is finished, you are going
to re-start the computer and there you will only see Lilo
with one Linux entry to boot (or maybe more than one Linux
entry, in case your hardware is multi-processor one). But, don't
panic! Your Windows NT is still there where you had installed it
before Linux. You should become some familiar with Linux as soon
as possible, in order to be able to find and edit your new
/etc/lilo.conf file. When you open this file for the first time,
you'll see that there is only one (or more) Linux entry. Well,
you should know the exact position (read: a partition) where
Windows NT has been installed, so you could add an appropriate
entry into /etc/lilo.conf file. After you do that, restart Lilo
and, after the next re-boot, you will have both 'linux' and 'nt'
entries under Lilo menu.
- My added NT entry is:
other=/dev/sda1
label=nt
So, the whole /etc/lilo.conf looks like this:
boot=/dev/sda
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
prompt
timeout=50
default=linux
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.12-20smp
label=linux-mp
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.2.12-20smp.img
read-only
root=/dev/sda6
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.12-20
label=linux-up
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.2.12-20.img
read-only
root=/dev/sda6
other=/dev/hda1
label=nt
- Some more explanation, regarding details from my
/etc/lilo.conf
file: After I have installed Windows NT on the first disk,
I assigned the letter C: to that drive. After I made enough free
space after the NTFS partition, I let Linux setup to
handle further partitioning. Although Linux should support as far
as four primary partitions per disk, it seems that Linux setup is
likely to make an extended partition, whenever it recognizes that
there is already a primary partition on the disk. Considering that
those 'virtual' primary partitions would be numbered from /dev/sda1
to /dev/sda4 (including an extended one, of course), the extended
one should become /dev/sda4. Following that idea, the first one logical
partition within the extended one was numbered as /dev/sda5 (in my
case, it was the /boot partition that physically was the first from
the beginning of the first hard disk). So, the /root and /swapp
partitions are /dev/sda6 and /dev/sda7 respectively. You may see a line
"root=/dev/sda6" telling you that. Once again, Lilo went to the MBR
and all has been running fine.
- Well, you may ask me: Ok, but what in a case I have several
hard disks installed in the machine? Good question. You see, I
myself have four SCSI disks and, of course, I tried to
install Linux on the 2nd one, next the 3rd and, finally, on the
4th disk. Whatever I did (Linux setup haven't complained at all),
when I was about to finish the installation and after performing the
final automatic re-boot, my Lilo would stop after 'LI' so the
computer had to be re-started. Finally, I realized that there
must be a problem with disks that are too "far" from the MBR that is
located at the beginning of the first hard disk. That's why
I suggest you to make them all (both NT and Linux) on your first
disk. After having all of them running ok, there is no problem
to make other disks visible (and usable) by both operating
system. I hope your first disk is large enough to carry
both operating systems (NT needs at least cca 150 MB for itself,
Linux depends on what you want to get: Gnome or KDE Workstations
are about 580 MB, but the Custom wants more than 1.4 GB). That
means the first hard disk of cca 2.4 GB should fit.
- You may also ask me: Ok, but, could I 'shrink' my NT partition in
a way the 'free space' is made at the beginning of the disk? Well, I
remember I tried to do so and to install, at first, Gnome
Workstation (395 packages, 570 MB) there. During the setup, everything
looked fine, but neither Lilo was not installed, nor the boot floppy
was made. You bet, Linux was not functional. Then I tried to install
KDE Workstation (377 packages, 582 MB) on the same place. Once again,
everything looked fine, but neither Lilo was not installed, nor the
boot floppy was made. Investigating that, I studied the structure of all
existing partitions. I was surprised when recognized that new born
logical partitions (within the new born extended one)
were numbered as if they were physically positioned after the
NT partition! In the other words, there I have got a 'funny' order:
/dev/sda5, /dev/sda6, /dev/sda7 and, finally, /dev/sda1. Looked like
the system was a bit confused. So I considered that it is advisible
to make the 'free space' after already existing NT
partition(s).
- Regarding two similar Linux images (differ in 'smp'). It is a server
hardware with a multi-processor support. The "inteligent" setup has
inspected the hardware and offered me to have both 'multi' and 'uni'
processor functionality. Nevertheless, I still have only one CPU
there.
Well, actually, it isn't a real "upgrade" of running NT to
2000, but a "fresh" installation of Windows 2000 Professional.
I hope it should also work for other Windows 2000 products. I
haven't tried its server-type installations yet, but I remember I
haven't experienced any problem with NT, regarding it was Server
or Workstation.
- First of all, a backup of important data should be made! I do it
by having another Windows-like partition on the disk, where I
copy/move my texts, drawings etc. That partition is not
going to be handled during the installation. After the backup is made,
it's the right time to install Windows 2000.
- You see, folks, whenever I (re)install a Windows NT product, I
like to see it on a clean partition. It means, I remove i.e.
delete the existing partition where NT "system" files were stored,
in order to get free ('unused') space. Then I chose to make
a new partition that will be formatted as NTFS type of file
system. After that, I opt to install Win2000 onto the new
partition.
- The procedure of Windows 2000 Setup will remove LILO from the
MBR, so a couple of next re-bootings during the installation won't
show LILO prompt.
- When the Win2000 installation is finished, you may re-install your
favourite applications and restore your data from the
backup. You should then check if everything goes fine with your
new and old Windoze stuff :-)
- So far - so good. Now you have to look after your Linux boot
floppy diskette. If you can't find it, you are out of luck.
Actually, I am not sure if all Linux systems might be now
activated without boot diskette. Some Linux gurus
suggest to boot Linux from the installation CD, but I don't
know if it can help in case your system doesn't have
bootable CDROM drive, i.e. a modern motherboard's
BIOS. Any comment here?
- Well, after you successfully boot your Linux, you should go to
/etc/lilo.conf to check it once again. You should have
there at least two options: Linux and NT. Case you don't see the
option to boot your beloved Windoze, you have to add it. It
was described in previous sections. Then you have to run
/sbin/lilo in order to put LILO boot loader into the MBR.
- That's all. Next time you boot your computer, you'll get your
LILO prompt. Using <Tab> key you'll see your boot options.
- From my experience - all work great! Although I removed
previous WinNT installation in order to make new Win2000
installation and also lost (temporarily) LILO boot loader,
at the end I got both of them, Win2000 and Linux, the same
way as I did with WinNT and Linux!
Copyright is a source of much and continuous debate on the
LDP mailing list. For more in depth information please consult
the Manifesto at the
LinuxDoc site.
The purpose of having a license is to allow appropriate distribution.
You can use any license that meets the Manifesto.
What follows is a boilerplate licence.
Copyright (c) 2001 by Miroslav "Misko" Skoric.
Please freely copy and distribute (sell or give away) this document in
any format. It's requested that corrections and/or comments be fowarded
to the document maintainer. You may create a derivative work and distribute
it provided that you:
- Send your derivative work (in the most suitable format such as
sgml) to the LDP (Linux Documentation Project) or the like for posting
on the Internet. If not the LDP, then let the LDP know where it is
available.
- License the derivative work with this same license or use GPL.
Include a copyright notice and at least a pointer to the license used.
- Give due credit to previous authors and major contributors.
If you're considering making a derived work other than a translation,
it's requested that you discuss your plans with the current maintainer.
Use the information in this document at your own risk. I disavow any
potential liability for the contents of this document. Use of the
concepts, examples, and/or other content of this document is entirely
at your own risk.
All copyrights are owned by their owners, unless specifically noted
otherwise. Use of a term in this document should not be regarded as
affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark.
Naming of particular products or brands should not be seen as endorsements.
You are strongly recommended to take a backup of your system before
major installation and backups at regular intervals.
This is not the first release of this mini-HOWTO. I
hope to improve it whenever possible.
Beside that, there are other documents that may help you to
install more than one operating system on the same computer.
You may look for them at the same location where you get
Linux+WindowsNT mini-HOWTO.
This mini-HOWTO would be improved from time to time. If you think
that the HOWTO on your Linux installation CD is some out-of-date, you
may check for newest release on the Internet. It could be found within
the main
Linux Documentation Project
homepage.
This version of Linux+WinNT mini-HOWTO is based on:
The Linux+WindowsNT mini-HOWTO
by Bill Wohler, wohler@newt.com
v1.1, 19 February 1997
Any comments or suggestions can be mailed to my email address:
m.skoric@eunet.yu.
These are intended as the primary starting points to
get the background information as well as show you how to solve
a specific problem.
Some relevant HOWTOs are Bootdisk, Installation, SCSI and UMSDOS.
The main site for these is the
LDP archive
at Metalab (formerly known as Sunsite).
These are the smaller free text relatives to the HOWTOs.
Some relevant mini-HOWTOs are
Backup-With-MSDOS, Diskless, LILO, Large Disk,
Linux+DOS+Win95+OS2, Linux+OS2+DOS, Linux+Win95,
Linux+WinNT, Linux+NT-Loader, NFS-Root, Win95+Win+Linux,
ZIP Drive .
You can find these at the same place as the HOWTOs, usually in a sub directory
called mini. Note that these are scheduled to be converted into SGML and
become proper HOWTOs in the near future.
In most distributions of Linux there is a document directory installed,
have a look in the
/usr/doc directory.
where most packages store their main documentation and README files etc.
Also you will here find the HOWTO archive (
/usr/doc/HOWTO)
of ready formatted HOWTOs
and also the mini-HOWTO archive (
/usr/doc/HOWTO/mini)
of plain text documents.
Many of the configuration files mentioned earlier can be found in the
/etc
directory. In particular you will want to work with the
/etc/fstab
file that sets up the mounting of partitions
and possibly also
/etc/mdtab
file that is used for the md system to set up RAID.
The kernel source in
/usr/src/linux
is, of course, the ultimate documentation. In other
words, use the source, Luke.
It should also be pointed out that the kernel comes not only with
source code which is even commented (well, partially at least)
but also an informative
documentation directory.
If you are about to ask any questions about the kernel you should
read this first, it will save you and many others a lot of time
and possibly embarrassment.
Also have a look in your system log file (
/var/log/messages)
to see what is going on and in particular how the booting went if
too much scrolled off your screen. Using tail -f /var/log/messages
in a separate window or screen will give you a continuous update of what is
going on in your system.
You can also take advantage of the
/proc
file system that is a window into the inner workings of your system.
Use cat rather than more to view the files as they are
reported as being zero length. Reports are that less works well here.
There is a huge number of informative web pages out there and by their very
nature they change quickly so don't be too surprised if these links become
quickly outdated.
A good starting point is of course the
Linux Documentation Project home page,
an information central for documentation, project pages and much, much more.
Please let me know if you have any other leads that can be of interest.
In the end you might find yourself unable to solve your problems and need
help from someone else. The most efficient way is either to ask someone
local or in your nearest Linux user group, search the web for the nearest
one.
Another possibility is to ask on Usenet News in one of the many, many
newsgroups available. The problem is that these have such a high
volume and noise (called low signal-to-noise ratio) that your question
can easily fall through unanswered.
No matter where you ask it is important to ask well or you will not be
taken seriously. Saying just my disk does not work is not going
to help you and instead the noise level is increased even further and if
you are lucky someone will ask you to clarify.
Instead describe your problems in some detail that
will enable people to help you. The problem could lie somewhere you did
not expect. Therefore you are advised to list up the following information
on your system:
- Hardware
- Processor
- DMA
- IRQ
- Chip set (LX, BX etc)
- Bus (ISA, VESA, PCI etc)
- Expansion cards used (Disk controllers, video, IO etc)
- Software
- BIOS (On motherboard and possibly SCSI host adapters)
- LILO, if used
- Linux kernel version as well as possible modifications and patches
- Kernel parameters, if any
- Software that shows the error (with version number or date)
- Peripherals
- Type of disk drives with manufacturer name, version and type
- Other relevant peripherals connected to the same busses
Remember that booting text is logged to /var/log/messages which can
answer most of the questions above. Obviously if the drives fail you might not
be able to get the log saved to disk but you can at least scroll back up the
screen using the SHIFT and PAGE UP keys. It may also be useful to
include part of this in your request for help but do not go overboard, keep
it brief as a complete log file dumped to Usenet News is more than a
little annoying.