"J. Clarke"

2. get software that permits a multi-boot setup
[snip]

2K/XP does this, LILO does this, GRUB does this. LILO and GRUB are GPL.

when you use boot manager software is when
you need a *current* book specific to the subject
coz not all OS's will work from other than
the primary channel IDE master drive

All of them that I work with will. 2K/XP want a small partition on
whatever drive the BIOS tries to boot from.

This is interesting. I was also thinking about creating such a small
partition as the first partition on the primary disk and later use it just
to host the smallest software necessary to perform a multiboot (which I've
yet to choose but if there a free or GPL version.. all the better)
How big should said partition be? Or, better yet, how small? Would a FAT32
partition be good to host LILO, or do I need an ext2 partition (I seem to
recall that there are intrinsic limitations in the minimum size of a FAT32
partition, am I wrong?) [1]

For example, Ranish Partition Manager says
" If you want to use "Text 25x80" or "GUI" boot menu you have to
create a small (couple of megs) partition for the Boot Manager
(type 0xF0).
That partition could be located anywhere on the disk and could
be either primary partition or a logical disk inside extended
partition."
But how big should that be to host Win2k/XP loader?
I'd go with a 100 MB FAT32 partition, possibly less.

I'd like to have one linux on disk 1 and one linux on disk 2, plus
Windows98SE (right now it's on the disk that will be on the secondary IDE).
It will ease my future migration, when there would be no more support to the
latest hardware from my last M$ OS but it will save me a gigantic backup and
a new partioning in case I'd be forced to move to XP.


cheers,
Peltio
invalid address in reply-to. crafty demunging required to mail me.

[1] Of course I would need to document myself before doing that, but right
now I have to put the other disk back as soon as it arrives to hold all of
the data I've backed up to get back to work. I'm not currently planning to
install neither Win2k nor WinXP, but I could later be forced to do that to
keep on working.
Having the system already partitioned to host several OSes would be nice.