Boston Linux & Unix (BLU) Home | Calendar | Mail Lists | List Archives | Desktop SIG | Hardware Hacking SIG
Wiki | Flickr | PicasaWeb | Video | Maps & Directions | Installfests | Keysignings
Linux Cafe | Meeting Notes | Blog | Linux Links | Bling | About BLU

BLU Discuss list archive


[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

How to set up multi-boot system?k



Derek D. Martin   wrote:
	On Fri, 20 Aug 1999, Narayan Gangadhar wrote:
	>  I have a doubt. I had installed
	> LINUX my comp and windows -95.
	> I had a lilo loader installed.
	> 
	>  Later on i installed windows -98
	> and suddenly the liloloader
	> disappeared. The comp direcly
	> booted in Windows -98.

	Yup.  When you install any Microsoft operating system, it overwrites the
	boot sector with its own.  You need to boot Linux from a boot floppy (or
	the CD if you have a bootable one) and run lilo to fix this.

Yup; yup.  And it doesn't even take an install.  On the few occasions
that  I've  booted W95 on my linux box, I've several times found that
the linux partition was no longer bootable.  Digging around, I  found
two  very  relevant  things  in  the MS docs:  One is a comment in an
obscure part of a thick manual to the effect that they "help" you  by
turning  off the bootable flag on partitions that don't contain valid
MS operating systems. The other is the passage in the license stating
that  if  you  boot a MS operating system, you thereby give Microsoft
the right to do anything at all to anything on the disk.

They're being nice by only overwriting your boot sector. According to
their license, they could legally wipe the whole linux partition. Or,
if you are attached to the  net,  their  software  can  legally  send
anything  on  your  disk  back  to  headquarters,  to be used for any
purpose they wish.

Sometimes you can learn interesting and amusing things by reading the
fine print.  To bad more MS customers don't do this.

-
Subcription/unsubscription/info requests: send e-mail with
"subscribe", "unsubscribe", or "info" on the first line of the
message body to discuss-request at blu.org (Subject line is ignored).




BLU is a member of BostonUserGroups
BLU is a member of BostonUserGroups
We also thank MIT for the use of their facilities.

Valid HTML 4.01! Valid CSS!



Boston Linux & Unix / webmaster@blu.org