Boot Fedora with Loadlin in Win98.

[Jeff Vian]

On Sat, 2004-12-18 at 21:07 +0100, Moller wrote:
> Hi !
> 
> Thanks for the answer Barry Yu, but it's my fault that I didn't specify more clearly what I meant.
> 
> I am not using Grub or Lilo as a bootloader because I don't want to mess up my MBR in Windows98, i like to have win98 as first boot.
> I want to use Loadlin, to load the Fedorakernel into memory from Win98-DOS.
> I have done what I suppose to do, according to the Loadlin+Win95/98ME mini-HOWTO(http://www.eskimo.com/~praxis/)
> But it doesn't work properly when I Boot Fedora from Win98-DOS.
> Here is a sample of my bootmessage that I get when I boot with loadlin from win98 to Fedora :
> 
> NET: Registered protocol family 17
> md: Autodetecting RAID arrays.
> md: autorun ...
> md:  ...autorun DONE.
> EXT2-fs: hda3: Couldn't mount because of unsupported optional features (4).
> Kernel panic - not syncing : VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block (3,3).
> 
> Then the system go into halt and I have to push my RESET-button to reboot my system back to win98.
> 
> 
> So, what to do ?   I need help .........
> 
> Is there anyone out there, that starts FedoraCore3 with Loadlin in Windows98, that can help me to configure my system properly ?
> 
> Thanks all.
> Philip Moller
> Malmo, Sweden
> 

It seems loadlin may not be compatible with either the ext3 filesystems
or with SELinux.  Since FC3 has the filesystems labeled by SELinux and
anything booting to that must be able to handle the differences this may
be what you need to investigate.

It is extremely easy to use grub or lilo and dual boot without harming
your win98 system.  I use that regularly and have never had a problem.
If you do, a simple boot with a floppy or win98 install CD and using
"fdisk /mbr" will always restore the MBR to that expected by a windows
install.

Using an older tool that very few people actually use is problematic.
 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Barry Yu" <barryyupuilee at sbcglobal.net>
> To: "Fedora SELinux support list for users &developers." <fedora-selinux-list at redhat.com>
> Sent: Saturday, December 18, 2004 2:09 AM
> Subject: Re: Loadlin.
> 
> 
> > Moller wrote:
> > 
> > >Hello!
> > >
> > >I want to dualboot FedoraCore3 with Win 98.
> > >How do I do it ?
> > >Here is a sample of my bootmessage that I get when I boot with loadlin:
> > >
> > >NET: Registered protocol family 17
> > >md: Autodetecting RAID arrays.
> > >md: autorun ...
> > >md:  ...autorun DONE.
> > >EXT2-f2 warning (device hda3):ext2_fill_super: mounting ext3 filesystem as ext2
> > >VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem) readonly
> > >Freeing unused kernel memory: 144k freed
> > >Warning: unable to open an initial console.
> > >SELinux: Disabled at runtime.
> > >SELinux: Unregistering netfilter hooks
> 
> > Barry Yu wrote:
> > Install w98 first in a f32 partition, and then secondly install the fc3, 
> > the fc3 will auto dectect the existing w98,  during insatllation of fc3 
> > at configuartion of boot loader, just take whatever the default 
> > setting,  when finished, the grub will be the boot up manual for you to 
> > select which O/S you want to boot up with (w98 or fc3). Hope I 
> > understood your post correctly.
> 
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