Dual boot installation - Linux+VMWare+virtual Windows 98


VMWare

2.03

Here is described complete installation of new PC for dual boot.
First possibility boot native linux and from him execute VMWare
and Windows 98, second one boot directly into Windows 98.
Windows 98 will be installed only once (on the same disc).
Installed programs use the same configuration doesn't matter from
which boot was installed.

PC configuration: ABIT KT7A-RAID IBM 60GB disc connected to RAID DVD-ROM NEC connected to primary master (IDE0) IOMEGA ZIP 100 MB connected or primary slave (IDE0) nVIDIA GFORCE 2 MX400

First problem - how divide hard disc. I propose, e.g.: 1) 6GB partition - format Ext, visible only for linux, Windows can share it through Samba if VM is running. Determined for linux applications 2) Swap 256MB visible for Linux 3) boot partition 16MB for Linux (LILO) 4) boot partition for native Windows start 5) extended partition, arbitrary count of logical partitions - format FAT,FAT32,VFAT

ATTENTION! Due to big disc it necessary to Windows/Linux use the same logical disc topology H/C/S.

Blind alley: 1) format disc using linux fdisk, install Linux 2) install Windows - in Windows impossible (I don't know how) force topology to be the same as topology used in linux

Coreect: 1) boot DOS where is big dics support, e.g. from any Windows 98 rescue diskette 2) exec FDISK, big disc support on 3) create primary partition #1 for DOS, (size 8-16MB) !!! this step determines logical disc topology for DOS/Windows!!! 3a) format partition using DOS format (DOS disc format using native DOS format utility, not linux format utility - (superblock problem when Linux starting - fsck /dev/hde1))

In RedHat7.2 is /dosutils/fips20/fips.exe utility which shows partition table (fex. H/C/S 1/0/1-254/1/63).

4) restart computer and boot instalation Linux CD. 5) check topology (using fdisk), if it is not correct use LILO command line parameter hdx=cyl,head,sect. 6) create partition #2 /boot - linux native 16MB 7) (if is anticipated other OS, which is necessary boot from bottom part of disc create dummy partition #3) 8) create linux swap (druid don't want to save settings, fdisk does) 9) create exteded partition (remaining part of disc) - linux fdisk allocates its size dynamically according to logical partitions - WIN fdisk creates it statically (enter volume size)

- create EXTENDED PARTITION using Windows FDISC!!!, also: 9a) reboot from Windows rescue diskette to WIN/DOS 9b) create big extended partition (must contain enough space for linux logical partions and for DOS/WIN partitions) (rest of disc ?) 10) create in extended partitions WIN/DOS logical partitions 11) reboot to Linuxu 12) create linux logical partitions 13) install Linuxu, IP, ... 14) configure X-Windows, grafical card 15) install VWWare, vmware-config.pl, set bridge networking - virtual machine behaves in net as computer 16) now create file/disc system for VM Ware - virtual boot partition

- types of VMWare disc: VIRTUAL - content of virtual disc is placed in file in linux file system (enter disc size) RAW DISK - direct disc access - allow enable/disable partition access (there are physicaly on the same place of disc, settings is saved in file PLAIN DISK - allow build own disc from both virtual and raw discs 16a) detect size of boot disc created in step 3 ( /dev/hdx1) 16b) create PLAIN DISK ("files" options in host file system) and place it e.g. in /log/vmware/hde1.dat. Size of disc select as near as possible to boot WIN disc size to create it from VIRTUAL DISK /log/vmware/hde1.dat (may be slightly slower). The same size fails because both OS computes size in different way. Result is file size of partition size, in hde1 is num of sectors. Notice: this disc enables VW boot directly to Windows 98 - MBR is different - and vary boot parameters (AUTOEXEC.BAT,CONFIG.SYS,...). Also should select automatically windows hardware profile but I don't know how 16c) create PLAIN DISK and place him to /log/vmware/pm (option "partitions on host device"). List of partitions accessible from VMWare is created (RAW and files mix). Delete partitions not intended for VM (linux, swap), it's necessary leave "boot records" in files, save and edit manually /log/vmware/pm and replace hde1 with (file name) hde1.dat and set exactly size in num of sectors (if won't be the same as file size in edit config file pm will be destroyed) 17) boot virtual machine (using VMWARE!) from diskette 18) format disk C:\ using DOS format utility - thus virtual /log/vmware/hde1 19) set using DOS FDISK active 1st partition and make FDISK /MBR (otherwise VM boot LILO) 20) reboot virtual machine, to DOS 21) install Windows 22) install VMWARE Tools for Windows, VGA driver, which enables X-WINDOWS driver in Windows. 23) if doesn't work net in Neighbourhood, start it using NET START 24) add to hosts (both in Linux and in Windows) IP computer adresses 25) in /etc/init.d/rc.3 a 5 add start of samba and vmware 26) configure ipchains or other firewall to be linux host accessable 27) configure samba /etc/samba.conf (don't set guest = yes in sections otherwise virtual machine connects to resource as nobody and e.g. ZIP remains read only) 27a) (switch off samba password, if protection not required smbpasswd -u user -n )

28) arbitrary application installation in windows

29) prepare partition #1 - copy data from /log/vmware/hde1.dat dd if=/log/vmware/hde1.dat of=/dev/hde1 30) create in Windows Control panel/System/HW profiles new profile "Real machine" 31) create new items to LILO /etc/lilo.conf for boot from /dev/hde1 and execute lilo to create new start image in /boot/map. 32) reboot to native Windows using LILO, choose "Real machine" profile 33) configure drivers, remove VM only drivers from profile 34) ??? set automatic hw profile selection ??? I don't know how 35) if some automatically load drivers are uncompatabile with real machine profile e.g. in AUTOEXEC.BAT delete/copy them from/to WINDOWS\SYSTEM\IOSUBSYS\ directory. E.g. applies to VIA Chipset IDE drivers chipsetu Via. VM Windows hangs up during start up VCOMM.VXD error (?)

e.g. for VM: cd \windows\system\iosubsys move /Y VATAPI.VXD realm move /Y VIADSK.MPD realm move /Y VIAIDE.VXD realm

for real machine cd \windows\system\iosubsys copy /Y realm*.* .

MBR look like: 1. 16MB VFAT,DOS /dev/hde1 2. 16MB LILO /dev/hde2 3. DUMMY ? 4. EXTENDED WinProg VFAT,FAT32 /dev/hde3 LinuxProg EXT /dev/hde4 256MB Linux swap

good work

good work