The Linux ``Linux-DOS-Win95-OS2'' mini-HOWTO Mike Harlan, r3mdh@raex.com v1.3.1, 11 November 1997 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This document presents a procedure to make 4 operating systems co-exist on a single hard disk. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Disclaimer: Any damages inflicted on any machine by you as a result of your reading of this HOWTO is still YOUR FAULT. When you read about deleting partitions and formatting disks, be smart. Realize that doing any of the above will result in loss of data. So, BACKUP SOON, BACKUP OFTEN. This is your second-to-the-last warning. Stuff to make the lawyers happy: Unless otherwise stated, Linux HOWTO documents are copyrighted by their respective authors. Linux HOWTO documents may be reproduced and distributed in whole or in part, in any medium physical or electronic, as long as this copyright notice is retained on all copies. Commercial redistribution is allowed and encouraged; however, the author would like to be notified of any such distributions. All translations, derivative works, or aggregate works incorporating Linux HOWTO documents must be covered under this copyright notice. That is, you may not produce a derivative work from a HOWTO and impose additional restrictions on its distribution. Exceptions to these rules may be granted under certain conditions; please contact the Linux HOWTO coordinator at the address given below. In short, we wish to promote dissemination of this information through as many channels as possible. However, we do wish to retain copyright on the HOWTO documents, and would like to be notified of any plans to redistribute the HOWTOs. If you have any questions, please contact Tim Bynum, the Linux HOWTO coordinator, at linux-howto@sunsite.unc.edu via email. Updates from v1.3: * Updated my e-mail address. My address has changed from r3mdh@imperium.net to r3mdh@raex.com. Updates from v1.0: * Updated my e-mail address. My address has changed from r3mdh@dax.cc.uakron.edu to r3mdh@imperium.net. Now...........on with the show! 1. Introduction After many days of struggle and frustration, I finally figured out how to accomplish what I wanted. I have a 1.2GB HD and 16MB RAM PC. I wanted to have 4 operating systems on my system: MSDOS v6.22, Windows 95, OS/2, and Linux. Until now, I have found no Linux HOWTO to perform the task of getting each and every one of these operating systems on one machine and still have the ability to boot each (it is possible to write the OSs to different partitions, but getting them to boot and not hang at the ``Starting MSDOS'' message, for example, is something that I had to figure out. Well, after much trial and error, I have come up with the following recipe to perform this feat: Before I begin going through the procedure step-by-step, let me first clue you in on what I eventually wish to accomplish: