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6. How to install WINDOWS NT/2000 and LINUX (RedHat 7.1) on a laptop

6.1 If you want to have *both* NT and 2000, besides Linux

Notice: Recently my bosses decided to get a couple of HP Omnibook 6000 portables, so I quickly rushed to play with new toys. It was a series with Pentium 3 at 1 GHz and 128 MB of RAM. There's also a hard disk of 30 GB, removable DVD and FDD drives, a secondary battery that goes to the removable drive bay (when it's empty) and NIC/modem combo card.

• Well, the notebooks have come with Windows 2000 Professional preinstalled and I thought it might be great to reformat the disk and start from scratch. I think I did it again with Partition Magic utility by Power Quest. Actually, I have *erased* all existing partitions because I noticed a small one at the beginning of the disk, that looked to me a bit strange (well, I learned later that it was there for hibernation and/or diagnostics).
• After that, I tried to repeat a procedure that I have always been very fond of: to make a couple of FAT partitions (cca. 2037 MB) where my NT and/or W2k would go. Don't ask me why I use that old FAT format - it is just to be sure that any type of Windows setup will recognize such a partition and, as well, to be sure that some file exchange (if needed) would be possible between various operating systems. Beside these FAT partitions (that start, of course, from the beginning of the disk), I have also made several FAT partitions but, this time, starting from the *end* of the disk. Partition Magic allowes a user to do that (<-- here the guys from Power Quest should send me a couple of 0.01$ for this commercial of their product :-)).

  Well, you may ask me why somebody should make a free space somewhere in between. The answer is: In order to allow Linux's /boot partition to stay under well known 1024 cylinder limitation. When it comes to 1024 cyl area (actually, when you enter 1025, 1026 ... etc), it doesn't matter what is happening there. It means, there you may put your Linux / (root) partition (regardless of its size and structure), as well as to use remaining space for Windows/Linux exchange zone (i.e. FAT).

• So far - so good. So, I put NT's installation disk and followed the procedure (you should be aware to use a "retail" NT installation disk, *not* the one that came with Omnibook 6000, because it is supposed to "restore" an NT installation, accompanied with a hibernation partition. Why such a partition seems not to be suitable here, we'll see later.
• After Windows NT was installed completely, it was the right time to insert Windows 2000 installation CD (once again, do not use 2000's disks that have come with the computer). So, from within NT running, I have installed 2000 onto the next partition (actually, only the first part of the installation process starts from under NT, but it is OK). When the process has finished, you have two Windozes - on your first two partitions.
• Everything seems to be running OK, excepting the diagnostics. It should be activated with F10 at system boot if "restore" CD's were used. BTW, NT's "restoration" finishes with even bigger partition (cca. 500 MB). And not only that: this partition seems to be a *primary* one. That means, you may end up with a shortage of primary partitions, in case you intend to install several operating systems. Anyway, I have decided that the diagnostics is not too much important to me, so there's no use of F10 at system boot anymore :-)
• Not to forget to say, the Windows 2000's boot loader should offer *both* NT and 2000 boot options, if you have followed the mentioned procedure (case you don't want to have *both* NT and W2k on the system, you may skip to the next section).
• Well, that is the time when I usually look after a Linux installation CD's. The first one (in case of two) should be inserted into the DVD (or in a CD drive) and the system has to be re-booted. As usual, after a second or two after switching the system on, Escape should be pressed one or two times, in order to change the "boot" device order (of course, a CD/DVD should be chosen here).
• The rest of Linux installation is just as usual. Don't forget to make a Linux boot floppy at the end of the process (you never know when the boot floppy might be of help).
• Folks, in short, that was that. If everything goes fine, the next system boot should take you into the Linux environment. Don't be surprised when you don't see your beloved Windoze(s) boot loader(s) anymore. You just have to look into the another great Linux document, called LILO mini-HOWTO. There you'll find more detailed information about how LILO (Linux Loader) works.
• If you find it easier, read some pages before and check how it was accomplished in the chapter "HOW TO UPGRADE WINDOWS NT TO WINDOWS 2000"

6.2 If you want to have only Windows 2000 and Linux

Notice: Well, all I have said in the previous section, resulted in a "multiboot" (or, better to say, "3-boot") system. When I want to run Linux - I have to choose its option from within LILO menu. When I am about to run any kind of Windoze - I have to choose Windows (or DOS, or whatever else) from within LILO menu. Soon after, on the screen appears Windows 2000 boot loader. Finally, from this point, either NT or 2000 may be booted. Well, for a next task, I wanted to install Symantec's Norton System Works onto both Microsoft environments. I did it successfully, but it seems that I have later entered a command that resulted in changing something very important in the setup. In sum, I have become not able to run both flavors of Windows properly. Looks that it was the right time to re-install all the stuff again :-)

• Folks, this time I decided to use one of those "restore" CD's, that came with the notebook. I must admit that I liked to see, as the background, a great blue logo "HP Invent", as well as "Manufactured by Hewlett Packard" in My Computer's Properties (<-- here the guys from HP should send me a couple of 0.01$ for this commercial :-))
• Using the "restore" CD's might help you to avoid the whole long NT/2000's setup procedure(s), because they replicate or, if you like to say, "clone" images from the CD's to the hard disk, and it is very fast. In addition, the hibernation/diagnostics partition is being made by default. Finally, a couple of HP utils and tools can only be "restored" from these CD's.
• So, after a 6-7 minutes, NT (or W2k) is in its place, ready to work. Similarly to "retail" versions (mentioned in the previous section), now it is the right time to boot the system with a Linux installation CD.
• The rest of Linux installation is just as usual. Don't forget to make a Linux boot floppy at the end of the process (you never know when that boot floppy might be useful).
• Folks, that was that - in short. If everything is fine, the next system boot should take you into the Linux environment. Don't be surprised when you don't see your beloved Windoze(s) boot loader(s) anymore. You just have to look into the another great Linux document, called LILO mini-HOWTO. There you'll find more detailed information about how LILO (Linux Loader) works.
• If you find it easier, read some pages before and see how it was done in the chapter "HOW TO UPGRADE WINDOWS NT TO WINDOWS 2000"
• You bet, the life would be much easier if there were not such troubles, like a "tolerance" between Windows and Linux world. Maybe I have made an another mistake somewhere in the cyberspace, but, as soon as I have finished with that Linux installation - RedHat 7.1 in particular (today is May 04, 2002 and I still have no newer and better distros here. Any donation from the readership ...?), I recognized that F10 at the system boot, does not open the HP diagnostics anymore. Actually, regardless of pressing F10, my Omnibook 6000 goes directly to the graphical LILO screen. *Before* installing Linux, diagnostics was running here without any problem.
• FYI, after the first next boot into W2k, its Disk Management tool has recognized the following partitions on the disk:

  
  

  	Size	Format	Label	Type
  1	15 MB	FAT	-	Primary
  2	7.30 GB	FAT32	HPNOTEBOOK C:	Primary
  3	52 MB	-	-	Primary
  4	18.37 GB	-	-	Logical
  5	258 MB	-	-	Logical
  6	1.96 GB	Free space	-	-

  
  
• On the other hand, Partition Magic "sees" as follows:

  
  

  	Size in MB	Format	Label	Type
  1	14.7	FAT	save to disk	Primary
  2	7.471,4	FAT32	HPNOTEBOOK	Primary
  3	51.7	ext2	/boot	Primary
  4	21.077,9	extended	-	Primary
  5	18.811,4	ext2	/	Logical
  6	258,4	swap	-	Logical
  7	2.008,1	free space	-	Logical

  
  
• Some more explanations, related to the tables above: It is obvious that diagnostics partition, accompanied with "restored" Windows 2000, is rather small - cca. 15 MB (comparing to the partition, that is created with "restored" Windows NT, which goes up to cca. 500 MB). Regardless of that fact, it is a primary one. That means you should be aware of how many primary partitions you have in the system. I am not sure now, but that might be one of the reasons for not having diagnostic tools available anymore, after completing all operating system installations.

  Next, you may see that I have "shrinked" W2k's FAT32 partition to a smaller size (cca. 7.5 gig), in order to release enough free space for Linux.

  I would suggest you to let Linux setup procedure to transform the free space into Linux partitions. I mean, there's no need to prepare the Linux partitions manually. As you can see from the tables, it took cca. 50 megs for the boot part, cca. twice a physical RAM (2 x 128 = 256 megs) for swap and the rest goes for other Linux parts. Remaining free space was probably left after the conversions of various file format systems.

• What is the result now: Linux works, Windows works too. There's no diagnostics anymore. The hibernation (from under Windows) is not tested yet. At the first sight, the 3Com NIC/modem combo is not fully supported under Linux. Actually, NIC seems to work, but the modem part is a "winmodem". Nobody knows if HP would do something to solve that issue. All I could say is to avoid HP Omnibook 6000 if modem activities are your primary tasks. Of course, you may spend some $$$ and buy another PCI mini-card with supported modem chip. Beside that, HP's 15" screen gives you great picture with the resolution of up to 1400 x 1050 at 16 bit colors. Interestingly, that resolution seems to be default under Windows 2000 and it is also easily adopted under Linux (RedHat 7.1). There is also somewhat "over-sensible" touchpad that often acts as the left mouse click. It seems to be a common feature for both Windows and Linux installations. It bothers me sometimes, but your mileage may vary.
• The plan is to convert the FAT32 partition to the NTFS in order to get more reliable Windows subsystem. On the other side, Linux main (root) partition should be "shrinked" in order to get some free space. That free space will be used later for exchanging files between these two operating systems (probably it will be also FAT).