[100685] in RedHat Linux List
Re: Install: Dual Boot on Removable Media?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jan Carlson)
Sun Nov 22 22:08:32 1998
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1998 22:06:39 -0500
From: Jan Carlson <janc@iname.com>
To: redhat-list@redhat.com
CC: "J. Jensen" <jjense03@baker.edu>
Resent-From: redhat-list@redhat.com
Reply-To: redhat-list@redhat.com
Hi Jennifer,
First, the Redhat kernels 2.0.35 (RH5.1 upgrade) and 2.036 (RH5.2)
do support the SparQ drive through loadable modules.
The modules do not load automatically when you try to mount.
You can load them manually (paride, then epat, then pd) and then
mount the filesystem. I made a trivial script to do this.
You can use Linux fdisk to change the partition type on the SparQ,
and then you can make any filesystem type on it - you don't have
to stick with the fat16 it comes with. I tried multiple partitions,
but something went wrong, so I quit that. I do not know what the
problem was.
In order to boot from the SparQ drive directly, the PC's
hardware BIOS would have to support the SparQ directly, which they
do not.
You could boot from a kernel on a floppy that has an initrd containing
the modules SparQ needs, but it would require having a machine
with Linux installed in order to build it, ie another machine.
Suppose that succeeded. You could then boot from floppy and have your
root filesystem on the SparQ. If it is the parallel port model, it would
be very slow. Even if you could get the root filesystem working on SparQ,
you would have a problem with the swap. With 64mb ram you could
live with no swap partition.
While I think it may be possible to make a setup that can boot to the
SparQ without using your hard drive, it would be impossible without
having another machine available to build the floppy.
This could be a fun puzzle (assuming it's possible with current software)
for someone who loves difficulty, but not fun for someone who is new to Linux.
I would say your path to Linux enjoyment requires a new hard disk.
Used disks are cheap, as are new ones now.
The RedHat installation CD and floppies do not support installing
onto a SparQ drive, although it might be possible to concoct a
RedHat install floppy that does.
"J. Jensen" wrote:
> Hi! I just joined this list because of my interest in, and my desire to
> learn, Linux, most likely Redhat. At this time, my family's computer does
> not have hard drive space for me to install Linux on the hard drive.
>
> But, for personal educational purposes only, would it be possible for me to
> install Redhat on a SyQuest SparQ 1Gb disk? Most of the time, the system
> would need to boot to Windows 95, because that's what everyone else in the
> family prefers. Clearing off space on the hard drive isn't a possibility at
> this point; neither is a second physical drive, or another machine altogether.
>
> I'm just wondering if anyone else has tried something like this, or knows
> whether or not it will work, and whether it's advisable or not.
>
> I don't know what other information you'd need to make a guess about this,
> so here's all information I can think of:
>
> 90 Mhz Pentium
> 1.1 Gig hard drive (mostly full) --compressed with DriveSpace3
> 64 Meg RAM
> Windows 95
> hard drive is not partitioned (though the CDs I was given have a utility to
> do this without formatting the drive)
>
> Any comments or suggestions would be greatly valued! If you know of useful
> URLs, books, etc, please let me know. Thank you!
>
> Jennifer Jensen
>
> Jennifer
> -----------------------------------
> http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Workshop/4856/
> ICQ: 6094623
--
Jan Carlson
janc@iname.com Scarborough, Ontario, Canada
Mailed with Netscape 4.5 on Red Hat Linux 5.2
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