Trying directISO on WinXP (dual boot)

[zjkhere]

If there are already C: D: E: F: in hard drive , the partition still need ?

Must the ISO be in C: ?  if the ISO is D: ,  the loadlin file should be in C: or D:

How to Shutdown Windows to DOS mode ??

I'm not good at computer stuff
First time trying a linux, got a lot of questions

[nightflier]

Is your computer not capable of booting from the CD-ROM drive?

[ratsarsed]

Good question.

  I have XP on hda1 (fat32) ide drive. Following the directions
from V5.8    No joy.   http://vectorlinux.osuosl.org/docs/vl58/manuals/vl5_installation_guide_en.html#iso_win

(MBR from Win98 and and the contents of 98's rescue floppy in
C:.)  Oddly, that combination worked for a now forgotten distro.

nightflier :
  You have a posted what looks to be another fun method.
http://forum.vectorlinux.com/index.php?topic=7363.0     

Thanks.
ratsarsed

[nightflier]

The floppy images referred to in the above post have been upgraded. Until they get posted on the site, you can find them in the VL6 Light ISO.

In your case, using the W98 Floppy and the FAT32 partiton should work. If you have problems, post the exact steps you use and any error messages.

Another possibility is to use Smart Boot Manager: http://sourceforge.net/projects/btmgr/
It can boot from CD's even if the BIOS does not support it.

[zjkhere]

My computer can boot from a CD
but I failed burning the CD (already wasted 2 CD)

Is the directISO method so difficult?

[GrannyGeek]

You cannot boot to DOS or shutdown to DOS if you're using XP or any other Windows NT version (XP is Windows NT 5.1).

If you have a floppy drive or a Windows 98 bootable CD, you might be able to use that to load DOS and have your other installation files on a FAT32 partition. DOS cannot see an NTFS partition.

As for your hard drive partitions, you could select one of your logical drives in your extended partition as a Linux partition. It will be reformatted and everything on it will vanish, so you should first move everything you want to save to a different drive.

Did you do an md5sum on the ISO file you downloaded? That will reveal whether your download is without errors. If there are errors in the ISO, you're wasting your time making CDs.
--GrannyGeek

[nightflier]

As Granny suggested, first run an md5sum check on the iso. Unless it's good, it is not going to work.

The direct ISO method is not that hard, it's just less "automagic" than if you can boot from the CD. As described, copy the iso file to the root directory of a FAT32 partition. Extract the kernel, initrd and loadlin files to the same location. Boot to DOS, change to this drive and issue command:

Code:

loadlin.exe sata initrd=initrd.img load_ramdisk=1 ramdisk_size=18000 rw root=/dev/ram

You may need to edit the file names to match the ones you actually use.

[zjkhere]

Thank you for helping me.

I did an md5 check.

I'm trying the floppy method
if failed I'll try the USB