Hey friends. Ok, so far, She-Beast no longer has that not-so-fresh feeling.
Also, the platters are formatted: C: 18GB NTFS, 18GB FAT32, 18GB FAT32, 4.5GB FAT32, a few megs for sofa change, partridgeinapeartree.

Now I try to understand the tutorial provided by EricTRA. No matter what happens, I should be able to revert back to windows, my back window, to shout out if I funk it all up, I think.....

Good morning Lorax,

Well, I'm still crossing my fingers. I believe the tutorial is straightforward and easy to follow so you should be able to get it going. If not, like you said, you can always revert to Windoze to give it another shot.

Kind regards,

Eric

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Good morning eric!
Before I can even get started, I notice that all my ISO's now look like ZIPs. They used to have Daemon Tools logos. Crap, what happened to the ISOs?

Hi,

That's still in your Windhoos environment right? Looks like the .iso extension has been assigned to the Winzip program or something like that subsituting only the 'automatic opening when double clicking'. The iso files have not changed in my opinion, so you can go ahead. If you want to change it back again then right click and select Open with... then the appropriate program you prefer (Daemon Tools?) and they'll have the same as before.

Kind regards,

Eric

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Ah, yes, I installed Daemon first, then Winrar. So Winrar took the associations. No biggie... Workin fine so far..., still step-by-step

95% of the errors have a logical explanation, the other 5% are purely Window$ related and unexplainable for very dark reasons. Good you're changing to Linux.

Step by step is good, continue on the path my friend, you'll get there.

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I will give up and walk away if I can't get help with step 5 on the following site ---> http://www.instantfundas.com/2007/08...ctly-from.html

I have the file menu.lst open with MS Notepad. Not sure what part needs to be changed on it. There are several paragraphs of code that are pretty much the same, aside from mentioning ...

Btw, I intend on installing gNewSense (a Debian derivative).

HELP!

Hi Lorax,

Don't panic!! Can you post what's already in the menu.lst file?

Step 5 is just there to add the correct reference and location to the boot kernel and image to be able to select Linux to start at boot.

Kind regards,

Eric

PS: Do you have only one harddrive in the She-Beast?

Yes, only one HDD.
Thanks for being my lifeline, Eric!
Here is the file, in original form:

# This is a sample menu.lst file. You should make some changes to it.
# Added items for installing GRUB [ which is on your DOS drive C: ] to MBR

color black/cyan yellow/cyan
timeout 60
default 0

title DOS/Win9x/Me/NT/2K/XP on (hd0,0)
chainloader (hd0,0)+1
rootnoverify (hd0)

title Mandrake Linux on (hd0,7)
kernel (hd0,7)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda8 quiet devfs=mount acpi=ht vga=788
initrd (hd0,7)/boot/initrd.img

title Red Hat Linux on (hd0,8)
kernel (hd0,8)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda9

title floppy on (fd0)
chainloader (fd0)+1
rootnoverify (fd0)

title memdrive duplicated from floppy image file (hd0,0)/sbm.bin
map --mem (hd0,0)/sbm.bin (fd0)
map --hook
chainloader (fd0)+1
rootnoverify (fd0)

title memdrive based on win98 partition (hd0,6)
map --mem (hd0,6)+1 (hd0)
# map --mem (hd0,0)/win98.gz (hd0)
map --hook
chainloader (hd0)+1
rootnoverify (hd0)

title DOS/Win9x on (hd1,0) -- Do not use this to start WinNT/2K/XP
pause Warning: drive map used. Press any key to start DOS/Win9x on (hd1,0)...
map (hd1) (hd0)
map (hd0) (hd1)
root (hd1,0)
makeactive
chainloader (hd1,0)+1
rootnoverify (hd0)

title install GRUB on (hd0,0) to MBR (hd0) and reboot. Password: danger
pause You requested to install GRUB onto MBR. We highly recommend you NOT to do so, basically for two reasons: 1. For some non-MS-compatible boot loaders(in case you might be using), the install is INDEED dangerous and may cause your whole disk(and all your operating systems on it) unaccessible. 2. Even if you are using(in MBR)an MS-compatible boot loader such as LILO and GRUB, you may encounter problems like hard-disk-boot-failure when you move or delete the /boot/grub/stage2 file, or even when disk defragmentation operations are made. Press any key to continue...
pause A password prompt will confirm that you want the operation anyway. Press any key to continue...
password danger
pause This will install GRUB in (hd0,0)/boot/grub/ to MBR. Press any key to begin...
root (hd0,0)
setup (hd0)
pause GRUB install OK! Press any key to reboot your machine...
reboot

title install GRUB on (hd0,1) to MBR (hd0) and reboot. Password: danger
pause You requested to install GRUB onto MBR. We highly recommend you NOT to do so, basically for two reasons: 1. For some non-MS-compatible boot loaders(in case you might be using), the install is INDEED dangerous and may cause your whole disk(and all your operating systems on it) unaccessible. 2. Even if you are using(in MBR)an MS-compatible boot loader such as LILO and GRUB, you may encounter problems like hard-disk-boot-failure when you move or delete the /boot/grub/stage2 file, or even when disk defragmentation operations are made. Press any key to continue...
pause A password prompt will confirm that you want the operation anyway. Press any key to continue...
password danger
pause This will install GRUB in (hd0,1)/boot/grub/ to MBR. Press any key to begin...
root (hd0,1)
setup (hd0)
pause GRUB install OK! Press any key to reboot your machine...
reboot

title mandrake ISO install (using vmlinuz and all.rdz)
pause Installing an OS is dangerous because it may overwrite all your disks(and partitions)! A password prompt will confirm that you want the operation anyway. Press any key to continue...
password danger
pause This will install Mandrake using iso files. Press any key to continue...
kernel (hd0,0)/vmlinuz ramdisk_size=128000 acpi=ht vga=788 splash=silent automatic=method:disk
initrd (hd0,0)/all.rdz

My kernel is vmlinuz and my Ram is initrd.gz

No problem although you might have to wait sometimes for a reply since I'm at the office.

Just do what's indicated in step 5, add
to the menu.lst like so:
and go to step 6.

Make sure you don't miss a step, like copying the files to the correct directory and stuff.

Kind regards,

Eric

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Not to doubt you, but just for clarity:
in (hd0,0) the first 0 refers to main (and my only) hard drive. Does the second 0 refer to the partition? Does (hd0,0) say "main disk, main partition"?

So I do NOT want to say (hd0,1), correct?

Eric, I want to make sure that I am only ADDING the text, and NOT DELETING any from the original. Is that correct?

And I need to add this in MULTIPLE places in the file?

ARRGGHH I so afraid of removing anything, or adding in the wrong places!

Hi,

Take a deep breath of air.

You don't have to remove anything from the menu.lst, just add the Linux boot option as indicated. The only thing the menu.lst does is present you with a list at bootup. From that list you choose your OS you want to start.

Just add the
part right above the DOS/Win9x/Me/NT/2K/XP part so that it will show up first in your list when booting.

And yes the hd(0,0) refers to first harddisk, first partition. If you partition your drive like you indicated you want to do, you'll have a hd(0,1), hd(0,2), and so on.

Kind regards,

Eric

PS: don't forget to breath!

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Ok so I am now adding that info to the file, while breathing! Since MS Winderz is on (hd0,0) , I am installing gNewSense to (hd0,1) . Stop me now if Im wrong!