Re: CP/M Source

s_dubrovich@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
On Feb 5, 12:02 am, Jack Crenshaw <jcr...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
no.s...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
On Wed, 04 Feb 2009 12:09:22 -0500, Jack Crenshaw
<jcr...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Bill Buckels wrote:
"Udo Munk" <um...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
<snip>
<snip more>
At one point in my eventful life, I had a nice box with NT and Linux, in
a dual-boot situation. That was on a DEC Alpha system from Microway. Not
long after, Dell issued a "commitment" to support Linux. I immediately
called them and ordered another dual-boot system. But they told me that
I couldn't have one. Thanks to pressure from Microsoft, I could either
get Linux, or Windows, but not both. I ordered the system with Linux,
figuring that Linux would not mind if I did my own dual-boot
installation, whereas Windows would surely resent it, and actively try
to stop me. That turned out to be a mistake. Windows 98 wanted the whole
box, or nothing. So I ended up installing Windows on top of Linux, then
Red Hat in another partition. Problem was, the Red Hat that came from
Dell, on their distribution disk, wasn't the same one they had shipped
with it. And some of the drivers -- notably the Sound Blaster driver --
didn't work.

Your're better off getting a second drive for the system, instead of
dual booting on one.

When I got my XP system from Dell, I checked the partition table on
the drive, 3 out of 4 were in use. Compaq, since at least the Pentium
class, used 2 partitions, one for the OS and one for Compaq's
diagnostic/restore. I think the XP box has it as, WinOS, OS security
partition, Dell diagnostic partition.

Recently I 'took a flyer' on Damn Small Linux for an old low end box
(by current standards), with a different HD. It used 3 partitions as
well, I think for root, user, and apps. DSL looked promising but the
old network card isn't supported anymore, I haven't chased down the
driver for it yet, nor found a supported old network card for an isa
buss. I wouldn't recommend DSL anyway, support is poor. Linux is
'free' but the time investment for a new user is expensive in terms of
the learning curve, or setup. Knoppix is an idea, but a fairly modern
and upscale hardware is required, DVD system or newer.

I tried DSL also. Just used it to verify that I could create a VMware client. It seemed adequate enough, though the graphics was very funky.

Your bios might support 'boot select' from the coldboot startup
screen, usually accessible from pressing the 'delete' key or some 'F'
key. -maybe F1, F2, or F12.
You might be able to choose which hard drive to boot from, by changing
the boot devices order.

I'm a long-time fan of Partition Magic, which lets you create as many virtual drives as anyone could want. Coupled with VCOM's Boot Commander, I could also boot as many OS's as I liked. At one time I had Windows 3.11, 95, 98SE, and NT2000, plus Red Hat Linux. I've also used dual HD's on almost all my machines. This Dell has a sort of one-box RAID array, shown as C: and D:.

One reason I was such a fan of Partition Magic and Boot Commander: They were the only two Windows apps I owned, that always worked. Good thing, too, since PM is doing brain surgery on your HD. Not sure that's true for PM anymore, since it was bought by Symantec.

Anyhow, I'm no longer using PM/BC. Per the advice of folks here, I've switched to VMware.

When I called Dell's tech support for help, they told me in all
earnestness that not only did Dell not support Linux, they never had.
When I told them that, um, they had shipped it to me with Linux
installed, they assured me that the whole thing must have been a figment
of my imagination.

Don'cha just love it?

I haven't 'loved' OS's since my CP/M box!

I hear _THAT_! Join the club.

Jack


Steve
.

Relevant Pages

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