[vox-tech] Problems with dual boot system (Win 98/RH 7.2)

[Peter Jay Salzman]

begin jwkaralius@ucdavis.edu <jwkaralius@ucdavis.edu> 
> 
> Thanks for the advice..
> 
> Both OS's seemd to be unstable when Windows crashed so I could not mount 
> the Windows partitions to backup files (that was one of the first things I 
> tried, and kernel panic came up)
> 
> I do have two large HDD (40G for win98 and 30G for RH7.2) and thought that 
> would suffice to keep the two lovebirds away from each other, but I'll try 
> the fdisk /mbr and boot linux with a floppy instead of grub.

i *highly* recommend against that route.  i'm trying to think of any
linux guru or guru in training among us who has, at some point or
another, said that if you must have a dual boot, keep the OS's on
different hard drives.  i remember jeff saying this.  i think i remember
steve peck saying this.  i've certainly said this.

you've got two big hard drives.  what's the problem?

while it's possible for people like rod roark or jeff newmiller to be
wrong about something, to not pay attention to everything they say is,
well, just plain nuts.

> I guess when kernel panic comes up is a good reason to compile a new 
> kernel, no??

no.  it really depends on why the panic came up in the first place.
a panic usually isn't a direct fault of the kernel itself.  it's more
likely to be a fault of something like lilo or your hard drive.

i once compiled a kernel and didn't bother to check whether ext2 was
enabled or not.  it took me *days* to figure out that the latest kernel
source at the time didn't have ext2 enabled by default.

so, the answer usually does NOT lie in recomiling the kernel.

> How is that problem solved, in case it rears its ugly head again.
 
depends on why the panic happened to begin with.   compiling your own
kernel is one of those things that every linux user should learn at some
point or another.  we should have a kernel compile talk sooner or later.
maybe sooner.

pete

-- 
The mathematics [of physics] has become ever more abstract, rather than more
complicated.  The mind of God appears to be abstract but not complicated.
He also appears to like group theory.  --  Tony Zee's `Fearful Symmetry'

PGP Fingerprint: B9F1 6CF3 47C4 7CD8 D33E  70A9 A3B9 1945 67EA 951D