Re: Re: installation problems (dual boot sector)

Hi, I disagree: Linux must be booted with something more powerful
than a boot sector most of the times. Common choices are Lilo and
Grub. You hardly ever install Linux on a DOS partition (although it
is possible to do so, using umsdos). As Lilo/Grub are boot menus
that can load either Linux or activate your DOS bootsector, we do not
need a Dos/Linux dual boot sector in this case.

My idea was to install FreeDOS and Windows on the same partition,
both sharing one bootsector that contains a menu as well. Quite
challenging (size limitations) but probably cleaner than using a
menu that resides in the MBR or using Lilo (Lilo can reside either
in the MBR or the bootsector of the Linux partition, but it needs
several sectors of additional space. I do not normally install it in
the MBR, because Windows sometimes trashes parts of the MBR (normal
MBRs have this part free, it is short before the partition table area).

I mean: the kernel uses fdconfig.sys, which can make the shell use autofd.bat,
so config.sys and autoexec.bat are free for Windows. Windows 9x and FreeDOS
use the same partition types, the only decision would be which kernel to
load. However, 512 bytes (1 sector, the boot sector) are not very much space,
so even this may be quite tricky to do. To have a "kernel selector" boot
sector, I mean.

Eric