XOSL HOWTOs and FAQs v1.00
by Filip Komar (filip.komaremail.si)

I. For the very beginning

• Before starting anything, I'd like to know if I can install XOSL without reinstalling anything?
• Tell me the recommended short procedure for installing more Operating Systems and multi-booting
• Important tips & tricks

I. For the very beginning

This manual comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY and is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL). Check for newer versions now and then. Please feel free to mail me personally at filip.komaremail.si and send me your questions, comments, problems, confirmations, solutions, opinions, additions, thanks, etc...

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Before starting anything, I'd like to know if I can install XOSL without reinstalling anything?

You can, but only after reading the documentation.

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Tell me the recommended short procedure for installing more Operating Systems and multi-booting

1. Create partitions
2. Install XOSL
3. Create Boot items before installations (hiding other Operating Systems partitions is highly recommended)
4. Restore XOSL if it has been overwritten.

Small complicated example showing how to install Windows NT, Windows 98, Windows 2000 & Redhat Linux 6.1:

1. Install Windows 98 on a primary partition.
2. Install XOSL.
3. Create another primary partition, and make it active.
4. To be on the safe side, hide the Windows 98 partition.
5. Install Windows NT4 (using the Service Pack 4 ATAPI driver) on a logical partition, with the boot loader on the primary partition.
6. Install Windows 2000 on another logical partition (which can share the same bootloader as Windows NT).
7. Install Linux on another logical partition, putting LILO on its partition.

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Important tips & tricks

• Everything written here is simpler to do than understand on the first reading, so read more. You can get some very good information about booting from the LILO documentation.
   
• Always create backups and verify them. Don't wait for disaster to strike your precious data!
   
• Microsoft Operating Systems MS-DOS through Windows 98 or even Windows ME have a bug where, if the last logical partition in the extended partition is not a recognized file system type, and multiple visible FAT primary partitions exist, it will use the last logical partition as a FAT one in place of the next primary partition. But it will think the size of the partition is that of the primary partition. Data coruption can occur!
   
• Remember Windows NT and Windows 2000 handle hidden partitions differently. Use their administrative tools for that purpose, except for installation.
  • Windows 2000: Computer Management > Storage > DiskManagement
  • Windows NT: Administrative tools > Disk manager
  
   
• Organize your data and Operating Systems by creating enough logical partitions. Plan before you start. It is nice to have descriptive partition labels.
   
• If you use or test many versions of Windows 9x, one common logical partition for the swap file is a good decision.
   
• Be sure not to change the order of the visible partition letters.
   
• My recommendation for installation of XOSL is to have it in a (hidden) logical partition, so create one more for that.
   
• After hiding and unhiding partitions a reboot is necessary, except with XOSL. There's nothing magical to hiding: it's done simply by changing the partition Id.
   
• Windows Compressed Partitions pose many problems in a multi-OS/multiBoot setting, and are better avoided- hard disk prices are low enough now to make a new HD a better solution to space issues than Windows Compression.
   
• As far as I know MS-DOS 6.22, DR-DOS 7.03 and previous can't be booted from a logical partition. Windows 3.x can run with MS-DOS 7.x which is included in Windows 9x and thus it can be run from a logical partition.
   
• Use the BootPart program for repairing boot sector of NT loader partition. Boot that partition (the rest should be hidden with XOSL) with boot floppy, and type "bootpart winnt boot:c:".
   
• After installing XOSL, change the booting sequence in your BIOS to "HARD DISK,FLOPPY". This will speedup the boot process and XOSL lets you boot from a floppy anyway. This also prevents accidental booting from a floppy and consequential potential infection with some nasty virus. You can even assign a password to boot from floppy for even better protection of your PC.
   
• When installing a second hard drive only create an extended partition with logical partitions on that drive. By not creating a primary partition there, letter changes in your Operating System can be avoided.
   
• Don't install XOSL in Windows! Be sure to use a floppy for installation of XOSL for later restore and uninstall ;-)!
   
• Insert boot keys Alt-F5 for directly booting DOS mode in Windows 9x.

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