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

IV. Installation of multiple Operating Systems

• Installing Windows 9x or Windows ME
• Installing GNU/Linux
• Installing Windows NT or Windows 2000
• Installing BeOS 5 PE on a dedicated partition

IV. Installation of multiple Operating Systems

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Installing Windows 9x or Windows ME

Please read examples; in almost every one there is some information.

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Installing GNU/Linux

If you're installing Linux, install LILO in the Linux partition's boot sector (superblock). You can safely ignore the warning that says you won't be able to boot Linux. XOSL can do the job.

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Installing Windows NT or Windows 2000

If you're installing Windows NT, create a separate FAT partition and format it. Windows NT can later convert it into a NTFS partition, if you prefer that. Now reboot your system. When the XOSL menu appears, Create Boot Item for Windows NT and make sure that you hide all other partitions except the one in which you're going to install Windows NT. Clone that Boot item and edit it to boot from floppy. Name it for example "Windows NT installation from floppy". Now, put the Windows NT's boot floppy in the floppy drive and choose Boot item "Windows NT installation from floppy" to begin with installation. After installation you can disable the Boot item. If you need it later just enable it again.

If you want to use CD installation there are few differences. You don't need to clone a Boot item, but you will need to boot the Boot item for Windows NT. Immediately after that insert a bootable installation CD and reboot. Your PC should be able to boot from CD and the "boot order" in BIOS should be "CDROM, HARD DISK, FLOPPY". After installation just remove the CD. If you want more partitions than just the current C:, then just use Disk manager in your Administrative tools to assign them the letters you want.

If your CD-ROM is not bootable from your BIOS, just use XOSL version 1.1.5 or later which can boot your Windows NT or Windows 2000 bootable installation CD.

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Installing BeOS 5 PE on a dedicated partition

Report from advanced BeOS user Roland:

If you want to install BeOS 5 PE on a dedicated partition and boot it with XOSL first check this site http://www.betips.net/?cat=misc and look for 'Install Personal Edition to a real partition'

To create a BeOS installation CD using Nero 5 CD Burning software under Windows follow the link 'create a BeOS installation CD' and check the section 'Creating the CD from within Windows'. It all worked first time for me.

I created a 4 GB BeOS primary partition on hard drive #3 (28 GB) and later moved it right to the end with Partition Magic 5. XOSL has no problems whatsoever booting it!

Example to set up your computer running these Operating Systems (Windows 2000, Windows 98, Windows ME, SuSE Linux 7.0 and BeOS) and installing XOSL on a partition on it's own.

My major concern was to have all Operating Systems separated as far as possible: each individual Operating System must not have any connection to the other. Only a few 'data partitions' may be 'shared'. So hide as many partitions as possible.

There are 3 hard drives:

1. XOSL partition (can be logical)
   Windows ME primary partition
    
2. Windows 2000 primary partition
   Linux on primary partitions (boot, root, swap)
    
3. Windows 98 primary partition
   two logical partition in the extended partition
   BeOS primary partition

Installation was a bit unorthodox, but I am a control freak and I REALLY HATE the Windows NT bootloader. Windows 98 was already installed.

XOSL install

• installed on dedicated partition (first partition on first disk)

Windows ME install

• created FAT32 primary partition with Partition Magic 5 under Windows 98, set partition active
• disconnected all hard drives except #1 (Windows ME OEM version does not accept other Operating Systems to be present)
• startup directly from Windows 98 boot disk (not with XOSL to avoid a change of active partition)
• formatted partition - I had to, without it Windows ME complained it could not create a temp folder
• booted from Windows ME CD & install
• reconnected all hard drives
• reinstalled XOSL after booting with a Windows ME boot floppy

Windows 2000 install

• disconnected all hard drives except #2
• booted from Windows 2000 CD & install (format with NTFS)
• reconnected all drives
• added Windows 2000 to XOSL, 'swap drive' active

Linux install

• created primary partitions with Partition Magic for boot, swap and root (note the 1024 cylinder limit for LILO)
• booted from CD and assigned & formatted the primary partitions (just to make sure). Set XOSL to boot the /boot partition.

BeOS install

• created a BeOS installation CD (see msg. 772)
• created FAT primary partition on #3 with Partition Magic
• booted from BeOS start disk
• did the install & BeFS format but did NOT install the bootmgr. XOSL will start BeOS without a problem.

Just a few remarks

• BeOS cannot be moved around with Partition Magic.
• Linux installation on an extended partition with the boot, root & swap partitions as logical partitions had a strange effect on Windows ME. It suddenly recognized a drive D of type RAW. After reinstalling Linux on primaries, the problem was gone (see msg. 723 and 725).
• For Windows 2000 I installed the command console. It now shows up in the Windows 2000 boot menu. Hope I never have to use it...
• Do a LOT of hiding with XOSL. It does not guarantee full protection though. In the Windows NT or 2000 administration tools most partitions are recognized. Be careful.
• Windows ME's System Restore feature will put _Restore folders on any FAT/FAT32 partition it can find. Do the XOSL hiding before reconnecting the hard drives (if applicable). The _Restore folders don't hurt, but here's the control freak talking. You can switch the feature off, but not selectively per drive. It's a good feature though, it saved my butt twice already.
• If only one hard drive is available, first install Windows 2000 on the first primary. Any other sequence will have the much hated NT bootloader kicking in. Format the Windows 2000 partition in NTFS. It's a better FS anyway and it will prevent other Windows versions from detecting the partition. Windows ME DOES detect NTFS, but cannot do anything with it. It could however be a problem when installing Windows ME. Windows 98 should install without problems.

The bottom line: setting up all this stuff is a wonderful waste of time and you learn a lot from it.

Roland

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