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There used to be a pretty easy way to install Linux on MS-DOS running computers (which includes Win 9x) without damaging the existing system in any way. You wo
by 0815test 7y ago
There used to be a pretty easy way to install Linux on MS-DOS running computers (which includes Win 9x) without damaging the existing system in any way. You would place the Linux filesystem inside a C:\LINUX folder on the FAT partition, using the UMSDOS filesystem support that used to be included in the Linux kernel for fs metadata. Booting Linux would be accomplished by first getting to MS-DOS mode (which could be done either at boot or when shutting down Windows 9x) and then running LOADLIN.EXE, a bootloader that ran entirely under MS-DOS (similar to how modern bootloaders run in UEFI).
- busymom0 7y agoI am aware of that now. But back then, I was a dumb 10 year old kid with a magazine CD and our home didn't even have internet (this is in a developing country). I was so dumb, I used to keep launching the IE browser again and again hoping it would somehow magically connect me to the internet.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- masonic 7y agoDidn't that limit you to conventional memory (640K)?
- kristianp 7y agoNo, linux would make use of the full memory once loaded. I had forgotten about loadlin, but I think I used it when I had installed slackware from a stack of floppies or redhat from a CD back in the day.