Okay, I'd like to thank all of those people who contributed to
a successful dual-boot installation on my new PC!!! There were
too many to list, but most had great ideas!
I originally wanted to know if it was possible to have a
dual-boot config of Win95 and Solaris x86 w/o floppies -
the answer is YES. It turns out that it makes little difference
which OS you install first, as either one allows you to
partition the disk for DOS and non-DOS. But I preferred
installing Solaris first since it recognizes a "DOS partition",
whereas Win95 doesn't recognize a "Solaris" partition, just
a "non-DOS" partition. They're the same thing, but from
Solaris the partitioning seems more intuitive. Also, Solaris
install automatically asks you if you wish to partition -
Win95 doesn't. Under Win95, you have to manually run fdisk
from a DOS session to do this.
Anyway, here is what I did - and it works!
Machine: Micron Transport XPE 150MHz w/32MB RAM, 2.1GB disk, 12.1" TFT
1) I wiped out the preconfigured Win95 by booting from and
installing the Solaris x86 OS. I partitioned the 2.1GB disk
in half, giving 1GB to each partition - 1 Solaris and 1 Primary
DOS.
So far I've only had success using standard VGA (640x480 w/16 colors)
on the display. Sun really should be producing drivers if they
expect/want people to to use their OS. If anybody knows of
another driver that works better with this machine, I'm all
ears!
2) Next I installed Win95. By default, it installed on the Primary
DOS partition - it didn't see the Solaris disk at all. I
configured windows just as I would have under any other
circumstance. True, by installing Win95 I made DOS the active
partition. Under this scheme, there is *no* option to boot
to Solaris.
3) So the next thing I did was started a DOS session, ran fdisk, and
made the Solaris partition the active one. Then rebooted. Now
the Solaris Boot Manager comes up first, and I get to select
either Solaris or DOS from a menu. Piece o' cake! And NO, you
DO NOT NEED SYSTEM COMMANDER TO DO THIS, though it does have
a prettier menu. However, if I added any other DOS-type OSes
I might need it??
Results: Well, Windows is Windows - it runs just fine, looks good
on my little screen, and I'm happy with it. Solaris in standard VGA
mode is really awful, and OpenWindows looks terrible! I guess until
I program a new display driver myself (can't count on Sun or Micron
for that) I'll either have to live with it or forget OW. This is
too bad. And, YES, I am crazy!!!
-Matt
----------------------------------------------------------
Matt Marlow - Programmer Analyst
Evoked Potentials Laboratory
University of California at San Diego
Ph: 619-534-5560
Fx: 619-534-5562
Email: mmarlow@ucsd.edu
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Fri Sep 28 2001 - 23:11:54 CDT