Messages in this thread |  | | Date | Tue, 3 Sep 1996 10:24:26 +0200 (MET DST) | From | Hans Lermen <> | Subject | Re: booting Linux from a dos box in win3.1 |
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On Mon, 2 Sep 1996, 0xdeadbeef wrote:
> ... basically, i need to know > if it's at all possible to boot Linux from a Windows 3.1 DOS box without > exiting Windows.
Without 'exiting Windows': NO !
The DOS-Box runs in VM86 mode, out of this you can't enter neither '_real_ realmode' nor 'ring0 protected mode'. Loadlin can overcome this restriction when a VCPI-Server is available: it first enters VCPI, then returns to realmode, then jumps back to arch/i386/boot/setup.S code. However, Windows (may be 3.1 or '95) don't supply a VCPI-Server, so any attempt to enter ring0 protected mode will be refused.
> > Another thing that would work (though this is really off-topic) would be > a program runnable from a DOS box that would kick the computer back to > DOS, in a stable enough state to use LOADLIN.
I have been told the following:
Under Windows'95 you can have a batch file containing a Loadlin commandline. If you link this to a clickable icon and set the properties to using native DOS, then clicking the icon will exit Windows'95 and boot Linux.
Hans <lermen@fgan.de>
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