RedHat 9.0 on dynabook SS S8

==Original report was written in Japanese==

 

This dynabook S series are come with neither Windows recovery CDs and nor FDD that creates
Emergency Disk, but I could dual boot with WinXP and RedHat9.0.
Here is my procedure.
(I can say I could boot RedHat properly but I haven't tested details w/sorry)

Machine : S8/210LNKW
Memory : 256 + 512 = 768MB
Brand-name CD-RW/DVD-ROM IPCS053A(USB)
OS : WinXP Professional and RedHat9.0

HDD configuration after creating partition
/dev/hda1 WinXp C: 18GB (NTFS)
/dev/hda2 Linux /boot approx.0.3GB (ext2)
/dev/hda3 WinXp recovery space(cached partition) approx.2GB
/dev/hda4 swap 768MB (swap)
/dev/hda5 Linux / 8GB (ext2)
/dev/hda6 Linux/Win shared use(vfat) 1.5GB
/dev/hda7 WinXp D: 9GB (NTFS)
Note: Haven't checked if data can be shared in /dev/hda6.


Procedure

0.Backup
Since my laptop has no FDD so I copied all HDD to external HDD.

1.WinXP installation
I installed WinXP in /dev/hda1. (Installation must be done already when I got the machine!!)

2.Creating partition
Instruction says that if you hold down "0" and switch on the machine, you can select the process
whether you recover WinXP or create partition. However, I can't select the partition process!!
So I decided to do it in another way.
I started up Linux from CD with rescue mode. I used Partition Magic8.0.
(I configured the above partition to keep the recovery space)

3.Linux installation
I held down "C" button and powered up with CD-RW.
I was asked the location of installation image so I selected USB driver and chose CD-ROM as
image source. Then the installation screen came up smoothly.
I set up the following.
keyboard : jp106
mouse : Microsoft scroll mouse (USB) (Honestly say, I am using Elecom USB mouse actually)
And I set /dev/hda2 as /boot, and /dev/hda5 as /. I changed /dev/hda6 format to vfat and set
swap as well.
I set GRUB to be installed at the head of /dev/hda2.
Since I have no FDD so I exited without creating start-up disk and booted WinXP.

4.WinXP boot loader configuration
I just believed that I could dual boot by using BootMagic in PartitionMagic8.0 however,
it was written on PartitionMagic instruction that "You would better not to use BootMagic on some
of Toshiba PCs which have cached partition", so I gave it up.
I had no choice but to download bootpart25 from net and copied it just below the WinXP\C:.
I launched command prompt and confirmed the partition configuration in \C:bootpart.
It has numbers like /dev/hda1=0 and /dev/hda2=1. With remembering that "1" is the disk in which
GRUB was installed, I got Linux boot loader into file and set it up to be booted from WinXP loader.
\C:bootpart 1 bootsect.pbr "Red Hat Linux 9.0"
I checked that there was bootcect.pbr just below the \C: and opened boot.ini file which was just below
\C:, then confirmed /dev/hda2 bootsect.pbr "Red Hat Linux 9.0" was added in the end and I
powered the machine off.

5.Starting up RedHat
Powered the machine on with finger crossed, then WinXP load screen came up and I chose RedHat
from the WinXP/RedHat alternative. Timeout and default can be specified in the above boot.ini file.
I could boot RedHat successfully!

Notes
When switching OS (from WinXP to Linux or from Linux to WinXP), I have to power off the machine
once instead of reboot, otherwise boot process won't go properly many times.
(Do I have to start up BIOS again??)

I haven't configured RedHat precisely but it detects sound card and I can use mouse without problem.
And I have no keyboard chattering so far. However it might have detected the screen resolution at 800x600.