Red Hat® Linux® 7 Unleashed

Using LOADLIN.EXE to Boot Linux

LOADLIN.EXE is a program that uses the DOS MBR to boot Linux. This handy program by Hans Lermen also passes along kernel options. LOADLIN.EXE is very helpful when you must boot from DOS to properly initialize modems or sound cards to make them work under Linux.

You need to do two things before using LOADLIN.EXE:

1. Copy LOADLIN.EXE to a DOS partition (for example, C:\LOADLIN).

2. Put a copy of your kernel image (/vmlinuz) on your DOS partition.

For example, type the following from the DOS command line to boot Linux:

						loadlin c:\vmlinuz root=/dev/hda3 ro
					

Make sure you insert your root partition in the command line. The ro stands for read-only. When you are first booting a Linux partition, it should be mounted as read-only ...