Created:02/24/2000 Updated:08/09/2000 Linux for Windows FAQ --------------------- Authors: Alexandre Dussart Warren Downs" 1)The hard disk access under linux4win is way too slow 2)How can I uninstall Lnx4win? 3)Is there a size limit on the ram that lnx4win will use? 4 have 128M and lnx4win uses only 64M. Is there a command line opiton to inform lnx4win to use 128M? 5)When i try to install mandrake 7.0 via the lnx4win "interface" then i recieve the following message after boot: 'VFS:Cannot open root device 08:01 Kernel panic:VFS:Unable to mount root fs on 08:01' 6)Is Lnx4Win compatible with Windows NT? 7)How can I resize image file(linusys.img)? 8)Where I can get more informations? Q:The hard disk access under linux4win is way too slow A:Add memory to your system. Lnx4win is limited because it isn't real native system. Q:How can I uninstall Lnx4win? A:You need to use uninstall.bat. Q:Is there a size limit on the ram that lnx4win will use? I have 128M and lnx4win uses only 64M. Is there a command line opiton to inform lnx4win to use 128M? A:There is a way to inform lnx4win or loadlin according to the linux.bat file comment. I am using the mod to c:\lnx4win\linux.bat, that is adding mem=128M at the end of the loadlin line in the bat file. It works. Q:When i try to install mandrake 7.0 via the lnx4win "interface" then i recieve the following message after boot: VFS:Cannot open root device 08:01 Kernel panic:VFS:Unable to mount root fs on 08:01 A:In most case this problem can be fixed by disabling 'PnP OS support' in your BIOS. There are a number of problems that can cause this. The actual message means that the kernel is trying to mount /dev/sda1, the first SCSI device, as your root. However, the cause can be tricky to find. First of all, the kernel has a default root it attempts to mount if no other value is overridden by the boot process. This is probably 08:01 for your kernel, which is what it falls back to when nothing else works. The real problem lies elsewhere. Normally, using an IDE controller would mean the root would be something like /dev/hda5 (The 5th partition or first non-primary partition on the primary-master IDE device). However, since you're using Lnx4Win, the device should be /dev/loop7, or 07:07 in numeric format. This is because Lnx4win uses a loopback device to allow it to work with an ext2 filesystem contained within a single large file on the Windows filesystem. This device should be set up by a boot process contained within what's called the "initial ramdisk". This virtual filesystem is contained within a file, often called initrd.gz, or something similar. The file is in most case located in c:\lnx4win(but can be d: or e: too...). If it is not, that would be your first problem. When you boot, look at the earlier kernel messages, and see if it mentiones finding the "initial ram disk". If it doesn't, then the initial ramdisk file may be missing or corrupted. If the initial ramdisk is being loaded, then it may be having trouble mounting the Windows filesystem. If it's succeeding at that, then it may be having trouble creating or mounting the loopback filesystem on the Windows filesystem. Q:Is Lnx4Win compatible with Windows NT? A:No. Lnx4Win isn't compatible with NTFS. Q:I'm trying to use Lnx4Win, but when I enter my cdrom drive letter in the install.bat, I get "Out of environment space" "Please insert the right CD-Rom !" Can you tell my why this is happening? A:Yes, this is a common problem: Windows stupidly only allocates a few hundred bytes for the environment space (a portion of memory programs can use to pass information back and forth). You can increase the default space allocated by putting this line in your c:\config.sys file (or adding the line if it doesn't exist, creating the file if it doesn't exist). SHELL=C:\COMMAND.COM /E:4096 /P Replace C:\COMMAND.COM with the path to your COMMAND.COM file, if it differs. The /E:4096 sets the environment space to 4k (4096 bytes), and the /P makes the command shell permanent so an EXIT command won't accidentally unload it. Q:How can I resize image file(linuxsys.img)? A:There isn't possibility to resize an image file generated by Lnx4win. You must create a new image file by using installation method. But you can save your data by putting them temporary in your DOS partition. Q:Where I can get more informations? A:Consult http://www.linuxmandrake.com/en/lnx4win.php3