Amazon.com Review
Linux is quickly moving from being an alternative operating system to an industry powerhouse, but few Windows users who want to experiment with the OS are willing to put up with the installation hassles and incompatibility problems it currently presents. Linux for Windows is an attempt to let the curious have their cake and eat it, too, by providing a way for MandrakeSoft’s Linux-Mandrake 7.2 and Windows to peacefully coexist on the same hard drive without requir… More >>
Linux for windows is a great software package for users who still don’t want to give up the windows OS.
Rating: 5 / 5
Having read the editorial review I realized this is it, I want to buy this Linux for Windows thing to give Linux a try and still have my windows up and running. It turned out to be a mistake.
1st of all, I faced a very nasty problem. The computer hangs for no reason during OS loading, after the “calibrating delay loop” message followed by some information about memory and hash tables. I had no idea what can be wrong and spent a day trying different settings in the BIOS, trying to reinstall the system from GUI and text interface and nothing came out of this. A bit later I realized that the problem may have to do with the way memory is used in my computer. My computer is a cheap eMachines eTower 566i2 with Celeron CPU and video is a so-called “intel 3D AGP” thing which is inside a memory controller on the motherboard of the computer and it uses the same base RAM for video unlike a usual video card. Of currently installed 160MBs, last MB is always allocated by that chip for video. So I thought I might try to specify Linux less amount of memory than it thinks. It thinks 160, I tried to install the damn thing in text interface and supplied ther a parameter “mem=128M” and it worked. The kernel no longer hangs up the computer during loading. I bet this is the 1st problem to face for all users of cheap computers based on intel 810 chipset (e.g. that intel 3D AGP thing).
But that is not the end of the story… After that I immediately founf yet another problem. 2nd problem… The kernel reports 3 error messages and stops. The mesasges appear altogether as follows: —-8k—- request module [block-major-7]: Root fs is not mounted VFS: can not open root device 07:07 kernel panic VFS: unable to mount root fs on 07:07 —-8k—- I reread the manual a few extra times to see that I’m not following it somewhere and this causes the problem. But the truth is that I do follow the manual (though it looks like the manual describes a normal version of Linux installer DrakX but the actual one which I’ve got on the CD is different, it’s oversimplified for completely stupid people that can not follow the clear manual, the installer prohibits manual manual selection of many settings and leaves the user only a few ones: language, type of mouse, time zone, type of monitor; e.g. more than half of the manual that ships with this product is useless too). The FAQ which can be found on the CD mentions this problem (see in the directory lnx4win of the CD) and states “In most case this problem can be fixed by disabling ‘PnP OS support’ in your BIOS.” Neither disabling nor enabling of PnP support in my BIOS worked (I reinstalled Linux after making modifications in BIOS settings each time to make sure I don’t have different settings in BIOS during installation and loading of installed system). Then the manual explains how the Linux file system, contained in a file on Windows file system, gets set up and if something is wrong with installation and the Linux file system can’t be set up these messages appear. Well explained, I now understand how this should normally be done. …though there’s no mention of what to do next if this problem can’t be cured by altering BIOS settings. So basically, I can’t install Linux for Windows as easily as promoted on the retail box “Linux for Windows allows you to safely and easily run Linux on your Windows computer in 3 easy steps: insert CD, follow step-by-step installation process, reboot the machine”. It just doesn’t work that way.
Next problem… I registered the product and contacted Linux Mandrake support team. You must know what kind of answers I get… I was recommended to stop the installation of Linux just during the video system setup by resetting the computer and then see what the result is. I have no idea how video system can cause problems with Linux file system, but this is a nice recommendation. Isn’t it. OK, now it’s 4th day of struggling and I got a very funny response from the support team, namely “Lnx4win wasn’t designed for Windows ME. Thus, there is no possibility to use a Windows ME partition to store your Linux files. You definitely need to use linux-dedicated partitions. For this, …” If you read carefully description of the product, FAQ, readme’s throuout CD and the retail box labels, you couldn’t miss several places in which it’s clearly stated that Linux for Windows *IS* compatible with windows 95, windows 98 and windows ME! Now, this is a support I’ve dreamed about!
Conclusion… If you’re new to Linux, don’t try this product. Better buy something else and ask your friend who knows very well how to install linux or ask in your computer store to install Linux for some fee or whatever but don’t get fooled by Linux for Windows, it won’t work even if you follow the manual.
Rating: 1 / 5
This is very frustrating. I love UNIX and I wanted to get a little taste for it on my home computer since I only have access to it at work. Unfortunately, I cannot get this darn thing to load on my home computer. The OS is Windows XP. It starts to seem like it is going to load but I cannot use my mouse and a little bit into the loading process it starts to ask you about erasing your hard disk and without a mouse…it gets a little scarey. At least that is what I am dealing with.
Rating: 1 / 5
I decided to purchase this software as a lazy way to get Linux functionality on my home laptop. I didn’t want to hassle with trying to setup all the disks and everything. I installed this software on a Gateway 9100XL laptop (PII 300, 128 MB RAM). Install went perfect and I now have a dual-booting Windows 98SE/Linux machine.
The install didn’t require any real intervention on my part (other than to choose a couple of hardware options).
Rating: 4 / 5
Not only was there a number of inconsistencies between the installation manual and the actual installation process, making you feel like you might be doing something wrong throughout the entire things, but if you install it on any drive except for your C drive (Or first partition, whichever) the bootloader can’t find windows. I suppose if you wanted to use a boot disk for Windows it would be okay, but that’s not quite what I had in mind when I bought it. I don’t recommend this product at all.
Rating: 2 / 5