 | Level: Intermediate Carla Schroder (carla_sg@bratgrrl.com), Linux administrator and author, Independent
19 May 2003 This tutorial shows how to combine Samba and GRUB to build a compact, highly adaptable, cross-platform test network, capable of booting and networking a large number of operating systems on a small number of machines. Though Samba and GRUB can manage many different operating systems, this tutorial focuses on Linux and Windows.
Prerequisites
You'll need reasonably modern hardware: PCs four years old and newer ought to do the job. Running multi-boot systems requires large hard drives, and support for Large-Block Addressing (LBA). GRUB can read any part of a hard disk supported by true LBA. Unfortunately, a small number of motherboards that claim to support LBA do not, and the only way to find out which ones they are is to try to boot a system from beyond the 1024 cylinder limit. Also needed are a generic Linux boot/rescue disk, such as tomsrtbt, or H. Peter Anvin's SuperRescue CD, and a Windows 98 rescue disk, which is the all-time most useful Windows disk. GRUB does not yet have the ability to boot a CD -- we still need floppy disks.
System requirements
None.
Duration
More than two hours
Formats html, pdf
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