Help with multiple OS's...

I want to run a DOS game that requires EMS support, and after 4 hours of frigging around, I've decided that it's totally impossible to get into an EMS-enabled DOS prompt/DOS modein WinME, so I want to install DOS as well.

I'm already dual-booting with Mandrake Linux, so it's a simple matter to shrink a partition by 500 MB and set it to FAT so I can install DOS or Windows 95 (Yeah, I still have a Win95 CD from 1996). Problem is, I thought MS operating systems had to be on /dev/hda1 (or the first partition on the first hard drive)

Can anybody tell me if it's possible to dual-boot? Does my DOS 6.22 or Win95 (preferable) partition have to be bootable to get into it from LILO? Can it coexist with WinME?

All I know about Win ME and DOS is that Win ME will never allow you to have DOS (except that dosprmpt.pif file). Win ME is started automatically and no matter how much you change autoexec.bat or the registry, it resets itself back to default. And the closing feature of Win ME doesn't have "Return to DOS" option.
So it's just impossible to add EMS support for DOS, I think.

It's really too bad, yeah. I kind of liked DOS too. :D

Actually, ME does have a DOS command (a real one) but I wouldn't recommend it because:
1) I don't remember how to activate it
2) It's Doze, I can't guarantee what will happen after.

I can still search for it if you want.

Wow.. I never knew that. People said DOS wasn't possible in Win ME.

And what's Doze? o_O

Doze = windows

Look here:
Click Me

Make sure to backup stuff before.

Sugoi! Have some wood!

You can bung MS OS's in /dev/hda1, /dev/hd2, or /dev/hda3. Technically, it would also work in /dev/hda4, but chances are that if it exists, it'll contain your extended partition.

I think Win'95 should be able to co-exist with WinME, I've got Win'98, WinME and RedHat on the same hard disk. You can add Win'95 to the LILO boot menu from within X. Whether it will boot correctly or not is another question, since I don't know if LILO changes the active partition when you choose a different OS - that's something I haven't tried since LILO isn't my boot manager.

The way I remember to boot straight to DOS if you have Windows 95 or 98 is to open the read-only hidden system file MSDOS.SYS in the C:\ directory and change the line BOOTGUI=1 to BOOTGUI=0. Then make sure you don't have any lines in autoexec.bat that start Windows. (Changing that line in MSDOS.SYS might also let you go to DOS after you Shut Down from Windows, if you turn off the "Turn off the power when you shut down Windows" option in your BIOS.) I'm not sure if that's all there is to it. It's been awhile since I was brave enough to actually try it.

Or you could make put a menu-type thing in your config.sys that lets you pick between whatever you want when you boot. Or, if you hit F8 while you're booting, a menu will come up, and if you pick Command Prompt Only, I believe it boots to DOS without starting WIN.COM as a TSR or anything. I'm not sure if the MSDOS.SYS thing works with Windows ME, but I've booted to DOS using the F8 menu a couple times. It works fine. My roommate also said that "DOS doesn't exist in Windows ME", but it seems to exist to me.

I can get into DOS in ME fine. (Actually, Vivi-kun's patch was no better for me than a boot disk :()

Problem is, if I try to load emm386, the machine freezes. The sole and single reason I want to be in DOS is to play Privateer, which requires EMS.

If I just wanted a low-level command line interface, I'd boot into Linux and hit alt+f1 to get to a virtual terminal.