HI, I have a windows 98 and linux dual boot machine connected on a LAN. During the installation of linux i put lilo on the root partition and NOT on the MBR. I use loadlin.exe. When i start the machine, hit the F8 key and go directly into dos mode i load linux using loadlin.exe as "loadlin c:\vmlinuz root=/dev/hdd1 ro". Linux successfully loads and ALSO DETECTS eth0. BUT when i am in windows 98 and to get into linux i go into DOS by choosing the option "Restart in MS-DOS mode" and type at the prompt the same command as above i get "eth0 initialization failed" !!!! I have to restart the machine and go into DOS with F8 to get linux to detect eth0 again!! why is that so? why can't linux detect eth0 when i come out from windows 98?? Is there a way to solve this so i dont have to restart the machine. thanks, Ranjit

Here's my wild guess: Windows assigns IRQs that stay through the "restart in MS-DOS mode" because it's not actually restarting. These IRQs then conflict with what Linux would pick, so it fails. Go into the BIOS setup and look for a PNP OS option. Try setting it to no if it's configured for PNP. This will make the BIOS assign IRQs, not Windows.