If I'm in the wrong place to ask this, I apologise.

I've been wanting to put Linux as a secondary operating system on this computer. However, I'm very sensitive to change. What would be ideal would be the following: Windows 95 always boots as normal, no slowdown. If I want to boot Linux, I press a key before Windows 95 loads, and confirm. I've read that something like that could be possible with a light boot loader that would change the MBR.

Another thing that complicates matters is that my PC can't boot from a CD-ROM.

Thoughts?

Grub4dos and memdisk are very useful for dual booting dos/linux (with no slowdown), For different Nix/Win9x if I do not use the previous after an install I use a floppy that points to the win9x os I wish to boot, modifying msdos.sys,config.sys to point to the necessary after using subst.exe D drive E: drive etc during setup. I mostly use the win95 shell in a win98se install so some of this may not work for you but might help you in the right direction.

Another solution (the dirty way?) is simply to leave your Win98/95, install Linux on your second hard disk (of course, that's if you've got more than one HD) and then change the boot sequence in your BIOS when you wanna start linux. This way you avoid trouble with bootloaders and MBR conflicts if something goes wrong.

If you only have one hard drive things could be a bit difficult. Most Linux distros can't run on a FAT file system and need their own filesystem, this would require you to "resize" the partiton of you hard drive containg Win 95 thus making it samller and introducing the risk of something going wrong and damaging your Win 95 install.
If however you have a second hard drive you could install something like DSL which lets you use a boot floppy to overcome you not being able to boot from the CD. Because DSL is a live CD you will be able to test out your PC's compatability before you install anything.
As for a bootloader most distros use either GRUB or Lilio which they install to your Master Boot Record by default, most also offer the option to install the bootloader to the Root partiotion (were your linux is installed) so that then your Win 95 will boot normal. I'm not sure if DSL offers the option to install to the Root partition but if it does you could then install GAG to a floppy disc and just insert that when you want to run Linux.

A lot of linux distros can be booted via grub for dos to run straight from the hard drive into memory, and work from fat drives without problems needing no floppy or cdrom drive

This sounds like a good solution, except that I don't have a second hard drive. Would a second partition do? I was going to install Windows 95 again one of these days anyway, as some drivers got screwed up. One set because of the uninstall of MS Sidewinder drivers, the other set because of a Creative Sound Blaster drivers update (which works fine in Windows, but in pure DOS and for some DOS games doesn't).

You could use LILO or another boot manager.
If you decide to go with LILO make sure it defaults to Win95 and set a timeout for automatic boot.
The other way is:
Install Linux to a another primary partition, put LILO to that partition instead on the MBR, and install XOSL defaulting to Win95. XOSL can also boot a CD, floppy and second/third/fourth HDD, so you wont need go in BIOS to boot those.
You'll need a third (smallest size) primary partition for XOSL, but it's worth it.

Read this thread for some info on dual-booting with XOSL

HTH

Unfortunatly this won't work as the BIOS only allow you to choose betwen hard disks and not partitions. So unless you find a disk, you'll need a bootloader.

Ah, that's what I originally read. It seemed a bit complicated, though. Can Win95 be automatically booted with this (unless I do some other selection)?

GAG realy is very good and easy to use, you don't even have to install it to the hard dic's MBR

Sure it can.
See this. The upper-left window is where you add partitions to boot. There you need to put a check mark on "Default boot item" for the Win95 entry, and set the "timeout" slider to a desired value.

You could check the XOSL site for some explanations.


Actually it needs either to be installed on the MBR or on a floppy

Exactly, the original post said,

If Linux was installed with the bootloader in the root partition the MBR would be untouched and Windows 95 would "always boots as normal". Then simply install GAG to a floppy, and configure it to boot the Linux partition when inserted.

I'm in need of a step-by-step procedure. I've resolved to install/run either DamnSmallLinux or Ubuntu. Booting will be done via GAG on a floppy.

So, first I make a boot floppy as explained on the DSL site, and run the CD with that. Does the install include a partition manager utility to resize and create partitions? I only have one at the moment.

Then how do I enable the use of a GAG floppy?

Posting from **** Small Linux with Firefox 1.0.6. I made a boot floppy as suggested earlier, and booted the CD with that. DSL was created to be the best Live CD, so I don't need to install yet. If I do, there's this Frugal install type that just requires a different partition or something, and then you can write GAG or Lilo or something somewhere.

Looks good, I had some fun playing MineSweeper, of all things. The rendering speed seems slower than Win95's, though, and I haven't found the option to adjust mouse sensivity (way too low). Makes for a nice side-OS.