Two blogs ago I said I was considering turning Caprica into a dedicated Unix system. I had just transferred Caprica's files to a virtual XP system that runs on Serval. Unfortunately, I was unable to install all of the executables that were on Caprica to Serval. So I decided to make a dual boot system out of Caprica. Caprica could still be a dedicated Unix system, but would still allow me to boot her up as a Windows XP system and run some of the Windows programs on her; e.g., Frontpage 2003.
I decided on Legacy OS 2 as the system to put on Caprica. Legacy OS 2 is built from Puppy Linux, so it isn't Unix. Legacy OS 2 gets it's name from the fact that it will run better on legacy hardware then some OS like Windows 7, or some modern Unix, like Solaris 10. Caprica is an 8 year old system, so Legacy OS 2 seemed like a good choice for her. Besides, I used to run Puppy Linux on my laptops, so it's an OS I have experience with.
I put Legacy OS 2 on a flash drive and booted Caprica from it. Once I was running Legacy OS 2 I used Gparted too resize Caprica's Windows partition; reduced it to 50% of the hard drive. Next I created an ext2 partition on the remaining 50% of the hard drive so I could install Legacy OS 2 on it. The installation program was unable to copy the Legacy OS 2 files because of defects on the drive. I tried using chkdsk, reformated the ext2 partition, etc., but I was still unable to copy files to it.
I finally gave up, deleted the ext2 partition and regrew the Windows partition (ntfs partition) to 100% of the disk. ...but I still have a dual boot system because I can always boot off of the flash drive. I've added modules I needed for LegacyOS 2, using ones from Puppy Linux 2.1.4 (that's the version of Puppy Linux that Legacy OS 2 is built from). E.g., I copied devx_214.sfs to Caprica, and I can now compile C/C++ programs. ...and Caprica can still be part of my home network when she is in her Linux mood. Here's a screen shot of Caprica's Samba connection to the virtual XP sysem that's running on Serval: