Win9x+Win2k+Linux without nested bootmenus plus a feature request

[A. Klingenstein]

Hi,
I want to install the 3  OSes (and maybe more) mentioned in the subject line
on a single HD with the following layout:

primary: FAT32 - win9x
extended  begin
  logical: NTFS - win2k
  logical: ext2fs/reiserfs - debian
  logical: swap - linux swap
  logical: NTFS - big data partition, maybe other OSes (BSD, BeOS)
extended end

In Win2k the drive layout should be:

 win9x partition: C:\
 Win2k systempartition: D:\
 Win2k data partition: E:\

since I want to share a few apps between win9x and win2k, and these apps might
need the same paths everywhere.

The problem is the win2k bootloader NTLDR which totally insists on putting 
itself on
a primary FAT partition if it s present and occupying the Bootsector there. 
This forces
me first to choose between Linux and Windows and secondly between the two
flavours of windows.
I don t want nested Boot-Menus!

I came up with a solution of sorts:
FAT32 has a 2nd backup copy of the bootsector at sector 6 of the FAT32 
partition.
This sector isn t overwritten by win2k, so I can use it with "chainloader 6+1" 
and
win2k can be booted by a simple "chainloader +1"


My question now is this: is this the best solution available, or have I just 
invented a
horrible kludge or both ?

Lastly the feature request:
Some BIOSes (Award) show some hw-info on bootup: what HDs/CDROMs are attached,
which memory banks are full, what are the IO ports of peripherals and what IRQs 
are
used for which PCI-cards, etc.
My old bootmanager (xfdisk) had a nice feature: you pressed F5 and all of the 
bootmanager
stuff disappeared and you could look at this info. When GRUB starts, it 
overwrites all.
So can we get a GRUB command to show the screen before GRUB took over ?

Alex