Re: [Freedos-user] Only Get Black Screen with Blinking Cursor following Installation of FreeDOS to my Machine
On Fri, 06 Mar 2020 00:15:17 +0100, dmccunney wrote: I think your fundamental problem is that FreeDOS cannot successfully boot from a 7.8GB partition formatted as FAT32. It may be able to access other larger partitions formatted FAT32 and seen by DOS as D:, E: or the like, once FreeDOS *is* booted, but it cannot boot *from* one. No, the problem must be elsewhere. I have successfully booted and ran FreeDOS from a FAT32 partition of almost 2 TB. I installed it manually with FDISK/FORMAT/SYS. ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] Only Get Black Screen with Blinking Cursor following Installation of FreeDOS to my Machine
On Thu, Mar 5, 2020 at 5:25 PM Jen via Freedos-user wrote: > I haven’t tried reformatting the partition and running the installation again > yet; I suspect it will still do the same thing. Should I try that? > Any ideas what I’ve done wrong or why it might not be working? You may need to reformat. I installed FreeDOS years back on the hard drive of an ancient notebook I had been given. I partitioned the HD to have a 20GB slice formatted NTFS from which I booted Win2K, a couple of 8GB slices formatted as Linux ext4 from which I booted Ubuntu and Puppy Linux, a swap partition for the Linux OSes, respectively, and a 2GB partition formatted as FAT32 where I installed FreeDOS. I used Linux Grub2 to create a boot menu from which I could boot the chosen OS at runtime. I had to do a *lot* of fiddling to successfully boot FreeDOS in that configuration, and I don't even know just which fiddle did the trick. (A problem which required reinstalling Win2K broke it and I never did get it to work again.) I would create a *2GB* boot partition and format it FAT16, and install FreeDOS to it. My recollection is that FAT32 support was a work in progress in FreeDOS when real development ended. DOS dated from the days of FAT16, and a 2GB volume was the largest one DOS could access. FAT32 was developed precisely to remove the need to create lots of 2GB volumes seen as separate drives so DOS could access them, but Windows 3.X was already in common deployment, and FAT32 was intended to make life easier for Windows. I think your fundamental problem is that FreeDOS cannot successfully boot from a 7.8GB partition formatted as FAT32. It may be able to access other larger partitions formatted FAT32 and seen by DOS as D:, E: or the like, once FreeDOS *is* booted, but it cannot boot *from* one. > --- Jen __ Dennis ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] Only Get Black Screen with Blinking Cursor following Installation of FreeDOS to my Machine
Try the utilities fdisk and format, I've not had any luck using Gparted to make anything FreeDos can reliably read. On Thu, Mar 5, 2020 at 3:25 PM Jen via Freedos-user < freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net> wrote: > I’m trying to install FreeDOS onto the SSD hard drive of my ThinkPad W520 > 4284‑WZN copied to RAM from a DVD I have, using its internal DVD‑RW > drive. > *·* In the UEFI BIOS *[version 8BET62WW (1.42)]*, I set the boot to “*Legacy > Only*” & the ‘SATA Controller Mode Option’ to “*Compatibility*” *mode* (*IDE > mode*). Reserved memory for UEFI Boot Manager has been disabled. > *·* Using GParted on the latest 64‑bit version of SystemRescueCD *(6.1.0)*, > I then made a *FAT32* partition as the very *first* partition (*C:\*) > with 1 MiB free space preceding it, aligned to ‘*Cylinder*’, and made it > 7.8 GB (7,439 MiB / 7.26 GiB), and labeled it as *“DOS”*. > *·* After that, I inserted the FreeDOS DVD and selected the options to > install everything to the C:\ drive, which all seemed to go well. > *·* Upon rebooting however (or from cold boot), *all I get is an empty > black screen with a flashing underscore cursor*. I’ve hit *F12* on > startup to bring up the Boot device List to ensure the hard drive is > selected, and have tried restarting a number of times but never get > anything other than the empty black screen with the blinking cursor of > death. I’ve walked away for a long time and come back, but nothing ever > winds‑up loading – cursor continues to blink. I’ve gone back into BIOS > to ensure that all the options I changed saved properly and have not reset > themselves to defaults; everything appears as I configured it. > *·* I reinserted the live CD and from the FreeDOS prompt, ran the command > “bootfix c:”. It did not fix the problem. > > I haven’t tried reformatting the partition and running the installation > again yet; I suspect it will still do the same thing. Should I try that? > Any ideas what I’ve done wrong or why it might not be working? > > Thanks in advance for any help you might be able to offer, > > --- Jen > ___ > Freedos-user mailing list > Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user > ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
[Freedos-user] Only Get Black Screen with Blinking Cursor following Installation of FreeDOS to my Machine
I’m trying to install FreeDOS onto the SSD hard drive of my ThinkPad W520 4284‑WZN copied to RAM from a DVD I have, using its internal DVD‑RW drive. · In the UEFI BIOS [version 8BET62WW (1.42)], I set the boot to “Legacy Only” & the ‘SATA Controller Mode Option’ to “Compatibility” mode (IDE mode). Reserved memory for UEFI Boot Manager has been disabled. · Using GParted on the latest 64‑bit version of SystemRescueCD (6.1.0), I then made a FAT32 partition as the very first partition (C:\) with 1 MiB free space preceding it, aligned to ‘Cylinder’, and made it 7.8 GB (7,439 MiB / 7.26 GiB), and labeled it as “DOS”. · After that, I inserted the FreeDOS DVD and selected the options to install everything to the C:\ drive, which all seemed to go well. · Upon rebooting however (or from cold boot), all I get is an empty black screen with a flashing underscore cursor. I’ve hit F12 on startup to bring up the Boot device List to ensure the hard drive is selected, and have tried restarting a number of times but never get anything other than the empty black screen with the blinking cursor of death. I’ve walked away for a long time and come back, but nothing ever winds‑up loading – cursor continues to blink. I’ve gone back into BIOS to ensure that all the options I changed saved properly and have not reset themselves to defaults; everything appears as I configured it. · I reinserted the live CD and from the FreeDOS prompt, ran the command “bootfix c:”. It did not fix the problem. I haven’t tried reformatting the partition and running the installation again yet; I suspect it will still do the same thing. Should I try that? Any ideas what I’ve done wrong or why it might not be working? Thanks in advance for any help you might be able to offer, --- Jen___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
