I have tried other SCSI kernels, but N_5380.S kernel was the only one that
recognized my SCSI, but not always stable. I think it was stable in
Slackware 3.1 and an earlier release which I no longer have. I too find LOADLIN
much easier than making a whole lot of boot diskettes for testing different
kernels and rootdisks.
Does BasicLinux require a kernel from Slackware 3.5? What about the 2.45 kernel
that I downloaded very recently? Do I need to download the modules 2.45 package
as well? I don't think I can do anything worthwhile with Linux without access
to the external SCSI Zip 250.
I've run fdisk /dev/hda, fdisk /dev/hdb many times, with p to view the partition
table, so I had the disks right. There is still the possibility that something
was wrong with the connection to the second hard disk, but it appears likely
much data was overwritten with garbage. Now, running DR-DOS 7.03, I can no
longer access the C, D and E drives, am running on A (1.44 MB diskette) and
F (Iomega Zip 250). No doubt the connection is unstable. I can try fingering
with the connection, or maybe rejumper the second hard disk to be the one
and only. Now would inaccessible first hard disk render the second hard disk
inaccessible due to BIOS considerations?
I don't like to use MS-DOS FDISK at all because of bugs. But now I use
DR-DOS 7.03. There is a FreeDOS FDISK, much more advanced than the MS-DOS
version. I used OS/2 FDISK to create DOS and OS/2 partitions. Linux fdisk from
Slackware 7.1 seems good for creating and deleting DOS and HPFS partitions as
well as Linux partitions. Second hard disk was originally partitioned with an
older Linux fdisk into three logical drives: DOS, HPFS and Linux ext2. I can't
see any advantage in switching between DOS and Linux fdisk, wouldn't think of
using MS-DOS FDISK, if it would even run at all.
I used mkdosfs /dev/hda5 because it would format the correct partition, in
contrast to DOS FORMAT, where I could not be confident of getting the correct
drive letter.
