> On Mar 1, 2019, at 12:30 PM, Tom Ehlert <t...@drivesnapshot.de> wrote:
> 
> 
>> This one was me. I was able to use LiveCD2 on QEMU to boot and install 
>> FreeDOS 1.3 RC1.
> 
> When I suggested that FreeDOS 1.3 should contain a LiveCD, I had
> something more useful in mind than the thing that materialized now;

How so?

> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_CD
>  'A live CD (also live DVD, live disc, or live operating system) is a 
> complete bootable computer installation
>   including operating system which runs directly from a CD-ROM or similar 
> storage device into a computer's
>   memory, rather than loading from a hard disk drive.

They very on the technique. But, both Live portions on the LiveCDs boot into a 
RAM based filesystem.

> A Live CD allows users to run an operating system
>    for any purpose without installing it or making any changes to the 
> computer's configuration.

They do that as well. The RAM drive where The LiveCD allows the user to make 
temporary changes, add & remove programs to the temporary filesystem.

It all goes away on shutdown or reboot.

>    Live CDs can run on a computer without secondary storage, such as a hard 
> disk drive,
>    or with a corrupted hard disk drive or file system, allowing data
>    recovery.'

No hard drive is required. Only sufficient RAM. 

> if Ubuntu can run from a DVD, DOS certainly should also be able.

Can DOS even run directly on a CD/DVD? 
Yes and No

> 
> I had in mind, that people would be able to boot the CD,
> 
> play an old game
> 
>   C:\>CD GAMES
>          CD SNAKE
>          SNAKE
> 
> or
>     CD GEM
>     GEM

That is a very bad idea. As you know, CD & DVD are readonly media and many DOS 
programs frequently use the program directory for caching and other data 
storage. Sure there are lots of programs that don’t store any data. But, many 
do. Running those on a read only filesystem will have unpredictable results at 
best. Simply setting TEMP=RAMDRIVE won’t cut it.

> 
> and see the beauty of a GUI on DOS.
> 
> the current 'LiveCD' is none of this.

It sure does.

However, at present only some packages are live at boot. Others can be 
installed by the user into the temporary filesystem using FDNPKG, FDIMPLES or 
whatever after boot time.

I don’t think making every package Live by default is practical. It would be 
time consuming for Type-1. I don’t think it would be possible for Type-2 
without moving to DVD. There is roughly 550MB of compressed packages on the 
CDs. 

Also, uncompressing everything would require much more RAM. Should DOS require 
1 or 2 GB of RAM just to use a LiveCD? 

For RC1, I just picked most of BASE + some of ALL and a very few extras. 

I agree that maybe a couple games and maybe a GUI should be made Live by 
default. But personally, I don’t care which ones. 

Jim will decide what packages are Live for RC2 and Final.

But if you have any specific suggestions or recommendations on which ones you 
would like to see, please do say.

> 
> whatever the purpose of this 'LiveCD' imitation is, I probably just
> don't get it.

Wow. 

Did you try either?

Maybe it’s me. But, I see no deviation in your quoted definition of a LiveCD 
and the two LiveCDs for 1.3-RC1. 

There are other possible ways to do a LiveCD. For example... If we had a driver 
that could directly use  CD/DVD media like a hard drive and cache changes to 
RAM, then things could be different and possibly even better. But we don’t. I 
have far to many things on my plate to write one. Are you volunteering to 
create one?

> 
> Tom
> 
> 

Jerome

> 
> _______________________________________________
> Freedos-devel mailing list
> Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel



_______________________________________________
Freedos-devel mailing list
Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel

Reply via email to