Hi Eric, > On Jun 24, 2021, at 8:07 AM, Eric Auer <e.a...@jpberlin.de> wrote: > [..] > because the installer has a RAMDISK for temp > file processing,
Untrue. The installer usually has a RAMDISK for processing temp files. There is however no guarantee it will be able to create one. In RC3 and earlier, no RAM DISK was available to the installer under QEMU. The installer is designed to utilize it. But, it does not require it. Starting with RC4, it is able to create a small RAM DRIVE using an alternate driver under QEMU. However, there is still no guarantee that it will be able to create one under all situations. However since the installer does not absolutely need temp files until after a target drive is already partitioned and formatted (either by the installer or user or preexisting OS), temporary space may be allocated on the target drive at that time for temporary usage by the installer and related utilities. > the installer could easily > check for the following: > > - does the MBR have the 55 AA magic yet? There is no tool for this at present. > - does the MBR have a boot program at the start yet? There is no tool for this either. > - does the MBR contain any partitions yet? Installer does that already. > - is any of the partitions FAT yet? Installer does that already. > - is any of the partitions flagged as bootable yet? Installer does not do that. > - is a FAT partition flagged as bootable yet? Installer does not do that. It simply marks the target partition as active. > I guess it would be even better if FDISK itself > can provide those checks and answer by errorlevel? Actually, I have a different idea in mind… If the installer can auto-partition the drive (which ONLY happens on drives without existing partitions), then V8Power Tools will check the MBR. If it does not have boot code, it will write a boot code signature to it. Later, when the installer gets to the point where it wants to update the MBR. It will ask V8PT to check for that signature. If present, it will just overwrite the boot code. Otherwise, the installer will prompt the user to see if they want to replace it. In effect, if the drive was blank and had no MBR, it will be automatically updated. Otherwise, user will be asked to replace it. None of this is possible at the moment. I first need to add the functionality to V8Power Tools and then update installer. But, I see no reason why it shouldn’t work. Just a matter of finding the time to implement it. On a side note, moving the “Update the MBR?” prompt from advanced mode only to default mode has at least one issue. I do not know how many inexperienced users will understand the question and realize what it actually means. The question should probably be reworded. But, a paragraph explaining it won’t be any good either. :-) Jerome _______________________________________________ Freedos-devel mailing list Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
