I succeeded in booting FreeDOS using isolinux last night. I don't have any spare USB sticks handy, so I kept trying different methods and making a fresh CD for each one until one worked. I learned that my image file "FreeDOSmsi.img" had too long a filename. I shortened it to "dfboot.img". I also edited isolinux.cfg so that mine was the only boot option available.
FreeDOS booted, prompted me for the date and the time, and I found myself with an A: prompt. I could issue "dir" and see my files under drive A:. My motherboard BIOS update program afud3410.exe (made by MSI) seems to freeze up when I try to start the BIOS update. The directions for using it say never update the BIOS from a floppy drive, then proceed to give directions for doing exactly that, but using Windows 98 or Windows XP bootable floppies as an example. Perhaps I need to create a ramdrive which would give me a new drive letter, copy the BIOS update there and then do the update. I looked at the RUFUS program with great interest but it requires you to be using Microsoft Windows. I do all my work from either Fedora or RiPLinux or Mac OS X or FreeBSD. Probably Eric's Perl script will help me. If I use a USB flash drive, that will give me a drive letter other than A:, B:, or C:, will it? I don't have any hard drives plugged into the mother board SATA sockets on that computer. One SATA CDROM drive is plugged in to a socket. Two hard drives are connected to a used Dell brand, PERC 5/I controller I bought on Ebay which has the LSISAS1068 chipset on it. Thanks Bob On 1/20/12 12:41 PM, Bernd Blaauw wrote: > Op 20-1-2012 14:39, Bob Cochran schreef: >> which is my immediate goal. I also need to be able to update the >> firmware for an LSISAS1068 chip that is on a PCI Express adapter card, I >> have 3 of these cards to update. Now you see where my motivation comes >> from. Several times a year at least I have a need to learn and >> understand DOS. That is my longer term goal. > I assume LSI has their own update software program for the PCIe cards? > >> I will buy some USB flash drives and play with them using the advice you >> give me below. > Updating happens in multiple ways nowadays: > * from Windows (vendor program and vendor BIOS) > * from DOS (vendor program and vendor BIOS) > * from DOS ( "flashrom" opensource program and vendor BIOS ) > * from DOS ( "flashrom" opensource program and Coreboot maybe) > * from BIOS (updater built inside, just provide BIOS on USB stick) > * from Linux > > If you decide on using DOS for this, and your BIOS has support for USB > booting, then an USB stick is easiest. Download the "RUFUS" program at > [ http://pete.akeo.ie/2011/12/rufus-dos-bootable-usb-formatting.html ] > and simply make your new USB stick bootable by running this program. > (be aware RUFUS erases all current data on the disk) > >> One question. When you say that I must copy config.sys, and autoexec.bat >> you also mean I must edit these to load the drivers my system needs >> after the copying, right? For example I will need to edit the copied >> config.sys or autoexec.bat to load eltorito.sys and thereby have access >> to both the CD/DVD drive and USB devices? Since my keyboard is USB based >> this is an important question. > If you're sticking to USB flash disk then all this CD stuff is not > relevant (unless booting a CD image from USB stick, but that's an > advanced subject, hehe). > > Most computers have by default "BIOS USB Emulation" active and that's > why any USB keyboard and mouse will usually just work fine in DOS. > (This emulation stays active usually, unless you load other USB drivers > yourself that take control of the USB controllers and stacks. Often such > other drivers lack a keyboard driver, which ends up in keypresses not > being sent to DOS any longer.) > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Keep Your Developer Skills Current with LearnDevNow! > The most comprehensive online learning library for Microsoft developers > is just $99.99! Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL - plus HTML5, CSS3, MVC3, > Metro Style Apps, more. Free future releases when you subscribe now! > http://p.sf.net/sfu/learndevnow-d2d > _______________________________________________ > Freedos-user mailing list > Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Try before you buy = See our experts in action! The most comprehensive online learning library for Microsoft developers is just $99.99! Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL - plus HTML5, CSS3, MVC3, Metro Style Apps, more. Free future releases when you subscribe now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/learndevnow-dev2 _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
