2007/1/24, Amos Shapira <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
On 24/01/07, Yedidyah Bar-David <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > No, that's not true. Win98 is not DOS. It does use protected mode, > although in some obscure way - IIRC only to separate the OS and the > processes, not to separate the processes themselves. In any case, that's not > the point IMO. The point is caching. The reason you want a real clean reboot > is in order to allow the OS to cleanly flush the caches (and do an > equivalent of umount - not sure exactly what win98 does in this regard). > Care to comment to the following: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Me#Last_DOS_based_Windows "Windows Me is the last version of a DOS-based Windows OS." Windows Me is listed in Wikipedia as the successor to Win98 so... And as a DOS-based system, as far as I remember it didn't provide OS-level disk write caching.
Well, you are welcome to try. I am pretty certain loadlin, when running from inside a win98 dos box, will tell you it refuses to run. I am very certain that win98 did include disk write cache. There were actually even DOS-based ones, and theoretically one could cause a problem by running one of them, then e.g. opening an editor, saving a file, then very quickly exit the editor and run loadlin. There would be chances you'd loose your changes to the file. If you read loadlin's manual you'll see it recommends to only run it exactly after boot, or something like that. What I think might be the best for you, considering your PCMCIA card and the
> fact you do not want a menu on boot: > Write some set of batch files, that will do the following: When she > chooses to start linux (probably some desktop shortcut to a batch file > you'll write), the file will connect to the linux server (by tftp or some > other way - maybe wget etc.), download a kernel and initrd, and will put > them in some convenient place ( e.g. C:\linux), removing old versions > first (to allow seamless "upgrades" controlled from the server), and will > change the boot sequence (probably autoexec.bat or some file it will > call or something) to do two things: first restore the "normal" boot > sequence, then start linux (using loadlin). Note that during the running of > autoexec.bat you are still in real mode, no caching etc., so it's safe > to do. Then reboot (I mean, the first script will then reboot). I did not > write this very clearly but I hope you understand. > Yes, I got you. I'm still not sure all this is required instead of just a simple loadlin but I take you as someone with more experience with that than me.
As I wrote above, that's pretty easy to check. Good luck, -- Didi
