Re: [Freedos-user] Trouble with netbooting freedos...
Hi Michael, I picked up a packet driver for the D845PEBT2 built in nic, but whether it's wget or lynx, trying to execute the application simply causes the computer to reset. Maybe it helps to tell emm386 to not use any UMB, or maybe it helps to load no emm386 at all? As you say you are using netboot - it can be that you simply must not access the net card from netboot and from DOS drivers at the same time. In that case, it might help to first copy everything to ramdisk and run DOS there, to make sure that the netboot file access is not active / busy while you run networked DOS apps... Microsoft client is what I need, but there are no free ndis drivers for my built in Intel nic. Does msclient need ndis? I believe there are wrappers which turn ndis or odi drivers into packet drivers or the other way round... Would someone pretty please replace Microsoft client with something that works with crynwr style packet drivers? What you can try is the DOS port of SMBCLIENT. It is only a command line ftp client user experience but it should be enough to copy all the files that you need from the network to a ramdisk. I am not aware of tools / drivers which can run in the background and access SMB shares in DOS. Apart from MS Client, of course. When I say network booted dos I mean that I'm actually loading it off of a tftp server. Microsoft Client 3.0 doesn't seem that complex. Then I wonder why it uses such extreme amounts of RAM ;-) I'm surprised the makers of Samba haven't looked into producing an open source more up to date freedos compatible alternative. As said above - somebody already compiled a DOS version of the Samba smbclient. The problem is that a running in the background network drive driver needs to be very DOS specific while the mount a Samba drive in Linux driver is very Linux specific so you cannot easily make a DOS version from the Linux driver... Eric -- Come build with us! The BlackBerry(R) Developer Conference in SF, CA is the only developer event you need to attend this year. Jumpstart your developing skills, take BlackBerry mobile applications to market and stay ahead of the curve. Join us from November 9 - 12, 2009. Register now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/devconference ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] Trouble with netbooting freedos...
I picked up a packet driver for the D845PEBT2 built in nic, but whether it's wget or lynx, trying to execute the application simply causes the computer to reset. don't use EMM386 Microsoft client is what I need, but there are no free ndis drivers for my built in Intel nic. Does msclient need ndis? I believe there are wrappers which turn ndis or odi drivers into packet drivers or the other way round... seems you have no idea about msclient or ndis. http://downloadcenter.intel.com/detail_desc.aspx?agr=YDwnldID=4239 (prodos.exe) should support your board. Would someone pretty please replace Microsoft client with something that works with crynwr style packet drivers? currently there are many more ndis drivers then packet drivers available; though it's possible to turn a ndis driver into a packet driver Tom -- Come build with us! The BlackBerry(R) Developer Conference in SF, CA is the only developer event you need to attend this year. Jumpstart your developing skills, take BlackBerry mobile applications to market and stay ahead of the curve. Join us from November 9 - 12, 2009. Register now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/devconference ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] Trouble with netbooting freedos...
I know about prodos.exe, it requires Windows to extract the drivers from it and the drivers you extract are probably Windows drivers. An update on the reset problem, updating to kernel 2039 and dropping emm386 updating himem as well seems to fix the problem. Another advantage of kernel 2039 is that one can fit more text on the screen. I use wget to load in programs to a a ramdrive that I created via fdauto.bat. The wget I use is the latest version and I had to add cwsdpmi to my 2.88 meg boot image. I've tried various shareware games successfully: commander keen1 and keen4, in search of dr. riptide, pea shooting pete, and the non shareware game battle tech I. In addition to games, I've tried Arachne with mixed results. It doesn't work if I install it to C:\fdos1 even if I add that to the path variable. It sort of works if I add it to c:\. For some reason, the mouse goes nuts after a while. Another problem is that I want to use IMAP instead of pop3. The next logical thing to try is adding ssh2dos to the things I wget and install from fdauto.bat. With that, I can in theory log in to the tftp server and change the netboot image. I'd like to get battletech II working, but to do that I need to fool it into thinking that it is installed to a hard disk somehow. Apparently, there is something called memdisk that I need to do that. I still want an alternative to Microsoft Client that works with the Intel non NDIS packet driver for my built in eexpress pro 10/100 fast ethernet card. The alternative should be samba compatible and unloadable/reloadable on demand. How hard would it be to create a tsr that allows one to use Linux network card drivers under freedos? The need to find a third party network card driver in this day and age is a pain considering that Microsoft doesn't support dos anymore and most commercial software outlets don't either. -- Come build with us! The BlackBerry(R) Developer Conference in SF, CA is the only developer event you need to attend this year. Jumpstart your developing skills, take BlackBerry mobile applications to market and stay ahead of the curve. Join us from November 9 - 12, 2009. Register now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/devconference ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] Trouble with netbooting freedos...
Op 18-10-2009 19:12, Michael Robinson schreef: I know about prodos.exe, it requires Windows to extract the drivers from it and the drivers you extract are probably Windows drivers. should be a DOS Ndis driver in that, as well as packet driver. Ofcourse also windows ndis drivers. Intel's drivers seem quite generic. An update on the reset problem, updating to kernel 2039 and dropping emm386 updating himem as well seems to fix the problem. Another advantage of kernel 2039 is that one can fit more text on the screen. I use wget to load in programs to a a ramdrive that I created via fdauto.bat. The wget I use is the latest version and I had to add cwsdpmi to my 2.88 meg boot image. which Wget you're using? there's an ancient DOS port but wouldn't mind more up to date version ported from GNU/Linux. In addition to games, I've tried Arachne with mixed results. It doesn't work if I install it to C:\fdos1 even if I add that to the path variable. It sort of works if I add it to c:\. For some reason, the mouse goes nuts after a while. Another problem is that I want to use IMAP instead of pop3. No idea on these issues, though people in the past have made single bootdisks containing a working Arachne as well. The next logical thing to try is adding ssh2dos to the things I wget and install from fdauto.bat. With that, I can in theory log in to the tftp server and change the netboot image. I've used Wget to download CURL, then upload a modified file to my own router's usb stick. Had no luck with HTGET uploading/downloading, or Wget uploading. No experience with using FTP.EXE scripted either. Think about 6 months ago someone wrote to this list mentioning a lightweight TCP/IP stack. I'd like to get battletech II working, but to do that I need to fool it into thinking that it is installed to a hard disk somehow. Apparently, there is something called memdisk that I need to do that. That might work if you can somehow create a harddisk image and populate it with MBR and active formatted partition and bootfiles and your game.Maybe SUBST instead or a Ramdisk C:? I still want an alternative to Microsoft Client that works with the Intel non NDIS packet driver for my built in eexpress pro 10/100 fast ethernet card. The alternative should be samba compatible and unloadable/reloadable on demand. I think SMBCLIENT which was mentioned earlier is the only program to access SMB and possibly NFS shares, but it's no TSR How hard would it be to create a tsr that allows one to use Linux network card drivers under freedos? The need to find a third party network card driver in this day and age is a pain considering that Microsoft doesn't support dos anymore and most commercial software outlets don't either. Sounds sheer impossible. What I do wonder though, which are the hardware specific parts of packet drivers, and which generic? crynwr has opensource ones, maybe new packet drivers could be written for new networking cards. As you're netbooting anyway, you're not limited to floppy images I think, use harddisk images instead perhaps.QEMU should be able to make them. -- Come build with us! The BlackBerry(R) Developer Conference in SF, CA is the only developer event you need to attend this year. Jumpstart your developing skills, take BlackBerry mobile applications to market and stay ahead of the curve. Join us from November 9 - 12, 2009. Register now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/devconference ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
[Freedos-user] Booting without hard disk
I built and support a DataPerfect database with 8 computers networked through MS-Client. Since this network is completely dedicated to the database (i.e., it needs not run any other software), I decided to get rid of the hard disks in all client computers. They now boot from a floppy disk containing FreeDOS and MS-Client only. The database software resides in the server machine. This is working fine, but it would be good to replace the floppy boot disks by something faster and more reliable. So I must decide where to go from here, but knowing almost nothing about booting, this is where I stand now: - I found and read the instructions on creating a DOS bootable USB disk. - I suppose it is also possible to boot from a CD-ROM. - Members of our list have been discussing net booting, but I'm not sure what it means exactly, and whether it is appropriate in my case. I remember reading somewhere that diskless client computers need special hardware on their network cards. A major concern in this network is reliability, as the database is used by doctors and nurses 12 hours a day to keep track of some 30,000 patients. So, my questions today are: (1) Which is the best approach to booting client computers without hard disks? (2) Where do I find the relevant instructions? Thanks, Marcos Florence Sao Paulo, Brazil -- Come build with us! The BlackBerry(R) Developer Conference in SF, CA is the only developer event you need to attend this year. Jumpstart your developing skills, take BlackBerry mobile applications to market and stay ahead of the curve. Join us from November 9 - 12, 2009. Register now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/devconference ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] Booting without hard disk
On Sun, Oct 18, 2009 at 4:36 PM, Marcos Favero Florence de Barros fav...@mpcnet.com.br wrote: I built and support a DataPerfect database with 8 computers networked through MS-Client. Since this network is completely dedicated to the database (i.e., it needs not run any other software), I decided to get rid of the ... (1) Which is the best approach to booting client computers without hard disks? This largely depends on the computers and environment they are in. CD-ROM and Network based booting will both be similar in that the commonly (and probably easist) method involves copying a floppy image to RAM and then booting DOS from there with DOS thinking its booting from a floppy. In both cases there are generic drivers that allow access using the BIOS services for the remaining CD-ROM data or Networking respectively, though it is best to load device specific drivers when feasible and continued access is needed. The CD-ROM and USB based booting both require that users not remove the disk, though given you already boot them from floppy this probably isn't a problem in your environment. Most current PCs can boot from USB, CD-ROM and probably Network if its built in to the motherboard, but you need to consider if all will have a CD-ROM drive, if the nic supports network booting and what method [PXE or older technology - for addon nics does it have a ROM chip installed, usually they are sold with a socket that can be used to enable network booting but no chip], and is the USB slot in a good location physically to ensure no one accidently or otherwise removes device/blocks access to other ports in cases where drive is bulky. For less than a dozen computers the cost of USB drive (assuming flash based) is probably not an issue but could be in the general case, wherease CDRs are low enough to not be. For a small LAN there should be no issues with speed/reliability of network, but the server may need to have additional services added if not already, eg DHCP server and TFTP. USB booting may have quirks depending on BIOS, but I've found drive access to generally be reliable (perhaps slow). Anyway from a DOS standpoint, any should be fine once setup. CD-ROM booting is going to be the simplest, its just a matter of taking your current floppy, make an image, use something like ISOLINUX with MEMDISK or even your CD recording software's basic CD boot by specifying image, burn the disc. I recommend the ISOLINUX/MEMDISK approach as it is reliable but also provides a writable drive (though edits don't survive reboots) which can be handy as software often opens files R/W and enables using pipes at the command line (type XX.TXT | MORE); you may not need this in your case. (2) Where do I find the relevant instructions? I am just typing this up real quick so don't have a good answer, but I recommend you check out SYSLINUX's ISO and PXE variants. A google search should find several methods to make a bootable USB disk, but basically depending on if your BIOS expects it as a floppy or hd determines whether you format it as a floppy (1st sector is start of FAT) or hd where you need to FDISK it and then format (1st sector is partition table). Thanks, Marcos Florence Sao Paulo, Brazil Probably didn't answer your question, but if you have a specific question I will do my best to help answer. Jeremy -- Come build with us! The BlackBerry(R) Developer Conference in SF, CA is the only developer event you need to attend this year. Jumpstart your developing skills, take BlackBerry mobile applications to market and stay ahead of the curve. Join us from November 9 - 12, 2009. Register now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/devconference ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] Booting without hard disk
Hi Marcos, Another idea: You can connect compact flash cards with a purely mechanical adapter to IDE harddisk controllers. Might give better performance and compatibility than a scheme based on USB sticks :-). Initial setup might be slightly tricky, but the same tricks as for USB sticks will help you to install DOS on a CF card. Prices will also be okay as CF are big and simple compared to the miniature SD variant memory cards that people use now. I built and support a DataPerfect database with 8 computers networked through MS-Client. I hope you also have good and regular backups :-) Since this network is completely dedicated to the database (i.e., it needs not run any other software), I decided to get rid of the hard disks in all client computers. They now boot from a floppy... How often do the computers boot? You can keep the floppy contents small and fetch the rest from the network. You can also load LBACACHE FLOP with TICKLE to get efficient cached floppy reads with track read-ahead early at boot. - ...read the instructions on creating a DOS bootable USB disk With newer BIOSes, this will usually work well. Avoid using EMM386 or configure UMB exclusion areas carefully, as USB and network access can interfere with DOS UMB memory. Note that writing to USB sticks via BIOS is often slow, but as you do not intend to write the boot medium at all as far as I understand, that should not be a problem. You might try to use FDSHIELD to write protect disks, but configurability is limited and some software has problems with unexpected inability to write to a disk... - I suppose it is also possible to boot from a CD-ROM. Booting from CD or DVD will be faster and will fit more data than booting from floppy, but a CD/DVD drive is still a mechanical device. How long it will last also depends on whether you keep fetching files from CD/DVD from time to time or whether you only access the CD/DVD during the boot process and copy all data to a ramdisk then. Usually CD/DVD boots well with either a floppy image (1.44 or 2.88 MB common) or ISOLINUX plus MEMDISK for other sizes. The latter also allows compressed images, plus you can use ELTORITO,SYS to access the non-boot part of the CD/DVD, giving you much space for tools. - Members of our list have been discussing net booting The classical diskless boot is of course from network via PXE, but if you want to use the network for DOS apps after booting, there can be a conflict between network boot and network usage... You say that you use MSCLIENT so it is likely that you run into this problem. On the other hand, you usually boot via PXELINUX and MEMDISK so all PXE boot network access is only during boot. A major concern in this network is reliability, as the database is used by doctors and nurses 12 hours a day to keep track of some 30,000 patients. Indeed. And you might want to write-protect the boot medium. Eric -- Come build with us! The BlackBerry(R) Developer Conference in SF, CA is the only developer event you need to attend this year. Jumpstart your developing skills, take BlackBerry mobile applications to market and stay ahead of the curve. Join us from November 9 - 12, 2009. Register now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/devconference ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
