Re: [Freedos-user] Installing GRUB
Tony,
In your Linux VM, could you give the output to `fdisk -l /dev/sda`?
Thanks
On Sat, Jun 4, 2022 at 7:54 AM Tony Richardson
wrote:
> I wanted to use GRUB to boot FreeDOS. (I wanted to use it so that I could
> dual-boot FreeDOS and RTEMS, but others may have different reasons.) It is
> a relatively short procedure so I thought I would contribute it to the
> mailing list in case others might be interested. I installed FreeDOS in a
> VirtualBox virtual machine, but the procedure should work on other
> virtual or physical machines. The FreeDOS fdisk does not leave enough space
> before the first partition to install GRUB, so I used a Linux SystemRescue
> CD (system-rescue.org) to partition the (virtual) disk. This CD has all
> of the tools necessary to partition the drive, format the disk and install
> GRUB.
>
> 1) In VirtualBox create a new 64-bit Linux machine with a 500 MB vdi-type
> drive (FreeDOS.vdi). Configure the machine to boot off of the SystemRescue
> CD image. (I had to give the machine 2 GB of memory to boot the CD. The
> default 512 MB would not allow the machine to boot.)
>
> 2) Boot the new machine and create a new maximum size primary partition on
> the virtual drive (/dev/sda). Change the partition type to 0x0E (a Win95
> LBA mapped partition).I use Linux fdisk (enter "fdisk /dev/sda") to do
> this, but you can use any of the other disk partitioning tools on the CD
> (gparted is a graphical partitioning tool).
>
> 3) Format the new partition by entering "mkfs.msdos /dev/sda1" (You can
> alternately format the partition as part of the FreeDOS installation.)
>
> 4) Halt the Linux machine. (Choose the "Power off the machine" option.)
>
> 5) Create a new FreeDOS virtual machine. Choose to use an existing
> virtual hard disk and attach the FreeDOS.vdi disk. Boot the machine from
> the FreeDOS live image. Choose the "Install to Harddisk" option from the
> boot menu. Install FreeDOS. You should be able to boot off the harddisk
> into FreeDOS at this point.
>
> 6) Halt the FreeDOS virtual machine.
>
> 7) As part of the installation the FreeDOS master boot loader is
> installed. We need to rewrite this with GRUB, so restart the Linux machine.
>
> 8) Mount the new partition using "mount /dev/sda1 /mnt"
>
> 9) Install Grub by entering "grub-install --boot-directory=/mnt/boot
> /dev/sda"
>
> 10) Create a file named "grub.cfg" in the /mnt/boot/grub directory with
> the following contents:
> menuentry "FreeDOS" {
> insmod chain
> set root=(hd0,1)
> chainloader +1
> }
>
> 11) Halt the Linux machine.
>
> You should now be able to boot the FreeDOS machine off of the hard disk.
> You should see the GRUB boot menu first now. You can modify the GRUB menu
> by editting the grub.cfg file in the C:\boot\grub directory. You can
> delete the Linx machine, but do not delete the files associated with the
> machine or you will lose your FreeDOS drive. You can move the FreeDOS.vdi
> file if you want but you will need to play around with the VirtualBox Media
> Manager to make it available to FreeDOS after the move.
>
> Tony Richardson
>
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Re: [Freedos-user] FD13 floppy installation attempts
Den 2022-06-28 kl. 03:30, skrev Jerome Shidel:
Hi,
On Jun 27, 2022, at 6:47 PM, Pierre LaMontagne wrote:
First of all, I think FreeDOS is an outstanding replacement for the
discontinued MS-DOS!!!
I've been a happy camper & been a big fan of FreeDOS since v1.1. I use it mainly on
my 'ancient' PC. This PC has been around since the late 1990s. I built it myself. It
has an Intel Pentium III 450mhz CPU on an Asus P3b-F motherboard with one 256kb DIMM
for RAM & VGA graphics on an AGP-4x video card (I think it's an NVIDIA 6200 GPU???).
I usually use Linux (Ubuntu 20.04). It's on another OLD, but not quite as old
PC, (about 10 years old) ... I've become a big fan of freeware!
My 3rd PC (about the same age as the Linux PC) has Win 10 on it. I rarely use it anymore
especially with the Win 11 release. ("I seen the writing on the wall" with
Win11)
I've recently wanted to upgrade my oldest PC as much as I could which includes
going from FreeDOS 1.1 to FreeDOS 1.3. I dowloaded the packages that I thought
I needed.
I haven't tried it, but I'm pretty sure this oldest PC of mine won't boot from a
CD. So I extracted the legacy ZIP which contained a floppy boot image & a CD
ISO file. I then tried to extract the floppy IMG file to a new-never-used 1.44 mb
floppy in hopes to later create a boot floppy in Ubuntu, but I couldn't even get
that far because the floppy image file wouldn't fit on the new 1.44mb floppy. I
then tried using the DVD drive to put the floppy IMG file on it but, writing to the
DVD drive in a DOS environment won't work (at least not with my limited
knowledge)...
So now I'm stuck & don't know what else I can do. :(
Any suggestions/help???
First, do not extract the files from Floppy Boot Diskette Image for the
LegacyCD and try to use those files to make a boot diskette. While it can be
done, it is tedious and error prone.
What you want to do is write the Boot Diskette Image to the Floppy Device. So,
what you want to do is the following…
1) insert the Floppy Diskette you want to overwrite. (Either an old school one
using the floppy controller or even a newer USB floppy drive)
2) figure out the the device name (probably /dev/floppy or /dev/floppy0).
3) unmount the floppy device. But, do not eject the diskette.
4) as superuser write the image file to the floppy device. example: “sudo dd
if=FD13BOOT.img of=/dev/floppy” You can add options for block size and count.
However, it usually works fine without them. WARNING: make sure it is actually
the floppy and not a hard drive or other device. If you write it to the wrong
device, you will destroy the filesystem on that device.
Depending on the speed of your floppy drive, it will probably take 5-7+ minutes
to write the image. But once finished writing, your done. You will have a
Floppy Boot Diskette for the CD ROM.
:-)
Jerome
I have installed freedos 1.3 on my 486 100 mhz which have floppy and cd
drive, it cannot boot from cd
but using a bootable floppy with bcloader.sys and cdromdrv.sys I can
boot and install from both the legacy cd and the regular and install
from them.
http://bootcd.narod.ru/index_e.htm
Bear
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