Re: [Freedos-user] Accessing usb stick from freedos.
I've decided that it's probably easier to just boot from the usb stick, and then I can use the hard drive for something else. On Sun, 23 Jul 2023, 21:53 Rugxulo via Freedos-user, < freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net> wrote: > Hi, > > On Sat, Jul 22, 2023 at 2:44 AM John Vella via Freedos-user > wrote: > > > > Thanks for the quick reply, Ralf. I have a work around, which did the > trick. I just created four partitions, each less than 32gb on the stick, > and freedos is happy with that. > > Assuming your FreeDOS kernel has FAT32 compiled in (which most do, > omitting it only saves like 2 kb of file size of KERNEL.SYS), it > should be fine. > > I still use my old Dell laptop from 2010 to boot FreeDOS on a (128 GB, > FAT32) USB jump drive made by RUFUS. I don't need any third-party USB > drivers because the BIOS treats it as a hard disk (but, of course, you > can't swap USB sticks, you have to reboot if you want to use a > different one). > > (... more comments below ...) > > > > On Sat, 22 Jul 2023, 03:23 Ralf Quint via Freedos-user, < > freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net> wrote: > >> On 7/21/2023 2:01 PM, John Vella via Freedos-user wrote: > >> > > >> I had never had the need to use such large partitions with (any) DOS, > >> and don't use it for anything else, as it is limited to 4GB file size > too. > > The alleged 4 GB file size doesn't work on some OSes (FreeDOS, Windows > NT?), only on old Win9x. So you're only guaranteed 2 GB individual > file sizes, universally. You'd need DJGPP 2.04 or 2.05 just to (maybe) > handle it. Even then, last I checked, they hardcoded a check for > "version 7 DOS" before enabling FAT32 support (e.g. du or df). > > My old 4 GB FreeDOS partition filled up pretty quickly. I was using at > least 1 GB for DJGPP stuff (mostly backup .ZIPs). > > I would not recommend using FAT16 for anything above (roughly) 510 MB. > Use FAT32 instead (if possible, which is well-supported by most DOSes, > not counting ancient MS-DOS 6.22 and DR-DOS 7.03). > > >> Theoretically, FAT32 could handle up to 2TB in partition size, while > >> newer Windows (and some other OS) limit it to 32GB. > > I believe the Windows limitation was in "creating" FAT32 partitions > larger than 32 GB because MS found that it was otherwise too slow > under real-mode MS-DOS 7. Vista (and newer Windows) won't even boot > from FAT anymore (too slow, security issues). FYI, Windows 11 is > 64-bit host only nowadays and supposedly takes up 25 GB of space. > > > ___ > Freedos-user mailing list > Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user > ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] Accessing usb stick from freedos.
Hi, On Sat, Jul 22, 2023 at 2:44 AM John Vella via Freedos-user wrote: > > Thanks for the quick reply, Ralf. I have a work around, which did the trick. > I just created four partitions, each less than 32gb on the stick, and freedos > is happy with that. Assuming your FreeDOS kernel has FAT32 compiled in (which most do, omitting it only saves like 2 kb of file size of KERNEL.SYS), it should be fine. I still use my old Dell laptop from 2010 to boot FreeDOS on a (128 GB, FAT32) USB jump drive made by RUFUS. I don't need any third-party USB drivers because the BIOS treats it as a hard disk (but, of course, you can't swap USB sticks, you have to reboot if you want to use a different one). (... more comments below ...) > On Sat, 22 Jul 2023, 03:23 Ralf Quint via Freedos-user, > wrote: >> On 7/21/2023 2:01 PM, John Vella via Freedos-user wrote: >> > >> I had never had the need to use such large partitions with (any) DOS, >> and don't use it for anything else, as it is limited to 4GB file size too. The alleged 4 GB file size doesn't work on some OSes (FreeDOS, Windows NT?), only on old Win9x. So you're only guaranteed 2 GB individual file sizes, universally. You'd need DJGPP 2.04 or 2.05 just to (maybe) handle it. Even then, last I checked, they hardcoded a check for "version 7 DOS" before enabling FAT32 support (e.g. du or df). My old 4 GB FreeDOS partition filled up pretty quickly. I was using at least 1 GB for DJGPP stuff (mostly backup .ZIPs). I would not recommend using FAT16 for anything above (roughly) 510 MB. Use FAT32 instead (if possible, which is well-supported by most DOSes, not counting ancient MS-DOS 6.22 and DR-DOS 7.03). >> Theoretically, FAT32 could handle up to 2TB in partition size, while >> newer Windows (and some other OS) limit it to 32GB. I believe the Windows limitation was in "creating" FAT32 partitions larger than 32 GB because MS found that it was otherwise too slow under real-mode MS-DOS 7. Vista (and newer Windows) won't even boot from FAT anymore (too slow, security issues). FYI, Windows 11 is 64-bit host only nowadays and supposedly takes up 25 GB of space. ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] the freedos 1.3 floppy install edition.
Hi! The CPU detection utility used by the installer has compatibility issues with some processors. For example, there are some 486 systems that are detected as a 186. This has been a known issue for a while. Unfortunately, I just have not had the time to resolve that. As a stop gap, if the installer is told the system is less than a 386, it assumes it is incorrect and installs the 386 package set. So, there should be no need to override the detected CPU on 386+ systems. That will just break the complete install on pre-386 systems. If you insist on not trusting your tools, at least ASK the user whether they want to override the detection. Or better: If the tool detects a pre-386, make sure that you install an 8086 compatible kernel. You can still let the config/autoexec keep a boot menu item a la "if you are sure that your CPU can actually do it, select this item to try to load EMM386 and HIMEM at your own risk." For systems with less than a 386, you will want to override it to ensure the 8086 compatible kernel is installed. This should be the other way round. If you know what you are doing, you MAY override the detection result that you have no 386. If you do NOT know for sure, then the installer should NOT give you an install which would require 386. Of course if the INSTALLER is sure that the CPU is 386 or newer, the whole problem does not occur. So my proposal only annoys a small number of people with exotic 386+ CPU, but rescues all the users with actual 286 or older CPU or emulators from getting an un-usable install due to overly optimistic automated overrides. Regards, Eric ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] Can FreeDOS Be Installed On A Logical Slice? The Answer Remains Unknown
Hi Jay! I tried to do the same thing with a logical slice of disk but FreeDOS failed to see it. If it is possible to install FreeDOS onto a logical slice of disk, inside of the extended slice, the technique for doing so is unknown, or, at least, unknown by me. DOS can not be installed on a logical partition, it has to be a primary partition. The problem is that the boot sector of a logical partition contains, as far as I remember, relative instead of absolute position information. So the boot sector code / program will fail to find the DOS kernel if booting from a logical partition. You will either have to use a primary partition, manually mess around with the boot sector without breaking other aspects of it, or use some type of boot manager which can load the kernel in some other way. You could even use a virtual floppy image with the help of GRUB or LILO and MEMDISK, I guess. FreeDOS in general has no problems with C: being a non-primay partition as far as I know, and it supports fdconfig.sys or config.sys pointing to the bulk of the DOS system on other drives than C: However: If you cannot load the kernel, DOS will be a lot less useful and at least your fdconfig.sys and some type of driver which makes it able to access other drives also have to be on a FAT formatted C: drive. In theory, you could load a virtual boot floppy with NTFS drivers, kernel and config sys and then install the rest of FreeDOS even on a NTFS drive, but that would involve significant manual trickery. Long story short, you could try the virtual boot floppy method and I recommend that your DOS drive is FAT, but I think a LOGICAL FAT partition could be good enough AFTER you boot from virtual floppy. Regards, Eric ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
