Re: [Freedos-user] System hangs on boot.
Hi! Actually FreeDOS may work with > 504 MB after all. You mentioned that using a FAT16 CHS partition made with MS DOS FDISK boots okay after you install FreeDOS on it, while a FAT32 partition did not. Your FAT32 partition may have been CHS or LBA. If it was LBA, maybe FAT32 works, but LBA does not work for booting from your CF, for some unknown reason. So you could try FAT32 CHS. If it was CHS, maybe FAT32 CHS booting does not work, so you could try FAT32 LBA instead ;-) Of course you do not need to test either of the methods if you are happy with the current working 504 MB FAT16 CHS boot drive. You could still use the rest of the CF card as D: (etc.) drive(s) with any suitable partition type (FAT16 or FAT32, CHS or LBA). Note that FAT16 supports at most 2 GB per drive letter. Regards, Eric ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] System hangs on boot.
I have it working. Though I couldn't use the installation system. I exited to DOS from the install disk and checked the partition table and format. The drive had a 2GB partition as C: formatted fat32. There was an extended partition with the rest of the drive. Then a logical partition as D: I deleted all the partitions. Rebooted. Existed setup. Created a new partition 504MB. (Didn't show anything larger. I couldn't create a larger partition) Marked it active. Rebooted Existed Setup. Formatted the C: drive with /S Rebooted to the HDD. This worked! I then removed the CF card from the 386. Then copied the FREEDOS directory from a newer install along with the other files at the root to the CF card. Excluding KERNEL.SYS and COMMAND.COM I then moved the CF card back to the 386 and it all worked. So, something with the install process created partitions using the fill size of the drive but the BIOS can access the full size so it failed. What I find interesting is that when I manually ran fdisk I couldn't create anything larger than what was seen by the BIOS. This setup now matches my DOS 6.22 setup. Thanks for the help. On Sun, Nov 27, 2022 at 6:27 PM Jim Hall wrote: > On Sun, Nov 27, 2022 at 4:29 PM Jeremy Leonard via Freedos-user > wrote: > > > > I reinstalled from floppy onto a 40MB IDE drive and this works. So it > > must be something to do with the CF card. The card works with MSDos. > > MS-DOS only sees it as a 504MB drive. I FDISK and format it and it > > works. Is there anything I can try with FreeDOS to get this working? > > I know others have had problems with real hardware systems built using > a CF card instead of a hard drive. I've seen people comment about that > on this list a while back - also on Twitter and Facebook. This problem > is sometimes (often?) the fault of the CompactFlash not doing a > perfect job of emulating or representing an IDE hard drive. When these > folks try the same system with a real hard drive, the problem does not > reappear. > > As Eric suggested, you could try installing FreeDOS on top of the > MS-DOS install (don't repartition, just reinstall) and that would > work. > > > ___ > Freedos-user mailing list > Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user > -- Jeremy Leonard jere...@elite4god.com Cell: (517) 285-8309 ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] System hangs on boot.
On Sun, Nov 27, 2022 at 4:29 PM Jeremy Leonard via Freedos-user wrote: > > I reinstalled from floppy onto a 40MB IDE drive and this works. So it > must be something to do with the CF card. The card works with MSDos. > MS-DOS only sees it as a 504MB drive. I FDISK and format it and it > works. Is there anything I can try with FreeDOS to get this working? I know others have had problems with real hardware systems built using a CF card instead of a hard drive. I've seen people comment about that on this list a while back - also on Twitter and Facebook. This problem is sometimes (often?) the fault of the CompactFlash not doing a perfect job of emulating or representing an IDE hard drive. When these folks try the same system with a real hard drive, the problem does not reappear. As Eric suggested, you could try installing FreeDOS on top of the MS-DOS install (don't repartition, just reinstall) and that would work. ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] System hangs on boot.
Hi! I reinstalled from floppy onto a 40MB IDE drive and this works. So it must be something to do with the CF card. The card works with MSDos. MS-DOS only sees it as a 504MB drive. I FDISK and format it and it works. Is there anything I can try with FreeDOS to get this working? If it works with MS DOS, I suggest to just install FreeDOS over the MS DOS install and use SYS and SYS CONFIG options to force the FreeDOS boot sector to use CHS and force the FreeDOS kernel to use CHS as well? Both would be related to that "only 504 MB instead of 40 GB (MB?)" observation you made. I assume FreeDOS sees the full 40 GB with LBA, but there is some problem with your LBA or geometry, so it fails to boot in LBA mode until you solve that. You can try CHS first. There are 2 threads on BTTR about FreeDOS FDISK and Ranish and about issues with partitioning in general, so you may want to check those as well: If the cause of your problem was a FDISK bug, that is: https://www.bttr-software.de/forum/board_entry.php?id=19762=0=time=0 https://www.bttr-software.de/forum/board_entry.php?id=19691=0=time=0 But as said, if it works with MS DOS, I think the easiest test will be to just install FreeDOS on the already working MS DOS C: drive, even if only 504 MB, without repartitioning or reformatting it. The problem could also be that LBA is reported as working but not actually working. Early LBA age BIOS versions might have flaws in how they implement LBA and DOS relies on the BIOS for LBA at boot. Also, using CF instead of HDD or SSD might affect compatibility? Regards, Eric PS: MS DOS 6 only supports CHS, but "Win9x DOS" 7 could do LBA. This is why there were Ontrack and similar tools to transform CHS/LBA geometries to at least access up to 8 GB in CHS style. ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] System hangs on boot.
I reinstalled from floppy onto a 40MB IDE drive and this works. So it must be something to do with the CF card. The card works with MSDos. MS-DOS only sees it as a 504MB drive. I FDISK and format it and it works. Is there anything I can try with FreeDOS to get this working? On Sun, Nov 27, 2022 at 11:57 AM Jürgen Wondzinski wrote: > I have a customer with similar setup, using 256MB CF-Cards. Funnily enuf, > directly formatting that cards with RUFUS using the current FreeDos ISO > results in the same error as you describe. > I survived with partition it with RUFUS and Boot-Selection “builtIn > FreeDos”. Then I just copy the content of the current FreeDos ZIP/ISO onto > the Card. I.e. Replacing Kernel.sys, Command.com, Config.sys, Autoexec.bat, > then adding the “Freedos” folder, and deleting the “Locale” folder. > > > > Haven’t yet investigated why the builtin image works as bootable, but the > external image doesn’t. > > > > With kind regards from Bavaria > > > > *Jürgen Wondzinski * > > Visual FoxPro <http://www.msdn.com/vfoxpro> Evangelist > > Microsoft "Most Valuable Professional > <http://mvp.microsoft.com/de-de/overview.aspx>" from 1996 to 2009, "Servoy > Valued Professional <http://www.servoy.com/>“ 2011 > > My XING Profile <https://www.xing.com/profile/Juergen_Wondzinski>, and > LinkedIn <http://www.linkedin.com/in/wondzinski> and Facebook > <http://www.facebook.com/juergen.wondzinski> and Twitter > <http://www.twitter.com/wondzinski> and….. > GCS d+ s:+ a+++ C++ !U P--- L E? W++ N++ o-- K--? w+++ O? !M--? V-- PS PE > !Y? !PGP t 5 X R tv- b DI+ D? G e++ h-- r+++ y+++ > > > > > > > > > > *Von:* Jeremy Leonard via Freedos-user > > *Gesendet:* Sonntag, 27. November 2022 05:02 > *An:* freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net > *Cc:* Jeremy Leonard > *Betreff:* [Freedos-user] System hangs on boot. > > > > I have a physical AMD 386DX 40Mhz system. It runs MS dos ok but hangs when > booting freedoms. > > > > BIOS post completes, says Loading FreeDOS then hangs. CTRL+ALT+DEL reboots > but still hangs. > > > > I'm using a CF card at my hdd. It's a 4g card with a 512mb partition. This > is all the BIOS sees. This works under msdos. I've tried imaging the cf > card in another pc and installing directly from the free dos floppy > install. Both yield the same result. > > > > How can I troubleshoot this? > > > > I have 17mb RAM, trident vga card with 1mb ram, winbond io controller, > 3com 3c509 nic. > > > > > > > ___ > Freedos-user mailing list > Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user > -- Jeremy Leonard jere...@elite4god.com Cell: (517) 285-8309 ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] System hangs on boot.
I have a customer with similar setup, using 256MB CF-Cards. Funnily enuf, directly formatting that cards with RUFUS using the current FreeDos ISO results in the same error as you describe. I survived with partition it with RUFUS and Boot-Selection “builtIn FreeDos”. Then I just copy the content of the current FreeDos ZIP/ISO onto the Card. I.e. Replacing Kernel.sys, Command.com, Config.sys, Autoexec.bat, then adding the “Freedos” folder, and deleting the “Locale” folder. Haven’t yet investigated why the builtin image works as bootable, but the external image doesn’t. With kind regards from Bavaria Jürgen Wondzinski Visual FoxPro<http://www.msdn.com/vfoxpro> Evangelist Microsoft "Most Valuable Professional<http://mvp.microsoft.com/de-de/overview.aspx>" from 1996 to 2009, "Servoy Valued Professional<http://www.servoy.com/>“ 2011 My XING Profile<https://www.xing.com/profile/Juergen_Wondzinski>, and LinkedIn<http://www.linkedin.com/in/wondzinski> and Facebook<http://www.facebook.com/juergen.wondzinski> and Twitter<http://www.twitter.com/wondzinski> and….. GCS d+ s:+ a+++ C++ !U P--- L E? W++ N++ o-- K--? w+++ O? !M--? V-- PS PE !Y? !PGP t 5 X R tv- b DI+ D? G e++ h-- r+++ y+++ Von: Jeremy Leonard via Freedos-user Gesendet: Sonntag, 27. November 2022 05:02 An: freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net Cc: Jeremy Leonard Betreff: [Freedos-user] System hangs on boot. I have a physical AMD 386DX 40Mhz system. It runs MS dos ok but hangs when booting freedoms. BIOS post completes, says Loading FreeDOS then hangs. CTRL+ALT+DEL reboots but still hangs. I'm using a CF card at my hdd. It's a 4g card with a 512mb partition. This is all the BIOS sees. This works under msdos. I've tried imaging the cf card in another pc and installing directly from the free dos floppy install. Both yield the same result. How can I troubleshoot this? I have 17mb RAM, trident vga card with 1mb ram, winbond io controller, 3com 3c509 nic. ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] System hangs on boot.
Hi! I have a physical AMD 386DX 40Mhz system. It runs MS dos ok but hangs when booting freedoms. BIOS post completes, says Loading FreeDOS then hangs. CTRL+ALT+DEL reboots but still hangs. Sounds like it already hangs when loading or booting the kernel, so the problem is not in separate config sys drivers etc.? I'm using a CF card at my hdd. It's a 4g card with a 512mb partition. This is all the BIOS sees. This works under msdos. I've tried imaging the cf card in another pc and installing directly from the free dos floppy install. Both yield the same result. I could imagine that there are problems with LBA and CompactFlash, as the computer is rather old. Maybe you installed FreeDOS to the CF card using a computer which supports LBA, while the 386 does not? You can use various SYS command line options to enforce either style. Actually you can even use SYS as a tool to "patch" a few bytes in the kernel file to force the kernel to use either CHS or LBA etc. Regards, Eric PS: I would not exclude the risk that some of our software intended for 386 use accidentally needs 486dx, but that should only affect individual apps and drivers, hopefully not the kernel. You may try an 8086 compatible version of our kernel for comparison, but this may influence the CHS/LBA or FAT32 support level as a side-effect? I have 17mb RAM, trident vga card with 1mb ram, winbond io controller, 3com 3c509 nic. ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
[Freedos-user] System hangs on boot.
I have a physical AMD 386DX 40Mhz system. It runs MS dos ok but hangs when booting freedoms. BIOS post completes, says Loading FreeDOS then hangs. CTRL+ALT+DEL reboots but still hangs. I'm using a CF card at my hdd. It's a 4g card with a 512mb partition. This is all the BIOS sees. This works under msdos. I've tried imaging the cf card in another pc and installing directly from the free dos floppy install. Both yield the same result. How can I troubleshoot this? I have 17mb RAM, trident vga card with 1mb ram, winbond io controller, 3com 3c509 nic. ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
