Will the EEEpc boot from a USB flash drive? If so, install FreeDOS on the
USB flash from another computer, boot it on the EEEpc, and install
FreeDOS normally on the EEEpc.
Many (probably most) computers with modern BIOSs will recognize a USB
flash drive if it is installed at boot time. This
, and
Windows98.
Let me know if you have any questions. For partition fiddling, I usually use a
Linux LiveCD and a program called gparted (see www.sysresccd.org if you
are interested).
Good luck.
73,
Mark, KD4D
-
This SF.Net email
Hi David:
It is straightforward to create a bootable FreeDOS CD. I think the easiest way
to do it
is to take a floppy disk image and boot that from the CD. This restricts the
boot image
to 1.44MBytes (or 2.88MBytes if you get tricky). However, you can add a CD-ROM
driver
and then add a lot
-- Original message --
From: Robert Riebisch [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Michael Reichenbach wrote:
He said he has no floppy anymore. So this is a bit more complicated.
Where exactly? I only see without owning DOS on floppies, which is
something completely
Hi:
Most boot loaders will allow you to do this. I like GAG because it is GPL and easy to set up. See http://gag.sourceforge.net for more information.
I always have to read the manual to use grub, but it is also capable of doing this. There are many others.
Mark
Original Message
-- Original message --
From: Eric Auer [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Hi Carlos,
only one question, where is the equivalent to
dd of=/dev/sda bs=1M in MS-DOS/FreeDOS or Windows
environment?
You probably mean dd if=dosdisk.bin of=/dev/fd0?
You can use FreeDOS
I use GAG for doing this. It's easier to configure than GRUB and will boot
DOS or Windows from any hard disk and partition.
I find it easier to keep each operating system totally separate and not to
modify the Windows boot.ini files. GAG is under the GPL and can be
downloaded as a floppy disk
-- Original message --
From: m4mach [EMAIL PROTECTED]
hi
[...]
I use CD-ROM drivers, but don't know how to add programs from CD directory
to PATH variable. (to search for CD label?)
[...]
You can specify the drive letter that will be used for your
Hi Juan:
One way to get a bootable CD is to use a combination of isolinux and memdisk
to boot a floppy disk image. I BELIEVE that this is the method most compatible
with different computer BIOS's. What I do is boot the floppy disk image
(1.44 MBytes typically) and, if I need more storage,
Florian Xaver escreveu:
Why does most people like GRUB? I don't like it. :-) I think, there are
many better boot-managers.
I can answer for myself: I don't like it, I just have in in my machine ;-)
Let me explain: I use Mandrive Linux which just give me 2 choices: Lilo
or Grub. Unless I
I like the open source program GAG for this. It doesn't require a partition
and I find it MUCH easier to set up and configure than GRUB. It isn't
quite as pretty, but you only see it for a few seconds.
gag.sourceforge.net
Mark
-- Original message --
From: Jim
Jim:
AFAIK, there are at least three different ways to install FreeDOS on a USB
stick. Unfortunately, the BIOSs and USB sticks differ somewhat and I haven't
found a way that works all the time.
The easiest way, if you have the proper BIOS support, is to plug in the USB
stick, turn on the
The default MBR on a hard drive boots THE primary partition
marked active. A boot loader like GRUB, LILO, GAG, or whatever
can boot any partition. IIRC, however, the FreeDOS kernel
won't start correctly from a logical partition.
FWIW, the Linux kernel is perfectly happy booting from a
Bailey, KD4D
At this point, i would recommend doing the partitioning with the new
GParted LiveCD from gparted.sourceforge.net instead of using the
older version referenced in that document.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Mark Bailey
-- Original message
-- Original message --
From: Lester Vedrox [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Mark I have found Partition Magic unreliable on WindowsXP Service Pack 2
(and
later) versions of NTFS.
JL, Mark I would recommend trying:
http://gparted.sourceforge.net
JL Easy to use,
Hello, all:
I have succeeded in creating a bootable CD containing Linux and FreeDOS.
It turned out to be easy.
This CD containts the two tools you need to dual-boot a Windows XP
computer (gparted and fdisk) and the FreeDOS odin1440 boot floppy image
(from odin.fdos.org - the 2005 version).
Hi:
An easy way to do this would be to install the two different
DOS versions in two different primary partitions and use a
boot loader like gag (gag.sourceforge.net) to select
which to boot. GRUB would work as well, but I find
configuring GRUB correctly a daunting task... :-)
Good luck.
Mark
Hi:
GAG and GRUB are two free bootloaders...GAG much simpler to
set up than GRUB.
Mark
An easy way to do this would be to install the two different
DOS versions in two different primary partitions and use a
boot loader like gag (gag.sourceforge.net) to select
which to boot. GRUB would
Hi Bernd:
These images also self-extract, which means you don't need
to buy WinImage to use them...if you don't have a floppy drive,
you can use VFD to emulate one and get a real disk image
file as well!
Mark
[EMAIL PROTECTED] schreef:
For a couple of DOS 6.22 boot floppy images, look at
Hi Blair:
No, I think the FDISK /MBR writes a MASTER BOOT RECORD to the
hard disk. SYS writes a VOLUME BOOT RECORD to a disk partition,
and (if you omit bootonly) copies kernely.sys and command.com
to the partition. These are different things.
Mark
SYS C: C: /BOOTONLY
Try a regular SYS
There is a really neat free Windows program called VFD
http://chitchat.at.infoseek.co.jp/vmware/vfd.html
which I use all the time. It allows you to mount a file
as a floppy disk and assign it a drive letter under Windows.
You can use diskcopy to/from a real floppy disk (if you have
one) or
Hi Michael:
No change with this version...system hangs on vol c: with VDS
option, works without.
Mark Bailey
At 03:38 AM 7/30/2005 +, Mark Bailey wrote:
I see no difference at all with that version, either with the
development kernel/command.com or the stable kernel/
command.com.
Hi Michael:
I dual or triple boot all of my machines and routinely switch
from DOS to WindowsXP and back. So, this makes sense.
Frankly, XP makes for a more convenient Web and e-mail
interface (IMHO! :-)). So, during much, even most, of
my testing, I boot XP a lot...sometimes just to copy
Good day, all:
I am having a repeatable problem with
del *.* on an NTFS partition mounted by NTFS4DOS.
I can do a DIR on the directory I am using (\TEMP) and see
86 files. A del *.* deletes 74 of them and yields two
errors:
E:\TEMP\LICENSE.D32: Invalid Argument
E:\TEMP\SAVE.DBG: Invalid
Hi all:
I don't see an obvious problem with FreeCOM's delete function.
I also won't be able to build a meaningful test case using Open
Watcom. So, I need to build FreeCOM with some debugging code.
The build instructions reference a precompiled SUPPL.ZIP file which
I can't find. Where can I get
OK, I've done a bit more research on this problem. The relevant
portion of the delete function appears to be, removing some
extraneous code:
if (FINDFIRST(fullname, f, FA_ARCH)) {
error_sfile_not_found(fullname);
} else do {
Hello, all:
OK, I have a test case under Watcom. Unfortunately, IT IS NOT
sufficient to call FINDNEXT before doing the unlink. If you do the
unlink even after the call to FINDNEXT, then files are still skipped.
The test program is:
#include stdio.h
#include io.h
#include stdlib.h
void main()
Hi Gerry:
Ah, yes, ... :-) Try emm386 without the VDS argument
and under no circumstances run FreeDOS FDISK unless
you want to risk an erased partition table.
Thanks for reporting this. Let us know what happens without
the VDS argument to EMM386!
Mark
Hi,
I tried some rough tests
Hi Gerry:
Yes, I was running emm386. However, FDISK erased my
(and at least one other) partition table without any
prompt or request at all when only requested to
examine the table. It's too risky to run the program at
all until that bug is addressed (IMHO). I believe there
is a development
Hi Michael:
Well, what's trying to use it is the FreeCOM VOL command!
(Or something else in FreeCOM). I doubt that there are
any explicit calls to VDS functions there. The kernel may
be more likely.
This appears to be the same bug that caused FDISK to
wipe out the MBR, so it at least appears
Hi Michael:
OK, I have done so. The new version still reports version 2.04,
July 6, 2005, but is much larger!
I see no difference at all with that version, either with the
development kernel/command.com or the stable kernel/
command.com.
Specifically, with
device=a:\himem.exe
Hi Michael, et al:
OK, I am back with the Haunted HP Pavilion (TM).
Downloaded development kernel, command.com, and sys.com
from fdos.org/kernel. Downloaded emm204x and extracted
himem.exe and emm386.exe.
Did a SYS: on a USB floppy from WindowsXP. Copied a random
version of edit.com on the
Hi Bernd et al:
I wish to thank all of you again for the wonderful support and help!
I have been amazed at the responsiveness of the FreeDOS
community!
Back with the haunted HP Pavilion (TM). Development kernel,
sys, and command.com from fdos.org/kernel. EMM386.EXE
and HIMEM.SYS from
Hello all:
OK, now that I've at least identified the FDISK problem, and solved
the DIR divide by zero problem, I need to work on why FreeDOS
doesn't boot and/or run stably on many computers.
Fortunately, I have the Haunted HP Pavilion. I have a repeateable
problem with the VOL command built
Good day, all:
I have another FreeDOS problem with NTFS4DOS. This one DOES
NOT affect MS-DOS (I think it's called 7.1...version from Windows98SE).
The problem is a divide error. Without himem.exe loaded, I get
Divide error
Divide error
. (lots of these, very quickly, followed by a
This may be a side effect of memory corruption with EMM386. In
fact, it appears to be a result of some interaction with EMM386.
I do not believe the hard disk in question is faulty and I do not
believe that it has non-standard parameters.
I do not believe the memory corruption is due to the hard
Hi:
Thanks. I know all of these workarounds. The problem was an apparent
bug in an older version of FreeDOS sys.com.
Mark
On Wed, 2005-07-20 at 17:16, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Hello, all:
Back to my other laptop and other problem. I am unable to install
FreeDOS on my 477 MB FAT32
Hi Bernd:
I'll try that. I'm only willing to run this on the one computer...too
risky for any others. I'm not blaming fdisk, but do not consider
running it safe. If I do not run fdisk, the disk partition table does
not get destroyed!
Mark
[EMAIL PROTECTED] schreef:
Ok, I just added
I agree. It is far too risky to run the FreeDOS FDISK under any
circumstances - just based on the limited tests I have done.
I will run it ONLY on this test computer. It becomes even
more of an adventure given your analysis of the source code! :-)
Mark
At 11:40 PM 7/21/2005 +, Mark
Hello, all:
OK, on my haunted HP laptop, I am going to try another test.
I just ran the Linux FDISK...it warns:
The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 3648.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
...
2) booting
OK. Back to the standard development kernel.
config.sys still has himem.exe and emm386.exe. No
autoexec.bat.
Boot floppy without running FDISK. Reboot Linux. Partition table normal.
Copy it to the floppy this time! :-)
Reboot FreeDOS from floppy.
enter
enter
A: fdisk
Displays a bunch
Hi Bernd:
I don't believe it is just FDISK. It appears to be FDISK + EMM386,
maybe plus the development kernel. However, until this is
isolated and the cause understood, I do not recommend
using it. There are other tools which do the same thing! :-)
Mark
[EMAIL PROTECTED] schreef:
Ok, I just added edit.exe to my boot floppy! :-)
First, modifying config.sys to:
a:\device=himem.exe
a:\device=emm386.exe noems X=a000-efff memcheck vds
EMM386 reports no suitable UMB memory block found :-)
FDISK shows a bunch of garbage after Do you want to use
large disk (FAT32) support
Hello, all:
Back to my other laptop and other problem. I am unable to install
FreeDOS on my 477 MB FAT32 partition. This is a DIFFERENT laptop
entirely. There is an extended partition, and an NTFS partition.
The FAT32 partition is a primary partition (the third, I believe).
I just grabbed a
Good day, all:
I just attempted to install FreeDOS on a partition on this laptop
again. I copied the new, development, SYS.COM command to
the root of a floppy disk image, created a CD, and booted the
cd.
Everything is normal, so I entered SYS C:.
When I boot the disk partition, it begins to
Hi Bernd:
Thanks for the help. I booted from the Beta9SR1 CD and
exited to a DOS shell (X: prompt).
I am using the GAG bootloader from the MBR of the hard disk,
and selected primary partition 3 (where FreeDOS is installed).
This is a primary FAT32 partition, marked active by GAG, and
I
Hello, all:
OK, either booting FreeDOS over and over, doing a
DIR C: on a recognized partiton which hung, or
doing fdisk operations trashed my partition table again.
There's a problem somewhere. I suppose it could
be a BIOS bug, but I'm leaning towards FDISK.
Here's the trashed MBR:
000:
Hello, all:
IT'S REPEATABLE. I just booted Beta9SR1 from CD many times
and ran FDISK like crazy with no problems. I booted a floppy
with the kernel Jeremy wanted me to run, ran FDISK,
and it reported no partitions! And, blew my partition table.
The original table was:
000: fafc 31c0 8ed0
Yeah, some people just don't like WindowsXP. It's hard to
buy a new computer without it installed, though!
Hi Mark,
You can install FreeDOS on a new computer and have it dual-boot
with Windows XP as well. This doesn't harm the WindowsXP
installation at all and doesn't require
Hello, all:
OK, I walked up to this laptop and ran FreeDOS Beta9SR1
from CD. I did all kinds of fdisk /info /tech and ran it
interactively several times.
All appeared normal.
Current fixed disk drive: 1 (TC: 3648 TH: 254 TS: 63)
Partition Status Mbytes Description Usage Start Cyl End Cyl
1 20
The original post I sent was the output of FDISK from
booting Beta9SR1. The first time, no complaints.
Current fixed disk drive: 1 (TC: 3648 TH: 254 TS: 63)
Partition Status Mbytes Description Usage Start Cyl End Cyl
1 20 16 Hidden FAT16 0% 0 1
3 7 A 27980 NTFS 98% 16 3582
C: 4 6 494 FAT16 2%
Hi Eric:
OK, let's try again. I apologize profusely for the HTML
formatting...I hate it myself. The darned webmail
client decided I wanted it for some reason.
The original post I sent was the output of FDISK from
booting Beta9SR1. The first time, no complaints.
Current fixed disk drive: 1
Good evening, all:
I screwed up my analysis of the MBR files badly. I apologize for
wasting your time.
I do not understand what happened, but the MBR does not appear
to have been modified. It may be something to do with a restart
versus a cold reboot. I will test that tomorrow evening.
Hi Kenneth:
No, I am not sure, of course. I had something similar happen to
me once as well. Fortunately, gpart fixed that one...but it did
happen after I ran FDISK.
I don't believe he HAD a problem except that NTFS4DOS didn't
recognize the XP partition.
Are there any FreeDOS tools that
Good day:
Trying to do a DIR on an NTFS partition, one of my friends is getting
the following error:
Divide error, stack:
FB3C 158E 0246 14CB 38C8 6AE5 158E 7939 38A4
What's the size limit on a partition for the FreeDOS kernel? I believe
this was a 160GByte partition, but
Good evening:
Thanks very much to Eric Auer and Michael Devore for all of the
suggestions! The support has been OUTSTANDING!
OK, I have learned a bit more. Apparently, NTFS4DOS is
slightly smarter than the documentation would have me believe.
I did some experiments with MS-DOS 6.22 and let
Hi Michael:
Thanks again for the help. That didn't change the symptoms at
all from just using NOEMS...still get the error from DOS/32A!
What does DOSDATA=UMB do? I am booting from a USB floppy
drive most of the time...occasionally from a CD with a 1.44MByte
floppy disk image. Development
Hi Michael:
Thanks. I took that straight out of the documentation.
I need to check that boot disk and make sure I caught
that. Could have been the problem. And, I do know
better! :-)
Mark
At 11:08 PM 7/10/2005 +, Mark Bailey wrote:
SWITCHES=/F
DOS=HIGH,UMB
DEVICEHIGH=a:\HIMEM.SYS
Hi Johnson:
My attempts have been very successful. The FreeDOS installer
has problems if the WindowsXP partition is FAT32...it insists
on writing a boot sector to C: no matter what. Just don't
use the installer and SYS the disk manually and copy files
over.
The procedure I wrote up is a bit
Hi All:
OK, I'm confused. I want to try to get NTFS4DOS working from a
bootable CD and loaded into high memory (using DEVICEHIGH).
My first attempt was a failure and resulted in an out of
memory error. I forget the exact message.
I sent an e-mail to the list asking if anyone has done this, but
Help again!
The documentation with NTFS4DOS uses UMBPCI.SYS instead of
EMM386 to support loading the driver high. Can I use EMM386
or must I use UMBPCI? If I must use UMBPCI, what version
should I use and where should I get it? :-)
Thanks again. The config.sys example from the NTFS4DOS
Hi Tom:
You can see www.k1ea.com/hints
Dual-boot Real DOS on Windows XP by Mark Bailey, KD4D
for detailed instructions on how to configure GAG (a boot
loader) to dual boot Windows XP and MS-DOS. To extend
this to Linux (all of my machines actually triple boot various
DOS flavors, Windows XP
Good day, all:
I got tired of struggling with drive letters and TDSK. I have written
a short C program which scans volume names for drives
C: through Z: (A: and B: were prompting for floppy insertions). By
default, it looks for the name TURBODSK from TDSK. However,
it accepts an argument of a
Hello, all:
I've been fiddling with an MS-DOS script to find out what drive
letter is assigned to a ram drive, trying to get it to work with
tdsk and FreeDOS.
I've run into two differences that suprised me.
1. The VOL command built into command.com appears to
output to stderr instead of
Good day:
You do not HAVE to use the SYSLINUX loader. I've been successful
using the El Torito standard (with 1.44 or 2.88 MByte) boot sectors
on CD's. The trick is getting a proper floppy disk image file.
I did it this way because I've also been fiddling with MS-DOS boot
CD's and haven't
Good day, all:
I have come up with a procedure to create a bootable custom DOS
CD, with a 2.88MByte boot sector, strictly under Windows XP. A
floppy drive makes it a bit easier, but is not required. This uses
several free programs: VFD (Virtual Floppy Disk), which simulates
a floppy disk drive
Hi Aitor:
I'm not positive, but I don't THINK GAG will recognize a
USB device unless the BIOS recognizes it. If you try this,
please let me know what you find out. I use GAG on all
of my machines...much easier to configure than GRUB.
Mark
Hi there,
Sorry about the slight offtopic, but...
Hi Bernd:
Thanks for the reply.
This has been fun. :-)
Mark
[EMAIL PROTECTED] schreef:
Yes, sorry. Alternatives are welcome, but I need to guarantee that a
bootsector is written in order to get a bootable system.
Yes, you do need to write a boot sector. How about the
following:
Hello, all:
I'm fiddling with booting FreeDOS from USB sticks. If
a computer has the correct BIOS, I have this working
well with MS-DOS and hope to get it running with FreeDOS.
How can I get a clean and reasonably easy install of
FreeDOS on a drive other than C:? The only machine I
have which
Hi:
I've been fiddling with bootable DOS CD's. I've even created a
mini How-to that creates a 2.88MByte floppy disk image, creates
a bootable CD image, and boots it. You can add a CDROM driver
if you like and use the rest of the CD. I'll be glad to send it to
you if you like. It's a rough
Good morning, all:
I have put together a detailed procedure for adding DOS dual-booting
to a Windows XP computer without destroying the XP installation.
This uses Linux tools, including qtparted (using parted/ntfsresize) to
shrink the XP NTFS partition, add a FAT16 or FAT32 partition for DOS,
and
Hello, all:
You can use Virtual Floppy Drive or some other software emulator
to make 2.88MByte floppy images without a drive. Works fine and
gives twice as much room on a bootable CD (unless you can afford
the memory for a CD driver...)
http://chitchat.at.infoseek.co.jp/vmware/vfd.html
Mark
Hello, all:
I've been bitten by an apparent bug in Turbo Pascal running on
newer computers. Here is the only FreeDOS reference I can
find:
http://fd-doc.sourceforge.net/faq/cgi-bin/viewfaq.cgi?faq=Using_FreeDOS/303
This apparently also fails on MS-DOS 6.22 but DOES NOT fail on the
version of
Hi Bernd:
Oh, it's possible. I could manually extract the files I want from the
bootable CD and do the COPY and SYS commands. I just want an
easier way to get the \fdos\bin tree. Unless the FreeDOS SYS
command is broken and always accesses C:? That would be
ugly...I suppose I'd have to
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