Hello, Thank you VERY much for that perl script (and also your comprehensive reply); it did the trick!
Gratefully, Horace --- Eric Auer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hi! > > > I have a laptop that has no working removable > media > > drives, which has linux installed... > > You could boot over network with syslinux'es > PXELINUX > and MEMDISK to start a DOS boot diskette image... > > > also have a fat16 partition (hda1) that I want to > > install FreeDOS on, booting from GRUB... > > Then it would be enough to copy DOS files to that > partition and install a boot sector... > > > "makebootfat" looks promising, but I really do not > > want to risk screwing up my system... > > I think risk is small as long as you apply that only > to your FAT partition and as long as your GRUB > resides > elsewhere (e.g. boot sector of your Linux partition, > or in the MBR)... > > > 1- Where can I get the essential freedos files > (just > > enough to run old games... > > http://fdos.org/ has some minimal boot disks, or get > http://fdos.org/kernel/ to download a kernel and a > FreeCOM XMS swap version. You would then go to > ftp://ftp.devoresoftware.com/ to get emm386 (the zip > also contains himem!), that should already be enough > for most games. Or get the beta 9 sr 1 (small) or > the Blair distro (100 MB :-)) ISO image to get piles > of DOS files :-). > > > 2- How can I get it to boot from grub (My > > understanding is that the I need some kind of > loader... > > You usually have something like "chainloader +1" or > similar in your GRUB config, basically the same as > you > would use to boot Windows. Plus you need a FreeDOS > boot > sector in the first sector of that FAT partition... > To create that, you can use one of several tricks, > but > I myself use the following perl script: > > http://www.coli.uni-saarland.de/~eric/stuff/soft/specials/sys-freedos-linux.zip > > This compiles a suitable DOS boot sector (so you > need NASM > installed), adjusts it for the partition or > diskimage you > target, and patches everything together. Note that > it will > not work out of the box if you used dosfstools > mkdosfs to > format the partition, as that does not initialize > all fields. > If something like DOS or Windows has formatted the > partition, > things will work, though. Alternatively, contact me > so I can > help you to manually initialize the missing fat16 > properties. > > Eric > > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > This SF.Net email is sponsored by the JBoss Inc. > Get Certified Today * Register for a JBoss Training > Course > Free Certification Exam for All Training Attendees > Through End of 2005 > Visit http://www.jboss.com/services/certification > for more information > _______________________________________________ > Freedos-user mailing list > Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user > __________________________________________________________ Find your next car at http://autos.yahoo.ca ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by the JBoss Inc. Get Certified Today * Register for a JBoss Training Course Free Certification Exam for All Training Attendees Through End of 2005 Visit http://www.jboss.com/services/certification for more information _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
