I reappropriated a CF (compact flash) disk yesterday for use as a hard drive. This is for a little router project I'm setting up. I had a hell of a time formatting that disk and making it bootable. I was trying this under vague recollections of things I'd read and commonsensical impulse. I spent way more time on it than I should have, but finally did resolve the problems, got the disk bootable, formatted and installed the OS (DOS: the project I'm using is a Linux router, but it runs from a DOS/UMSDOS file system). In case anyone else plans on using CF as bootable medium for a computer, let me pass along some things I learned: 1) CF disks do have c/h/s settings that must be discovered and, often, manually entered into BIOS; 2) One should not use LBA on CF disks; 3) Once your BIOS has the right settings, you'll be able to format the disk and install the OS/make it bootable. I did this by installing DOS on it. One can also make it Linux bootable, apparently most readily by using syslinux. Here is the address of a page that finally got me over the hurdle: http://chinese-watercolor.com/LRP/hd/ . The page gives instructions for making a CF disk bootable with syslinux, and also has other helpful hints and a number of utils (all M$Win-realiant, for whatever reason). It also has a table that gives c/h/s info for various sizes of CF - very helpful. You will most likely want to consult this page if you plan on using CF as bootable media. Though its main goal is to explain how to install an LRP (Linux Router Project) distribution to CF, it has broader interest.
Now, for my inquiry. Having gotten DOS installed and made the CF disk bootable, I'd like to make myself a little menu that times out after, say, 5 seconds, after which it boots the router (router.bat). That will give me a few seconds to get to a DOS prompt, should I need to. I made myself a timeout menu like that for a DOS/Basiclinux machine that I have which has various Linux partitions I can boot to, but defaults to one after a certain amount of time. I could probably just cannibalize that menu for the new project. But one feature I'd like to have that I couldn't implement on that timeout menu was a countdown timer. In other words, what I'd like to do is have a message appear onscreen something like: The machine will boot to Freesco in 5 seconds X In the place of the "X", there should be first a 5, then after 1 second a 4, then after another second a 3 - I think you get the idea. When it gets to zero it should invoke router.bat . How is this countdown timer done? Thanks for any input on that. Hope the above info may be helpful to someone and save them the alnight vigil I just had trying to get CF booting. James To unsubscribe from SURVPC send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with unsubscribe SURVPC in the body of the message. Also, trim this footer from any quoted replies. More info can be found at; http://www.softcon.com/archives/SURVPC.html
