Accessing MEMDISK arguments from DOS
Being able to access the command line arguments given to MEMDISK from
within the DOS image is frequently very useful.
This makes possible the combination of several DOS images into one,
by executing different (DOS) scripts depending on the MEMDISK arguments.
SYSLINUX provides this information via an API.
There are several different programs to get those arguments:
- mdiskchk.com of the Syslinux package (dosutil/mdiskchk.com)
- getargs.com written by Eric Auer (can also check for the existence of drives):
- getargs.com written by Kenneth J. Davis, based on Syslinux's ifmemdsk.c32 and on Eric Auer's getargs.com:
- getargs.com written by Murali krishnan Ganapathy:
mdiskchk.com
Usage: mdiskchk [--safe-hooks] [--mbfts] [--batch-output] [--no-sequential] --safe-hooks -s Scan INT 13h "safe hook" chain. --mbfts -m Scan memory for MEMDISK mBFTs. --batch-output -b Output SET command based on MEMDISK kernel arguments. --no-sequential -n Suppress probing all drive numbers. |
mdiskchk.com --safe-hooks (-s) Attempt to walk the chain of INT 13h "safe hooks". For each MEMDISK "safe hook" found, its detail will be reported. mdiskchk.com --mbfts (-m) Scan between free base memory and 0xA00000 looking for MEMDISK mBFTs. For each one found, its detail will be reported. mdiskchk.com --batch-output (-b) Suppress the normal detailed report and instead output a list of DOS 'SET' commands. The output is useful to populate a batch file, and then call that batch file to set DOS environment variables, so that programs have access to those MEMDISK kernel arguments passed at boot-time. mdiskchk.com --no-sequential mode (-n) Suppress MDISKCHK.COM's classic behaviour of probing all BIOS drive numbers in search of MEMDISKs. Some BIOS might not enjoy being probed. |
These command-line options may be combined.
The following example demonstrates how
autoexec.bat and mdiskchk.com can be used.
AUTOEXEC.BAT :
@echo off echo @echo off>setenv.bat mdiskchk.com -m -s -b -n >>setenv.bat call setenv.bat>nul |
Running mdiskchk.com without arguments:
Q:\>mdiskchk.com Drive 00 is MEMDISK 3.86: Address = 0x06ff8000, len = 5760 sectors, chs = 80/2/36, loader = 0x33 (ISOLINUX), cmdline = raw initrd=fdubcd.img BOOT_IMAGE=memdisk |
The above output from mdiskchk.com reflects the initial ISOLINUX boot entry:
# Boot fdubcd DOS floppy image LABEL fdubcd LINUX memdisk INITRD fdubcd.img APPEND raw |
When scanning for MEMDISK mBFTs,
mdiskchk.com will find previous MEMDISK instances.
This can be useful to detect parameters passed to the first MEMDISK
(e.g. an ISO) and use them in the MEMDISK-mapped floppy image.
Here is an example of the UBCD FreeDOS floppy image packed in an ISO. The floppy image inside the ISO is booted with MEMDISK. The ISO, which uses ISOLINUX as bootloader, is also booted with MEMDISK:
qemu -kernel ./memdisk -initrd fdubcd.iso -append 'iso ubcdcmd=xbios' |
The above "ubcdcmd=" argument is passed to the MEMDISK-mapped ISO image and allows us to choose which specific tool we want to run once we are booted into FreeDOS from the bootloader (QEMU in this case, but normally ISOLINUX, SYSLINUX, ...) itself, instead of from a menu inside the FreeDOS image, which is the normal way.
Running the " mdiskchk.com --mbfts
" command from within FreeDOS:
Q:\>mdiskchk.com --mbfts Drive E0 is MEMDISK 3.86: Address = 0x072e9000, len = 6668 sectors, chs = 65535/255/15, loader = 0xb0 (Qemu), cmdline = iso ubcdcmd=xbios Drive 00 is MEMDISK 3.86: Address = 0x06ff8000, len = 5760 sectors, chs = 80/2/36, loader = 0x33 (ISOLINUX), cmdline = raw initrd=fdubcd.img BOOT_IMAGE=memdisk |
Note again, the same ubcdcmd=xbios parameter in the above resulting output of mdiskchk.com.
The above example shows the ubcdcmd=xbios parameter being passed from the first memdisk instance that booted the ISO.
To actually make use of this ubcdcmd= parameter in DOS, the "--batch-output" method is rather useful:
Q:\>mdiskchk.com --mbfts --batch-output set iso=1 set ubcdcmd=xbios set raw=1 set initrd=fdubcd.img set BOOT_IMAGE=memdisk |
Redirecting the output to a (.bat) file and running it (like shown above),
the %ubcdcmd%
variable can be used in batch files
to get access to the 'xbios' value.
getargs.com
Add one of the getargs.com versions to your DOS image and use it as follows inside any of your .bat files:
REM * Retrieve and save MEMDISK arguments in settings.bat getargs.com > settings.bat REM * Run setting.bat so the retrieved MEMDISK arguments are REM + set as environment variables for further usage. settings.bat |
If the call to MEMDISK was:
# Boot DOS and pass arguments LABEL dos_with_args LINUX memdisk INITRD my_dos.img APPEND ACTION=install NETSHARE=sharename |
then after the call to settings.bat the environment variables INITRD, ACTION and NETSHARE will be set to my_dos.img, install and sharename respectively.
FreeDOS kernel
- https://sourceforge.net/p/freedos/mailman/message/27544941/ kernel menu choice from Syslinux (2011May)
- http://www.fdos.org/kernel/testing/memdisk/memdisk.txt
- https://github.com/FDOS/kernel/blob/master/docs/memdisk.txt
- https://github.com/FDOS/kernel/blob/master/kernel/memdisk.asm
References
Some additional (mostly older) references:
- FreeDOS beta9 RC5 bootdisk 1440 (2004Apr) -> IFMEMDSK.COM Detects if Iso/Sys-Linux was loaded with Memdisk (2003Dec, Eric Auer)
- ifmemdsk.zip (Eric Auer)
- http://ericauer.cosmodata.virtuaserver.com.br/soft/specials/tiny-memdisk-getargs.zip (Eric Auer)
- ifmemdsk.c32