[syslinux] MSCDEX over NDIS ethernet

[Bernd Blaauw]

Darryl L. Miles schreef:
> I would like to implement a replacement MSCDEX driver (based on the 
> replacement in FreeDOS SHSUCDX 
> http://johnson.tmfc.net/freedos/shsucdx.html and SYSLINUX) however 
> instead of talking to disk BIOS calls or PATA chipset I would like it to 
> talk to the NDIS driver and act as a TFTP client simply forfulling 
> application get block requests through TFTP.

as you probably know, original SHSUCDX package can be obtained from:
http://www.geocities.com/jadoxa/shsucdx/

It contains SHSUCDX, a MSCDEX replacement.
It also contains other programs, like an ISO mounting tool called SHSUCDHD.

My private development version of FreeDOS is, from a diskette (with WGET 
on it), able to download the ISO file from the internet (any HTTP/FTP 
server actually) to harddisk or ramdisk, then mount it and continue from 
cdrom. Because the Memdisk imagefile we use (FDBOOT.IMG) has the same 
codebase as the diskette, it doesn't matter if you boot from any size of 
diskette, or boot the special 1.44MB diskette.

This special diskette contains Syslinux, Memtest86+, Smartboot Manager 
as com32 module (allows using the Eltorito stack to continue booting 
from cdrom), the FreeDOS files directly runnable from disk to get access 
to cdrom, and the same files in a Memdisk image. The memdisk image means 
'load 360KB one time, then execute from RAM instead of continuing to 
torture diskette by executing files from it'.

My best guess is you use PXELINUX with a Memdisk image which contains MS 
Client combined with the UNDI driver. After that you connect to a share, 
which contains the ISO you want to use.
Finally, use SHSUCDHD and SHSUCDX to obtain access to the contents of 
the cdrom.
Please have a look at the following site for MS Client on 1 diskette:
http://www.veder.com/nwdsk/index.html

> blocks from the CDROM unit.  If possible I'd like to mimic A:, C:, D: 
> (cdrom) supporting FAT, VFAT, ISO9660 backing images.

Diskette mounting program can be found at:
http://www.geocities.com/jadoxa/shsufdrv/index.html

> I wish to be able to run 1st and 2nd stage DOS installer programs 
> seamlessly this way as well have have a "tftpdisk" that can present any 
> ISO just as-if I had booted from an el-torio CD on the machine itself.

This procedure would only work for DOS.
If you know an universal packet driver, then I would like to know about 
it. Booting a DOS diskette through PXELINUX/MEMDISK and using WGET is a 
lot easier than using MS Client. But MS Client has the advantage that 
files don't need a local copy, temporarily stored on the client machine 
on harddisk or ramdisk.

I don't know about any ISO mounting tool that would allow to mount an 
ISO from the internet directly without first requiring you download the 
file. It's not common for disk mounting programs to use WATTCP32 :)

> Maybe somebody already knows of such a project or driver that already 
> exists for this purpose ?
> 
> Or maybe somebody can point out some floor in the idea ?  It seems like 
> 80% of the ground work is already done between the two projects.

I don't see PXELINUX loading a DOS ISO file to Client's RAM, then 
booting it through SmartBootManager's eltorito stack. Diskette download 
+ ISO mounting is the way to go.
However I'm not far enough with FreeDOS development to actually know how 
to dynamicly (on-the-fly) setup MS Client to access Samba shares.

Bernd