[syslinux] Large Floppy Images

[Tom Mahoney (work-job-related)]

Bernd Blaauw wrote:
> Tom Mahoney (syslinux-emails) schreef:
>> Bernd Blaauw wrote:
>>   
> Syslinux mailing list has the annoying habit of a 'reply' being sent to
> the author of the message by default, rather than sending to the mailing
> list as default.
> Don't know if that was your intention. I tend to 'fix' this by deleting
> the 'to' field and changing 'cc' into 'to' :)
Thanks, I wasn't aware of that. I'll be sure and use cc instead in the
future. If I understand you right I would just click reply and then
change To to CC and ensure the address is syslinux at zytor.com and not the
person who replied?
>> The image did work and booted just fine. Where Freedos is concerned I
>> would like a install image to boot from based off of the stable 1.0
>> release it hit recently and it's not clear googling around that there is
>> an official one yet.
>>   
> Indeed, only a bootable CD is available, using Isolinux. For older
> machines, there's Smart Boot Manager,
> and a diskette image (no idea if it's also updated to FreeDOS 1.0 files)
> available at
> http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/distributions/1.0/fdboot.img
> 
I'll take a look at it. It would be nice to get the final release
working under pxelinux.

>> Also why would the bootsector not be compatible with my goal of
>> combining the three images into one? The idea is simply to take a image
>> of the first disk and increase it's size to 5, 8, or 10 megs. Mount the
>> image and copy the files from the second and third disk. I want to be
>> able to have one image with all files so obviously no disk swapping but
>> a single image large enough to fit all files and install from.
>>   
> Most operating systems only contain bootsectors for the specific OS
> itself, not for likewise operating systems.
> Thus, the FreeDOS bootdisk expects a system file called KERNEL.SYS
> rather than IO.SYS or MSDOS.SYS
> (or WINBOOT.SYS for all I care). I thought I'd read you intended to
> merge the MSDOS disks, which means you're best off
> starting with a proper MSDOS bootdisk, then expanding it, then inserting
> the files from the remaining disks.
That is what I tried. I was not using a freedos bootdisk image with
msdos files copied into it. I took a image of the 1st msdos 6.2 install
disk which is bootable and has it's own msdos bootsector. I have also
tried taking a image of a standalone 6.2 bootdisk. Both work before
being altered. The instant I increase the size with mkfloppyimg.sh they
become unbootable.
> 
>> "Non-System disk or disk error"
>>
>> The new error message I also get in dosemu when trying to boot from it
>> as a virtual floppy:
>> This is not a bootable disk.  Please insert a bootable floppy and
>> press any key to try again ...
>>   
> improper bootdisk then. Adding a DOS bootsector under Linux on an empty
> disk image doesn't seem to be easy,
> I remember some PERL script being used to implement a FreeDOS bootsector
> for example.
> 
> Also, some FreeDOS people have worked on creating opensource bootsectors
> that can boot MSDOS 3.3-7.00 and MSDOS-7.10-FAT16.
> Win95/98 on FAT32 hasn't succeeded yet. No idea if that special version
> of SYS is still available anywhere.
You might be thinking of ms-sys a linux msdos sys work a like for linux.
It has the ability to write out the mbr and the boot record for dos up
through 2003:
Usage:
        ms-sys [options] [device]
Options:
    -1, --fat12     Write a FAT12 floppy boot record to device
    -2, --fat32nt   Write a FAT32 partition NT boot record to device
    -3, --fat32     Write a FAT32 partition DOS boot record to device
    -6, --fat16     Write a FAT16 partition DOS boot record to device
    -l, --wipelabel Reset partition disk label in boot record
    -p, --partition Write partition info (hidden sectors and drive id)
                    to boot record
    -m, --mbr       Write a Windows 2000/XP/2003 MBR to device
    -9, --mbr95b    Write a Windows 95B/98/98SE/ME MBR to device
    -d, --mbrdos    Write a DOS/Windows NT MBR to device
    -s, --mbrsyslinux    Write a public domain syslinux MBR to device
    -z, --mbrzero   Write an empty (zeroed) MBR to device
    -f, --force     Force writing of boot record
    -h, --help      Display this help and exit
    -v, --version   Show program version
    -w, --write     Write automatically selected boot record to device

    Default         Inspect current boot record

Warning: Writing the wrong kind of boot record to a device might
destroy partition information or file system!

>> I'll take a look but I'm curious how I would use that to solve my
>> problem. Wouldn't I still need a bootable large floppy image that could
>> fit the file decompressed by the ramdisk driver?
>>   
> have a DOS system, load XMS driver, load ramdisk driver, use SYS on this
> ramdisk that has (super-)floppy geometry, then add files,
> then make a disk image of the ramdisk using a program like 'dd' or
> diskcopy for example.
> The resulting image should be put on your bootcd or PXE server or
> whatever you intend.
So I use a working dos system and modify it's config.sys to load the ram
driver you mentioned and use a dos dd work a like to copy the ramdisk to
a disk image? How would I do that under dos? Sounds like it might work
but it's not clear to me exactly how that would work. I have not opened
the zip and checked for any text files so I'll do that and see if it's
explained.
>> This leads me to a question I have to anyone who could answer. I can
>> boot a linux kernel and pass it a initrd to create a ramdrive from. Can
>> this also be accomplished with memdisk and a dos floppy image? Can a
>> second file be passed to be accessed by the first?
>>   
> Nope. Traditional way is have a bootdisk image, then load some drivers,
> and mount a second disksource.
The disk source would have to be contained within the network booted
image or is there a way for it to load it from the tftp server as well?
> On that second disksource, you might have to mount another disk for
> example. I doubt something like the MSDOS installer can handle that.
Yeah, I'm looking for a solution to that as well as trying to understand
more about memdisk and the possibilities.
> 
>> I have winimage installed and I am not sure how I would create a image
>> bigger than 2.88 to fit all the files.
>>   
> I know it's possible, just not done it except for reading in a bootable
> USB stick.
I'll google around on winimage and see what I can find.
> 
>> That sounds real nice. Do you know how to create one of that size that
>> boots with msdos or where I could download one? Does anyone know how.
>> This sounds just like what I need. Again why would the msdos bootsector
>> not be compatible with a floppy image larger than 2.88? I know freedos
>> can handle 2.88 can msdos? Not all of these questions are directed right
>> at you but to anyone who can answer. Thank you to all who have helped so
>> far. =)
>>   
> No idea how to recreate. I got the file contents but not the bootable
> image file (file + bootsector) on my USB stick.
> I would have to look up one of my outdated 'drivers+OS' cdroms but not
> much chance I can find one of those again.
> (it had Win2k drivers and operating systems like Knoppix, MSDOS,
> ReactOS, FreeDOS and Win2000/XP on a single disk)
Oh, ok. Thanks for the help so far. =)
> 
> Bernd
> 
>