For a Bootable CD I'd like to offer the user the choice between a few memory/driver options (no drivers, or XMS, or XMS/EMS/UMB) Despite commandline loadable memory drivers like JEMMEX LOAD or DEVLOAD HIMEMX.EXE, the optimal result is gained by loading in (FD)CONFIG.SYS. That would imply using the FreeDOS kernel menuing system, which together with a Syslinux/Isolinux menu system (or boot choice) would be a double choice, which I'd like to avoid completely.
For commandline stuff it's possible to add options in the Syslinux menu, later on retrieve them through official tools (GETARGS, MDISKCHK) or some of Eric Auer's tools. For config.sys loaded drivers this is not possible. If wanting to stick to a single menu yet offer various memory drivers, it means duplicating most of a bootdisk image's contents where all files are equal except for their CONFIG.SYS contents. # no drivers label 0 kernel memdisk append initrd=NODRIVER.IMG # only HIMEM by DEVICE=HIMEMX.EXE, DOS=HIGH label 1 kernel memdisk append initrd=HIMEM.IMG # XMS+EMS+UMB label 1 kernel memdisk append initrd=JEMMEX.IMG That means wasting a lot (well, 720KB I guess) of diskspace. My preference would be something like: append initrd=FDBOOT.IMG fdconfig=config1.sys append initrd=FDBOOT.IMG fdconfig=config2.sys append initrd=FDBOOT.IMG fdconfig=config3.sys or alternatively, KERNEL checking MEMDISK presence and a variable named CONFIG with a valid value from the default FreeDOS kernel menu system. # run all config.sys lines from multimenu with "0" in it, if none, run config.sys normally. append initrd=FDBOOT.IMG config=0 append initrd=FDBOOT.IMG config=1 append initrd=FDBOOT.IMG config=2 Basicly, if a valid CONFIG value has been found, use that with a default of 0 seconds, thus disabling the user input choice. 2-stage menu is a waste :) Is this feasable or should I stick to the multiple disk image idea? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ What Every C/C++ and Fortran developer Should Know! Read this article and learn how Intel has extended the reach of its next-generation tools to help Windows* and Linux* C/C++ and Fortran developers boost performance applications - including clusters. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devmay _______________________________________________ Freedos-devel mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
