Hi Jayden, Rugxulo, >> I went through the ISO file,but I couldn't find the files needed >> for the format /s command,
The kernel and command.com are probably on the (compressed) boot floppy image on the ISO, so you do not see them unless you boot from that CD. Maybe we should also put the files on the ISO directly, for those who want to use them without having to boot from the CD or having to take extra steps to reach the files... Rugxulo has some boot floppy images as well as the files from them and the sources online: > https://sites.google.com/site/rugxulo/ If you "just want to SYS your C: drive", it can be easier to use those, in particular if you know what you are doing and you know that you can not boot from CD or DVD drive... :-) > "/s" just means "system", which is optional (so you can do it > manually). So that's (IIRC) just copying kernel.sys and command.com > , which is bare minimum. The actual boot sector itself has to be > calculated by sys.com (which can save boot sector to file, if > needed). fdisk.exe is what creates partitions and adjusts the MBR. > format.exe is to make the FAT readable / usable. As far as I remember, FORMAT /S is identical to formatting, then running SYS to copy those files and make the boot sector. Copying them without running SYS is not enough, as format itself probably only puts a boot sector which shows some "this does not boot" message... > In other words, it's not just raw files that can be copied (due to > drive geometry differences), so there still needs to be some proper > installation "work". Exactly. In particular, "mkdosfs" (of Linux dosfstools) or some Windows FORMAT tool will NOT put a boot sector which loads the kernel of FreeDOS. > USB jump drive is probably your best bet. Although you can > "probably" use Eric's sys-freedos-linux (Perl?) script, if > direly desired. The tool is a Perl script which calls nasm to compile a boot sector and sets a few specific values in the boot sector depending on various partition and filesystem properties. You would need PERL and NASM to run it. Also, you would have to specify some of the values manually if the script does not find them in simple ways. In short, it is easier to use SYS after booting DOS from anything that can boot DOS, such as an USB stick or CD. Note that booting from USB or CD can have an effect on drive letter "numbers" so make sure that you use SYS on the drive that you actually want to use... >> As for a VM, I don't like emulated things. In that case, I recommend that you use Windows or Linux tools to make your existing partitions (e.g. Windows NTFS or Linux) smaller: This is often possible "on the fly" without formatting but of course you want to make backups before! After making space as described, you can again use Linux or Windows to create for example some FAT32 partition of a few gigabytes for DOS. As last step, boot from a DOS boot disk for SYS :-) Of course, if your computer is big and fast, you can easily run DOS in a VM while keeping the rest of your computer busy with other things. When you boot DOS on the raw hardware, you can obviously do only DOS things until you boot your Windows or Linux again ;-) Regards, Eric PS: Rugxulo, your Grub2 comment mentions a MEMDISK based workflow, so it does NOT answer whether or not Grub2 has any problems with booting DOS directly... https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Flashing_BIOS_from_Linux#FreeDOS http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/MEMDISK says max CHS geometry is 1024x256x64 for 8 GB but that it is limited by int 15 memory (maybe max 3-4 GB?). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dive into the World of Parallel Programming The Go Parallel Website, sponsored by Intel and developed in partnership with Slashdot Media, is your hub for all things parallel software development, from weekly thought leadership blogs to news, videos, case studies, tutorials and more. Take a look and join the conversation now. http://goparallel.sourceforge.net/ _______________________________________________ Freedos-devel mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
