Faster - Smaller Boot Floppy!

[A. Jorge Garcia]

As a side note, what is the implication about licensing/copyright etc. ? Or are there any free DOS available on the net like some left overs from DRI ?

You do own a license for those WinME installations, don't you ?
Create a boot/install floppy from the CD, make some room for
loadlin.exe, invoke it from autoexec.bat, and be done.
Now if you've "lost" the cdrom, there's always http://www.bootdisk.com/.
I do not know whether their freedos/drdos disks have fat32 support,
though...

I see said the blind man! Just make a rescue disk for WINME and modify it to include loadlin. Also, since loadlin takes very little space on the diskette, my students don't need a separate data diskette anymore either!

Very nice!

Next year, I'm getting a new lab where every PC will boot from the CD - so no more boot disk. I'll set up one server for my students to log-in to where they can save their work - so no more data disk. However, I may still use this boot floppy method so I don't have to burn so many CDs!

OK, so I tried what you said. I made a WINME Startup Disk (rescue disk) and replaced the contents of autoexec.bat with

c:
cd \knoppix
loadlin vmlinuz ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=en vga=791 initrd=miniroot.gz screen=1280x1024 BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix

which all fit on one line. I also got rid of all the sections in config.sys except [common] and voila, it booted from hda1 properly.

The only thing I don't like is all the rescue files on the disk. Which of these files can I get rid of? Also, it says WINME Startup Disk on the screen when it boots - can I get rid of that?

Thanx,

[A. Jorge Garcia]

OK, this is what I'm going to try to do today:

*** A: Get KNOPPIX BOOT Disks Ready ***
Step A1if you have a linux box)
cdrecord knoppix.ISO and dd boot-en.IMG
or
Step A1if you DO NOT have a linux box)
burn knoppix.ISO with EasyCD Recorder and copy boot-en.img to a disk with rawrite

Step A2:
Find and download loadlin.exe from the NET to boot disk

*** B: Use above disks to setup any PC (including this one if its NOT a linux box) ***
Step B1:
Boot CD with boot disk, mount hda1, make it rw

Step B2:
mkdir /mnt/hda1/knoppix
cp /mnt/floppy/loadlin.exe /mnt/hda1/knoppix
cp /mnt/floppy/vmliunuz /mnt/hda1/knoppix
cp /mnt/floppy/miniroot.gz /mnt/hda1/knoppix
cp /mnt/cdrom/KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX /mnt/hda1/knoppix

Step B3:
Use WIN95 to make bootable DOS disk and place autoexec.bat in it with the following lines (note, loadlin line is one line).
c:
cd \knoppix
loadlin vmlinuz ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=en vga=791 initrd=miniroot.gz screen=1280x1024 BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix

*** C: How to boot PC from now on ***
Step C1:
Reboot without CD but with DOS system disk.

[garyng]

The only thing I don't like is all the rescue files on the disk. Which of these files can I get rid of? Also, it says WINME Startup Disk on the screen when it boots - can I get rid of that?

Unless things have changed a lot for the DOS world, it needs only 3 files to function : IO.SYS, MSDOS.SYS and COMMAND.COM. All the rest are not needed.

[Henk Poley]

The only thing I don't like is all the rescue files on the disk. Which of these files can I get rid of? Also, it says WINME Startup Disk on the screen when it boots - can I get rid of that?

FORMAT A: /S /U
That's the command to create a bootfloppy with just io.sys, msdos.sys, command.com, and ... (?)
You can also use the floppy formatter in windows and check "copy system files" checkbox (or something like that).

[A. Jorge Garcia]

On my WIN box, format a: /s is no longer supported. So I either format it with system files or I create a rescue disk!

I tried formatting with system files from a WIN95 box and tried booting on a WIN98 machine. This did not work as the c: was not found. I think this is because it was missing io.sys and msdos.sys.

So, I tried formatting with system files from the WIN98 box and everything now works with only the following files on the DOS doot disk:

autoexec.bat
command.com
io.sys
msdos.sys
drvspace.bin

What is drvsapce.bin???

TIA,

[monkeyman]

drvspace.bin is a handle for reading volumes compressed with Drive Space, a disk compression utility which is found in DOS 5.01 or higher. Stupidly, it is a required file for DOS 7.0 or higher, it was optional with DOS 6.22.

[Henk Poley]

On my WIN box, format a: /s is no longer supported. So I either format it with system files or I create a rescue disk!

Expected that, since ME "doesn't" include real mode DOS.

I tried formatting with system files from a WIN95 box and tried booting on a WIN98 machine. This did not work as the c: was not found. I think this is because it was missing io.sys and msdos.sys.

Unless it's Win95B or C it won't read FAT32 (wasn't invented yet). So probably that's your problem.

So, I tried formatting with system files from the WIN98 box and everything now works with only the following files on the DOS doot disk:

autoexec.bat
command.com
io.sys
msdos.sys
drvspace.bin

Yup, seems correct to me

What is drvspace.bin???

This is the DriveSpace driver for MS-DOS. DriveSpace is an extended version (bigger disks, long filenames) of DoubleSpace, a disk compression program shamelessly ripped from Stacker by Microsoft somewhere in the mid '80s.

[A. Jorge Garcia]

Do you think I can get rid of drvspace.bin, or is it required to boot the DOS disk for some reason?

BTW,
loadlin vmlinuz ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=en vga=791 initrd=miniroot.gz screen=1280x1024 BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix
did not work in both my labs at school (unsupported vert refresh rate?).

However,
loadlin vmlinuz ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=en vga=791 initrd=miniroot.gz quiet BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix
did work in both labs and at home. TADA!

Oh, one more question. vga=791 means what exactly? I'd like to know how to tweek that a bit. I'm sure the 7 sets something and the 9 something else, etc.

Again, many thanx to you all,

[garyng]

you may hit the command line cannot be longer than 128(160?) char limitation in DOS. I forget if that can be fixed by some config.sys setting.

as for vga=791, it is a mode that support 1024x768 at 24 bit(?) color, if memory serve. You may google for that term and it will show up somewhere what you can specify.

[monkeyman]

Do you think I can get rid of drvspace.bin, or is it required to boot the DOS disk for some reason?

BTW,
loadlin vmlinuz ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=en vga=791 initrd=miniroot.gz screen=1280x1024 BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix
did not work in both my labs at school (unsupported vert refresh rate?).

However,
loadlin vmlinuz ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=en vga=791 initrd=miniroot.gz quiet BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix
did work in both labs and at home. TADA!

Oh, one more question. vga=791 means what exactly? I'd like to know how to tweek that a bit. I'm sure the 7 sets something and the 9 something else, etc.

Again, many thanx to you all,

Unfortunately, you can't dump the drvspace.bin file if you are using 32 bit DOS. In DOS 6.22 you could, like I said - stupid.

Here is a vga= list:

# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x64k
vga = 791

# Normal VGA console
# vga = normal

# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x64k
# vga=791

# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x32k
# vga=790

# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x256
# vga=773

# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x64k
# vga=788

# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x32k
# vga=787

# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x256
# vga=771

# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x64k
# vga=785

# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x32k
# vga=784

# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x256
# vga=769