Hi Johnson, > >And adding complex filesystems such as ext2, ext3, or ntfs to the > >FreeDOS kernel will certainly not make it smaller, probably more like > >100% bigger. So you need a driver indeed, and some exist, but that > >won't enable booting. > > Is it able to let DOS call "external support" driver when booting...
This has a chicken egg problem: You can actually drop the kernel into RAM and start it anywhere. For example you can boot a FAT16- only kernel from a FAT32 drive. BUT then the kernel cannot load config sys or any drivers from that FAT32 drive. Linux usually solves this problem by booting with an "initial ramdisk". This ramdisk is easy to access, and it can contain drivers for other disks and filesystems, for example SATA, USB, ReiserFS, NFS :-). The good news is that you can do exactly the same with FreeDOS: With the MEMDISK bootable ramdisk from the SYSLINUX/ISOLINUX/... project, you can load a DOS boot disk from any SYSLINUX-supported filesystem. Actually MEMDISK loads "as if it would be a Linux kernel", so you can add the MEMDISK to your existing boot menu as long as that boot menu can load Linux. The virtual FreeDOS boot diskette can then contain any drivers that you want, including ext2fs / ext3fs drivers. The drivers do not have to be inside the kernel :-). Of course you have to remember that this changes your drive numbering: the A: drive will be virtual (contents lost at reboot) and if you have a real 1.44MB drive, it becomes B:. Eric ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. Still grepping through log files to find problems? Stop. Now Search log events and configuration files using AJAX and a browser. Download your FREE copy of Splunk now >> http://get.splunk.com/ _______________________________________________ Freedos-devel mailing list Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
