Hi!
>> You already mention the functionality on the floppy distro to >> INSTALL the 386 kernel on 386, but it does not USE the same >> kernel. Which is a big problem, because the user will still >> be RUNNING the 8086 kernel from the floppy while they FDISK >> and FORMAT while preparing to install something on harddisk. > > It installs KRNL386.SYS on 386+ machines. > It installs KRNL86.SYS on 286 and lower. > > Install Diskette boots KRNL86.SYS. > > So, yes. without FAT32 support in the 8086 kernel, it will prevent > a 386 user from partitioning a FAT32 drive for the install. > >> You can always make an alternate 8086 boot floppy as add-on >> with 8086 FAT16 (!) kernel and FreeCOM with DISK SWAP, for >> the few real 8086 hardware people. > > Yes, Maybe. We will have to see if demand dictates an additional > BOOT diskette. Let's face it, people will try the floppy distro on old, but less than 35 years old PC, create FAT32 partitions because their disk size asks for that, fail to format them, say only to themselves that FreeDOS is crap and go back to dosbox :-( So thinking about it again, the whole idea of trying to make the complete distro SORT OF 8086 compatible is much worse than telling 8086 users to boot from some special 8086 floppy, use that special 8086 FreeCOM and special 8086 UNZIP and see how far they can get - WITHOUT introducing any horrible pitfalls such as missing 386 drivers and FAT32 support to the floppy distro. The oldest computer with 1.44 MB drive I have seen so far was a 286 or 386 and it is too long ago to remember which. And it is generally hard for anybody with even slightly less ancient hardware to even create 360k or 720k boot disks which would work on the corresponding ancient drives: 1.44 MB drives make more narrow, delicate magnetic zones, but READ 720k okay. Good morning, Eric _______________________________________________ Freedos-devel mailing list Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
