Hi! I assume ms-sys on Linux is something like sys-freedos-linux (sys-freedos.pl) and makebootfat and bootlace, but for MS DOS? What is the license, where can you find it, how flexible is it?
> GRUB4DOS can load the FreeDOS kernel.sys directly. I have used > it to do so on USB drives. > Another option would be just using ms-sys on Linux with the -p4 > or -p5 switches (depending on if the volume is FAT16 or FAT32.) As there was so much talk about how "generic" GRUB4DOS can be, I checked the internet and found some very interesting infos on: grub4dos.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Grub4dos_tutorial and svn.gna.org/svn/grub4dos/trunk/README_GRUB4DOS.txt my notes are: GRLDR can be loaded by MBR, boot sector, NT family boot menu boot.ini (boot sector?) file and as eltorito boot file (!). GRUB.EXE can be loaded from the DOS prompt AND as a DOS device but also as if it were a Linux kernel file. GRLDR.MBR can be loaded as boot.ini as if it were a boot sector: It can scan FATnn/EXTn/NTFS partitions for GRLDR files and load the 1st but seems to prefer non-NTFS and active/bootable primary partitions. NOTE: MS DOS DEVICE allows 4k long command line options, interesting! mkisofs -R -b grldr -no-emul-boot -boot-load-seg 0x1000 -o X.iso /Y/ loads the whole grldr, but some bioses only load the first 2k, bad mkisofs -R -b grldr -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -o grldr.iso /Y/ loads only one sector NOTE: No-emulation-mode means the CD/DVD will be accessible via int 13, and GRUB scans all drives 80-ff for such CD/DVD items. You can even boot GRLDR via PXE over the network... http://grub4dos.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Grub4dos_tutorial The filename GRLDR shouldn't be changed. If GRLDR is in a NTFS partition, it should be copied to the root directory of another non-NTFS partition(and likewise should the menu.lst file be). ...BIOS drive number must be passed in CPU register DL... Boot Record Layout(s) for EXT2, EXT3, FAT1x, FAT32, NTFS etc are explained on the README_GRUB4DOS page, too... :-) NOTE: Offset 2 must be 90 for CHS, 0e for LBA, Win9x needs it. The bootstrap code of GRLDR.MBR only finds GRLDR file in the root dir of a partition. While the startup code of grldr might fail to load GRLDR in NTFS partitions, it always successfully loads GRLDR in FAT partitions (and even in ext2/ext3 partitions). "Note that NTLDR only loads the startup code of grldr (i.e., the leading 16 sectors of grldr), not the whole grldr file." > binary file main source file other files > grldr grldrstart.S pre_stage2(binary) > grldr.mbr mbrstart.S grldrstart.S > grub.exe dosstart.S pre_stage2(binary) (pre_stage2 is the main body of GNU GRUB... it also copies a backup of the first 640k to 2 MB, and restores it to let you return from GRUB to DOS without booting another OS...) http://svn.gna.org/svn/grub4dos/trunk/README_GRUB4DOS.txt NOTE: GRLDR (as a no-emulation-mode bootable CDROM image) was adapted to cope with some buggy BIOSes (e.g. VirtualPC). LBA-to-CHS geometry translation was added in int13_handler to simulate LBA (EBIOS) on CHS-only drives http://osdir.com/ml/linux.freshmeat.announce/2007-01/msg00000.html ... so you have: GRLDR - header useable as MBR, normal or ElTorito boot sector. Scans for GRLDR file to load rest of itself. GRLDR.MBR is the same, but only the first sector of it, I would say... GRUB.EXE - loadable as DOS EXE, DOS DEVICE and Linux kernel I probably forgot some other magic boot methods :-) Eric ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Create and Deploy Rich Internet Apps outside the browser with Adobe(R)AIR(TM) software. With Adobe AIR, Ajax developers can use existing skills and code to build responsive, highly engaging applications that combine the power of local resources and data with the reach of the web. Download the Adobe AIR SDK and Ajax docs to start building applications today-http://p.sf.net/sfu/adobe-com _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
