[Freedos-kernel] reload partition table and reassign drive letters
Hi list, don't know, if this question has been asked on this list and if this is the correct list for this question. I haven't found any results using google etc. The question is: is it possible to trigger the freedos kernel to reread the partition table and reassign drive letters from within a running freedos. The background for this question is in short: I'm developing a network-based installation routine to remotely install XP workstations from scatch. The routine should automatically partition the harddisk of a clean or a crashed system, restore the OS-image to a partition on the harddisk and copy some configuration files to the newly created and restored partition. For now, the workstation needs to be rebootet three times: - after partitioning the harddisk using fdisk, - after restoring the image to disk and - after copying the configuration files. I would like to do it all in a single step. So, is there a ioctl-call to the kernel, similar to linux, that lets me reread the partition table and that reassigns the DOS drive letters? Thanks in advance... -- El --- This SF.Net email is sponsored by: Power Architecture Resource Center: Free content, downloads, discussions, and more. http://solutions.newsforge.com/ibmarch.tmpl ___ Freedos-kernel mailing list Freedos-kernel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-kernel
Re: [Freedos-kernel] reload partition table and reassign drive letters
I've considered this in the past, but the consensus seems to be that it is best just to reboot. It is possible to assuming no TSRs are loaded that would be confused by such action, but if done in the kernel it would involve leaving normally init time (hence transient so does not normally occupy the precious low memory) code in. If you really really really need to do this, then for a controlled setup only (no TSRs or ones you know, and I do mean know, will not be confused by such action -- note FreeCom may be confused by such action) I would suggest taking the source for the specific kernel you are booting and make an external program that does the required work. I don't have time at the moment as I'm trying to finish my MS/PC DOS 6 config menu support, have a few dozen bugs on the back burner, my SYS work, my FreeCom work, my AtapiCDD work, and half a dozen other things I've forgotten about. Jeremy (current kernel maintainer) --- This SF.Net email is sponsored by: Power Architecture Resource Center: Free content, downloads, discussions, and more. http://solutions.newsforge.com/ibmarch.tmpl ___ Freedos-kernel mailing list Freedos-kernel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-kernel
Re: [Freedos-kernel] reload partition table and reassign drive letters
Hi! 18-Окт-2005 13:48 [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Daniel Breest) wrote to freedos-kernel@lists.sourceforge.net: DB The question is: is it possible to trigger the freedos kernel to reread DB the partition table and reassign drive letters from within a running DB freedos. No. Code, which recognizes partitions and prepares structures for them, present only in transient part, which removed after booting. --- This SF.Net email is sponsored by: Power Architecture Resource Center: Free content, downloads, discussions, and more. http://solutions.newsforge.com/ibmarch.tmpl ___ Freedos-kernel mailing list Freedos-kernel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-kernel
[Freedos-kernel] re: reload partition table and reassign drive letters
Hi, Jeremy is right, FreeDOS boots in seconds, so it is best to just reboot. Dynamic drive letter assignment is not what DOS programs are used to cope with. HOWEVER, useful aspects of re-read partitions would be: - you can scan a PCMCIA disk after initializing the disk controller - you can rescan a normal harddisk after loading an improved version of our UDMA2 driver, to gain access to the full disk even if the BIOS can only access the first 32, 64 or 128 Gigabytes. - possibly other things :-). About you first partition, then reboot, then restore a diskimage, then reboot, then edit the config, then reboot to Windows in your WinXP net installer system: You could avoid one or two steps by using a tool which can copy the image to raw space / which reads the partition table itself. I think this is quite normal for disk image tools: You do not copy the image to a drive letter, you copy it to a partition. So DOS'es drive letter system is not involved. A second reboot might be saved by using a DOS version of the mtools (known from Linux) to copy files to unmounted filesystems, e.g. to the restored partition before it even has a drive letter. By the way, WinXP should better use NTFS instead of FAT anyway. There are tools like ntfs4dos to copy files to NTFS. Eric --- This SF.Net email is sponsored by: Power Architecture Resource Center: Free content, downloads, discussions, and more. http://solutions.newsforge.com/ibmarch.tmpl ___ Freedos-kernel mailing list Freedos-kernel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-kernel
