Re: [Freedos-user] dual boot XP/FreeDOS DJ mechanism problem
Problem Solved !! A Giant Thank You to Eric Auer and Kenneth J. Davis. Without a floppy drive present, the drive numbering was wrong, giving the DJ Mechanism failure message. FreeDOS install done via ODIN 1.44 floppy, then kernel.sys replaced. Both kernels listed below worked but I will stick with the stable one. kernel 1.1.35(Build 2035b-cvs) kernel 1.1.35w (Build 2035w-UNSTABLE) The 1.1.35 kernel works on my test laptops (MPC T1200 and Dell Latitude D610), the former with 2 primary partitions and the latter with 3 primary partitions (because we are keeping the Dell Diagnostics partition). We now have a completely current, scripted, easy solution for our software refresh procedure for the PC laptops which we loan out. Thank you so much, Robert Robert Ralston wrote: ... But with kernel 1.1.35w Build 2035w-unstable from the 1440 ODIN distribution, everything works with a laptop *if and only if* there is a floppy drive present. If there is a floppy drive either in a bay or connected via USB, then the FreeDOS partition boots normally. However, if that floppy drive is missing, then we consistently get the message, after FreeDOS starts to load: Error in the DJ mechanism. IO error: cyclinder 1023. Bad or missing Command Interpreter. Enter the full shell command line: command.com /P /E:256. There was a recent fix to the unstable kernel to better support floppyless systems. If possible please try a current 2035w from http://www.fdos.org/kernel/ and let me know if that makes a difference. Note: -W is the development [UNSTABLE] kernel branch (more features but less tested). There are also builds of updated stable (release branch in cvs but not versioned releases) kernels here as well you may wish to try. At first I thought maybe there is something wrong in the MBR. Used ... QUESTIONS: What distribution had kernel 1.1.34 on it? Is that distribution still available? I don't recall, probably original Beta9 or Beta8; all distributions from Alpha5 are still available so yes it is available; however, it sounds like all you need is the kernel, so I would recommended instead of downloading the whole distribution to check the FreeDOS sourceforge site and just download the kernel directly (easiest way to get a particular released kernel). Any suggestions about what I may be doing wrong. I'm not a DOS expert by any means. sounds like you hit a kernel bug, testing to see if it is fixed in current kernels would be of great help Thanks in advance for any suggestions. Robert Jeremy --- This SF.Net email is sponsored by xPML, a groundbreaking scripting language that extends applications into web and mobile media. Attend the live webcast and join the prime developer group breaking into this new coding territory! http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnkkid=110944bid=241720dat=121642 ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user --- This SF.Net email is sponsored by xPML, a groundbreaking scripting language that extends applications into web and mobile media. Attend the live webcast and join the prime developer group breaking into this new coding territory! http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnkkid=110944bid=241720dat=121642 ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
[Freedos-user] dual boot XP/FreeDOS DJ mechanism problem
We use FreeDOS on laptops for an easy software refresh procedure. Hard drive is 2 primary partitions, 15 and 5 GB for example, with XP on big one, FreeDOS on small one. With Norton's scriptable gdisk32 on XP side, we can unhide and make active the FreeDOS partition, run ghost from the FreeDOS partition to either make a partition ghost image from the Windows partition or reload from an image to the XP side. With gdisk we then make the XP partition active and reboot. PROBLEM: everything works OK with FreeDOS kernel 1.1.34 (Build 2034). Boot with floppy and sys a: c: to the small partition. That's all we use, just the kernel and command.com. But with kernel 1.1.35w Build 2035w-unstable from the 1440 ODIN distribution, everything works with a laptop *if and only if* there is a floppy drive present. If there is a floppy drive either in a bay or connected via USB, then the FreeDOS partition boots normally. However, if that floppy drive is missing, then we consistently get the message, after FreeDOS starts to load: Error in the DJ mechanism. IO error: cyclinder 1023. Bad or missing Command Interpreter. Enter the full shell command line: command.com /P /E:256. At first I thought maybe there is something wrong in the MBR. Used WinHex to look at a working MBR and non-working MBR, they are identical. That makes sense, nothing has been changed in the 16 byte partition entries. Then thought it was the boot sector for the FreeDOS partition. After looking at a working and non-working boot sector, they seem identical except for the name of FreeDOS itself. And FreeDOS seems to start loading, but without a floppy drive, cannot find (?) command.com. Command.com is clearly not missing bad. Just reboot with a floppy drive present and FreeDOS fully boots. If I restore the FreeDOS partition from a ghost image from a working machine, which was made on a laptop which always has both an optical drive and a floppy, then the newer laptop again works, with or without a floppy drive. QUESTIONS: What distribution had kernel 1.1.34 on it? Is that distribution still available? Any suggestions about what I may be doing wrong. I'm not a DOS expert by any means. Thanks in advance for any suggestions. Robert --- This SF.Net email is sponsored by xPML, a groundbreaking scripting language that extends applications into web and mobile media. Attend the live webcast and join the prime developer group breaking into this new coding territory! http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnkkid=110944bid=241720dat=121642 ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
