Re: [Freedos-user] Big bootable disk for CD

[Bob Cochran]

Thank you, Dennis and TJ. I do indeed have 16 gigabytes of memory on my 
box. It is running a 6 core processor and "gaming motherboard" (that is 
MSI's description for it) which I've repurposed for server work. 
Specifically it is being transformed into a network attached storage 
server running FreeNAS 8.x.

To explain my interest in FreeDOS: I have a need to update a motherboard 
BIOS.

Also, I some Dell PERC 5/I SAS controllers (they have the LSI chipset) 
which need a firmware update as described here:

http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showpost.php?p=12000789&postcount=88

I assume the person who did the update and is talking about a "boot 
floppy" means a "DOS boot floppy."

Thanks

Bob


On 1/22/12 4:36 PM, dmccunney wrote:
> On Sun, Jan 22, 2012 at 4:30 PM, TJ Edmister  wrote:
>> On Sun, 22 Jan 2012 14:07:01 -0500, dmccunney
>> wrote:
>>> FreeDOS *is* a DOS system, so you'll have the standard DOS limit of
>>> 1MB of real memory, and 640KB of conventional memory available to
>>> applications.
>>>
>>> The box I have FreeDOS on has 256MB of RAM.  I load HIMEM.SYS, and
>>> have a disk cache and a ramdisk in XMS memory.
>> Isn`t XMGR.SYS the xms memory manager under FreeDOS? Loading HIMEM.SYS
>> seemed to cause a crash for me, although I could be wrong.
> It's HIMEM.EXE here in FreeDOS 1.0.  (I misspoke calling it HIMEM.SYS.)
>
 The machine I'm testing FreeDOS on has 16 Gb of memory installed.
>>> Er, don't you mean 16 megabytes?
>> 16GB as in gigabytes is certainly believable these days, on a 64-bit
>> system.
> Believable but unlikely, unless it's a server.  The consumer systems
> I've seen all have 3 - 8 GB.
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Re: [Freedos-user] Big bootable disk for CD

[dmccunney]

On Sun, Jan 22, 2012 at 4:30 PM, TJ Edmister  wrote:
> On Sun, 22 Jan 2012 14:07:01 -0500, dmccunney 
> wrote:

>> FreeDOS *is* a DOS system, so you'll have the standard DOS limit of
>> 1MB of real memory, and 640KB of conventional memory available to
>> applications.
>>
>> The box I have FreeDOS on has 256MB of RAM.  I load HIMEM.SYS, and
>> have a disk cache and a ramdisk in XMS memory.
>
> Isn`t XMGR.SYS the xms memory manager under FreeDOS? Loading HIMEM.SYS
> seemed to cause a crash for me, although I could be wrong.

It's HIMEM.EXE here in FreeDOS 1.0.  (I misspoke calling it HIMEM.SYS.)

>>> The machine I'm testing FreeDOS on has 16 Gb of memory installed.
>>
>> Er, don't you mean 16 megabytes?
>
> 16GB as in gigabytes is certainly believable these days, on a 64-bit
> system.

Believable but unlikely, unless it's a server.  The consumer systems
I've seen all have 3 - 8 GB.
__
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Re: [Freedos-user] Big bootable disk for CD

[TJ Edmister]

On Sun, 22 Jan 2012 14:07:01 -0500, dmccunney   
wrote:

> On Sun, Jan 22, 2012 at 1:55 PM, Bob Cochran   
> wrote:
>> Thank you, Bret. I was just able to buy some reasonably priced USB
>> drives and I'll play with installing FreeDOS on these. I too seem to
>> remember that Win98 or Win XP DOS boot disks always boot with an
>> extended memory management application. Does FreeDOS have the
>> equivalent?
>
> FreeDOS comes with open source equivalents of HIMEM.SYS and EMM386.EXE.
>
> FreeDOS *is* a DOS system, so you'll have the standard DOS limit of
> 1MB of real memory, and 640KB of conventional memory available to
> applications.
>
> The box I have FreeDOS on has 256MB of RAM.  I load HIMEM.SYS, and
> have a disk cache and a ramdisk in XMS memory.

Isn`t XMGR.SYS the xms memory manager under FreeDOS? Loading HIMEM.SYS  
seemed to cause a crash for me, although I could be wrong.

>
>> The machine I'm testing FreeDOS on has 16 Gb of memory installed.
>
> Er, don't you mean 16 megabytes?

16GB as in gigabytes is certainly believable these days, on a 64-bit  
system.

>
>> Bob
> __
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Re: [Freedos-user] Big bootable disk for CD

[dmccunney]

On Sun, Jan 22, 2012 at 1:55 PM, Bob Cochran  wrote:
> Thank you, Bret. I was just able to buy some reasonably priced USB
> drives and I'll play with installing FreeDOS on these. I too seem to
> remember that Win98 or Win XP DOS boot disks always boot with an
> extended memory management application. Does FreeDOS have the
> equivalent?

FreeDOS comes with open source equivalents of HIMEM.SYS and EMM386.EXE.

FreeDOS *is* a DOS system, so you'll have the standard DOS limit of
1MB of real memory, and 640KB of conventional memory available to
applications.

The box I have FreeDOS on has 256MB of RAM.  I load HIMEM.SYS, and
have a disk cache and a ramdisk in XMS memory.

> The machine I'm testing FreeDOS on has 16 Gb of memory installed.

Er, don't you mean 16 megabytes?

> Bob
__
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Re: [Freedos-user] Big bootable disk for CD

[Bob Cochran]

Thank you, Bret. I was just able to buy some reasonably priced USB 
drives and I'll play with installing FreeDOS on these. I too seem to 
remember that Win98 or Win XP DOS boot disks always boot with an 
extended memory management application. Does FreeDOS have the 
equivalent? The machine I'm testing FreeDOS on has 16 Gb of memory 
installed.

Many thanks!

Bob


On 1/21/12 11:44 AM, Bret Johnson wrote:
>> My motherboard BIOS update program afud3410.exe (made by MSI) seems
>> to freeze up when I try to start the BIOS update. The directions for
> ? using it say never update the BIOS from a floppy drive, then proceed
>> to give directions for doing exactly that, but using Windows 98 or
>> Windows XP bootable floppies as an example. Perhaps I need to create
>> a ramdrive which would give me a new drive letter, copy the BIOS
>> update there and then do the update.
> If it is simply a drive letter issue (the driver letter needs to be at least 
> C:), you can try to use ASSIGN or SWSUBST to give you an "alias" drive letter 
> (using these utilities, the same drive can be both A: and C:, for example).  
> A RAM disk could also work, but is more complicated.
>
> The fact that the examples use Win 98 and XP boot disks makes me think it may 
> not actually be drive letter issue, but may something else (like a memory 
> issue -- I think Win 98 and XP boot disks always boot with Extended and/or 
> Expanded Memory Management).  It's hard to say for sure, though.
>
>> If I use a USB flash drive, that will give me a drive letter other
>> than A:, B:, or C:, will it?
> It depends on the USB driver.
>
>
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Re: [Freedos-user] Big bootable disk for CD

[Bret Johnson]

> My motherboard BIOS update program afud3410.exe (made by MSI) seems
> to freeze up when I try to start the BIOS update. The directions for
? using it say never update the BIOS from a floppy drive, then proceed
> to give directions for doing exactly that, but using Windows 98 or
> Windows XP bootable floppies as an example. Perhaps I need to create
> a ramdrive which would give me a new drive letter, copy the BIOS
> update there and then do the update.

If it is simply a drive letter issue (the driver letter needs to be at least 
C:), you can try to use ASSIGN or SWSUBST to give you an "alias" drive letter 
(using these utilities, the same drive can be both A: and C:, for example).  A 
RAM disk could also work, but is more complicated.

The fact that the examples use Win 98 and XP boot disks makes me think it may 
not actually be drive letter issue, but may something else (like a memory issue 
-- I think Win 98 and XP boot disks always boot with Extended and/or Expanded 
Memory Management).  It's hard to say for sure, though.

> If I use a USB flash drive, that will give me a drive letter other
> than A:, B:, or C:, will it?

It depends on the USB driver.


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Re: [Freedos-user] Big bootable disk for CD

[Bob Cochran]

I succeeded in booting FreeDOS using isolinux last night. I don't have 
any spare USB sticks handy, so I kept trying different methods and 
making a fresh CD for each one until one worked. I learned that my image 
file "FreeDOSmsi.img" had too long a filename. I shortened it to 
"dfboot.img". I also edited isolinux.cfg so that mine was the only boot 
option available.

FreeDOS booted, prompted me for the date and the time, and I found 
myself with an A: prompt. I could issue "dir" and see my files under 
drive A:.

My motherboard BIOS update program afud3410.exe (made by MSI) seems to 
freeze up when I try to start the BIOS update. The directions for using 
it say never update the BIOS from a floppy drive, then proceed to give 
directions for doing exactly that, but using Windows 98 or Windows XP 
bootable floppies as an example. Perhaps I need to create a ramdrive 
which would give me a new drive letter, copy the BIOS update there and 
then do the update.

I looked at the RUFUS program with great interest but it requires you to 
be using Microsoft Windows. I do all my work from either Fedora or 
RiPLinux or Mac OS X or FreeBSD. Probably Eric's Perl script will help me.

If I use a USB flash drive, that will give me a drive letter other than 
A:, B:, or C:, will it? I don't have any hard drives plugged into the 
mother board SATA sockets on that computer. One SATA CDROM drive is 
plugged in to a socket. Two hard drives are connected to a used Dell 
brand, PERC 5/I controller I bought on Ebay which has the LSISAS1068 
chipset on it.

Thanks

Bob



On 1/20/12 12:41 PM, Bernd Blaauw wrote:
> Op 20-1-2012 14:39, Bob Cochran schreef:
>> which is my immediate goal. I also need to be able to update the
>> firmware for an LSISAS1068 chip that is on a PCI Express adapter card, I
>> have 3 of these cards to update. Now you see where my motivation comes
>> from. Several times a year at least I have a need to learn and
>> understand DOS. That is my longer term goal.
> I assume LSI has their own update software program for the PCIe cards?
>
>> I will buy some USB flash drives and play with them using the advice you
>> give me below.
> Updating happens in multiple ways nowadays:
> * from Windows (vendor program and vendor BIOS)
> * from DOS (vendor program and vendor BIOS)
> * from DOS ( "flashrom" opensource program and vendor BIOS )
> * from DOS ( "flashrom" opensource program and Coreboot maybe)
> * from BIOS (updater built inside, just provide BIOS on USB stick)
> * from Linux
>
> If you decide on using DOS for this, and your BIOS has support for USB
> booting, then an USB stick is easiest. Download the "RUFUS" program at
>[ http://pete.akeo.ie/2011/12/rufus-dos-bootable-usb-formatting.html ]
> and simply make your new USB stick bootable by running this program.
> (be aware RUFUS erases all current data on the disk)
>
>> One question. When you say that I must copy config.sys, and autoexec.bat
>> you also mean I must edit these to load the drivers my system needs
>> after the copying, right? For example I will need to edit the copied
>> config.sys or autoexec.bat to load eltorito.sys and thereby have access
>> to both the CD/DVD drive and USB devices? Since my keyboard is USB based
>> this is an important question.
> If you're sticking to USB flash disk then all this CD stuff is not
> relevant (unless booting a CD image from USB stick, but that's an
> advanced subject, hehe).
>
> Most computers have by default "BIOS USB Emulation" active and that's
> why any USB keyboard and mouse will usually just work fine in DOS.
> (This emulation stays active usually, unless you load other USB drivers
> yourself that take control of the USB controllers and stacks. Often such
> other drivers lack a keyboard driver, which ends up in keypresses not
> being sent to DOS any longer.)
>
>
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Re: [Freedos-user] Big bootable disk for CD

[Bernd Blaauw]

Op 20-1-2012 14:39, Bob Cochran schreef:
> which is my immediate goal. I also need to be able to update the
> firmware for an LSISAS1068 chip that is on a PCI Express adapter card, I
> have 3 of these cards to update. Now you see where my motivation comes
> from. Several times a year at least I have a need to learn and
> understand DOS. That is my longer term goal.

I assume LSI has their own update software program for the PCIe cards?

> I will buy some USB flash drives and play with them using the advice you
> give me below.

Updating happens in multiple ways nowadays:
* from Windows (vendor program and vendor BIOS)
* from DOS (vendor program and vendor BIOS)
* from DOS ( "flashrom" opensource program and vendor BIOS )
* from DOS ( "flashrom" opensource program and Coreboot maybe)
* from BIOS (updater built inside, just provide BIOS on USB stick)
* from Linux

If you decide on using DOS for this, and your BIOS has support for USB 
booting, then an USB stick is easiest. Download the "RUFUS" program at
  [ http://pete.akeo.ie/2011/12/rufus-dos-bootable-usb-formatting.html ] 
and simply make your new USB stick bootable by running this program.
(be aware RUFUS erases all current data on the disk)

> One question. When you say that I must copy config.sys, and autoexec.bat
> you also mean I must edit these to load the drivers my system needs
> after the copying, right? For example I will need to edit the copied
> config.sys or autoexec.bat to load eltorito.sys and thereby have access
> to both the CD/DVD drive and USB devices? Since my keyboard is USB based
> this is an important question.

If you're sticking to USB flash disk then all this CD stuff is not 
relevant (unless booting a CD image from USB stick, but that's an 
advanced subject, hehe).

Most computers have by default "BIOS USB Emulation" active and that's 
why any USB keyboard and mouse will usually just work fine in DOS.
(This emulation stays active usually, unless you load other USB drivers 
yourself that take control of the USB controllers and stacks. Often such 
other drivers lack a keyboard driver, which ends up in keypresses not 
being sent to DOS any longer.)


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Re: [Freedos-user] Big bootable disk for CD

[Alain Mouette]

The eltorito.sys is no use for FreeDOS, it is only for booting from the CD.

To access the CD when booted from the CD, you need to load a regular CD 
driver like UIDE. The problem is that it works with only a fraction of 
existing hardware end is also picky about memory driver. I believe that 
there are conflicts with memdisk loader...

You can see in my CD that I have a first green menu screen to select 
various memory manager and Driver options, but even with all those 
optins it works not everywhere...

That is why I made a bigger image and put all I want into it, this way 
it works *always* :)

Alain

Em 20-01-2012 11:39, Bob Cochran escreveu:
> Hi Eric,
>
> Thank you very much for your help with this, and I am going to try your
> method this weekend also. I want to learn both your method and the
> isolinux method. I still need to get that motherboard BIOS update done,
> which is my immediate goal. I also need to be able to update the
> firmware for an LSISAS1068 chip that is on a PCI Express adapter card, I
> have 3 of these cards to update. Now you see where my motivation comes
> from. Several times a year at least I have a need to learn and
> understand DOS. That is my longer term goal.
>
> I will buy some USB flash drives and play with them using the advice you
> give me below.
>
> One question. When you say that I must copy config.sys, and autoexec.bat
> you also mean I must edit these to load the drivers my system needs
> after the copying, right? For example I will need to edit the copied
> config.sys or autoexec.bat to load eltorito.sys and thereby have access
> to both the CD/DVD drive and USB devices? Since my keyboard is USB based
> this is an important question.
>
> Thanks
>
> Bob

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Re: [Freedos-user] Big bootable disk for CD

[Bob Cochran]

Bernd,

Thank you very much for posting this, it will be a big help to me in 
learning isolinux. I want to learn both this method and Eric's, where 
one boots FreeDOS directly without isolinux.

I will try making the changes you suggest over the weekend and trying 
again to boot FreeDOS with help from isolinux.

One question. You seem to be saying that if I load eltorito.sys, it will 
run both my CD/DVD drive and my USB keyboard for me and I do not need to 
load other drivers?

Thank you!

Bob


On 1/19/12 4:12 PM, Bernd Blaauw wrote:
> Op 19-1-2012 21:46, Alain Mouette schreef:
>> The MKISOFS is the one that brings it all toghether. The freeDOS image
>> is passed as an argument to be loaded in memory and then executed.
> If creating a direct (floppy/harddisk) emulation CD then you'll indeed
> need to pass the name of the floppy/hdd image file.
>
> The isolinux situation from FreeDOS 1.1 is slightly easier in some way:
> Rename your harddisk image to FDBOOT.IMG and replace the already
> existing 360KB FDBOOT.IMG file by it. Next recreate the CD.
>
> Boot sequence for most Isolinux based CDs is:
> 1) BIOS
> 2) CDROM bootsector (boot.catalog)
> 3) Isolinux.bin
> 4) Isolinux.cfg
> 5) Optionally, some menu interface module (menu.c32 , vesamenu.c32)
> 6) User's input (if in menu mode or interactive mode)
> 7) The kernel/program belonging to whichever choice the user made
>
> For Linux distributions step 7 consists of the Linux kernel and some
> initial ramdisk.
>
> DOS needs to boot from a FAT filesystem. As that's not present,
> emulation is needed. For that, the MEMDISK module is loaded by Isolinux,
> which then loads whichever floppy/harddisk imagefile you specified. For
> FreeDOS 1.1, it's FDBOOT.IMG, and MEMDISK causes this floppy emulation
> to be present in system memory rather than a 'read-only tiny part of the
> CD'.
>
> Finally, the space on an emulated FAT disk is usually limited. For that
> reason most content of the CD can't be directly accessed. That means the
> emulated bootdisk (imagefile) needs to load CD-ROM drivers.
>
> Nowadays with USB and everything, we can't rely on CD-ROM being present
> on an IDE/ATAPI controller thus standard drivers (UIDE) won't work in
> all possible situations. Luckily the CD-ROM booted and started
> ISOLINUX.BIN in "non-emulation" mode, and the ELTORITO.SYS driver works
> quite universally then.
> (Loading DOS USB drivers can ruin this again for example though).
>
>
>> Anyway, this was a good feedback, I am planning a FreeDOS release withou
>> my programs, and I will make that more clear and more specific, I gesse
>> that the scrip that puts it all toghether may help.
> I've not looked at your ISO yet, only that one of Georg Potthast
> (DOS-USB demo) and a game CD by Fritz.
>
>>> I followed the instructions below from Alain, using my Fedora 14 (Linux)
>>> box. I didn't have 100% success but I am much closer! I created an image
>>> file in the manner described below. I wondered where to find command.com
>>> and kernel.sys...so I downloaded the FreeDOS iso for 1.1 and found those
>>> files in the "one disk" folder. I copied them to my image and then
>>> copied over my BIOS update files which are packaged in a directory.
> Ah yeah the Linux 'sys' script solves the bootsector issue :)
>
>>> However I ran into trouble at Step 8: specifically, I couldn't figure
>>> out how to independently generate an "isolinux" folder or where to find
>>> isolinux to start with. So I copied over the "ISOLINUX" folder I found
>>> inside the FreeDOS 1.1 iso, and did some experimenting with the
>>> arguments to mkisofs. This got me a nice small iso image which I burned
>>> to CD.
> Easiest experiment is to get 7Zip and FreeDOS 1.1, extract all files
> from the ISO and try to recreate it again (be aware of write-protected /
> read-only files as they're copied from CD..).
>
>>> I then booted from this cd and got...the FreeDOS 1.1 installation screen
>>> in all its glory!
> You can modify the isolinux.cfg text configuration file anyway you like.
>
>>> In Alain's recipe below, it is not obvious to me how the FreeDOS.img
>>> file is connected to isolinux. I played with the tab key to see the boot
>>> arguments for the CD I made, and I get the impression that FreeDOS.img
>>> would be treated as the initrd= argument to isolinux. Am I right about
>>> that? In other words, isolinux takes the FreeDOS.img file, loads it into
>>> memory, and then passes control to it?
> correct, isolinux ->  memdisk ->  fdboot.img ->  DOS
>
>>> Clearly, I need to read up more about using isolinux. I am very grateful
>>> to all of you for your help and advice. I'm making progress!
> I intend to automate all of this a bit in the future. Making progress
> already :)
>
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Re: [Freedos-user] Big bootable disk for CD

[Bob Cochran]

Hi Eric,

Thank you very much for your help with this, and I am going to try your 
method this weekend also. I want to learn both your method and the 
isolinux method. I still need to get that motherboard BIOS update done, 
which is my immediate goal. I also need to be able to update the 
firmware for an LSISAS1068 chip that is on a PCI Express adapter card, I 
have 3 of these cards to update. Now you see where my motivation comes 
from. Several times a year at least I have a need to learn and 
understand DOS. That is my longer term goal.


I will buy some USB flash drives and play with them using the advice you 
give me below.


One question. When you say that I must copy config.sys, and autoexec.bat 
you also mean I must edit these to load the drivers my system needs 
after the copying, right? For example I will need to edit the copied 
config.sys or autoexec.bat to load eltorito.sys and thereby have access 
to both the CD/DVD drive and USB devices? Since my keyboard is USB based 
this is an important question.


Thanks

Bob


On 1/19/12 3:52 PM, Eric Auer wrote:

Hi Bob,

not sure about your plans but... How about installing
DOS directly to some disk / SD / USB / CF without ISO?

To boot DOS with isolinux, you have to use memdisk, a
bootable ramdisk which initially loads a diskimage and
which boots as if it would be a Linux kernel with some
initrd image from the view of isolinux. You can do the
same with syslinux from any FAT drive and you can boot
DOS directly from any FAT drive, too. To put a FreeDOS
on a FAT drive from within Linux, you can use my Perl
script which compiles and puts the boot sector for you
as described by Alain. Do not forget to put the files
as well, just the usual way: Mount the disk, copy some
kernel.sys + config.sys + autoexec.bat + command.com
and all other files that you would like on the disk...

I guess you can also install isolinux as a package on
Fedora to get the isolinux files somewhere where you
can copy them from, or download from the syslinux page.

In general, you can get info about individual FreeDOS
tools on http://www.freedos.org/software/ including
URLs. All tools come, among other packagings, as ZIP
with binary (and in newer ZIPs, source: In older ZIPs
the source is a separate ZIP download) in a directory
structure which allows you to unzip all tools in one
c:freedos tree and still have them nicely organized.


1) Program needed: NASM, which I got from Debian
$ sudo apt-get install nasm

2) program from Eric for the boot sector:


create a directory ./sys-freedos-linux and expand it there

This program contains the various FreeDOS boot sectors
(FAT12, 16 or 32, LBA or CHS) and compiles and installs
them for you on any disk or diskimage of your choice.


3) create file of the right size. 5760k was ok for me, there is some
magic in the size and not everything will be ok. (more studies needed)
$ dd if=/dev/zero of=FreeDOS.img count=11520
11520+0 records in
11520+0 records out
5898240 bytes (5.9 MB) copied, 0.408512 s, 14.4 MB/s

You can also use any existing FAT drive or diskimage here.


4) Prepare it with a FAT file system
$ sudo mkdosfs -v FreeDOS.img

If you use an existing drive or diskimage, you do not
HAVE to format it. Of course you can, if you want to
have a fresh start...


mkdosfs 3.0.1 (23 Nov 2008)
FreeDOS.img has 64 heads and 32 sectors per track,
logical sector size is 512,
using 0xf8 media descriptor, with 11520 sectors;
file system has 2 12-bit FATs and 4 sectors per cluster.
FAT size is 9 sectors, and provides 2867 clusters.
Root directory contains 512 slots.
Volume ID is 0cbb7ca7, no volume label.

5) compile and write a suitable boot sector. This is a smart script by
Eric Auer that configures it with the appropiate parameters
$ ./sys-freedos-linux/sys-freedos.pl --disk=FreeDOS.img
DOS boot sector for FreeDOS.img will be created by:
nasm -o /dev/stdout -dISFAT12
./sys-freedos-linux/bootsecs/boot.asm
Using FAT12. Partn offset 0, CHS *x64x32  Drive 0, (0x0, 0x29),
SerNo CBB-7CA7, Strings '   ',  'FAT12   '.
Boot sector successfully updated.

NOTE: If you use a PARTITION instead of an unpartitioned
drive which only contains the filesystem, the OFFSET of
that partition must be set properly. This is usually the
case for partitions formatted by DOS or Windows and for
e.g. pre-formatted FAT32 USB sticks and similar, but not
always for partitions formatted with mkdosfs, depending
on whether mkdosfs can access enough context information.
Not sure about partitions made and formatted by GPARTED.

You can also use my script to manually change the offset
if you KNOW that it was NOT already set right, but that
involves extra manual calculations by you.


6) mount it in a directory
$ mkdir bootimg
$ sudo mount -v -o loop,uid=you,gid=you FreeDOS.img bootimg

If you use a physical HDD/CF/USB/SD, just re-connect it or similar
if you do not want to use mount manua

Re: [Freedos-user] Big bootable disk for CD

[Bob Cochran]

Hi Alain,

Thanks for responding. I think that Eric's post in this thread also 
answers your question about putting FreeDOS on an SD card.

With all the feedback I should be able to create a successful FreeDOS 
boot CD this evening or weekend.

Bob


On 1/19/12 3:46 PM, Alain Mouette wrote:
> The MKISOFS is the one that brings it all toghether. The freeDOS image
> is passed as an argument to be loaded in memory and then executed.
>
> Anyway, this was a good feedback, I am planning a FreeDOS release withou
> my programs, and I will make that more clear and more specific, I gesse
> that the scrip that puts it all toghether may help.
>
> Alain
>
> Em 19-01-2012 01:47, Bob Cochran escreveu:
>> Hi Alain, Bernd, Eric:
>>
>> I followed the instructions below from Alain, using my Fedora 14 (Linux)
>> box. I didn't have 100% success but I am much closer! I created an image
>> file in the manner described below. I wondered where to find command.com
>> and kernel.sys...so I downloaded the FreeDOS iso for 1.1 and found those
>> files in the "one disk" folder. I copied them to my image and then
>> copied over my BIOS update files which are packaged in a directory.
>> However I ran into trouble at Step 8: specifically, I couldn't figure
>> out how to independently generate an "isolinux" folder or where to find
>> isolinux to start with. So I copied over the "ISOLINUX" folder I found
>> inside the FreeDOS 1.1 iso, and did some experimenting with the
>> arguments to mkisofs. This got me a nice small iso image which I burned
>> to CD.
>>
>> I then booted from this cd and got...the FreeDOS 1.1 installation screen
>> in all its glory!
>>
>> In Alain's recipe below, it is not obvious to me how the FreeDOS.img
>> file is connected to isolinux. I played with the tab key to see the boot
>> arguments for the CD I made, and I get the impression that FreeDOS.img
>> would be treated as the initrd= argument to isolinux. Am I right about
>> that? In other words, isolinux takes the FreeDOS.img file, loads it into
>> memory, and then passes control to it?
>>
>> Clearly, I need to read up more about using isolinux. I am very grateful
>> to all of you for your help and advice. I'm making progress!
>>
>> Bob
>>
>>
>> On 1/17/12 2:27 PM, Alain Mouette wrote:
>>> I have done this some time ago, it may help. It is for CD, but it would
>>> be nice to convert it to SD-card...
>>>
>>> Alain
>>>
>>> Em 15-06-2011 11:51, Alain Mouette escreveu:
 How can I make a big (6Mb) bootable image to use in the CD?
 This is the only part of the CD that I can read on *any* machine, I am
 using isolinux)
>>> With lots of help fom Eric Auer, I managed to make a bootable image with
>>> FreeDOS. Here is how I did it:
>>>
>>> 1) Program needed: NASM, which I got from Debian
>>> $ sudo apt-get install nasm
>>>
>>> 2) program from Eric for the boot sector:
>>> 
>>> create a directory ./sys-freedos-linux and expand it there
>>>
>>> 3) create file of the right size. 5760k was ok for me, there is some
>>> magic in the size and not everything will be ok. (more studies needed)
>>> $ dd if=/dev/zero of=FreeDOS.img count=11520
>>> 11520+0 records in
>>> 11520+0 records out
>>> 5898240 bytes (5.9 MB) copied, 0.408512 s, 14.4 MB/s
>>>
>>> 4) Prepare it with a FAT file system
>>> $ sudo mkdosfs -v FreeDOS.img
>>> mkdosfs 3.0.1 (23 Nov 2008)
>>> FreeDOS.img has 64 heads and 32 sectors per track,
>>> logical sector size is 512,
>>> using 0xf8 media descriptor, with 11520 sectors;
>>> file system has 2 12-bit FATs and 4 sectors per cluster.
>>> FAT size is 9 sectors, and provides 2867 clusters.
>>> Root directory contains 512 slots.
>>> Volume ID is 0cbb7ca7, no volume label.
>>>
>>> 5) compile and write a suitable boot sector. This is a smart script by
>>> Eric Auer that configures it with the appropiate parameters
>>> $ ./sys-freedos-linux/sys-freedos.pl --disk=FreeDOS.img
>>> DOS boot sector for FreeDOS.img will be created by:
>>> nasm -o /dev/stdout -dISFAT12
>>> ./sys-freedos-linux/bootsecs/boot.asm
>>> Using FAT12. Partn offset 0, CHS *x64x32  Drive 0, (0x0, 0x29),
>>> SerNo CBB-7CA7, Strings '   ',  'FAT12   '.
>>> Boot sector successfully updated.
>>>
>>> 6) mount it in a directory
>>> $ mkdir bootimg
>>> $ sudo mount -v -o loop,uid=you,gid=you FreeDOS.img bootimg
>>>
>>> 7) copy into it KERNEL.SYS, COMMAND.COM and all other files
>>>
>>> 8) use it just the same way then the image made from a floppy, memdisk
>>> will recognize it. I used isolinux, here is how I created the iso:
>>> $ mkisofs  -R -v -A "FreeDOS big boot CD" -V FreeDOS-V1.x \
>>> -b isolinux/isolinux.bin -c isolinux/boot.cat \
>>> -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table  \
>>> -o /mnt/dados/Segurver/FreeDOS-V1.x.iso   \
>>> /mnt/dados/CDROM
>>>
>>> Alain
>>>
>>> 

Re: [Freedos-user] Big bootable disk for CD

[Bernd Blaauw]

Op 19-1-2012 21:46, Alain Mouette schreef:
> The MKISOFS is the one that brings it all toghether. The freeDOS image
> is passed as an argument to be loaded in memory and then executed.

If creating a direct (floppy/harddisk) emulation CD then you'll indeed 
need to pass the name of the floppy/hdd image file.

The isolinux situation from FreeDOS 1.1 is slightly easier in some way:
Rename your harddisk image to FDBOOT.IMG and replace the already 
existing 360KB FDBOOT.IMG file by it. Next recreate the CD.

Boot sequence for most Isolinux based CDs is:
1) BIOS
2) CDROM bootsector (boot.catalog)
3) Isolinux.bin
4) Isolinux.cfg
5) Optionally, some menu interface module (menu.c32 , vesamenu.c32)
6) User's input (if in menu mode or interactive mode)
7) The kernel/program belonging to whichever choice the user made

For Linux distributions step 7 consists of the Linux kernel and some 
initial ramdisk.

DOS needs to boot from a FAT filesystem. As that's not present, 
emulation is needed. For that, the MEMDISK module is loaded by Isolinux, 
which then loads whichever floppy/harddisk imagefile you specified. For 
FreeDOS 1.1, it's FDBOOT.IMG, and MEMDISK causes this floppy emulation 
to be present in system memory rather than a 'read-only tiny part of the 
CD'.

Finally, the space on an emulated FAT disk is usually limited. For that 
reason most content of the CD can't be directly accessed. That means the 
emulated bootdisk (imagefile) needs to load CD-ROM drivers.

Nowadays with USB and everything, we can't rely on CD-ROM being present 
on an IDE/ATAPI controller thus standard drivers (UIDE) won't work in 
all possible situations. Luckily the CD-ROM booted and started 
ISOLINUX.BIN in "non-emulation" mode, and the ELTORITO.SYS driver works 
quite universally then.
(Loading DOS USB drivers can ruin this again for example though).


> Anyway, this was a good feedback, I am planning a FreeDOS release withou
> my programs, and I will make that more clear and more specific, I gesse
> that the scrip that puts it all toghether may help.

I've not looked at your ISO yet, only that one of Georg Potthast 
(DOS-USB demo) and a game CD by Fritz.

>> I followed the instructions below from Alain, using my Fedora 14 (Linux)
>> box. I didn't have 100% success but I am much closer! I created an image
>> file in the manner described below. I wondered where to find command.com
>> and kernel.sys...so I downloaded the FreeDOS iso for 1.1 and found those
>> files in the "one disk" folder. I copied them to my image and then
>> copied over my BIOS update files which are packaged in a directory.

Ah yeah the Linux 'sys' script solves the bootsector issue :)

>> However I ran into trouble at Step 8: specifically, I couldn't figure
>> out how to independently generate an "isolinux" folder or where to find
>> isolinux to start with. So I copied over the "ISOLINUX" folder I found
>> inside the FreeDOS 1.1 iso, and did some experimenting with the
>> arguments to mkisofs. This got me a nice small iso image which I burned
>> to CD.

Easiest experiment is to get 7Zip and FreeDOS 1.1, extract all files 
from the ISO and try to recreate it again (be aware of write-protected / 
read-only files as they're copied from CD..).

>>
>> I then booted from this cd and got...the FreeDOS 1.1 installation screen
>> in all its glory!

You can modify the isolinux.cfg text configuration file anyway you like.

>>
>> In Alain's recipe below, it is not obvious to me how the FreeDOS.img
>> file is connected to isolinux. I played with the tab key to see the boot
>> arguments for the CD I made, and I get the impression that FreeDOS.img
>> would be treated as the initrd= argument to isolinux. Am I right about
>> that? In other words, isolinux takes the FreeDOS.img file, loads it into
>> memory, and then passes control to it?

correct, isolinux -> memdisk -> fdboot.img -> DOS

>> Clearly, I need to read up more about using isolinux. I am very grateful
>> to all of you for your help and advice. I'm making progress!

I intend to automate all of this a bit in the future. Making progress 
already :)

--
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Re: [Freedos-user] Big bootable disk for CD

[Eric Auer]

Hi Bob,

not sure about your plans but... How about installing
DOS directly to some disk / SD / USB / CF without ISO?

To boot DOS with isolinux, you have to use memdisk, a
bootable ramdisk which initially loads a diskimage and
which boots as if it would be a Linux kernel with some
initrd image from the view of isolinux. You can do the
same with syslinux from any FAT drive and you can boot
DOS directly from any FAT drive, too. To put a FreeDOS
on a FAT drive from within Linux, you can use my Perl
script which compiles and puts the boot sector for you
as described by Alain. Do not forget to put the files
as well, just the usual way: Mount the disk, copy some
kernel.sys + config.sys + autoexec.bat + command.com
and all other files that you would like on the disk...

I guess you can also install isolinux as a package on
Fedora to get the isolinux files somewhere where you
can copy them from, or download from the syslinux page.

In general, you can get info about individual FreeDOS
tools on http://www.freedos.org/software/ including
URLs. All tools come, among other packagings, as ZIP
with binary (and in newer ZIPs, source: In older ZIPs
the source is a separate ZIP download) in a directory
structure which allows you to unzip all tools in one
c:freedos tree and still have them nicely organized.

>> 1) Program needed: NASM, which I got from Debian
>> $ sudo apt-get install nasm
>>
>> 2) program from Eric for the boot sector:
>> 
>>
>> create a directory ./sys-freedos-linux and expand it there

This program contains the various FreeDOS boot sectors
(FAT12, 16 or 32, LBA or CHS) and compiles and installs
them for you on any disk or diskimage of your choice.

>> 3) create file of the right size. 5760k was ok for me, there is some
>> magic in the size and not everything will be ok. (more studies needed)
>> $ dd if=/dev/zero of=FreeDOS.img count=11520
>> 11520+0 records in
>> 11520+0 records out
>> 5898240 bytes (5.9 MB) copied, 0.408512 s, 14.4 MB/s

You can also use any existing FAT drive or diskimage here.

>> 4) Prepare it with a FAT file system
>> $ sudo mkdosfs -v FreeDOS.img

If you use an existing drive or diskimage, you do not
HAVE to format it. Of course you can, if you want to
have a fresh start...

>> mkdosfs 3.0.1 (23 Nov 2008)
>> FreeDOS.img has 64 heads and 32 sectors per track,
>> logical sector size is 512,
>> using 0xf8 media descriptor, with 11520 sectors;
>> file system has 2 12-bit FATs and 4 sectors per cluster.
>> FAT size is 9 sectors, and provides 2867 clusters.
>> Root directory contains 512 slots.
>> Volume ID is 0cbb7ca7, no volume label.
>>
>> 5) compile and write a suitable boot sector. This is a smart script by
>> Eric Auer that configures it with the appropiate parameters
>> $ ./sys-freedos-linux/sys-freedos.pl --disk=FreeDOS.img
>> DOS boot sector for FreeDOS.img will be created by:
>>nasm -o /dev/stdout -dISFAT12
>> ./sys-freedos-linux/bootsecs/boot.asm
>> Using FAT12. Partn offset 0, CHS *x64x32  Drive 0, (0x0, 0x29),
>> SerNo CBB-7CA7, Strings '   ',  'FAT12   '.
>> Boot sector successfully updated.

NOTE: If you use a PARTITION instead of an unpartitioned
drive which only contains the filesystem, the OFFSET of
that partition must be set properly. This is usually the
case for partitions formatted by DOS or Windows and for
e.g. pre-formatted FAT32 USB sticks and similar, but not
always for partitions formatted with mkdosfs, depending
on whether mkdosfs can access enough context information.
Not sure about partitions made and formatted by GPARTED.

You can also use my script to manually change the offset
if you KNOW that it was NOT already set right, but that
involves extra manual calculations by you.

>> 6) mount it in a directory
>> $ mkdir bootimg
>> $ sudo mount -v -o loop,uid=you,gid=you FreeDOS.img bootimg

If you use a physical HDD/CF/USB/SD, just re-connect it or similar
if you do not want to use mount manually...

>> 7) copy into it KERNEL.SYS, COMMAND.COM and all other files

All other files means at least config.sys and autoexec.bat :-)

>> 8) use it just the same way then the image made from a floppy, memdisk
>> will recognize it. I used isolinux, here is how I created the iso:
>> $ mkisofs  -R -v -A "FreeDOS big boot CD" -V FreeDOS-V1.x \
>>-b isolinux/isolinux.bin -c isolinux/boot.cat \
>>-no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table  \
>>-o /mnt/dados/Segurver/FreeDOS-V1.x.iso   \
>>/mnt/dados/CDROM

In this example, you provide isolinux.bin to mkisofs as boot menu.
I think the boot.cat is automatically created by mkisofs. The file
after -o is the output ISO image and the directory at the end is
where you take the files to put on the CD / DVD / BD ISO from. You
can experiment much easier when you use a rewriteable CD or DVD.

An ALTERNATIVE method is to create or modify a boot FLOPPY image.
O

Re: [Freedos-user] Big bootable disk for CD

[Alain Mouette]

The MKISOFS is the one that brings it all toghether. The freeDOS image 
is passed as an argument to be loaded in memory and then executed.

Anyway, this was a good feedback, I am planning a FreeDOS release withou 
my programs, and I will make that more clear and more specific, I gesse 
that the scrip that puts it all toghether may help.

Alain

Em 19-01-2012 01:47, Bob Cochran escreveu:
> Hi Alain, Bernd, Eric:
>
> I followed the instructions below from Alain, using my Fedora 14 (Linux)
> box. I didn't have 100% success but I am much closer! I created an image
> file in the manner described below. I wondered where to find command.com
> and kernel.sys...so I downloaded the FreeDOS iso for 1.1 and found those
> files in the "one disk" folder. I copied them to my image and then
> copied over my BIOS update files which are packaged in a directory.
> However I ran into trouble at Step 8: specifically, I couldn't figure
> out how to independently generate an "isolinux" folder or where to find
> isolinux to start with. So I copied over the "ISOLINUX" folder I found
> inside the FreeDOS 1.1 iso, and did some experimenting with the
> arguments to mkisofs. This got me a nice small iso image which I burned
> to CD.
>
> I then booted from this cd and got...the FreeDOS 1.1 installation screen
> in all its glory!
>
> In Alain's recipe below, it is not obvious to me how the FreeDOS.img
> file is connected to isolinux. I played with the tab key to see the boot
> arguments for the CD I made, and I get the impression that FreeDOS.img
> would be treated as the initrd= argument to isolinux. Am I right about
> that? In other words, isolinux takes the FreeDOS.img file, loads it into
> memory, and then passes control to it?
>
> Clearly, I need to read up more about using isolinux. I am very grateful
> to all of you for your help and advice. I'm making progress!
>
> Bob
>
>
> On 1/17/12 2:27 PM, Alain Mouette wrote:
>> I have done this some time ago, it may help. It is for CD, but it would
>> be nice to convert it to SD-card...
>>
>> Alain
>>
>> Em 15-06-2011 11:51, Alain Mouette escreveu:
>>> How can I make a big (6Mb) bootable image to use in the CD?
>>> This is the only part of the CD that I can read on *any* machine, I am
>>> using isolinux)
>> With lots of help fom Eric Auer, I managed to make a bootable image with
>> FreeDOS. Here is how I did it:
>>
>> 1) Program needed: NASM, which I got from Debian
>> $ sudo apt-get install nasm
>>
>> 2) program from Eric for the boot sector:
>> 
>> create a directory ./sys-freedos-linux and expand it there
>>
>> 3) create file of the right size. 5760k was ok for me, there is some
>> magic in the size and not everything will be ok. (more studies needed)
>> $ dd if=/dev/zero of=FreeDOS.img count=11520
>> 11520+0 records in
>> 11520+0 records out
>> 5898240 bytes (5.9 MB) copied, 0.408512 s, 14.4 MB/s
>>
>> 4) Prepare it with a FAT file system
>> $ sudo mkdosfs -v FreeDOS.img
>> mkdosfs 3.0.1 (23 Nov 2008)
>> FreeDOS.img has 64 heads and 32 sectors per track,
>> logical sector size is 512,
>> using 0xf8 media descriptor, with 11520 sectors;
>> file system has 2 12-bit FATs and 4 sectors per cluster.
>> FAT size is 9 sectors, and provides 2867 clusters.
>> Root directory contains 512 slots.
>> Volume ID is 0cbb7ca7, no volume label.
>>
>> 5) compile and write a suitable boot sector. This is a smart script by
>> Eric Auer that configures it with the appropiate parameters
>> $ ./sys-freedos-linux/sys-freedos.pl --disk=FreeDOS.img
>> DOS boot sector for FreeDOS.img will be created by:
>>nasm -o /dev/stdout -dISFAT12
>> ./sys-freedos-linux/bootsecs/boot.asm
>> Using FAT12. Partn offset 0, CHS *x64x32  Drive 0, (0x0, 0x29),
>> SerNo CBB-7CA7, Strings '   ',  'FAT12   '.
>> Boot sector successfully updated.
>>
>> 6) mount it in a directory
>> $ mkdir bootimg
>> $ sudo mount -v -o loop,uid=you,gid=you FreeDOS.img bootimg
>>
>> 7) copy into it KERNEL.SYS, COMMAND.COM and all other files
>>
>> 8) use it just the same way then the image made from a floppy, memdisk
>> will recognize it. I used isolinux, here is how I created the iso:
>> $ mkisofs  -R -v -A "FreeDOS big boot CD" -V FreeDOS-V1.x \
>>-b isolinux/isolinux.bin -c isolinux/boot.cat \
>>-no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table  \
>>-o /mnt/dados/Segurver/FreeDOS-V1.x.iso   \
>>/mnt/dados/CDROM
>>
>> Alain
>>
>> --
>> Keep Your Developer Skills Current with LearnDevNow!
>> The most comprehensive online learning library for Microsoft developers
>> is just $99.99! Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL - plus HTML5, CSS3, MVC3,
>> Metro Style Apps, more. Free future releases when you subscribe now!
>> http://p.sf.net/sfu/learndevnow-d2d
>> ___
>> Freedos-

Re: [Freedos-user] Big bootable disk for CD

[Bob Cochran]

Hi Alain, Bernd, Eric:

I followed the instructions below from Alain, using my Fedora 14 (Linux) 
box. I didn't have 100% success but I am much closer! I created an image 
file in the manner described below. I wondered where to find command.com 
and kernel.sys...so I downloaded the FreeDOS iso for 1.1 and found those 
files in the "one disk" folder. I copied them to my image and then 
copied over my BIOS update files which are packaged in a directory. 
However I ran into trouble at Step 8: specifically, I couldn't figure 
out how to independently generate an "isolinux" folder or where to find 
isolinux to start with. So I copied over the "ISOLINUX" folder I found 
inside the FreeDOS 1.1 iso, and did some experimenting with the 
arguments to mkisofs. This got me a nice small iso image which I burned 
to CD.


I then booted from this cd and got...the FreeDOS 1.1 installation screen 
in all its glory!


In Alain's recipe below, it is not obvious to me how the FreeDOS.img 
file is connected to isolinux. I played with the tab key to see the boot 
arguments for the CD I made, and I get the impression that FreeDOS.img 
would be treated as the initrd= argument to isolinux. Am I right about 
that? In other words, isolinux takes the FreeDOS.img file, loads it into 
memory, and then passes control to it?


Clearly, I need to read up more about using isolinux. I am very grateful 
to all of you for your help and advice. I'm making progress!


Bob


On 1/17/12 2:27 PM, Alain Mouette wrote:

I have done this some time ago, it may help. It is for CD, but it would
be nice to convert it to SD-card...

Alain

Em 15-06-2011 11:51, Alain Mouette escreveu:

How can I make a big (6Mb) bootable image to use in the CD?
This is the only part of the CD that I can read on *any* machine, I am
using isolinux)

With lots of help fom Eric Auer, I managed to make a bootable image with
FreeDOS. Here is how I did it:

1) Program needed: NASM, which I got from Debian
$ sudo apt-get install nasm

2) program from Eric for the boot sector:

create a directory ./sys-freedos-linux and expand it there

3) create file of the right size. 5760k was ok for me, there is some
magic in the size and not everything will be ok. (more studies needed)
$ dd if=/dev/zero of=FreeDOS.img count=11520
11520+0 records in
11520+0 records out
5898240 bytes (5.9 MB) copied, 0.408512 s, 14.4 MB/s

4) Prepare it with a FAT file system
$ sudo mkdosfs -v FreeDOS.img
mkdosfs 3.0.1 (23 Nov 2008)
FreeDOS.img has 64 heads and 32 sectors per track,
logical sector size is 512,
using 0xf8 media descriptor, with 11520 sectors;
file system has 2 12-bit FATs and 4 sectors per cluster.
FAT size is 9 sectors, and provides 2867 clusters.
Root directory contains 512 slots.
Volume ID is 0cbb7ca7, no volume label.

5) compile and write a suitable boot sector. This is a smart script by
Eric Auer that configures it with the appropiate parameters
$ ./sys-freedos-linux/sys-freedos.pl --disk=FreeDOS.img
DOS boot sector for FreeDOS.img will be created by:
   nasm -o /dev/stdout -dISFAT12
./sys-freedos-linux/bootsecs/boot.asm
Using FAT12. Partn offset 0, CHS *x64x32  Drive 0, (0x0, 0x29),
SerNo CBB-7CA7, Strings '   ',  'FAT12   '.
Boot sector successfully updated.

6) mount it in a directory
$ mkdir bootimg
$ sudo mount -v -o loop,uid=you,gid=you FreeDOS.img bootimg

7) copy into it KERNEL.SYS, COMMAND.COM and all other files

8) use it just the same way then the image made from a floppy, memdisk
will recognize it. I used isolinux, here is how I created the iso:
$ mkisofs  -R -v -A "FreeDOS big boot CD" -V FreeDOS-V1.x \
   -b isolinux/isolinux.bin -c isolinux/boot.cat \
   -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table  \
   -o /mnt/dados/Segurver/FreeDOS-V1.x.iso   \
   /mnt/dados/CDROM

Alain

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Re: [Freedos-user] Big bootable disk for CD

[Bob Cochran]

Hi Alain,

Thank you very much for this, I downloaded it. I'll play with it and see 
if I can get this BIOS flashing to work.

It is clear that I need to develop technical knowledge of FreeDOS if I 
want to learn how to flash some motherboards properly.

Again, many thanks!

Bob


On 1/17/12 7:12 PM, Alain Mouette wrote:
> Ah, ok, next message :)
>
> Well, you can use mine :)
>
> 1) Grab this:
> 
> 2) don't touch the COSMODAT dir... (no big deal, there is a password on
> sensitive files)
> 3) the FreeDOS/Disk is a perfect image of the boot disk, the
> CosmoDOS.img is the booting image.
>
> This iso works, you can burn it and test :)
>
> It is a version a few months older then FreeDOS 1.1. It is full GPL, all
> sources are included :)
>
> Alain
>
> Em 17-01-2012 21:07, Bob Cochran escreveu:
>> Alain,
>>
>> I would like to try your method. I did something like this a few months
>> ago but evidently missed a step since my CD would not really boot. This
>> was to enable flashing a BIOS update on a motherboard.
>>
>> Can you tell me the names of all the files needed in your step 7?
>> Perhaps I missed a file.
>>
>> Thanks so much!
>>
>> Bob Cochran
>>
>>
>>
>> On 1/17/12 2:27 PM, Alain Mouette wrote:
>>> I have done this some time ago, it may help. It is for CD, but it would
>>> be nice to convert it to SD-card...
>>>
>>> Alain
>>>
>>> Em 15-06-2011 11:51, Alain Mouette escreveu:
 How can I make a big (6Mb) bootable image to use in the CD?
 This is the only part of the CD that I can read on *any* machine, I am
 using isolinux)
>>> With lots of help fom Eric Auer, I managed to make a bootable image with
>>> FreeDOS. Here is how I did it:
>>>
>>> 1) Program needed: NASM, which I got from Debian
>>> $ sudo apt-get install nasm
>>>
>>> 2) program from Eric for the boot sector:
>>> 
>>> create a directory ./sys-freedos-linux and expand it there
>>>
>>> 3) create file of the right size. 5760k was ok for me, there is some
>>> magic in the size and not everything will be ok. (more studies needed)
>>> $ dd if=/dev/zero of=FreeDOS.img count=11520
>>> 11520+0 records in
>>> 11520+0 records out
>>> 5898240 bytes (5.9 MB) copied, 0.408512 s, 14.4 MB/s
>>>
>>> 4) Prepare it with a FAT file system
>>> $ sudo mkdosfs -v FreeDOS.img
>>> mkdosfs 3.0.1 (23 Nov 2008)
>>> FreeDOS.img has 64 heads and 32 sectors per track,
>>> logical sector size is 512,
>>> using 0xf8 media descriptor, with 11520 sectors;
>>> file system has 2 12-bit FATs and 4 sectors per cluster.
>>> FAT size is 9 sectors, and provides 2867 clusters.
>>> Root directory contains 512 slots.
>>> Volume ID is 0cbb7ca7, no volume label.
>>>
>>> 5) compile and write a suitable boot sector. This is a smart script by
>>> Eric Auer that configures it with the appropiate parameters
>>> $ ./sys-freedos-linux/sys-freedos.pl --disk=FreeDOS.img
>>> DOS boot sector for FreeDOS.img will be created by:
>>>  nasm -o /dev/stdout -dISFAT12
>>> ./sys-freedos-linux/bootsecs/boot.asm
>>> Using FAT12. Partn offset 0, CHS *x64x32  Drive 0, (0x0, 0x29),
>>> SerNo CBB-7CA7, Strings '   ',  'FAT12   '.
>>> Boot sector successfully updated.
>>>
>>> 6) mount it in a directory
>>> $ mkdir bootimg
>>> $ sudo mount -v -o loop,uid=you,gid=you FreeDOS.img bootimg
>>>
>>> 7) copy into it KERNEL.SYS, COMMAND.COM and all other files
>>>
>>> 8) use it just the same way then the image made from a floppy, memdisk
>>> will recognize it. I used isolinux, here is how I created the iso:
>>> $ mkisofs  -R -v -A "FreeDOS big boot CD" -V FreeDOS-V1.x \
>>>  -b isolinux/isolinux.bin -c isolinux/boot.cat \
>>>  -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table  \
>>>  -o /mnt/dados/Segurver/FreeDOS-V1.x.iso   \
>>>  /mnt/dados/CDROM
>>>
>>> Alain
>>>
>>> --
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>>> is just $99.99! Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL - plus HTML5, CSS3, MVC3,
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Re: [Freedos-user] Big bootable disk for CD

[Alain Mouette]

Ah, ok, next message :)

Well, you can use mine :)

1) Grab this: 

2) don't touch the COSMODAT dir... (no big deal, there is a password on 
sensitive files)
3) the FreeDOS/Disk is a perfect image of the boot disk, the 
CosmoDOS.img is the booting image.

This iso works, you can burn it and test :)

It is a version a few months older then FreeDOS 1.1. It is full GPL, all 
sources are included :)

Alain

Em 17-01-2012 21:07, Bob Cochran escreveu:
> Alain,
>
> I would like to try your method. I did something like this a few months
> ago but evidently missed a step since my CD would not really boot. This
> was to enable flashing a BIOS update on a motherboard.
>
> Can you tell me the names of all the files needed in your step 7?
> Perhaps I missed a file.
>
> Thanks so much!
>
> Bob Cochran
>
>
>
> On 1/17/12 2:27 PM, Alain Mouette wrote:
>> I have done this some time ago, it may help. It is for CD, but it would
>> be nice to convert it to SD-card...
>>
>> Alain
>>
>> Em 15-06-2011 11:51, Alain Mouette escreveu:
>>> How can I make a big (6Mb) bootable image to use in the CD?
>>> This is the only part of the CD that I can read on *any* machine, I am
>>> using isolinux)
>> With lots of help fom Eric Auer, I managed to make a bootable image with
>> FreeDOS. Here is how I did it:
>>
>> 1) Program needed: NASM, which I got from Debian
>> $ sudo apt-get install nasm
>>
>> 2) program from Eric for the boot sector:
>> 
>> create a directory ./sys-freedos-linux and expand it there
>>
>> 3) create file of the right size. 5760k was ok for me, there is some
>> magic in the size and not everything will be ok. (more studies needed)
>> $ dd if=/dev/zero of=FreeDOS.img count=11520
>> 11520+0 records in
>> 11520+0 records out
>> 5898240 bytes (5.9 MB) copied, 0.408512 s, 14.4 MB/s
>>
>> 4) Prepare it with a FAT file system
>> $ sudo mkdosfs -v FreeDOS.img
>> mkdosfs 3.0.1 (23 Nov 2008)
>> FreeDOS.img has 64 heads and 32 sectors per track,
>> logical sector size is 512,
>> using 0xf8 media descriptor, with 11520 sectors;
>> file system has 2 12-bit FATs and 4 sectors per cluster.
>> FAT size is 9 sectors, and provides 2867 clusters.
>> Root directory contains 512 slots.
>> Volume ID is 0cbb7ca7, no volume label.
>>
>> 5) compile and write a suitable boot sector. This is a smart script by
>> Eric Auer that configures it with the appropiate parameters
>> $ ./sys-freedos-linux/sys-freedos.pl --disk=FreeDOS.img
>> DOS boot sector for FreeDOS.img will be created by:
>> nasm -o /dev/stdout -dISFAT12
>> ./sys-freedos-linux/bootsecs/boot.asm
>> Using FAT12. Partn offset 0, CHS *x64x32  Drive 0, (0x0, 0x29),
>> SerNo CBB-7CA7, Strings '   ',  'FAT12   '.
>> Boot sector successfully updated.
>>
>> 6) mount it in a directory
>> $ mkdir bootimg
>> $ sudo mount -v -o loop,uid=you,gid=you FreeDOS.img bootimg
>>
>> 7) copy into it KERNEL.SYS, COMMAND.COM and all other files
>>
>> 8) use it just the same way then the image made from a floppy, memdisk
>> will recognize it. I used isolinux, here is how I created the iso:
>> $ mkisofs  -R -v -A "FreeDOS big boot CD" -V FreeDOS-V1.x \
>> -b isolinux/isolinux.bin -c isolinux/boot.cat \
>> -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table  \
>> -o /mnt/dados/Segurver/FreeDOS-V1.x.iso   \
>> /mnt/dados/CDROM
>>
>> Alain
>>
>> --
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>> is just $99.99! Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL - plus HTML5, CSS3, MVC3,
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>
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Re: [Freedos-user] Big bootable disk for CD

[Bob Cochran]

Alain,

I would like to try your method. I did something like this a few months 
ago but evidently missed a step since my CD would not really boot. This 
was to enable flashing a BIOS update on a motherboard.

Can you tell me the names of all the files needed in your step 7? 
Perhaps I missed a file.

Thanks so much!

Bob Cochran



On 1/17/12 2:27 PM, Alain Mouette wrote:
> I have done this some time ago, it may help. It is for CD, but it would
> be nice to convert it to SD-card...
>
> Alain
>
> Em 15-06-2011 11:51, Alain Mouette escreveu:
>> How can I make a big (6Mb) bootable image to use in the CD?
>> This is the only part of the CD that I can read on *any* machine, I am
>> using isolinux)
> With lots of help fom Eric Auer, I managed to make a bootable image with
> FreeDOS. Here is how I did it:
>
> 1) Program needed: NASM, which I got from Debian
> $ sudo apt-get install nasm
>
> 2) program from Eric for the boot sector:
> 
> create a directory ./sys-freedos-linux and expand it there
>
> 3) create file of the right size. 5760k was ok for me, there is some
> magic in the size and not everything will be ok. (more studies needed)
> $ dd if=/dev/zero of=FreeDOS.img count=11520
> 11520+0 records in
> 11520+0 records out
> 5898240 bytes (5.9 MB) copied, 0.408512 s, 14.4 MB/s
>
> 4) Prepare it with a FAT file system
> $ sudo mkdosfs -v FreeDOS.img
> mkdosfs 3.0.1 (23 Nov 2008)
> FreeDOS.img has 64 heads and 32 sectors per track,
> logical sector size is 512,
> using 0xf8 media descriptor, with 11520 sectors;
> file system has 2 12-bit FATs and 4 sectors per cluster.
> FAT size is 9 sectors, and provides 2867 clusters.
> Root directory contains 512 slots.
> Volume ID is 0cbb7ca7, no volume label.
>
> 5) compile and write a suitable boot sector. This is a smart script by
> Eric Auer that configures it with the appropiate parameters
> $ ./sys-freedos-linux/sys-freedos.pl --disk=FreeDOS.img
> DOS boot sector for FreeDOS.img will be created by:
>nasm -o /dev/stdout -dISFAT12
> ./sys-freedos-linux/bootsecs/boot.asm
> Using FAT12. Partn offset 0, CHS *x64x32  Drive 0, (0x0, 0x29),
> SerNo CBB-7CA7, Strings '   ',  'FAT12   '.
> Boot sector successfully updated.
>
> 6) mount it in a directory
> $ mkdir bootimg
> $ sudo mount -v -o loop,uid=you,gid=you FreeDOS.img bootimg
>
> 7) copy into it KERNEL.SYS, COMMAND.COM and all other files
>
> 8) use it just the same way then the image made from a floppy, memdisk
> will recognize it. I used isolinux, here is how I created the iso:
> $ mkisofs  -R -v -A "FreeDOS big boot CD" -V FreeDOS-V1.x \
>-b isolinux/isolinux.bin -c isolinux/boot.cat \
>-no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table  \
>-o /mnt/dados/Segurver/FreeDOS-V1.x.iso   \
>/mnt/dados/CDROM
>
> Alain
>
> --
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> is just $99.99! Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL - plus HTML5, CSS3, MVC3,
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Re: [Freedos-user] Big bootable disk for CD

[Bernd Blaauw]

Op 17-1-2012 20:27, Alain Mouette schreef:
> I have done this some time ago, it may help. It is for CD, but it would
> be nice to convert it to SD-card...

Alain, thanks for your explicit instructions, they're very clear..if 
running Linux :)

Some pre-made images seem available already from:
[ http://bootcd.narod.ru/images_e.htm ].


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Re: [Freedos-user] Big bootable disk for CD

[Alain Mouette]

I have done this some time ago, it may help. It is for CD, but it would 
be nice to convert it to SD-card...

Alain

Em 15-06-2011 11:51, Alain Mouette escreveu:
>
> How can I make a big (6Mb) bootable image to use in the CD?
> This is the only part of the CD that I can read on *any* machine, I am
> using isolinux)

With lots of help fom Eric Auer, I managed to make a bootable image with 
FreeDOS. Here is how I did it:

1) Program needed: NASM, which I got from Debian
$ sudo apt-get install nasm

2) program from Eric for the boot sector:

create a directory ./sys-freedos-linux and expand it there

3) create file of the right size. 5760k was ok for me, there is some 
magic in the size and not everything will be ok. (more studies needed)
$ dd if=/dev/zero of=FreeDOS.img count=11520
11520+0 records in
11520+0 records out
5898240 bytes (5.9 MB) copied, 0.408512 s, 14.4 MB/s

4) Prepare it with a FAT file system
$ sudo mkdosfs -v FreeDOS.img
mkdosfs 3.0.1 (23 Nov 2008)
FreeDOS.img has 64 heads and 32 sectors per track,
logical sector size is 512,
using 0xf8 media descriptor, with 11520 sectors;
file system has 2 12-bit FATs and 4 sectors per cluster.
FAT size is 9 sectors, and provides 2867 clusters.
Root directory contains 512 slots.
Volume ID is 0cbb7ca7, no volume label.

5) compile and write a suitable boot sector. This is a smart script by 
Eric Auer that configures it with the appropiate parameters
$ ./sys-freedos-linux/sys-freedos.pl --disk=FreeDOS.img
DOS boot sector for FreeDOS.img will be created by:
  nasm -o /dev/stdout -dISFAT12 
./sys-freedos-linux/bootsecs/boot.asm
Using FAT12. Partn offset 0, CHS *x64x32  Drive 0, (0x0, 0x29),
SerNo CBB-7CA7, Strings '   ',  'FAT12   '.
Boot sector successfully updated.

6) mount it in a directory
$ mkdir bootimg
$ sudo mount -v -o loop,uid=you,gid=you FreeDOS.img bootimg

7) copy into it KERNEL.SYS, COMMAND.COM and all other files

8) use it just the same way then the image made from a floppy, memdisk 
will recognize it. I used isolinux, here is how I created the iso:
$ mkisofs  -R -v -A "FreeDOS big boot CD" -V FreeDOS-V1.x \
  -b isolinux/isolinux.bin -c isolinux/boot.cat \
  -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table  \
  -o /mnt/dados/Segurver/FreeDOS-V1.x.iso   \
  /mnt/dados/CDROM

Alain

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Re: [Freedos-user] Big bootable disk for CD

[Alain Mouette]

Em 15-06-2011 11:51, Alain Mouette escreveu:
>
> How can I make a big (6Mb) bootable image to use in the CD?
> This is the only part of the CD that I can read on *any* machine, I am
> using isolinux)

With lots of help fom Eric Auer, I managed to make a bootable image with 
FreeDOS. Here is how I did it:

1) Program needed: NASM, which I got from Debian
$ sudo apt-get install nasm

2) program from Eric for the boot sector:

create a directory ./sys-freedos-linux and expand it there

3) create file of the right size. 5760k was ok for me, there is some 
magic in the size and not everything will be ok. (more studies needed)
$ dd if=/dev/zero of=FreeDOS.img count=11520
11520+0 records in
11520+0 records out
5898240 bytes (5.9 MB) copied, 0.408512 s, 14.4 MB/s

4) Prepare it with a FAT file system
$ sudo mkdosfs -v FreeDOS.img
mkdosfs 3.0.1 (23 Nov 2008)
FreeDOS.img has 64 heads and 32 sectors per track,
logical sector size is 512,
using 0xf8 media descriptor, with 11520 sectors;
file system has 2 12-bit FATs and 4 sectors per cluster.
FAT size is 9 sectors, and provides 2867 clusters.
Root directory contains 512 slots.
Volume ID is 0cbb7ca7, no volume label.

5) compile and write a suitable boot sector. This is a smart script by 
Eric Auer that configures it with the appropiate parameters
$ ./sys-freedos-linux/sys-freedos.pl --disk=FreeDOS.img
DOS boot sector for FreeDOS.img will be created by:
 nasm -o /dev/stdout -dISFAT12 
./sys-freedos-linux/bootsecs/boot.asm
Using FAT12. Partn offset 0, CHS *x64x32  Drive 0, (0x0, 0x29),
SerNo CBB-7CA7, Strings '   ',  'FAT12   '.
Boot sector successfully updated.

6) mount it in a directory
$ mkdir bootimg
$ sudo mount -v -o loop,uid=you,gid=you FreeDOS.img bootimg

7) copy into it KERNEL.SYS, COMMAND.COM and all other files

8) use it just the same way then the image made from a floppy, memdisk 
will recognize it. I used isolinux, here is how I created the iso:
$ mkisofs  -R -v -A "FreeDOS big boot CD" -V FreeDOS-V1.x \
 -b isolinux/isolinux.bin -c isolinux/boot.cat \
 -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table  \
 -o /mnt/dados/Segurver/FreeDOS-V1.x.iso   \
 /mnt/dados/CDROM

Alain

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Re: [Freedos-user] Big bootable disk for CD

[Bernd Blaauw]

Op 15-6-2011 16:51, Alain Mouette schreef:
> Hi, I am still having problems making an intaller from CD. I came across
> an HP machine (MS219BR) that no drive recognizes and also external USB
> CD drivers. So...
I'm not understanding your situation, got some more details?
Seems like you've got a non-IDE/SATA optical drive (thus 
COM/LPT/USB/SCSI/IEEE1394 etc) or maybe SATA with AHCI mode enabled, 
which DOS won't recognise in all situations.
You could add the FreeDOS ISO file to a bootCD which has Isolinux as 
bootloader and then have Isolinux/Memdisk load the ISO to system memory.
The DOS boot image inside of the inner ISO would have to have the 
ELTORITO.SYS driver so it can find the 'in-memory' CD image.

FreeDOS 1.0 has the boot sequence like this:
* Isolinux --> Memdisk --> FDBOOT.IMG (virtual A: , stored in memory, 
writable) --> driver for physical CDROM unit --> rest of FreeDOS CD --> 
Setup/Live environment

Suggested:
* Isolinux --> Memdisk --> FDBASECD.ISO --> Isolinux --> Memdisk --> 
FDBOOT.IMG --> ELTORITO.SYS --> FDBASECD.ISO's contents as FreeDOS CD 
--> Setup/Live environment

Come to think of it, the ELTORITO.SYS driver should simply already have 
found your booted CD, as it only loads for each non-emulation mode 
self-starting CD (as Isolinux is).

> How can I make a big (6Mb) bootable image to use in the CD?

Some larger images do exist, [ http://bootcd.narod.ru/images_e.htm ] has 
them listed, including a picture as proof:
http://bootcd.narod.ru/fd70_e.htm

You'll likely need to prove C/H/S (cilinder/head/sector) details to 
Isolinux then if using these non-standard sized images.
Linux can easily modify such images, for Windows I guess you'll need a 
program named WinImage (created by Gilles Vollant)

> This is the only part of the CD that I can read on *any* machine, I am
> using syslinux)

Assume you're using Isolinux :)
Using syslinux is entirely possible but involves floppy emulation, with 
the floppy image containing Syslinux. Quite a waste of assigning 
driveletter A: to it then :)

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[Freedos-user] Big bootable disk for CD

[Alain Mouette]

Hi, I am still having problems making an intaller from CD. I came across 
an HP machine (MS219BR) that no drive recognizes and also external USB 
CD drivers. So...

How can I make a big (6Mb) bootable image to use in the CD?

This is the only part of the CD that I can read on *any* machine, I am 
using syslinux)

thanks,
Alain

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