Re: How can i boot a bsd.rd from windows 2000 ?
Alexander Hall wrote: Christopher Bianchi skrev: Hello everyone. My situation is this: i've a laptop, a Sharp pc-ax10 with Windows 2000 preinstalled , without cdrom, floppy. I wish install OpenBSD on it. Naturally bios can't boot from USB. So i've thinked to boot the bsd.rd , but how ? The faq explain the procedure from an older OpenBSD operating system... i've Windows 2000 on it. Is it possible ? and if is possible, in which way ? Where i must put the bsd.rd and in which way i can boot from him ? If all other booting possibilities were unavailable, I'd try this (though I cannot say for sure it'd work): first: BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP (well no, I would probably not, but it's strongly recommended) and then, - make room for bsd partition with e.g. Partition Magic. - create a primary partition (of any type) to use for the OpenBSD install. You'll probably have to change the type to A6 in fdisk during the OpenBSD install. - create a virtual machine in vmware that uses the physical disk and a virtual cdrom (with mounted installXX.iso). Install openbsd carefully TO THE FREE'D PARTITION ONLY - do NOT ``use the entire disk for openbsd''! (Yes, this requires some fiddling with fdisk manually, but having a Windows tool creating the partition with the right offset and size helps a lot - then you only need to change the type). - After the installation is done, copy the mbr (as per the FAQ mentioned earlier in the thread) to the windows machine via network, usb stick, whatever. - Throw the mbr into 'C:\openbsd.mbr' and fix C:\boot.ini (FAQ too). - Boot your favourite os and don't forget: BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP cheers /Alexander oh thanks, but i've resolved simply pulling out the hard disk :-) but thanks for the possible solution, when i will have some time,i'll try test it !
Re: How can i boot a bsd.rd from windows 2000 ?
Christopher Bianchi skrev: Hello everyone. My situation is this: i've a laptop, a Sharp pc-ax10 with Windows 2000 preinstalled , without cdrom, floppy. I wish install OpenBSD on it. Naturally bios can't boot from USB. So i've thinked to boot the bsd.rd , but how ? The faq explain the procedure from an older OpenBSD operating system... i've Windows 2000 on it. Is it possible ? and if is possible, in which way ? Where i must put the bsd.rd and in which way i can boot from him ? If all other booting possibilities were unavailable, I'd try this (though I cannot say for sure it'd work): first: BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP (well no, I would probably not, but it's strongly recommended) and then, - make room for bsd partition with e.g. Partition Magic. - create a primary partition (of any type) to use for the OpenBSD install. You'll probably have to change the type to A6 in fdisk during the OpenBSD install. - create a virtual machine in vmware that uses the physical disk and a virtual cdrom (with mounted installXX.iso). Install openbsd carefully TO THE FREE'D PARTITION ONLY - do NOT ``use the entire disk for openbsd''! (Yes, this requires some fiddling with fdisk manually, but having a Windows tool creating the partition with the right offset and size helps a lot - then you only need to change the type). - After the installation is done, copy the mbr (as per the FAQ mentioned earlier in the thread) to the windows machine via network, usb stick, whatever. - Throw the mbr into 'C:\openbsd.mbr' and fix C:\boot.ini (FAQ too). - Boot your favourite os and don't forget: BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP cheers /Alexander
Re: How can i boot a bsd.rd from windows 2000 ?
On 10/11/07, Christopher Bianchi [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Craig Skinner ha scritto: Christopher Bianchi wrote: The situation is this: this notebook can boot from cdrom and floppy, yes..but from docking station ! i haven't docking station ! Desperate :-( Can it boot from a USB floppy? in the bios there aren't any voices for boot from usb... so i assume that this notebook can't boot in this way :-( and from a pen drive ? if your laptop can boot from usb flash pen drive, the following should work : 1) save the contents of your pen drive somewhere 2) do a fdisk -i insert device name, create a single partition with disklabel then newfs it 3) copy /bsd.rd and /boot on the freshly newfs'ed partition. 4) do an installboot to set up properly the PBR on the pen drive 5) plug the pendrive on your laptop and try to have the bios boot it. 6) at the boot prompt, type bsd.rd and voila ! see fdisk(8), disklabel(8), newfs(8) and installboot(8) for more informations -- Vincent GROSS GUIs normally make it simple to accomplish simple actions and impossible to accomplish complex actions. --Doug Gwyn (22/Jun/91 in comp.unix.wizards)
Re: How can i boot a bsd.rd from windows 2000 ?
nikolai wrote: Hello everyone. My situation is this: i've a laptop, a Sharp pc-ax10 with Windows 2000 preinstalled , without cdrom, floppy. I wish install OpenBSD on it. Naturally bios can't boot from USB. So i've thinked to boot the bsd.rd , but how ? The faq explain the procedure from an older OpenBSD operating system... i've Windows 2000 on it. Is it possible ? and if is possible, in which way ? Where i must put the bsd.rd and in which way i can boot from him ? I've tried google, but nothing :-( Thanks for the attention Christopher Bianchi Christopher, Check out http://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq4.html#Multibooting, the Windows NT/2000/XP NTLDR section. Worked perfectly for me on W2K. -- Nick thanks to all, i've resolved pulling out the hard disk...simply way ! thanks
Re: How can i boot a bsd.rd from windows 2000 ?
Em Seg, 2007-10-15 C s 22:11 -0400, nikolai escreveu: Hello everyone. My situation is this: i've a laptop, a Sharp pc-ax10 with Windows 2000 preinstalled , without cdrom, floppy. I wish install OpenBSD on it. Naturally bios can't boot from USB. So i've thinked to boot the bsd.rd , but how ? The faq explain the procedure from an older OpenBSD operating system... i've Windows 2000 on it. Is it possible ? and if is possible, in which way ? Where i must put the bsd.rd and in which way i can boot from him ? I've tried google, but nothing :-( Thanks for the attention Christopher Bianchi Christopher, Check out http://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq4.html#Multibooting, the Windows NT/2000/XP NTLDR section. Worked perfectly for me on W2K. Booting from NTLDR works when you have OpenBSD already installed. I see no way how can it work without OpenBSD installed. -- Nick
Re: : How can i boot a bsd.rd from windows 2000 ?
On 10/15/07, Rodrigo V. Raimundo [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Em Sex, 2007-10-12 C s 09:57 +0200, Raimo Niskanen escreveu: Can grub actually boot a bsd kernel. I thought it was in a different binary format than Linux kernels. Grub can boot *BSD kernel and can detect in what binary format it is. But in case it dont recognite the binary there is a --type=openbsd parameter that can be used with the kernel command. Does grub pass kernel arguments to the bsd kernel in the right way. It is not possible to pass kernel parameters from grub to /bsd* I have not had success booting an OpenBSD kernel directly from GRUB. Specifying --type=openbsd allows GRUB to load the kernel, but the kernel then dies with panic: /boot too old: upgrade! This happens both with bsd and bsd.rd from the most recent snapshot. NetBSD does boot successfully from GRUB, and with netbsd-4 and -current, kernel arguments work as well. Kernel args don't really apply to FreeBSD since for booting FBSD directly with GRUB you use kernel /boot/loader and the loader takes over from there. I'm sure OpenBSD could be made to boot from GRUB but I don't imagine that's very high on anyone's list. Andrew
Re: : How can i boot a bsd.rd from windows 2000 ?
On 2007/10/16 16:58, Andrew Daugherity wrote: I have not had success booting an OpenBSD kernel directly from GRUB. Specifying --type=openbsd allows GRUB to load the kernel, but the kernel then dies with panic: /boot too old: upgrade! it's probably trying to boot is as a.out; no guarantees but try --type=netbsd-elf
Re: : How can i boot a bsd.rd from windows 2000 ?
According to grub documentation http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html#kernel ... Em Sex, 2007-10-12 C s 09:57 +0200, Raimo Niskanen escreveu: Can grub actually boot a bsd kernel. I thought it was in a different binary format than Linux kernels. Grub can boot *BSD kernel and can detect in what binary format it is. But in case it dont recognite the binary there is a --type=openbsd parameter that can be used with the kernel command. Does grub pass kernel arguments to the bsd kernel in the right way. It is not possible to pass kernel parameters from grub to /bsd* Sorry about the doubts, but I have always chain loaded OpenBSD from grub through the PBR code in biosboot installed by installboot, which in its turn calls the boot program that loads the bsd or bsd.rd kernel. Off-Topic: In that case, can SYSLINUX boot the bsd kernel from a DOS partition? Accordint to http://syslinux.zytor.com/faq.php it can only boot linux, COM executables, pxeboot files, cdrom images and a few other, but no one *BSD kernel. On Thu, Oct 11, 2007 at 12:34:13PM -0300, Rodrigo V. Raimundo wrote: Em Qua, 2007-10-10 C s 21:49 +0200, Christopher Bianchi escreveu: Hello everyone. My situation is this: i've a laptop, a Sharp pc-ax10 with Windows 2000 preinstalled , without cdrom, floppy. I wish install OpenBSD on it. Naturally bios can't boot from USB. So i've thinked to boot the bsd.rd , but how ? The faq explain the procedure from an older OpenBSD operating system... i've Windows 2000 on it. Is it possible ? and if is possible, in which way ? Where i must put the bsd.rd and in which way i can boot from him ? I've tried google, but nothing :-( Thanks for the attention Christopher Bianchi 1 - Use some free tool to create a new partition on your hard-disk, if you lose Win 2k bye-bye 2 - Install grub on Windows (*) and attach it's stage1 file to boot.ini(**) 3 - Add an entry to grub's menu.lst so it can boot bsd.rd from virtualy anywhere on your hd. (***) See: http://www.geocities.com/lode_leroy/grubinstall/ (***) menu.lst example: title OpenBSD Installer # Windows on the first partition of the first drive root (hd0,0) # Grub will found the file if compiled with fat/ntfs support kernel /boot/bsd.rd boot -- (**) boot.ini example: [boot loader] timeout=30 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=Microsoft Windows 200 Professional c:\boot\stage1=Grub - (*) grubinstall command line example: Run cmd.exe, them: c:\ grubinstall -d (hd0,0) -1 C:\boot\stage1 -2 C:\boot\stage2
Re: : How can i boot a bsd.rd from windows 2000 ?
Can grub actually boot a bsd kernel. I thought it was in a different binary format than Linux kernels. Does grub pass kernel arguments to the bsd kernel in the right way. Sorry about the doubts, but I have always chain loaded OpenBSD from grub through the PBR code in biosboot installed by installboot, which in its turn calls the boot program that loads the bsd or bsd.rd kernel. Off-Topic: In that case, can SYSLINUX boot the bsd kernel from a DOS partition? On Thu, Oct 11, 2007 at 12:34:13PM -0300, Rodrigo V. Raimundo wrote: Em Qua, 2007-10-10 C s 21:49 +0200, Christopher Bianchi escreveu: Hello everyone. My situation is this: i've a laptop, a Sharp pc-ax10 with Windows 2000 preinstalled , without cdrom, floppy. I wish install OpenBSD on it. Naturally bios can't boot from USB. So i've thinked to boot the bsd.rd , but how ? The faq explain the procedure from an older OpenBSD operating system... i've Windows 2000 on it. Is it possible ? and if is possible, in which way ? Where i must put the bsd.rd and in which way i can boot from him ? I've tried google, but nothing :-( Thanks for the attention Christopher Bianchi 1 - Use some free tool to create a new partition on your hard-disk, if you lose Win 2k bye-bye 2 - Install grub on Windows (*) and attach it's stage1 file to boot.ini(**) 3 - Add an entry to grub's menu.lst so it can boot bsd.rd from virtualy anywhere on your hd. (***) See: http://www.geocities.com/lode_leroy/grubinstall/ (***) menu.lst example: title OpenBSD Installer # Windows on the first partition of the first drive root (hd0,0) # Grub will found the file if compiled with fat/ntfs support kernel /boot/bsd.rd boot -- (**) boot.ini example: [boot loader] timeout=30 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=Microsoft Windows 200 Professional c:\boot\stage1=Grub - (*) grubinstall command line example: Run cmd.exe, them: c:\ grubinstall -d (hd0,0) -1 C:\boot\stage1 -2 C:\boot\stage2 -- / Raimo Niskanen, Erlang/OTP, Ericsson AB
Re: How can i boot a bsd.rd from windows 2000 ?
Douglas A. Tutty wrote: Basically, your problem is that you need a smarter bootloader. http://linux.simple.be/tools/sbm ( maybe a usb floppy/pen drive)
Re: How can i boot a bsd.rd from windows 2000 ?
Steve Shockley ha scritto: Christopher Bianchi wrote: Thanks for the attention Nick, but 1) i can't boot from pxe ( damn Sharp ) and 2) i wish an elegance solution without pull out the hard disk. Thanks What would you do if you had to reload Windows 2000? I've never seen a PC that could only boot from the hard drive. The situation is this: this notebook can boot from cdrom and floppy, yes..but from docking station ! i haven't docking station ! Desperate :-(
Re: How can i boot a bsd.rd from windows 2000 ?
Christopher Bianchi wrote: The situation is this: this notebook can boot from cdrom and floppy, yes..but from docking station ! i haven't docking station ! Desperate :-( Can it boot from a USB floppy?
Re: How can i boot a bsd.rd from windows 2000 ?
ropers ha scritto: On 10/10/2007, Christopher Bianchi [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Nick Guenther ha scritto: On 10/10/07, Christopher Bianchi [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hello everyone. My situation is this: i've a laptop, a Sharp pc-ax10 with Windows 2000 preinstalled , without cdrom, floppy. I wish install OpenBSD on it. Naturally bios can't boot from USB. So i've thinked to boot the bsd.rd , but how ? The faq explain the procedure from an older OpenBSD operating system... i've Windows 2000 on it. Is it possible ? and if is possible, in which way ? Where i must put the bsd.rd and in which way i can boot from him ? I've tried google, but nothing :-( Thanks for the attention Can your BIOS boot from the network (PXE)? If you can set up a PXE server with pxeboot as the boot image then you can boot that way. Alternatively you can pull out the hard drive, plug it into a different computer or a USB-to-IDE converter, install there, and then put it back. -Nick Thanks for the attention Nick, but 1) i can't boot from pxe ( damn Sharp ) and 2) i wish an elegance solution without pull out the hard disk. Thanks DISCLAIMER: I'm talking out my arse here, and I don't know if what you're hoping to do is even possible. That said, here are my thoughts on the matter: (1) The only way to hand off control from one operating system to another operating system is to make a program run exclusively (not preemptively multitasked ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preemption_%28computing%29#Pre-emptive_multitasking )) and with full access to the entire computer, including all of the memory (ie. outside of memory protection ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_protection )). (a) To use unix terminology, you would need to start the system in single user mode ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_user_mode ), and then you would need a program that can load the OpenBSD kernel and hand off control to it. In some very rare cases, programs like this do exist. I remember (unsuccessfully) trying to install NetBSD on an old Apple PowerBook 145B many moons ago. Because the firmware (ie. the BIOS) of this Motorola 68K based laptop did not support loading a non-Apple OS, the solution there was to load Mac OS 6 or 7.whatever, and then run a Mac OS program that would seize control of the entire machine and load NetBSD. (This would have worked, except that my machine had too little RAM and HDD space.) The old Mac OS was not a proper preemtive multitasking OS w/ memory-protection; and writing a program to load another OS from it was only possible because of these limitations. Windows 2000 however is built on NT (OS/2) technology and has memory protection and preemtive multitasking. No a program like that old NetBSD boot loader cannot exist for Windows. However, a kind of single user mode does exist for Windows 2000, it's called the recovery console ( http://support.microsoft.com/kb/229716 ). However, the recovery console is sadly not installed by default; you can either boot it from the Windows 2000 install CDs (which you say you can't boot), or it can be installed by running winnt32.exe /cmdcons. However, if the recovery console isn't already installed, then the Windows 2000 installation files probably aren't on your HDD either, and you'd then need to run winnt32.exe /cmdcons from the Windows 2000 install CD (which, again, you say you can't access). Even if you have the recovery console installed, I have no clue how to get custom programs installed into it. This might be extra hard to do, because, to quote Wikipedia: [The Recovery Console] is independent of the (...) operating system. And, to quote Annoyances.org: The Recovery Console looks like DOS, but it isn't DOS. I don't know if even a single non-MS program for the recovery console exists. That probably means that a BSD loader program that you could run from the recovery console is a (big fat opium-) pipe dream at best. (b) However, Windows OSes have a reputation of being not the most secure of operating systems. Hypothetically speaking, if you knew a kernel exploit and or virus/trojan that would allow you to insert arbitrary code for exclusive execution deep into the windows kernel, then you could theoretically use that type of vulnerability to write a BSD loader. Your best bet there may be to insert your boot loader early in the NT boot process by somehow patching either Ntdetect.com, NTLDR, or ntoskrnl.exe. (Cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ntoskrnl.exe , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTLDR , and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ntdetect.com .) This would of course quite possibly also wreck your Windows 2000 installation, except if the inserted code somehow presented the user a boot menu to select whether to load the BSD kernel or continue to load Windows. The way I've followed IT news for a while, I am fairly sure that no such program currently exists. I am unsure how
Re: How can i boot a bsd.rd from windows 2000 ?
Craig Skinner ha scritto: Christopher Bianchi wrote: The situation is this: this notebook can boot from cdrom and floppy, yes..but from docking station ! i haven't docking station ! Desperate :-( Can it boot from a USB floppy? in the bios there aren't any voices for boot from usb... so i assume that this notebook can't boot in this way :-(
Re: How can i boot a bsd.rd from windows 2000 ?
Christopher Bianchi [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Mmm i've tried qemu, but i wish install really OpenBSD on it. I've a pcmcia but this notebook can't boot from it. As Craig pointed out, if the machine has a USB port it's likely it can boot from USB floppy. -- Peter N. M. Hansteen, member of the first RFC 1149 implementation team http://bsdly.blogspot.com/ http://www.datadok.no/ http://www.nuug.no/ Remember to set the evil bit on all malicious network traffic delilah spamd[29949]: 85.152.224.147: disconnected after 42673 seconds.
Re: How can i boot a bsd.rd from windows 2000 ?
Peter N. M. Hansteen ha scritto: Christopher Bianchi [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Mmm i've tried qemu, but i wish install really OpenBSD on it. I've a pcmcia but this notebook can't boot from it. As Craig pointed out, if the machine has a USB port it's likely it can boot from USB floppy. really ? but in the bios i not see any voices about it...anyway i'll try.
Re: How can i boot a bsd.rd from windows 2000 ?
How about an external CDROM drive connected to a parallel port? Micro Solutions used to make one (called BackPack) that could connect via USB, PCCard, and Parallel Port. Once you loaded the drivers under Windows I'm pretty sure you could boot from it. On 10/11/07, Christopher Bianchi [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Peter N. M. Hansteen ha scritto: Christopher Bianchi [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Mmm i've tried qemu, but i wish install really OpenBSD on it. I've a pcmcia but this notebook can't boot from it. As Craig pointed out, if the machine has a USB port it's likely it can boot from USB floppy. really ? but in the bios i not see any voices about it...anyway i'll try.
Re: How can i boot a bsd.rd from windows 2000 ?
That's the best answer so far But, personally, I believe it can be done without programming and hacking OpenBSD installation program to work in the same way as Ubuntu install.exe Here's how I thing it _might_ work. The point is to use a bootable linux partition to bridge from !OpenBSD to OpenBSD++. :) 1) get some grub-bootable disk space by either repartitioning your HD or using an external disk 2) Repartition the extra disk space in three different partitions. You may need to install a 4th or 5th, depending on your virtual memory needs. Let's call these partitions part1, part2 and part3 hereafter. 3) install a small/minimal Linux distro on partition part1 that can be done from within windows. Ubuntu install.exe is a valid choice. The real limit is your available disk space. 3a) That Linux distro must install a decent boot loader, capable of booting Linux and Windows so far 4) Start Linux. Remember that empty partition called part2? Use a disk setup program (maybe fdisk), from Linux to do the following: 4a) Set part2 to be a valid OpenBSD partition, by changing the partition code number 4b) Set part3 to be a valid OpenBSD/Linux data exchanging partition. Maybe a FAT32 will do the job. Can't remember if Linux is able to read/write to ffs partitions 5) Copy OpenBSD installation set to part3 6) Hack grub or the decent boot loader to point to a valid bsd.rd image located on part3. Can't say if this will work... 7) Reboot the computer. Chose grub to fire up bsd.rd 8) If you can start bsd.rd, follow the install procedure by using the install files on part3. At the end, you'll have a completely bootable OpenBSD partition and can reslice your drive to claim unused disk space (the Linux partition, for instance), maybe using some space to add a decent swap area to OpenBSD. If you can't attach an external drive, can't say how you could repartition your main hard drive... Finally, despite presenting us a good technical problem waiting for some clever solution, you really should not rely on a portable that can't boot to anything if the main drive is busted. On 10/10/07, ropers [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On 10/10/2007, Christopher Bianchi [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Nick Guenther ha scritto: On 10/10/07, Christopher Bianchi [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hello everyone. My situation is this: i've a laptop, a Sharp pc-ax10 with Windows 2000 preinstalled , without cdrom, floppy. I wish install OpenBSD on it. Naturally bios can't boot from USB. So i've thinked to boot the bsd.rd , but how ? The faq explain the procedure from an older OpenBSD operating system... i've Windows 2000 on it. Is it possible ? and if is possible, in which way ? Where i must put the bsd.rd and in which way i can boot from him ? I've tried google, but nothing :-( Thanks for the attention Can your BIOS boot from the network (PXE)? If you can set up a PXE server with pxeboot as the boot image then you can boot that way. Alternatively you can pull out the hard drive, plug it into a different computer or a USB-to-IDE converter, install there, and then put it back. -Nick Thanks for the attention Nick, but 1) i can't boot from pxe ( damn Sharp ) and 2) i wish an elegance solution without pull out the hard disk. Thanks DISCLAIMER: I'm talking out my arse here, and I don't know if what you're hoping to do is even possible. That said, here are my thoughts on the matter: (1) The only way to hand off control from one operating system to another operating system is to make a program run exclusively (not preemptively multitasked ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preemption_%28computing%29#Pre-emptive_multitasking )) and with full access to the entire computer, including all of the memory (ie. outside of memory protection ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_protection )). (a) To use unix terminology, you would need to start the system in single user mode ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_user_mode ), and then you would need a program that can load the OpenBSD kernel and hand off control to it. In some very rare cases, programs like this do exist. I remember (unsuccessfully) trying to install NetBSD on an old Apple PowerBook 145B many moons ago. Because the firmware (ie. the BIOS) of this Motorola 68K based laptop did not support loading a non-Apple OS, the solution there was to load Mac OS 6 or 7.whatever, and then run a Mac OS program that would seize control of the entire machine and load NetBSD. (This would have worked, except that my machine had too little RAM and HDD space.) The old Mac OS was not a proper preemtive multitasking OS w/ memory-protection; and writing a program to load another OS from it was only possible because of these limitations. Windows 2000 however is built on NT (OS/2) technology and has memory protection and preemtive multitasking. No a program like that old NetBSD boot loader cannot exist for
Re: How can i boot a bsd.rd from windows 2000 ?
Christopher Bianchi a icrit : Thanks for the attention Nick, but 1) i can't boot from pxe ( damn Sharp ) and 2) i wish an elegance solution without pull out the hard disk. Thanks http://www.winimage.com/bootpart.htm maybe ? and http://gparted.sourceforge.net/ for partition editing before. Use at your own risk. It worked for me on a WinXP laptop (with a CD for running gparted). -- Mathias
Re: How can i boot a bsd.rd from windows 2000 ?
Gerald Thornberry schrieb: How about an external CDROM drive connected to a parallel port? Micro Solutions used to make one (called BackPack) that could connect via USB, PCCard, and Parallel Port. Once you loaded the drivers under Windows I'm pretty sure you could boot from it. Hmm, what does the windows driver has to do with the ability of the bios to boot from a device? Wasn't there, in the last century, a tool for windows to boot a linux kernel (yeah, I know this is OpenBSD) from windows, but I guess that was with win-dos. guido On 10/11/07, Christopher Bianchi [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Peter N. M. Hansteen ha scritto: Christopher Bianchi [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Mmm i've tried qemu, but i wish install really OpenBSD on it. I've a pcmcia but this notebook can't boot from it. As Craig pointed out, if the machine has a USB port it's likely it can boot from USB floppy. really ? but in the bios i not see any voices about it...anyway i'll try.
Re: How can i boot a bsd.rd from windows 2000 ?
On 10/11/07, Guido Tschakert [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Gerald Thornberry schrieb: How about an external CDROM drive connected to a parallel port? Micro Solutions used to make one (called BackPack) that could connect via USB, PCCard, and Parallel Port. Once you loaded the drivers under Windows I'm pretty sure you could boot from it. Hmm, what does the windows driver has to do with the ability of the bios to boot from a device? Wasn't there, in the last century, a tool for windows to boot a linux kernel (yeah, I know this is OpenBSD) from windows, but I guess that was with win-dos. Googling the machine shows that the specs include an external floppy drive. If the OP could source one of those he could use floppy?.fs That costs the monies, though. Finding a USB-to-IDE converter is probably simpler and cheaper. -Nick
Re: How can i boot a bsd.rd from windows 2000 ?
Once upon a time there was a program called loadlin... I've used it a couple times. It was quite annoying when, by mistake, double clicked somewhere and, without further warning, a Linux distro was booting right in front of me. snip Wasn't there, in the last century, a tool for windows to boot a linux kernel (yeah, I know this is OpenBSD) from windows, but I guess that was with win-dos. snip
Re: How can i boot a bsd.rd from windows 2000 ?
Em Qua, 2007-10-10 C s 21:49 +0200, Christopher Bianchi escreveu: Hello everyone. My situation is this: i've a laptop, a Sharp pc-ax10 with Windows 2000 preinstalled , without cdrom, floppy. I wish install OpenBSD on it. Naturally bios can't boot from USB. So i've thinked to boot the bsd.rd , but how ? The faq explain the procedure from an older OpenBSD operating system... i've Windows 2000 on it. Is it possible ? and if is possible, in which way ? Where i must put the bsd.rd and in which way i can boot from him ? I've tried google, but nothing :-( Thanks for the attention Christopher Bianchi 1 - Use some free tool to create a new partition on your hard-disk, if you lose Win 2k bye-bye 2 - Install grub on Windows (*) and attach it's stage1 file to boot.ini(**) 3 - Add an entry to grub's menu.lst so it can boot bsd.rd from virtualy anywhere on your hd. (***) See: http://www.geocities.com/lode_leroy/grubinstall/ (***) menu.lst example: title OpenBSD Installer # Windows on the first partition of the first drive root (hd0,0) # Grub will found the file if compiled with fat/ntfs support kernel /boot/bsd.rd boot -- (**) boot.ini example: [boot loader] timeout=30 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=Microsoft Windows 200 Professional c:\boot\stage1=Grub - (*) grubinstall command line example: Run cmd.exe, them: c:\ grubinstall -d (hd0,0) -1 C:\boot\stage1 -2 C:\boot\stage2
Re: How can i boot a bsd.rd from windows 2000 ?
On 11/10/2007, Marcus Andree [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Once upon a time there was a program called loadlin... Relevancy link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loadlin
Re: How can i boot a bsd.rd from windows 2000 ?
Cool. Didn't noticed a version of grub that runs on windows. snip See: http://www.geocities.com/lode_leroy/grubinstall/ snip
How can i boot a bsd.rd from windows 2000 ?
Hello everyone. My situation is this: i've a laptop, a Sharp pc-ax10 with Windows 2000 preinstalled , without cdrom, floppy. I wish install OpenBSD on it. Naturally bios can't boot from USB. So i've thinked to boot the bsd.rd , but how ? The faq explain the procedure from an older OpenBSD operating system... i've Windows 2000 on it. Is it possible ? and if is possible, in which way ? Where i must put the bsd.rd and in which way i can boot from him ? I've tried google, but nothing :-( Thanks for the attention Christopher Bianchi
Re: How can i boot a bsd.rd from windows 2000 ?
On 10/10/07, Christopher Bianchi [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hello everyone. My situation is this: i've a laptop, a Sharp pc-ax10 with Windows 2000 preinstalled , without cdrom, floppy. I wish install OpenBSD on it. Naturally bios can't boot from USB. So i've thinked to boot the bsd.rd , but how ? The faq explain the procedure from an older OpenBSD operating system... i've Windows 2000 on it. Is it possible ? and if is possible, in which way ? Where i must put the bsd.rd and in which way i can boot from him ? I've tried google, but nothing :-( Thanks for the attention Can your BIOS boot from the network (PXE)? If you can set up a PXE server with pxeboot as the boot image then you can boot that way. Alternatively you can pull out the hard drive, plug it into a different computer or a USB-to-IDE converter, install there, and then put it back. -Nick
Re: How can i boot a bsd.rd from windows 2000 ?
Nick Guenther ha scritto: On 10/10/07, Christopher Bianchi [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hello everyone. My situation is this: i've a laptop, a Sharp pc-ax10 with Windows 2000 preinstalled , without cdrom, floppy. I wish install OpenBSD on it. Naturally bios can't boot from USB. So i've thinked to boot the bsd.rd , but how ? The faq explain the procedure from an older OpenBSD operating system... i've Windows 2000 on it. Is it possible ? and if is possible, in which way ? Where i must put the bsd.rd and in which way i can boot from him ? I've tried google, but nothing :-( Thanks for the attention Can your BIOS boot from the network (PXE)? If you can set up a PXE server with pxeboot as the boot image then you can boot that way. Alternatively you can pull out the hard drive, plug it into a different computer or a USB-to-IDE converter, install there, and then put it back. -Nick Thanks for the attention Nick, but 1) i can't boot from pxe ( damn Sharp ) and 2) i wish an elegance solution without pull out the hard disk. Thanks Chris
Re: How can i boot a bsd.rd from windows 2000 ?
On Wed, Oct 10, 2007 at 09:49:24PM +0200, Christopher Bianchi wrote: Hello everyone. My situation is this: i've a laptop, a Sharp pc-ax10 with Windows 2000 preinstalled , without cdrom, floppy. I wish install OpenBSD on it. Naturally bios can't boot from USB. So i've thinked to boot the bsd.rd , but how ? The faq explain the procedure from an older OpenBSD operating system... i've Windows 2000 on it. Is it possible ? and if is possible, in which way ? Where i must put the bsd.rd and in which way i can boot from him ? I've tried google, but nothing :-( I think that you can get grub separatly to install under windows. Grub will allow you to boot windows and any BSD (and of course any Linux). Perhaps that will help. Of course, have complete backups since if you mess up your bootloader, you won't be able to boot a rescue CD/USB. Basically, your problem is that you need a smarter bootloader. Doug.
Re: How can i boot a bsd.rd from windows 2000 ?
On 10/10/07, Christopher Bianchi [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Nick Guenther ha scritto: On 10/10/07, Christopher Bianchi [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hello everyone. My situation is this: i've a laptop, a Sharp pc-ax10 with Windows 2000 preinstalled , without cdrom, floppy. I wish install OpenBSD on it. Naturally bios can't boot from USB. So i've thinked to boot the bsd.rd , but how ? The faq explain the procedure from an older OpenBSD operating system... i've Windows 2000 on it. Is it possible ? and if is possible, in which way ? Where i must put the bsd.rd and in which way i can boot from him ? Can your BIOS boot from the network (PXE)? If you can set up a PXE server with pxeboot as the boot image then you can boot that way. Alternatively you can pull out the hard drive, plug it into a different computer or a USB-to-IDE converter, install there, and then put it back. -Nick Thanks for the attention Nick, but 1) i can't boot from pxe ( damn Sharp ) and 2) i wish an elegance solution without pull out the hard disk. Thanks If your hardware doesn't have a CD-ROM drive you're already in the land of inelegance. Just deal with it. -Nick
Re: How can i boot a bsd.rd from windows 2000 ?
On 10/10/2007, Christopher Bianchi [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Nick Guenther ha scritto: On 10/10/07, Christopher Bianchi [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hello everyone. My situation is this: i've a laptop, a Sharp pc-ax10 with Windows 2000 preinstalled , without cdrom, floppy. I wish install OpenBSD on it. Naturally bios can't boot from USB. So i've thinked to boot the bsd.rd , but how ? The faq explain the procedure from an older OpenBSD operating system... i've Windows 2000 on it. Is it possible ? and if is possible, in which way ? Where i must put the bsd.rd and in which way i can boot from him ? I've tried google, but nothing :-( Thanks for the attention Can your BIOS boot from the network (PXE)? If you can set up a PXE server with pxeboot as the boot image then you can boot that way. Alternatively you can pull out the hard drive, plug it into a different computer or a USB-to-IDE converter, install there, and then put it back. -Nick Thanks for the attention Nick, but 1) i can't boot from pxe ( damn Sharp ) and 2) i wish an elegance solution without pull out the hard disk. Thanks DISCLAIMER: I'm talking out my arse here, and I don't know if what you're hoping to do is even possible. That said, here are my thoughts on the matter: (1) The only way to hand off control from one operating system to another operating system is to make a program run exclusively (not preemptively multitasked ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preemption_%28computing%29#Pre-emptive_multitasking )) and with full access to the entire computer, including all of the memory (ie. outside of memory protection ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_protection )). (a) To use unix terminology, you would need to start the system in single user mode ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_user_mode ), and then you would need a program that can load the OpenBSD kernel and hand off control to it. In some very rare cases, programs like this do exist. I remember (unsuccessfully) trying to install NetBSD on an old Apple PowerBook 145B many moons ago. Because the firmware (ie. the BIOS) of this Motorola 68K based laptop did not support loading a non-Apple OS, the solution there was to load Mac OS 6 or 7.whatever, and then run a Mac OS program that would seize control of the entire machine and load NetBSD. (This would have worked, except that my machine had too little RAM and HDD space.) The old Mac OS was not a proper preemtive multitasking OS w/ memory-protection; and writing a program to load another OS from it was only possible because of these limitations. Windows 2000 however is built on NT (OS/2) technology and has memory protection and preemtive multitasking. No a program like that old NetBSD boot loader cannot exist for Windows. However, a kind of single user mode does exist for Windows 2000, it's called the recovery console ( http://support.microsoft.com/kb/229716 ). However, the recovery console is sadly not installed by default; you can either boot it from the Windows 2000 install CDs (which you say you can't boot), or it can be installed by running winnt32.exe /cmdcons. However, if the recovery console isn't already installed, then the Windows 2000 installation files probably aren't on your HDD either, and you'd then need to run winnt32.exe /cmdcons from the Windows 2000 install CD (which, again, you say you can't access). Even if you have the recovery console installed, I have no clue how to get custom programs installed into it. This might be extra hard to do, because, to quote Wikipedia: [The Recovery Console] is independent of the (...) operating system. And, to quote Annoyances.org: The Recovery Console looks like DOS, but it isn't DOS. I don't know if even a single non-MS program for the recovery console exists. That probably means that a BSD loader program that you could run from the recovery console is a (big fat opium-) pipe dream at best. (b) However, Windows OSes have a reputation of being not the most secure of operating systems. Hypothetically speaking, if you knew a kernel exploit and or virus/trojan that would allow you to insert arbitrary code for exclusive execution deep into the windows kernel, then you could theoretically use that type of vulnerability to write a BSD loader. Your best bet there may be to insert your boot loader early in the NT boot process by somehow patching either Ntdetect.com, NTLDR, or ntoskrnl.exe. (Cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ntoskrnl.exe , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTLDR , and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ntdetect.com .) This would of course quite possibly also wreck your Windows 2000 installation, except if the inserted code somehow presented the user a boot menu to select whether to load the BSD kernel or continue to load Windows. The way I've followed IT news for a while, I am fairly sure that no such program currently exists. I am unsure how involved it would be to write one, and I am not a programmer. (c) An almost certainly
