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  • From: Nomdo Jansonius <nomdo AT dds.nl>
  • To: <baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Cc:
  • Subject: Re: [BL] basiclinux doesn't like abiword? >> I downloaded abiword from the basiclinux add-on page.
  • Date: Sat, 03 Jan 2004 14:07:00 +100

>What software are you using to download it?

Arachne 1.70 rev 3 (the latest -or last?- version published by Michael
Polak). I downloaded all BL files with Arachne (including the 17 Mb
Netscape 4.73 from Slackware 7.1), and everything works fine.

>> I put it in a DOS drive called temp (a small partition on my HD)

>How small?

About 90 Mb. This drive was also used to transport Netscape into BL, and
also the 70 Mb OpenOffice file. No problems.

>> that is mounted in basiclinux as /dos.

>What is the exact command you use to mount it?

By editing /etc/fstab, the drive is permanently mounted in /dos. This is
my BL1 /etc/fstab:

/dev/hda3 / ext2 defaults 1 1
/dev/hda4 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/hda6 /dos msdos defaults 1 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0

and this is my BL2 /etc/fstab:

/dev/hdb1 / ext2 defaults 1 1
/dev/hdb2 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/hda6 /dos msdos defaults 1 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0

I have two HD's: HD1 has a primary DOS partition (c:), an extended DOS
partition with three drives (e: f: g:), a linux native (hda3), and a
linux swap (hda4). My DOS drive "temp" that is used to communicate with
BL is hda6 (f:). HD2 has one DOS partition (d:), a linux native (hdb1),
and a linux swap (hdb2). BL1 is on hda3/4, BL2 is on hdb1/2.

>> When I start basiclinux and look in /dos then the
>> file is there but its size is marked as 0 bytes.

>We need to back up a step. Before you leave DOS, have
>a look at the file. Check the size. Make a copy and
>check the size of both.

I have a back up of all my files on both HD's (in drives d: and e:). The
file abiword.tgz (I saved it as abiword.tgz because abiword-106s.tgz is
too long for DOS 8+3) is 7077510 bytes after download.

>> Back in DOS, the file indeed has been reduced to 0 bytes.

>Something weird is definitely going on. It might be
>useful to figure out when exactly the file drops to
>zero bytes.

Probably already during boot: in BL I only did three steps:

1) login as root
2) cd /dos
3) dir

Then the file has already been reduced to 0 bytes.

>> I did see this problem (i.e. disappearing files in a DOS
>> partition

>Which version of DOS are you using? What is the history
>of that partition? I suppose it is an extended partition?
>Was it created from empty space on the harddrive or did
>you have to "steal" space from C: ? How was it formatted?

DR-DOS 7.02. As outlined above, the drive (f:/hda6) is part of the
extended partition. When decided to use BL in addition to DOS, I started
from nothing: I used DR-DOS fdisk to make primary and extended DOS
partitions, occupying 200 Mb and 400 Mb of my 1.2 Gb HD. Then I used
RAM-disk BL and BL-fdisk to make linux native and swap partitions in the
remaining 600 Mb.

>> that is mounted in BL

>What filesystem type?

I don't know. Probably fat16 for DOS and ext2 for BL?

>> once BL deleted my command.com...

>I would be surprise if BasicLinux did that all by itself.
>However, I supposed that might be possible if there is
>something seriously weird about your C:.

Well, that might be a mistake by myself.

>> With abiword, however, it occurs repeatedly and I do
>> not manage to get it in BL at all.

>AbiWord is probably the largest single file you have
>worked with. It could be the size that is triggering
>the effect. However, let me emphasize that what is
>happening to you is not normal. Something is buggy
>in your setup. I frequently move stuff between my DOS
>and Linux partitions and have never had the slightest
>problem, even with very large files.

Netscape (17 Mb) and OpenOffice (70 Mb) were larger. I also frequently
move files between DOS and BL using f: (/dos) without any problem. For
example, for printing from BL, I save it as a file called output.ps in
/dos, and subsequently print it from DOS using GhostScript (more easily
to set up in DOS than in linux). Possibly, the 0 bytes problem seems to
be limited to .tgz files? Again, the problem seems very persistent with
abiword, but has definitely happened before with other .tgz files.
Finally, I tried gzip abiword.tgz -d in DOS yielding a 15 Mb abiword.tar
which was also reduced to 0 bytes by BL!.

Thanks, Nomdo




  • Re: [BL] basiclinux doesn't like abiword? >> I downloaded abiword from the basiclinux add-on page., Nomdo Jansonius, 01/03/2004

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