Baslinux mailing list

[Nomdo Jansonius <nomdo AT dds.nl>]

   >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