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[Sindi Keesan <keesan AT iamjlamb.com>]

I ran make_fd on a third computer(Compaq 500MHz that used to have a reset 
problem until I fixed that with a command).

First I deleted part2 from the second floppy disk.  Dir told me I now only 
had 1,296,384 bytes free.  I had just reformatted thedisk before trying to 
install BL2 floppy version using compuer #2 and it was 100% good 1,457,... 
bytes free).  Odd.  I reformatted again and got 1,457.

I ran make_fd which seemed to do okay.

I tried to boot with these disks.  Loaded disk1, I inserted disk 2 and hit 
the space bar.  

c:part1  -I saw the floppy disk light go on for a second and then
nothing else happened.  After a few minutes I tried again, made new disks, 
and had the same problem.

I cannot get make_fd to work on three linux computers for BL2.1.

1.  Messes up disk1.
2.  Won't write to disk2, says it is full.  If I reformat it writes but 
then won't load disk2.  At some point disk2 gets screwed up and has only 
1.30 instead of 1.46 MB when I do dir in DOS.
 3.  Writes to both disks but won't even start to load part2.

These computers are:
1.  Pentium I with Cyrix 6x86 P200+ (150MHz which tests to the equivalent 
of Intel 133) DFI motherboard 
2.  Intel 166MHz
3.  Compaq Pentium II 500MHz.  AMD cpu.  

For some reason(s) these were all free computers.  

No. 1 once in while needs to be powered on more than once or it won't boot
but that has not happened for a month already.  It crashes if you try to 
install Win98 at 166MHz, will install it at 150MHz but crashes with Opera.

No. 3 was at the curb with a CD-R drive that won't play music, and no
floppy drive, and Redhat (probably having reset problems). Had a reset
problem in basiclinux fixed with hdparam line in rc.S specifying some
number.


No. 2, board found at the curb, voltage jumpers were set halfway to 2.8
and halfway to 3.3 and we fixed them by setting them all to 3.5 when we
changed cpus (should have been set to 3.3 for Intel 133).  Board is 
clearly labelled for this.  It worked with the wrong settings just fine.

I made the working Bl2.0 floppy disks on a 486 with pentium overdrive cpu.

I have been able to transfer tgz files between computers 2 and 3.  I was 
not able to read a disk made on 2 using 1 (which won't install Windows).

Perhaps this make_fd program only works on 486s?  I presume that is what 
Steven tested it on.

Has anyone used it on a pentium successfully?

Maybe all of ours have some hardware problem that only affects them when 
using linux to write/read linux files?

Is the older version still available?  I replaced it on all my machines.  
Would it work with BL2.1?



On Sun, 25 Jan 2004, Sindi Keesan wrote:

> On Sun, 25 Jan 2004, Sindi Keesan wrote:
> 
> > Today I tried, after making a floppy disk version of BL2 on this machine, 
> > to boot from it.
> 
> (The machine would not copy Xvesa from a floppy disk recently and it won't 
> install Win98).
> 
> 
> A floppy disk version of BL 2.0 worked fine in this machine.
> 
> So I took the BL2.1 disks from this machine to another machine and they 
> did not work there either.  Disk 1 loaded halfway I think - anyway disk 1 
> did not work.  So I redid DIsk 1 (ran the make-fd program halfway and then 
> rebooted) and tried this pair of disks again.  This time it got stuck on 
> Disk2 - COmpressed image found at block 0 - and nothing else happened.
> 
> 
> I tried to remake bothdisks but it copied something to disk2 and told me 
> disk full.  I had deleted all previous files and it was 100% good last I 
> formatted but I formatted again to be sure.  This time it seemed to copy 
> all the files but when I tried to boot from these disks it told me for 
> disk 2:  Data error reading A.  So I started over with a different disk 2.
> 
> This time it also told me disk full so I did a full rather than a quick 
> format on it.  format /u.  I got 100% good.
> 
> I tried to make_fd and again was told disk full 0 files copied.
> 
> (the first time on the first machine this may have happened without me 
> noticing it).
> 
> So the first machine made a bad disk1 and they are both having trouble 
> copying to freshly formatted 100% good 1.44MB floppy disks that have no 
> files on them - disk full, or it seems to copy but then won't load.
> 
> Has anyone other than Steven used his new make_fd program from BL2.1 with 
> better luck than this?  
> 
> The second linux computer has been doing everything perfectly up to now,
> unless you count the fact that the first one (DFI) could not read a floppy 
> disk created by the second one.  Do I have two computers that will not let 
> me write to floppy disks with linux?  
> 
> I have BL2.1 on a third computer and will test it some day. I was able to 
> write linux files to floppy with it that ran in another linux computer.
> 
> In the meantime I will take very good care of my BL2.0 floppy disks.
> 
> 
> > Half of this disk has now been loaded.  (This is Disk 1, with three files)
> > 
> > General Failure Error reading drive A
> > 
> > Abort, retry, ...., fail
> > 
> > I typed f for fail.
> > 
> > At this point Steven's program ignored the failure and told me anyway to:
> > 
> > Insert DISK2.  
> > Strike any key when ready.
> > 
> > I did this to see what would happen and got
> > 
> > Divide overflow.
> > 
> > 
> > Is this a motherboard problem of some sort?
> > 
> > I will eventually replace this computer with a few others but would like 
> > to learn from my problem.
> > 
> > I will try another set of BL2 floppy disks in this computer, and this set 
> > in another computer, and report back unless I get the predicted outcome 
> > of 
> > nothing working on this computer and everything working on another 
> > computer.
> > 
> > I was going to use floppy disk BL2 in a laptop with working floppy drive 
> > to download BL1.  Someone just gave us a 33K external modem.  Then we can 
> > transfer (via DOS llpro or linux plip and another computer which does 
> > have a CD-ROM drive) the .tgz files from the SW3.5 CD.
> > 
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> > 
> 
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