Baslinux mailing list

[Sindi Keesan <keesan AT iamjlamb.com>]

On Sun, 1 Feb 2004 3aoo-cvfd AT dea.spamcon.org wrote:

> Sindi Keesan wrote:
> >
> > How would you fix the bad clusters on our disks?  We can't.  
> > They seem to be physical damage.
> 
> What fdimage has done, it should be able to undo.  Just
> get a floppy image file (eg. from the rootdsks directory
> of a Slackware CDrom) and write it to the unusable floppy 
> using fdimage.  Make sure you get an image that fills the
> entire floppy (1474560).

We will try this.  Jim has been busy seeing how small he can make the DOS 
RAMdisk but I just informed him that was irrelevant since it goes away.  
Like a true dyslexic, he tends to get stuck on things.

> > I might put something in a readme.txt file explaining 
> > how to make a larger ramdisk by editing autoexec.bat 
> > (is that the way to do it?) 
> 
> No, that won't work.  The maximum size of the ramdisk (4mb)
> is fixed inside the kernel.  You can set a smaller ramdisk,
> but not a larger one.

How about it making 3 4M RAMdisks instead of two?  How do you tell it how 
many RAM disks to make?

> > 
> I've been around and around this floppy thing for years.  It
> has been responsible for more version changes than any other
> single item in BasicLinux.  I'm very sorry that my small image 
> file has apparently caused you some problems (although I do 
> note that some of the Slackware disk images also do not fill 
> the entire floppy).  I will address that issue by providing a 
> full-size image file.  Hopefully, that will be the last I hear 
> about floppy problems.

No need to be sorry.  It was much more interesting having a slightly 
broken program than a working one as we learned a lot about how things 
work.  

> > > I used to have endless problems when make_fd.bat relied 
> > > upon people formatting their own floppies.
> > 
> > Problems of users not knowing how to do this?  
> 
> There were some problems with that, but the biggest problem
> was people who used Windows machines to format the floppies.
> In many cases this left insufficient spare room on the first
> floppy for the necessary files.

Windows is currently putting in drvspace.bin but with your 2-floppy system 
with 1.2M per floppy there is still enough space.   People who format wiht 
Windows could be instructed how to unhide drvspace.bin and remove it.
What else has Windows crammed onto a boot disk?
  
> Why would people want to put more programs in a DOS ramdisk
> that disappears the instant loadlin boots zimage?

I thought we were talking about the size of the linux RAM disk. You have 
since explained that this is not the case.


> > does the presence of a CD-ROM drive affect the drive letter 
> > of the RAM disk?  
> 
> I don't think so.  Don't CDrom drives need to be specifically
> activated in config.sys/autoexec.bat ?  

I don't know.  I don't usually have them in my computers since DOS 
programs fit on floppy disks.  CMOS recognizes them.

Jim will probably finish putting together a modified version of your 
program for making floppy disks that works on our imperfect disks and 
share it with those clever enough to make their own boot disks.  So people 
will have a choice of your improved program or his modification.  He is 
having fun and learning a lot.  

> 
> Cheers,
> Steven
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