Baslinux mailing list

[Matrix Mole <matrixm AT sdf.lonestar.org>]

Late reply but the weekend was a busy one.

On Fri, 23 Apr 2004, Sindi Keesan wrote:

> For some reason there was a line 'bootgui=1' even tho this is also
> default.  I found bootgui=0 in a book written about Win95 for people who
> would rather still be using just DOS, along with 'boot from floppy disk'
> and 'hit F8' and a few other suggestions for avoiding Windows.

I should have mentioned. That's the primary method of preventing the
windows GUI from starting. I've got that in my BL box right now so that
when it boots, it finishes the autoexec and then (as the last line of
autoexec) it transfers control over to my linux boot batch file.

> I have used Windows defrag to defrag Windows, but booted with an MS DOS
> 6.22 boot disk to defrag the DOS partition, which is FAT16 (so that we can
> defrag without Windows).  It helps to get everything including scheduler
> out of the system tray.  I would not want to run defrag every time Windows
> starts.

Actually, the way the defrag on startup works is that you place the line
in HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServicesOnce and then
it only executes the next time windows starts that it's in there, and
after it execuites, it removes the entry from that registry position. With
the defrag command in there (need a few switches as well) it will execute
the defrag prior to loading anything else into memory (after the GUI is
loaded of course). This way, there is no need for the disks to be
accessed, and tit prevents the restarts of defrag under the gui. Using the
DOS622 defrag on the DOS drive isn't a problem, but don't use it on any
drive with long filename. It will destroy the long filename (leaving them
permanently in their ??????~# format). I found that out the hard way back
in Win95 when I first upgraded it. I rebooted to previous dos version to
use my 622 defrag since it was so much faster. Had to re-install 95
because I destroyed the LFNs and windows couldn't work anymore.

> > If you've added the hdb1 after installing the system, you'll have to
> > manually move everything from hda2 onto hdb1. I've never actually added a
> > new partition in this method myself, so I don't know how to get the files
> > from hda2 onto hdb1 if the moutnt points are named seperately. Maybe the
> > send/receive capability (boot BL-Ram version, mount hda2 under /hd and
> > hdb1 under /tmp and transfer everything from /hd/usr to /tmp perhaps).
>
> This sounds like it could cause problems since the libraries are in /usr
> and if you move them to /tmp then you cannot access them.  I had better
> stick with either a single partition, or use the second partition for
> something other than /usr or /bin.

Well, what happens is that since your using the ramdrive version, the hda2
/usr directory isn't in use (nor ar the libraries in it). Once you've
transferred the hda2 /usr directory structure to hdb1 /usr you edit the
fstab on hda1 (/hd/etc while still under ramdrive) and add the mount to
/dev/hdb1 to mount under /usr and when the system looks in /usr it will
find the files that exist on hdb1 as being in that location. I'll try to
draw an ascii diagram of what's happening:

                                  / (root partition on hda2)
                                  |
                      -------------------------
                      |     |     |     |     |
                     /bin  /etc  /var  /sbin /usr

That's how linux will see the filesystem, even though the files in /usr
are actually on hdb2. So it shouldn't create problems with the libraries
in /usr not being found since the system will see the libraries in /usr as
they should be.

> We are looking at partition manager and it can be used to shrink (don't
> know about enlarging) a partition but you have to defragment first and you
> can't do that in DOS.  I had better no plan on resizing partitions.  But
> we might give this one try with a test linux drive and report what
> happens, if anything.  Or maybe use partition magic instead.

I would recocmend partition resizer. It can shrink and enlarge partitions,
and it can work on just about all filesystem types as well.

-- 
Matrix Mole
matrixm AT sdf.lonestar.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org