Baslinux mailing list

[sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>]

Summary of problems to date:

I have BL3.32 in loop running on several computers, including a Gateway 
with Win98 and one hard drive.  It will NOT work on another Gateway, same 
board (but slightly faster cpu) with Win98, both SE, but this other one 
has two hard drives.  Different brands of hard drive, no other differences 
that I know of, PII Slot1, MMX Intel cpus. 233 and 300MHz.

BL2 works from RAMdisk or ext2 partition with loadlin.
BL3 works (3.21 and 3.32) from floppy disks (lilo).

I tried F5 to bypass system files - did not help.
I booted from a Win98 rescue disk (without CD-ROM support) - no help.

This hard drive was probably formatted with PQ-MAGIC, not with 
DR-DOS because it has hda2 and hda3 as D and E not backwards.
The one that came out backwards was formatted wtih DR-DOS and has Win98FE 
on it.

I tried booting from floppy disk with DR-DOS 7.03, FreeDOS, and 
MSDOS-6.22, and in all three cases the loop version works.  If I boot with 
Win98SE DOS it gives me a kernel panic, 100% of the time.

So now I have one computer that will not work with BL3 loop unless I use 
some DOS (booting from floppy disk) other than Win98SE DOS (have not tried 
FE or 95), and the other computer that half of the time will not work with 
any linux ('Not an image file' it says - for RAM, HD or loop linuxes) 
unless I DO boot (from floppy disk) using Win9X DOS (DR MS6.22 and PC 
don't work nor does FreeDOS according to Hal on his similar board).

If I use Win98X DOS to boot I need to boot without system files to do 
Xvesa.  I would not bother with Win98 on this computer except I cannot
get Realaudio to work with linux and have yet compiled gs for pdf 1.5.

Perhaps I should move the Windows hard drive to the other computer which 
needs Win98 to boot linux, which would give me DR-DOS on this computer to 
let me use the loop BL3.  Perhaps if I promise never to move this 
furniture again my partner will open up the two computers and switch 
drives, except Windows tends to go crazy when you move it.  Perhaps if I
move the sound card and video card?  One is a PI and one a PII - any 
suggestions as to whether this would destroy Windows?  No ISA slot for my 
TTL card in the Gateway but we have one external modem.......

Phooey on Windows.

Right now I need to keep a spare boot disk in A: to (1) use BL3 loop or 
Xvesa with the Win98SE computer or (2) to be sure I can boot into any 
linux with the other DR-DOS computer.  This is no worse than taking off my 
glasses to read and losing them all the time.   I could tie the boot 
disks to a string and hang them on the wall.


Final summary:

People should be warned that the loop BL3 may not work on certain 
computers with Win9X DOS and to try a different DOS.

I have not yet installed to HD but I expect that to work okay.

I will see if linux unzip works any better on this Win98SE computer.

keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org