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Re: [BL] FreeDOS defrag vs Win98

From: sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>
To: baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [BL] FreeDOS defrag vs Win98
Date: Sat, 27 Nov 2004 18:58:12 +0000 (UTC)

Thanks. FreeDOS defrag seems to work without 'permissions' from Windows but destroyed a lot of files. I read that defragd.exe can defrag LFN's okay.

We got MS-DOS 7.10 and installed it to one drive that had Win98 on it and now Win98 won't boot - but if you make one change in msdos.sys (?) it will boot and then it is back to using its own DOS again. I think we will stick with defragging with Win98 on computers where we have Windows but put 7.10 on most other computers.

7.10 works on ALL our computers so far. If you have Win98 on already, it assigns the drive letters correctly when you boot from 7.10 floppy disk. If you have DR-DOS on there and boot from 7.10 floppy, it moves over all the drive letters by one and uses C: for autoexec.bat and config.sys (the original C: becomes D:, etc.) but linux will boot (on a computer where it would not boot with loadlin after a DR-DOS boot- which by now is three DFIs, one ASUS but the other is okay, and one Gateway but the other two are okay).

We have not yet tried sys'ing the DFIs with DR-DOS to 7.10 to see if it finds drives correctly but we have high hopes for it.

We ran into some odd problems with FreeDOS. On two Gateways (have not checked the third) you cannot load dos=high with it or the boot crashes. Something about himem.exe. Also one of the Gateways will not read drives that were changed from DR-DOS to FreeDOS but reads them if you reformat (PQMAGIC) and then put FreeDOS on fresh. We tried three drives. So FreeDOS is definitely still beta. It also calls the only DOS partition hda4.

MS-DOS 6 has Xvesa troubles and is about 10 years old.

So far 7.10 seems like the most predictable DOS - will work on all our computers, and we hope it works with Xvesa like Win98 DOS does. It is supposed to handle long file names and fat32 but we have not tried that either.

Has anyone else had any bad experiences with 7.10 and BL or other linux?

MS-DOS 7.10 FREEDOS DR-DOS 7 command.com - 94K 65K 66K io.sys - 126K msdos.sys - 237 bytes
himem.sys - 33K 8K (himem.exe) 15K
46K kernel.sys

7.10 probably would still not be a good choice for the Bl2 2-floppy set due to the size of the system files. FreeDOS might work - we will check it out some day. It leaves the largest amount of free lower memory:

Memory usage (not disk usage, but after booting 'mem' command)
DOS XMS command Free lower RAM
Freedos 15K 2K 2K 618
DR-DOS 18K 5K 0 614
7.10 176K ! 1K 599

7.10 has loaded EMMQXXX0 (0K), $$CAM000 (16K) and HPSCAN (5K).
I have no idea how it knew I have an hp scanner attached (but turned off). Or what the *CAM* thing is about.
The boot disk has one 1.4MB .pak file and one diskvol.txt.
Perhaps this can be set up to work without long files names and to occupy less RAM.

FreeDOS seems like a better bet if you want to use large DOS programs, but it won't work on my Gateways properly and linux won't boot from it on four of my computers.

I would like to hear from other people who have used 7.10 and FreeDOS.

On Sat, 27 Nov 2004, Sebas wrote:

I've got a defrag application that defrags any DOS version. It can destroy
your LNF system. But if you haven't any, then nothing should happen. It is
designed to work even without permissions. I don't remember where I got it.
I'll have a look...

Salut.
Sebas.

----- Original Message -----
From: "sindi keesan" <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>
To: <baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Saturday, November 27, 2004 12:30 AM
Subject: RE: [BL] FreeDOS defrag vs Win98

On Fri, 26 Nov 2004, Jim Howard wrote:

There is a version of MS-DOS that will run without Win98. It is called
MS-DOS 7.10 . Someone got permission from Microsoft to GNU GPL license

it. I

run it on my system and it appears to work fine. I was trying to locate

the

url where I downloaded it from. You might do a search on the internet

for

it.

james

I am looking for a way to use Win98 DOS without needing to use Win98, on

a

DOS/linux computer, that will let me defrag without having to boot some
other DOS from a floppy disk first.

After much searching I found:

http://newdos.yginfo.net/msdos71/index.htm

You can download a boot disk .img file, or a pair of installation files
(the first is 1.2MB, the second probably similar) for MS-DOS 7.10.

I found another site that said you may not be able to defrag your hard
drive with the defrag from 7.10 and would be told this is to protect long
file names. Perhaps this is only if you have long file names (I don't
outside of linux partitions). In this case they suggest using
defragd.exe instead.

I already put Win98 on the ASUS that would not boot linux without Win9X,
but I have three other computers with the same problem, on which to try
7.10. One is still in use with linux on it. They are my favorites -
233MHz and 3 ISA slots. Many thanks!

I think there is no Xvesa problem with 7.10 - probably only if you use
smartdrv.exe, as in Win98. So this and FreeDOS and DR-DOS should all
work with BL and Xvesa.

7.10 supports 32bit and long file names but the defrag from it does not.

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Re: [BL] Re: My computers have gone crazy , (continued)