Baslinux mailing list

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

In addition to getting BL3 to work in RAM disk booted from hard drive, we 
now have a 2-floppy set.  bl3.gz on the second disk.
We modified the 2-floppy BL2 setup which we had made so that it boots into 
DOS 7.10, makes a 4MB ramdisk (using himem.sys and xmsdsk.exe) and copies 
all the files from the first disk to ramdisk (Z: drive) including 
autoexec.bat, config.sys, continue.bat, himem.sys and xmsdsk, then prompts 
you to put in disk2.  Continue.bat on disk2 copies over bl3.gz and then 
runs loadlin and it boots into BL3 and I am using it now.

Unlike Bl2 2-floppy, you don't need to split up bl3.gz into two parts 
because it is so far only 1.13MB.

The first disk is a 720K, the second a 1.44.  They don't need to be 
perfect as you are not writing disk images.  Format with DOS.  Sys the 
first disk.

When we clean up autoexec.bat and continue.bat a bit (there are lots of 
rem's in there) I can post them here if anyone wants.  You need to start 
with a boot disk and we picked 7.10 because it works on all our computers 
(and would also work with Xvesa).

I forgot to modify links.cfg but will do that later after putting on 
seejpeg and libvga.config and the library(s) for svgalib from SW3 or 4. I 
was using about 2MB RAM with links-0.90 and pppd and two terminals. On a 
computer with 8MB RAM I think I should have 3MB or so to work in, plus 1MB 
for kernel and 4MB ramdisk if I fill it with files - is that right?

I bet links2 will work, tho a bit slowly.  To get swap space would I just 
type swapon -a to use the swap file after mounting the DOS directory where 
it resides?



On Wed, 15 Dec 2004, sindi keesan wrote:

> I have compiled a BL2-type version of BL3 with bl3.gz on a floppy disk, which 
> file I copied to the baslin directory on another computer and I am using it 
> to dial, telnet, and type this mail at a shell account.
>
> 1.  Stuck in disk1 of BL3 2-floppy version and booted.
> 2.  Deleted anything to do with X, games (there was one), pcmcia, also e3vi 
> which is 12K and is not a link to e3pi.  I left setleds.
>
> umount /usr/X11R6 - I probably should have left it for use as a /tmp and just 
> deleted files from it later.
>
> I tried doing dd if=/dev/ram1 and got a lot of garbage and did a reset.
> What is this supposed to accomplish?
>
> I started with 2060 bytes used in ram0 and 1945 free.
>
> I then inserted disk2, mounted it to /fd, and pkg disk2.tgz.
> Since there was no ram1 after it ran out of space, but I had already 
> installed the modules.  I deleted X again.
>
> I copied disk2.tgz to hard drive and unpackaged it there and noticed that it 
> contains modules and X and links and another game.
>
> I now had links and the modules in ram0.  I deleted the pcmcia and ethernet 
> modules to make a Bl3 suitable for a very old laptop with 4-bit greyscale 
> that won't be very useful with X anyway and can't do X in 8MB in RAMdisk.
>
> I then stuck in an empty 1.44MB DOS floppy disk and mounted it.
> cat /dev/ram0|gzip > /fd/bl3.gz
>
> After a few minutes I ended up with bl3.gz on floppy disk, which I copied
> to the baslin directory on another computer.  I looked at the boot.bat from 
> Bl2 and typed while in baslin
>
> loadlin zimage root=/dev/ram initrd=bl3.gz rw
>
> This is rw, whereas BL2 requires ro, otherwise this is the same as the bl2 
> boot.bat
>
> It booted, told me to insert disk2, I typed Ctrl-C, then Enter, and then 
> remembered I had forgotten to run pppsetup before making bl3.gz.
>
> I did not bother to delete ram1 on this computer since there is enough RAM 
> leftover (16M total).
>
> I have 2435 MB of files in ram0.  There should be space for links2 but I 
> don't know if I will have enough RAM for it since links-0.90 cannot list the 
> contents of disk2.tgz on that laptop right now.
>
> I could have left the second 2.5MB ramdisk and made bl3.gz on that, but it 
> did fit into 1.13MB on the floppy disk and this way I had more RAM to work 
> in.  I don't know which way would have been faster - gzip to floppy after 
> copying to ram1 (2435 bytes should have just barely fit, but won't if I add 
> links2).
>
> If links2 does not fit on the second floppy disk in bl3.tgz I can put it, 
> with a library file or two from svgalib and seejpeg and the correct config 
> file to utilize them, on another floppy disk, such as the DOS boot disk onto 
> which I will put loadlin and zimage. I will then have a BL3 2-floppy set 
> which boots with loadlin (except on three of my computers which don't boot 
> with loadlin) and functions pretty much like BL2 2-floppy except for having a 
> smaller kernel, smaller libraries, and hopefully links2 (which I needed today 
> to order glasses online because of javascript).
>
> Links runs out of memory on the laptop when I go to the /fd and type d and 
> right arrow at disk2.tgz.  I probably won't get very far trying to run it in 
> 4MB RAM.  How would I go about adding swap-space to a BL3 that is running in 
> RAMdisk?  I could copy over the loop-version swap file to the hard drive of a 
> computer (from floppy disk containing the zip file and pkunzip), but how do I 
> instruct Bl3 to use it?  swapon?
>
> This 2-floppy set could be used on a friend's computer while visiting. Just 
> add a non-winmodem.  Modem plus 2 floppies is much more portable than laptop 
> plus external keyboard plus modem.
>
> I know the regular BL3 2-floppy set would also work but it is not easily 
> modified and does not have links2, and BL2 2-floppy set is easily modified 
> but the links2 for BL2 is enormous (from delilinux).  I might also add 
> minicom since Kermit is too large and microcom does not like my bbs, and even 
> photopc (if we get seejpeg going) which we currently have on a DOS bootdisk 
> (for downloading from a digital camera with serial cable). I can delete more 
> manpages if I need space, and store them on floppy disk.
>
> Joel ought to be able to do something similar with BL3 in order to use his 
> (laptop?) computer without a hard drive but with pcmcia wireless, just change 
> to the correct modules for his kernel, add the wireless module, remove 
> anything he is sure not to use so that it will fit on a floppy disk2 and put 
> loadlin and the 2.2.26 kernel on disk1.  You could even do this with 1.2MB 
> floppy disks.
>
> Why not just use the laptop with its wireless networking to connect to a 
> desktop computer that has a browser already on it instead of running links 
> from the laptop?
>
> More details when I get seejpeg and links2 into the package or into a second 
> package.  I could just put Steven's links2 package on the first disk.
>
> Magic.
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keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org