Baslinux mailing list

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

On Sat, 19 Feb 2005, David Moberg wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "sindi keesan" <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>
>
> > I am thinking of not putting Win98 back at all, and switching to FreeDOS.
> > Have you managed to get FreeDOS emm386 to work with loadlin?  It
> > looked complicated.
>
> I don't use FreeDOS, except in DOSEMU or a similar emulator, so don't
> look here for help. Can't you boot using a bootloader or bootdisk?

I can but I want to be able to boot with loadlin.  I use DOS for 
wordprocessing and then linux to email my file.  I tried dosemu with WP51 
and the current version only works under X and in linux the TTL monitor 
won't show underlines or bold properly and I don't like WP in color.
I don't want to have to reboot to use a bootloader to go from DOS to 
linux.

> > I did not attempt to write anything to the DOS partition table from linux.
> > So what might have caused the DOS (hda) partition table to mess up?
>
> Many possibilites, here's a few:
> - partition software malfunction
> - buggy operating system
Which one - Win98? 
> - some odd software, like the 2002 (I believe) version of TurboTax
> writes to the partition table
I have recently added to Win98 only Ghostscript - would that do it?
> - botched bootloader installation (bootloader goes in same general
> sector)
Don't use bootloader.

Someone else thought that attempting to mount the FAT32 partition with 
BL2, which does not support vfat (FAT32), could have caused the problem.

It is NOT Monkey B - I just checked.

> > > A reformat is probably your easiest option for healing the damage.
> > > You need a midlevel format. Boot into the floppy version of BL,
> > > make sure no hard drive partitions are mounted, then run
> > >
> > > dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hdx
> >
> > Does this mean I am overwriting the hdx (hda) partition table with nulls?
>
> Yup (and everything else on hda, so be warned).
>
> > Is there any backup copy of it I could try to access instead,
> > somewhere on the disk?
>
> Not to my knowledge. If there's a backup copy, it will likely be
> in a nonstandard place. Check your partition tool documentation.
> If there's no mention of a backup you can assume there is none.
> Finding it will be worse than the proverbial needle in a haystack.
Okay.  I give up.  I can simply copy over all but Win98 from the other 
computer.

> > Partition with linux or FreeDOS fdisk, format with DOS format? Is
> > there some advantage to linux fdisk even for DOS?  MS DOS fdisk I
> > think will only make one partition but FreeDOS makes four.  We have
> > been using Partition Magic - does this also mid-level format?
>
> Don't know about Partition Magic. Can it help repair the part. table?
It will delete all the partitions - is that good enough?  But so will 
fdisk, I think.

> You should use plain old ms/dr/pc-dos fdisk, since DOS has trouble
> with primary partitions according to James. Use it to set up the
> partitions as it sees fit. Then you can reformat one or more of those
> partitions with mke2fs or similar to make it into a linux partition.

My linux drive is okay, this is the DOS/Win98 drive and I will only need 
to put on four FAT16 partitions, which I could do with FreeDOS fdisk (then 
format with FreeDOS).

> >  Would DOS fdisk also be able to wipe out the partition table?
>
> It just modifies the existing one I think.

Oh, did not know that.  It asks if I want to 'Delete partition'. Maybe 
Partition Magic can actually delete it.  I will try dd.

> > Is the partition table something near the start of the disk like the
> > boot sector?
>
> Yes. According to the Microsoft knowledge base, it starts in the first
> sector at offset 0x01BE. That would be 446 bytes past the beginning of
> the disk.
>
> > Linux seems to keep several backup copies of the
> > equivalent.

> Are you thinking of the superblock? That's completely different.
Yes.  I fixed linux one time by using another copy of it.
(But I think that was on the hard drive that was going bad and died).

> > I was hoping not to have to reinstall Win98 but I do have it on its
> > own computer and can drag it out if I need to view a WORD file.  I
> > no longer need Win98 for the scanner or CD burner.  Do you know of
> > some way to install Win98 so that it will do nothing except run the
> > WORD viewer program and print with it?  How small can it be made?
>
> You're probably stuck with the "Compact" install option, unless you
> want to do a lot of hacking to the system files, which is very hard
> and time-consuming.

I did custom last time and then deleted junk all over the place having to 
do with MSN and AOL and tours and icons.  Tons of icons for signing up 
with MSN.  Ugh.  I will use it on its own computer - we might have some 
way to share a monitor.

I wish Windows was copyable like DOS and linux.

Steven, is it possible that my mounting FAT32 with BL2 (or BL3) could have 
caused the problem?  I thought mount automatically detected the file 
system type, or does it just assume msdos if it is not linux?  How do 
other people handle combination Win32/linux setups?

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