Baslinux mailing list

["David Moberg" <davidjmoberg AT lycos.com>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "sindi keesan" <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>
 
> I have one keyboard that works in DOS but on at least one computer 
> it works in DOS but in BL2 nothing happens when you press any key.  
> So I was going to try it with another linux, in this case 
> DamnSmallLinux on bootable CD-ROM.  Even with CMOS set to boot from 
> CD-ROM, A, C it goes into DOS on the hard drive instead of booting. 
>   I can look at files on the CD.  Maybe the list member who gave us 
> this CD-ROM did not make it bootable as promised.

Or maybe your BIOS doesn't think it's a CDROM drive? You may need to
adjust settings to autodetect or hardcode in the fact that it's a CD
drive.

> In the Knoppix directory of it is a boot.img file.  How would I use 
> BL2 or BL3 to write this to a floppy disk and then what to I do 
> with it, assuming it is possible to boot from this boot disk to DSL 
> afterwards?    The batch file to make floppy boot disk uses rawrite 
> so I could get that for DOS but I would like to learn to do this in 
> linux.    Do I use dd somehow?

Assuming a low-level formatted floppy is in a drive at /dev/fd0, and
it's formatted to the proper size (e.g. 1440K) you just do dd if=file
of=/dev/fd0. If it's not formatted right you need to use fdformat. All
the rest should be handled automatically if the CD is in a standard
drive.

> I could not find any mention of my keyboard problem - other people 
> only had problems after running certain software, or in X.  There 
> was mention of 'faulty hardware' and someone lost their USB 
> keyboard and mouse at the same time.  I cannot 'check if mouse 
> works' because I don't have gpm mouse.  I suppose I could put 
> something in rc.S to load links -g to test the svga mouse.  (Using 
> a different keyboard to type the change).
> Other suggestions were to type stty echo or reset - don't know if 
> this would accomplish anything if the keyboard is not sending 
> characters.
> 
> All three green keyboard lights go on when I boot linux.
> 
> I don't need this keyboard, just curious what is happening.  Also, 
> this computer is our only one so far that won't boot with FreeDOS.  
> Might it have a problem of some sort in the BIOS?

The BL2 FAQ appears have a similar problem listed--apparently you
need some extra kernel parameter(s)?

> I am used to linux not working quite right on all hardware: so far 
> three computers won't work with loadlin except from MS DOS 7.1 
> (kernel on MS-DOS 7.1 formatted HD or FD), two won't play stereo 
> wav files, two won't boot loop linux, and now this odd keyboard 
> problem, and one 386 laptop won't boot linux of any sort.  I am 
> certain nobody tested this keyboard with linux when it was made (in 
> the mid 80s).
> 
> Does anyone else on the list besides vijay (modem) have hardware 
> that won't work with BL but will work with other linuxes?  I have 
> found the opposite to be true.

None of my new hardware works (duh) but my ISA PnP modem doesn't like
2.2.x kernels so I compiled a new one.

David
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