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

BL3 Xvesa does not work but BL2 Xvesa does work on this machine.

We are unable to boot with loadlin to hdb1, which is a single-partition 
2GB Maxtor drive from which we removed Dynamic Drive Overlay by low level 
formatting.  It has just under 4000 cylinders and 16 heads.  I will take 
it to a friend who can change this, using a purchased disk manager 
program, to just under 1000 cylinders and 64 heads, so that this DOS 
program (loadlin) will not 'attempt to access beyond end of device'.

PQMagic correctly identified this drive as 2GB, but loadlin is not so 
clever.  Have not tried DOS fdisk on it.  We had thought linux could use 
it as is, but it might require lilo to do so and this is for someone used 
to DOS and loadlin with BL1, which he has been using for 3 years to play 
games and to fix Redhat when it fails.

We copied the 400MB of files (which includes glibc2.2.5 complete, Opera, 
two versions of ghostcript, and some other large things) to an 850MB 
drive, and will try our other 2G drive tomorrow.

The recipient has already signed up for the baslinux mailing list and is 
reading the archives.  I suggested he search on matanza.  He likes to 
read/write science fiction.

On Wed, 15 Jun 2005, sindi keesan wrote:

> We had to put MS DOS 7.10 on three computers to make them boot with loadlin. 
> Now Xvesa won't work with this OS on this computer - I tried BL3 loop and 
> ext2 hd.  Illegal instruction.
>
> I installed xsvga.tgz and no-xvesa.tgz instead and they work fine except that 
> we need to change to a PS/2 mouse.  I will also use my config file that sets 
> up for xsvga and 1024 resolution.  We have a Trident card.
>
> BL3 with Xvesa works on our other computers with this DOS 7.10 and it worked 
> with DR-DOS on these computers on those rare occasions when it would boot 
> with loadlin and DR-DOS.
>
> We then chrooted to the identical copy of BL3 on a second drive plugged into 
> this computer and installed xsvga and no-xvesa and copied over my XF86Config 
> and things worked there too except that links2 -g produces a very pretty 
> blinking pastel screen - light purple background, blue strip at top, 
> turquoise at right, green at bottom.
>
> It blinks when you move the mouse to the screen edge and you get the usual 
> blue background as long as the mouse stays there.  PS/2 mouse.
>
> This computer will be used for both DOS and linux so needs himem.sys 
> therefore we will not experiment with it.  We remarked out smartdrv because 
> they caused problems in Windows DOS 7.1.
>
> This is xsvga not xvesa!!!!!
>
> We will try links2 in BL2 with svgalib and hope it works there.
>
> We have no color problems with BL3 links2 -g on other computers in Xvesa. I 
> did not try with xsvga elsewhere.
>
> MagicPoint looks normal here.  It is something about this hardware 
> interacting with DOS 7.10 standalone and both Xvesa (illegal instruction) and 
> xsvga ( messes up the colors in links2).
>
> The kids we are making these computers for want a graphical browser. Maybe 
> Opera will work better.
>
> The sound works perfectly with Opti929, and even with speaker output (on-card 
> amp) sounds great!  Speaker out is just right for small non-powered speakers, 
> at its high setting, and for headphones at a middle setting.   A later Opti 
> 931 sounds really crummy with speaker out - loud buzz.  Cards are not what 
> they used to be.
>
> keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org
> SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org
> _______________________________________________
> BasLinux mailing list
> BasLinux AT lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/baslinux

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