Baslinux mailing list

[James Miller <jamtat AT mailsnare.net>]

On Wed, 8 Feb 2006, t.maiden AT att.net wrote:
> Sorry to be replying to my own e-mail, but no, it didn't work.  From 
> either "command" or "cmd" I got the strange message that there was not 
> enough free memory!  I know the available RAM memory on these school PCs 
> is huge compared to the available memory on my old Compaq Windows 95 box 
> that runs BL3 floppy version like a champ...
> -------------- Original message from t.maiden AT att.net: --------------
>
> > Someone may have asked this already, but has anyone ever tried to run the
> > loopback version of BL on a Windows XP PC from either the cmd or the command
> > window? Where DOS-like commands can be entered? Is it worth trying? Do you
> > think it would run from a flash drive? Am I goofy to even wonder about this?
> > Thanks.

The loopback might work from a USB flash drive if you booted the machine 
with a DOS floppy set up to detect USB mass storage devices. I suppose 
that might depend on the computer's BIOS, too.

I recently made a Linux version boot on an external USB HD (not BL). I use 
a FreeDOS boot floppy that has loadlin, a kernel, and a deviously-crafted 
initrd. I can use a portable Linux this way on any machine that has the 
right free USB (2.0) port and can boot from floppy. I was initially trying 
to use a 512MB flash drive, but it turned out to be way too small for the 
trimmed-down distro I was trying to use. BL would work alot better 
size-wise on a drive like that. But whether the USB storage modules for BL 
3.40 would work with most modern machines remains under question. Then, 
such a flash drive install would have to have the full complement of 
modules stored on it to do much useful with the host machine (e.g., NIC 
modules). It's probably doable, the main potential gotcha being the USB 
storage modules. I'd be happy to share my technique and expereinces in 
doing this. I've thought it would be an interesting thing to try with BL, 
but I have not yet even found much time to test the new release! Hope to 
soon, though.

James