Baslinux mailing list

["Anthony Albert" <albert AT umpi.maine.edu>]

On 8 Feb 2006 at 19:52, t.maiden AT att.net wrote:
>-------------- 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. 

>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... 

I think that running BL (or any Linux, for that matter) from the 
command line in XP is going to be problematic.  The issue, I believe is 
how WinNT/2000/XP handle memory and allocate it to programs - I don't 
think they'll let BL start up its memory management and load the 
kernel, with all the low-level access it needs.  This is likely the 
cause of the "not enough free memory" issue.

If you were to boot that same computer into DOS, with a floppy disk, 
and then try BL, or boot from the BL floppies, I'm sure it would work 
like a champ!   I might suggest adding a second, small hard drive that 
you can install BL on, and to which you can boot from floppy.

I do believe that some of the other folks on the list are working on 
getting BL to run from USB thumb drives - see the last month's 
archives.

Anthony Albert
===========================================================
Anthony J. Albert                     albert AT umpi.maine.edu
Systems and Software Support Specialist          Postmaster
Computer Services - University of Maine, Presque Isle
        "This is only temporary, unless it works."
                        --- Red Green