Baslinux mailing list

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

Thanks for sharing this and I am delighted my latest USB kernel finally 
worked for you.  I learned a lot trying to help.

On Sun, 14 Jan 2007, Christof Lange wrote:

> Hi list,
>
> I have just uploaded the my new USBTOOLS.ZIP containing these
> files:
>
>    BOOT     BAT           355
>    2_4_31             632 543 (Sindi's l8 kernel)
>    USBTOOLS GZ      3 416 648 (my 8 MB RAM disk)
Are the required modules all in here?

>    README   TXT         7 122
>    LOADLIN  EXE        32 225
>
> It can be downloaded at:
>
>    http://www.volny.cz/cce/linux/usbtools.zip
>
> Here is the readme.txt:
>
>
> ------------ README.TXT --------------------------------
>
>
> What is USBTOOLS?
> =================
>
> The USBTOOLS.ZIP package bundles a customized 2.4.31 kernel compiled
> by Sindi Keesan and a modified RAM disk version of Steven Darnold's
> BasicLinux 2.1.
>
> The basic idea is to get better support for USB storage devices and
> CD-burner on older hardware or systems running operating systems of
> the pre-USB era (DOS, Windows9x, Linux 2.2).
>
> Although today even for DOS there are USB drivers, USB devices
> cannot be changed without rebooting. For Windows9x it is not always
> easy to find the correct drivers. The Linux 2.2.x kernels which form

nusb23e.exe - the English langauge version of 'native usb storage' drivers
for Win98, which works perfectly and lets you plug things in and out.

> the basis of the BasicLinux distribution entirely lack USB support.

They lack USB-storage support but have support for other USB devices such 
as mouse and keyboard.

> Also CD-burning is very restricted in DOS, so that even on a
> computer with DOS and BasicLinux it is a quite complicated procedure
> to backup flash memory devices to CD- ROM.

I found two DOS cd burning programs.


> USBTOOLS.ZIP contains programs and scripts that can hopefully help
> to clean up your hard disks and memory devices, to do fast backups
> and to use multiple storage devices to move large amount of data.
> Probably it supports also a number of digital cameras.

To move large amounts (PLURAL).

Your English here has been perfect so far except for this typo.

> Installing USBTOOLS
> ===================
>
> You no do not need to install usbtools permanently on your system,

Omit the 'no'

> as it runs in a 8 MB RAM disk, that can be started from a

'in an 8MB' - an before a word starting with a vowel - eight

> DOS/Windows hard disk partition or from a CD with the DOS utility
> loadlin.exe.
>
> a) If you want to start usbtools from your hard disk unpack the
> files from usbtools.zip to a separate directory. You will get into
> Linux, when you run the command 'boot' from this directory.
>
> b) If you have problems starting Linux that way, they are probably
> caused by other programs running in the background. On a DOS/W98
> system an easy alternative is starting Linux directly from the
> config.sys file with the line shell=loadlin.exe 2_4_31 root=/dev/ram
> rw initrd=usbtools.gz hdc=ide-scsi Make sure that loadlin.exe,
> 2_4_31, and usbtools.gz are in the root directory or add their paths,
> e.g.
>
>  shell=c:\linux\loadlin.exe c:\linux\2_4_31 root=/dev/ram rw
>    initrd=c:\linux\usbtools.gz hdc=ide-scsi
>
> c) If the files loadlin.exe, 2_4_31, and usbtools.gz and boot.bat
> reside on a CD the procedure is basically the same. On a system that
> is not compatible with DOS it may be necessary to boot into DOS with
> the help of another floppy disk or CD.
>
> d) If you want to run the USB and CD burning utilities within your
> existing BasicLinux or Slackware installation, you can use the
> Midnight commander to copy the programs and scripts over to your hard
> disk (do not forget the /dev directory). Then use the 2.4.31 kernel
> instead of your older kernels to boot.
>
>
> Running USBTOOLS
> ================
>
> Basic functions
>
> After a successful boot sequence you will see a welcome page with
> the most important commands and aliases. Commands work on the command
> line and in the file manager as well. Aliases - the shortcuts to
> mount and unmount various devices - work only on the command line.
> You log into the system with 'root'. With 'exit' or 'logout' you get
> back to the opening screen.
>
> There are three virtual consoles. You can change between them with
> Alt+F1, Alt+F2 and Alt+F3. It could be useful to use one console for
> mounting and unmounting or for the CD burning commands and another
> one for the file manager Midnight Commander. The program zgv can be
> useful in order to browse photographs or graphic files.
>
> Floppy disks and hard disk partitions (hda1, hda2, hda3) can be
> mounted with the shortcuts a:, c:, d:, e: and unmounted with :a, :c,
> :d, :e. Their mountpoints are /A, /C, /D, /E in the root directory.
> Before a device is mounted the mount point is created, after
> unmounting it will be removed.
>
> USB storage devices
>
> USB storage devices are recognized by the system immediately when
> they are plugged in. The order of plugging them in decides on their

determines their mount point

> mount point: /USB-A, /USB-B, /USB-C, etc. When you type the command
> usbmount or use the shortcut u:, all USB devices which are plugged
> in at that moment will be mounted. When you type :u or usbumount all
> attached USB devices will be unmounted and their mount points will
> be removed. If you want to unmount them selectively you can use :u
> A, :u B, etc. In that case only the device at the mount point /USB-A,
> /USB-B, etc. will be unmounted. You should unmount USB devices
> before you remove them. When you plug in a new device a new mount
> point will be assigned to it. If you attach the former one for a
> second time, it will get its former mount point.
>
> There is only one problem with all this. It ends in the moment when

at the moment

> a CD drive is initialized. From that time on you will be able to
> mount and unmount only those USB devices which had already been
> attached before. So if you are going to use USBTOOLS together with a
> CD burner, you should plug in all USB devices which you intend to
> use during a session already once at the very beginning. Then you

omit 'already'

> can remove them and initialize the CD-ROM drive (see below). Later
> they will be recognized again and get a mount point.
>
> CD-ROM reading and writing
>
> In order to burn CDs on a ATAPI/IDE drive (typically recognized as by

on an ATAPI

recognized by the system as /dev/hdc if it is secondary master, or 
/dev/hdd if it is primary slave

> the system /dev/hdc), the CD-ROM has to be accessed through the same
> SCSI driver that is used by the USB devices. This is the reason why
> the Linux kernel is booted with the option 'hdc=ide-scsi' (see

(or hdb if that is the CD-ROM drive)

> above). When you boot into the USBTOOL RAM disk, the CD read and
> write functions are not yet activated in order to give you the chance

add a comma before 'in order'

> to first plug in all USB devices which will be needed during the
> starting session first (see previous paragraph).

omit the second 'first'  ;=)

> The CD-ROM drive must first be activated with the command 'cdinit',
> before CDs can be mounted. From then on, the shortcut r: mounts a CD
> to the mount point /R, whereas :r unounts the disk and removes the
> directory /R.
>
> The command 'cdhelp' lists a couple of scripts facilitating the most
> frequent functions for burning of data CDs. If you are interested in
> burning and copying audio CDs, you can find the appropriate commands
> in /bin/cdtutor. From this it would not be too difficult to write
> some more scripts on your own.
>
> If you do not have a CD burner, but only need to mount an ordinary
> CD- ROM drive, you may want to remove the option 'hdc=ide-scsi' from
> the loadlin.exe command (edit config.sys or boot.bat). Without this
> option you do need not run 'cdinit' at all. The r: and :r shortcuts
> work from the beginning, as the CD drive can be mounted from
> /dev/hdc.
>
>
> Troubleshooting
> ===============
>
> - If your hard disk partitions are on different destinations, you can
>  change the alias definitions in /root/.profile The changes come into
>  effect after you exit the virtual console and login again.


log in is the verb

login is the noun or adjective


But most people do not know this.

> - If you have problems with the graphic viewer zgv try to edit the
>  file  /etc/vga/libvga.config

svgalib does not work with all sound cards.
If it has problems, edit it by adding the line
chipset VESA or if that fails, chipset VGA (for 16 colors only).

> Technical support
> =================
>
> General information on BasicLinux can be found on the website and on
> the Baslinux mailing list:
>
>  http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/baslinux/
>
> Questions concerning the usbtools package can be asked (may be some
> of them even answered) here:
>
>  cce.zizkov AT volny.cz
>
> Christof Lange
>
> ---------------------------------------------------
>
> Many thanks to Sindi and David for compiling and answering to my

ansering my questions (or responding to my questions)

> questions. If you find this tool useful and have any suggestions how
> to make it a bit more generic, I will be happy to include such
> improvements in another version.
>
> Christof

Wow, you really put a lot of work and through into this package!
Please don't feel bad about my correcting a few very minor grammatical 
errors.  Your English is nearly perfect (much much better than my Czech).

Another excellent package from the author of sound and mutt packages for 
BL.  Thanks for sharing your work.  I am glad I could help a little.

This package is suitable only for 'modern' computers.  We are currently 
trying to help another list member transfer files to a laptop computer 
without USB drive or CD-ROM drive and we dragged out the old external IBM 
Backpack CD-ROM drive and loaded the DOS driver.  There is also a linux 
module for parport CD-ROM drives that I have not used.

Sindi