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baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org wrote:
> Message from Steven
> ===================
> Samir wrote:
>   
> > However, this approach has one disadvantage, 
> > it requires 12 megabytes RAM. 
> >     
>
> Yes, but the DOS version of BL3 requires only 3 megabytes.
>
>   
> > IDEA:  I think about BasicLinux installer which will 
> > install to FAT or Ext2fs partition. In a case of FAT 
> > it can be DOS based which will execute:
> >    FDISK
> >    Format
> >    UNZIP with floppy change
> >     
>
>   
I mean it. When I spoke about installer, I planed to write DOS program 
which will decompress loop file from two floppies, and optionally call 
fdisk and format. However, although loop file resides on FAT partition, 
I can add syslinux installer to get rid of DOS. The installer will look 
like this:

Bootable freedos or Caldera Opendos floppy which will in autoexec.bat 
start installer written in TurboPascal. (I like this program and it 
generates quite small executables).


Installer Menu:

Repartition Hard Disk - this will execute FDISK and return
Select source and destination disk - you can select floppy and hard disk 
drive
Format destination disk partition - this will execute format.exe and return
Make destination disk bootable: Give you option to install SysLinux or 
FreeDos kernel
Install from first floppy: Copies some files to hard disk and uncompress 
first part of LOOPFS file to hard disk
Install from second floppy: uncompress second part of LOOPFS file to 
hard disk
(Eventually install from third floppy - only if I can not compress to 
two floppies)
Create swap file - Unpacks swap file
Finish installation - It will check if all files on disk are of correct 
size and exit.

The only part I would to add, but I do not know how, is to select size 
of loopfs file. I guess that I need to change some bytes in the header 
of loopfs file and append something to the end of the file. Maybe 
ext2resize program will be solution.

Samir