Mail Archives: djgpp/2009/01/13/17:15:34
"Rugxulo" <rugxulo AT gmail DOT com> wrote in message
news:59d15676-685a-4ad8-a43a-7715035abbaa AT f3g2000yqf DOT googlegroups DOT com...
> You're using Win98 and can boot to DOS mode, so just unzip BasicLinux
> on top of your FAT partition. It's only 20 MB unpacked, so it's not
> much (only 4 MB or so .ZIP'd). Then just unpack the prebuilt Linux GCC
> cross-compiler on top of that: "cd / ; tar xvzf /tmp/moss-0.90-bin-
> linux.tar.gz ; export PATH=/usr/local/i386-moss/bin:$PATH"
Well, that's a no go... with an error saying it couldn't find FS.IMG.
FS.IMG is there. BASLIN is there. But, I ran it off of a USB flash drive
using legacy BIOS support. That is likely the problem: lack of legacy USB
device support in BasicLinux. Unfortunately, except for the CD-ROM, I don't
have any "legacy" physical (by that I mean has "rotating platters") disk
drives in this machine. The drives I've got all work through modern
interfaces: USB, SATA. The internal HD is a SATA SSD (no moving parts and
_exceptionally_ quiet), my other HD is an external USB (likely a normal
"rotating platters" HD inside...), and the solid-state USB flash drive
effectively "replaces" the floppy... I've been intending to buy a floppy,
but I don't have one yet. One solution might be to pull some older hardware
from another machine, but I'm not motivated to do that.
I also looked at the Debian windows installer. It, like most Linux
installs, want's to partition my disks... a definate no-no. If I had a
physical HD, instead of an SSD, I'd _consider_ defraging it and
repartitioning. I repartitioned an existing, full-of-data, drive once:
scary...
But, with an SSD, defraging is unecessary, prematurely wears out the device,
and takes exceptionally longer than normal drive access (I tried to do so
after a minimal install of my OS...). Since Win98SE boots in 2 seconds flat
using "MS-DOS compatability mode" (SATA as emulated IDE), what's the point?
Oh, I'd *love* to have SATA support in Win98SE... So, I have zero intention
of repartitioning or defraging. What I need is a Linux with a modern
kernel, 2.6 series, with GCC, Binutils, GLIBC, related compiler tools, and
Tso's FDISK. It'd need a statically compiled kernel that is compiled for
loopback on DOS with VFAT, not UMSDOS, and which works with Loadlin. Of
course, it'd also need support for my devices which are SATA and USB based,
not IDE or floppy. Due to the way Linux installs today, I'm thinking this
is an unreal request. In all likelihood, I'd have to install Linux to so I
can create the needed DOS useable Linux by myself.
Rod Pemberton
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