Mail Archives: opendos/2000/01/26/18:16:53
<< Can someone explain how to set up LOADER with WIN95
installed? >> --John Musielewicz<a123456 AT bitstream DOT net> Fri, 21 Jan 2000
Uh. Have I missed something? Did anybody ever answer
this simple question? If not ...
loader is intended to be run with win95 (or another
OS) already installed. It assumes that 1) another OS
owns MBR and 2) you've written a configuration file--
a text file conventionally but not necessarily
named BOOT.LST that designates OS(es) alternative
to the one that owns MBR. Typically, my own dual-boot
win95/dr-dos BOOT.LST consists of this single line:
IBMBIO.COM S 30 Caldera DR-DOS 7.03
where you know what IBMBIO.COM is, "S" is arcane,
and "30" is an optional timeout value. For
details, at the system prompt execute:
loader /h
loader installs dual-booting, and after you
execute it once you should be able to retire it.
So: Write BOOT.LST, then execute
loader boot.lst [or whatever you name the text file]
and answer the queries. loader sets up the hidden,
system, etc root dir files. All--for both OSes--are
present in my root dir along with the files that
dir lists:
---------------------------------------------
AUTOEXEC BAT 496 12-31-95 9:50a
CONFIG SYS 697 12-31-95 9:50a
BOOT LST 37 2-20-98 7:02a
LOADER COM 8138 2-20-98 7:02a
AUTODR7 BAT 252 2-20-98 7:02a
DCONFIG SYS 72 2-20-98 7:02a
---------------------------------------------
autoexec.bat and config.sys are MS-specific. autodr7.bat
and dconfig.sys are dr-dos equivalents. By choice, my
config.sys and dconfig.sys use a shell command to direct
boots to the relevant command.coms, which are located on
other partitions with their many respective (16bit) external
dos files. After I power up, a menu appears that lists
[F1] Windows 95
[F2] DR-DOS 7.03
If that suits you, copy my BOOT.LST.
The only operational flaw is dos collisions with
Windows' cursed long file names. You must heed Caldera
warnings against running utils that would screw up FAT
--CHKDSK, UNDELETE, DISKOPT, DISKMAP, DELWATCH, and
STACKER--on partitions Win95 accessed. And if you do,
even though the OSes never interact, I suggest
(Windows) scandisking *often*. I've yet to lose data,
but I get persistent scandisk errors along the line
of "The folder was damaged: This folder contained one
or more long filenames that were no longer associated
with files" and "The folder contained incorrect
information about FFFFFF.EEE (MS-DOS name XXX): The
file or folder's long name was stored incorrectly
on your disk." I can only speculate why.
Caldera/lineo--whatever--has a dr-dos LFN TSR that was
tied up by MS litigation. I don't suppose we'll ever see
it released now that the company is wallowing in loot
from the suit, dreaming of linux and pda riches. (Anybody
wanna bet whether one of MS's terms was that Caldera never
GPL dr-dos?) I'd like to think that when Caldera celebrated
that settlement *somebody* remembered to hoist one in
Gary Kildall's memory, but if anyone at lineo could
recognize his name I'd be surprised and in Utah they
probably don't celebrate that way anyhow.
Absent Caldera's LFN util, I found one at simtel that
was written for MS DOS: "You don't even need Windows95
to use LFNDOS[. ...] The only requirement is MS-DOS 3.30
or higher." (I seem to recall that simtel lists LFNDOS
among win9x--not dos--utils.) I dl'd it but haven't
tried it yet. More from the doc:
"LFNDOS provides the Windows95 Long Filename (LFN) API
to DOS programs" and "uses the same format for storing
the names on disk as Windows95 does, so you can view and
use long filenames under both systems interchangeably"
"on FAT-12 and FAT-16 disk drives." [...] LFNDOS runs
as a memory-resident program, and while resident requires
about 60k of conventional memory. You can load LFNDOS
into upper memory if you have 45k of it free. To use
LFNDOS, simply type LFNDOS at the DOS prompt. To remove
from memory later, type EXIT." ...
And, finally, belated best wishes for the new year
to everyone else who still treasures dos, with an extra
toast to Charles Dye and Matthias Paul, whose generous
help is the real reason my system dual boots flawlessly.
... Ciao. --a
======================================= adpFisher <yesss AT escape DOT com> nyc
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