Mail Archives: opendos/2000/01/26/22:18:22
Apologies for my half-baked earlier msg. (I subscribe
to the digest, so if anyone else has already characterized
it that way I won't know till tomorrow.)
I've found the file I feared was lost, Matthias Paul's
response to my own request for help after my failed first
attempt to set up win95-dr-dos dual boot. His invaluable
instructions explain how to set this up manually, and
following them worked for me:
============================================================
Re: dr-dos/win95 dual boot?
Tue, 27 Apr 1999 14:46 +0100
From: Matthias Paul <PAUL-MA AT reze-1 DOT rz DOT rwth-aachen DOT de>
To: caldera-opendos AT rim DOT caldera DOT com
<< Do you use loader successfully to dual boot DR-DOS 7.02/3
and win95? >> --<yesss AT escape DOT com>
This is completely independent of MSDOS.SYS settings. While
Windows 9x takes precautions not to dual-boot DR-DOS, DR-DOS
does dual-boot Windows 9x, if you install LOADER and your C:
drive is not FAT32.
<< I installed win95, then reinstalled DR-DOS (twice),
and was so intent on keeping win95 under control
I seem to have stifled it entirely. >>
1. Make sure you have deinstalled anti-virus software
(disabled MBR protection in the ROM-BIOS setup). To make
the following description easier I am assuming you are not
running any compression software like STACKER, DBLSPACE,
DRVSPACE, etc ...
2. Make Windows 9x bootable by booting it off floppy etc.
and run SYS c:. This will rewrite the MBR and Boot Sector.
MS-DOS 7 should be able to boot now. Try it!
3. Than boot into DR-DOS from floppy/CD etc. If you're about
to run the DR-DOS INSTALL program, exit to the DOS prompt.
(INSTALL auto-detects Windows 9x and installs LOADER, but
since you seem to have had trouble with this, we're now
doing it the manual way ...)
4. Put the LOADER.COM and BOOT.LST files into the C:\ root
(should be found in the already installed DR-DOS bits,
otherwise get it off the installation floppy disk--if it's
compressed, run PNUNPACK/NWUNPACK on the corresponding
file.) BOOT.LST should contain the following single line:
IBMBIO.COM S [10] Caldera DR-DOS 7.03
whereby 10 is the timeout to auto-select this menu item (F2).
Now run LOADER as follows:
c:\> LOADER BOOT.LST [RET]
It should tell you that it could successfully update the
Master Boot Record (MBR).
5. After rebooting the machine you should now see LOADER's
menu with
F1 = Standard boot
F2 = Caldera DR-DOS 7.03
If you press F1, it should launch whatever is loaded
by the Boot Sector (and that's Windows 9x in your case).
If you press F2, it should launch IBMBIO.COM and thereby
fire up DR-DOS.
Regarding the files in the root directory:
IBMBIO.COM and IBMDOS.COM represent the DR-DOS kernel.
IO.SYS/.WIN/.W40 represents the MS-DOS 7 kernel.
MSDOS.SYS/.WIN/.W40 is the MS-DOS 7 pre-CONFIG.SYS
configuration file.
COMMAND.COM you should place the MS-DOS 7
shell here, and the DR-DOS shell
in C:\DRDOS\COMMAND.COM.
Make sure the SHELL= directive matches.
CONFIG.SYS used by MS-DOS 7
AUTOEXEC.BAT depending on CONFIG.SYS SHELL= contents
this should be used by MS-DOS 7 COMMAND.COM
DCONFIG.SYS "CONFIG.SYS" file for DR-DOS.
SHELL= should indicate the changed path to
the DR-DOS shell and "AUTOEXEC.BAT" files.
SHELL=c:\drdos\command.com c:\drdos /P:autodos7.bat
AUTODOS7.BAT "AUTOEXEC.BAT" file for DR-DOS.
IO.DOS and MSDOS.DOS represent an older issue of MS-DOS,
if present.
LOADER (LOADER.COM, BOOT.LST) also stores a various number
of files in the root directory, including
IBMBIO.LDR, LOADER.SYS. Just don't delete
anything with IBMBIO.*, LOADER.* in there.
[...]
--Matthias
Matthias Paul <Matthias DOT Paul AT post DOT rwth-aachen DOT de>
http://www.rhrz.uni-bonn.de/~uzs180/mpdokeng.html
Ubierstrasse 28, D-50321 Bruehl, Germany
============================================================
In my next msg I listed the relevant files in my root dir
after my successful set-up:
============================================================
After I--as you suggested--sys'd C: from a win95 boot
floppy, rebooted from a DR-DOS 7.02 boot floppy, and
executed a "loader boot.lst" command, loader added
the support files that had been absent before:
rs--h- 512 4-28-99 4:29p c:ibmbio.ldr
rs--h- 527 4-28-99 4:29p c:loader.sav
rs--h- 5,376 4-28-99 4:29p c:loader.sys
You ask which files are present in my C:\ root. In addition
to those just cited:
--a--- 8,138 2-20-98 7:02a c:loader.com [DR-DOS]
--a--- 37 2-20-98 7:02a c:boot.lst [DR-DOS]
--a--- 72 7-31-98 7:02a c:dconfig.sys [DR-DOS]
--a--- 250 7-31-98 7:02a c:autodos7.bat [DR-DOS]
rsa-h- 24,749 10-07-98 7:02a c:ibmbio.com [DR-DOS]
rsa-h- 30,896 10-08-98 7:02a c:ibmdos.com [DR-DOS]
--a--- 66,657 7-31-98 7:02a c:command.dr7 [DR-DOS]
--a-h- 4,768 2-27-98 7:02a c:drdos.386 [DR-DOS]
r----- 92,870 12-31-95 9:50a c:command.com [win95]
rs--h- 223,148 12-31-95 9:50a c:io.sys [win95]
-sa-h- 1,694 7-11-95 9:50a c:msdos.sys [win95]
... and the usual other win95 suspects--bootlog.txt,
bootlog.prv, detlog.old, detlog.txt, netlog.txt,
setuplog.txt, suhdlog.dat, system.1st.
So that's a listing of a *working* dual boot installation.
(win95 didn't make a config.sys and autoexec.bat, nor have
I yet.)
============================================================
Matthias subsequently explained:
============================================================
LOADER.SYS contains the code that generates the LOADER menu,
and it is loaded by the MBR installed by running "LOADER.COM
boot.lst". IBMBIO.LDR and LOADER.SAV are (backup) sectors.
None of these files should be physically moved in case
of disk defragmentation (e.g. PC Tools COMPRESS, OPTIMIZR,
etc.). DR-DOS DISKOPT does not move any system files,
hence it's safe.
<<--a--- 8,138 2-20-98 7:02a c:loader.com [DR-DOS] >>
LOADER installer and help: Run LOADER /? for details.
<<--a--- 37 2-20-98 7:02a c:boot.lst [DR-DOS] >>
The LOADER configuration file
<< [...] More's the pity those files should stay where they
are (Norton Utils SpeedDisk leaves them alone too). loader
seems to have placed them well into my drive, where I need
contiguous blank space. Oh, well. >>
Alright, you can move them, but you'll need to re-install
LOADER afterwards. If the LOADER MBR (BTW called "NEWLDR",
since there has been an older loader in ancient CP/M, MP/M,
DOS Plus times) can t find its things, it will display a
warning and continue booting the standard boot sector, so
you'll find yourself in MS-DOS 7 then. All you need to do
afterwards is run "LOADER boot.lst" again, and the system
files should be placed at the beginning of your free disk
space then. However, its better to actually de-install
LOADER (LOADER /U) before running a disk defragmenter.
<< I've kept COMMAND.COM in my DR-DOS subdir for years, but
I like having a copy in the root dir for old times' sake. >>
Thinking about it again, I now think its even BETTER to
place the DR-DOS COMMAND.COM in the root! So forget about
what I said in my last reply.
MS-DOS COMMAND.COM up to 6.22 only displays a "Wrong
version" error message when erroneously being started by
DR-DOS (e.g. with no [D]CONFIG.SYS file). This is harmless,
since without a shell DR-DOS IBMBIO.COM generates a minimal
prompt by itself, giving you a chance to type in the
path+filename to a valid shell (you can also see this
minimal built-in prompt, if you do NOT load a primary shell,
e.g. by using /K:autodos7.bat instead of /P:autodos7.bat
and then press EXIT at the master COMMAND.COM prompt).
Unfortunately things have changed with MS-DOS 7, as its
shell will just hang in this situation, and without
a boot disk at hand you're locked out of the system.
Hence, the introduction of the modified [D]CONFIG.SYS
parsing rules in F5 mode with DR-OpenDOS 7.02+ (for the
benefit of all the DOS gamers who just follow the
instructions in the manual to press F5). Even in F5 mode,
IBMBIO.COM will still search for a SHELL=line to find
the command processor.
(While this change works great in general, there's still a
chance to lock yourself out, if this SHELL line points to
C:\COMMAND.COM and this happens to be the MS-DOS 7 shell.
... Originally I planned to introduce a new F6 mode working
similar to the old F5 mode, that is completely ignoring
[D]CONFIG.SYS, with the exception of SWITCHES=, but it's
still not implemented ...)
If you place DR-DOS COMMAND.COM in the root, these nasty
things cannot happen, as DR-DOS COMMAND.COM also runs smooth
as a shell under any issue of MS-DOS/PC DOS.
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