From: "..." Message-Id: <200001261957.OAA04540@escape.com> Subject: Re: Using Loader with DRDOS and WIN95 To: opendos AT delorie DOT com Date: Wed, 26 Jan 100 14:57:14 -0500 (EST) X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL25] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Reply-To: opendos AT delorie DOT com << Can someone explain how to set up LOADER with WIN95 installed? >> --John Musielewicz 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 nyc