Hi
Bernd.
Just to refreh your memory, we already discussed Rufus a little when I joined the FreeDOS mailing list about a month or tow ago, with a patch and some internationalization questions. I still have
an enhancement request from the FreeDOS mailing list that I'm planning to address at some stage actually (though I have now dropped
the one about using Rufus to create a FreeDOS floppy).
I'm surprised this program started as a DOS-tool (implying it would have run in DOS in RUFUS' early days).
It merely started as replacement for HPUSBFW, but it was hard to stop there...
PowerISO allows to raw-write (syslinux-hybrid) ISO files (Linux distributions mostly) to an USB disk as first partition, leaving rest of the capacity open to creating 1 or more additional partitions.
Yes, you were the one who pointed me to ISO hybrids at the time. At one stage, I was planning to add the ISOHybrid creation feature of Syslinux into Rufus, but soon found out that I didn't need to go that far, while content could simply be extracted (though the requirement for a C: target may present challenge for FreeDOS installation).
This is also the same reason Rufus doesn't support Grub4dos for the time being...
Unfortunately, windows isn't very friendly to removable media with multiple partitions it seems.
It's mostly a matter of prioritization. I do have an enhancement for partition preservation (
#4), that will most likely expand into partition creation, which I logged almost as soon as I started working on Rufus. But I think there are a lot more people interested in a simple ISO -> USB feature than a partitioning feature, so the priority for that enhancement is low.
If I understand things correctly RUFUS will destructively (regarding MBR, partitions and data, that is) create a USB flash disk with harddisk geometry, MBR and 1 primary partition (either FAT or NTFS) spanning 100% of the capacity.
That is the case, and the rest of your remarks are spot on too. This is the most common anticipated usage, hence the one I want to address first.
I wonder if it can handle the ReactOS files (and if ReactOS can handle it, though USB support has been implemented quite far right now).
You also mentioned ReactOS on the FreeDOS mailing list at the time, but we agreed that it wasn't mature enough with regards to USB for the time being.
Just like with what you guys have done for FreeDOS, I very much appreciate what the ReactOS people have done so far, so if I can help them, I will try to.
Maybe also worthwile is pointing to a floppy disk image and extract its contents if image contains a FAT filesystem, instead of sticking to built-in FreeDOS or diskcopy.dll. After all, there's already a button to browse for ISO files, might as well add IMG/IMA/DSK (IMZ?) I'd guess.
I thought about it, but with floppy well on the way out, and Rufus targeting USB, I'm not sure I want to invest time in it. If someone wants to provide a patch, I'll integrate it, but otherwise, floppy support will stay firmly in my "when I have nothing better to do" box...
Also FreeDOS kernel 2041 has been released, if you'd like to integrate it.
Right. I explicitly asked you guys to patch it, so I should go back to vanilla. Missed it for 1.1.3, but it will be in 1.1.4.
Thanks for an awesome program, I'll happily add it to the next FreeDOS distro (without taking 6 years, that is).
Right now I don't think the FreeDOS installation process works, from the ISO -> USB obtained from Rufus works though, if C: as a target is a requirement. I've been planning to test it for some time but haven't had a chance. I think it would be better to provide Rufus after ensuring that the FreeDOS ISO can go through an installation process when converted to USB...