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Problem - GRUB4DOS with syslinux


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#1 BT-Quartz

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Posted 15 September 2008 - 07:33 AM

Hi all
I wanna to make some fun with my aged old PC BOX , that have no CD-ROM & HDD, also the BIOS is too old , can not boot from USB.
i format my old mp3 with FAT (not FAT32 )
after search on Google , i found out that nee to maek a new kernal with usb driver support build-in , i don't know how to bill it , it look very complicated , but i found that DSL and have a ready to us floppy disk boot image that can boot my usb dive , so i download the file bootdisk-usb.img and write it to my the floppy disk. It's great ! and work for my old PC !
but i got some problem when i please around with the bootdisk , since 1.44M can just fit the Linux kernel file and the initrd ram disk image. i format the floppy to 1.68M DMF format , so i can put a MSDOS wihth DOS-USB driver on it ! the mp3 have a drive letter c: , i copy doom file on the mp3 ,and run it , that fun , i can boot off DOS and play DOOM 1 and 2 on my old PC box!
the next step is to tay it to boot win98 on the mp3 , so i can let my 4 age little girl to play with this old PC , she always touch my PC , delete my file and make this can not boot many time, if i can boot the old PC with usb , when she creask the system , i just samples format the usb and copy all file again. it save my life !

when i wanna to take some more , it got problem.i found out that Grub4DOS is much more flexible that syslinux and the original GRUB (Don't talk about lilo , it's too bad , syslinux is much better that lilo)
Please find my system information here and help to point out the problem.


Motherboard : Assu P3B-F , BIOS
CPU : Pentium iii - 450Mhz - Slot 1
Boot : 3.5" FDD
Disk : 1.44M & 1.68DMF & 128M USB MP3 Mass store
bootloader : Syslinux 3.71 on floppy
floppy file : FAT-12 , 1.68M DMF format

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>chkdsk a:
檔案系統的類型是 FAT。
A2 磁碟區建立 2008/9/15 上午 10:04
磁碟區序列號碼為 11DB-3080
Windows 正在確認檔案及資料夾...
檔案及資料夾確認已完成。
Windows 已經檢查了檔案系統,而且沒有發現問題。

磁碟空間總計 1,714,176 位元組。
1 個隱藏檔案: 14,336 位元組。
6 個資料夾有 6,144 個位元組。
29 個檔案有 1,647,616 個位元組。
可用磁碟空間 46,080 位元組。

每個配置單元各有 1,024 個位元組。
磁碟上共有 1,674 個配置單元。
磁碟上有 45 可用的配置單元。


Problem 1:
I Can boot off syslinux 3.71 from 1.68 DMF floppy and load DSL linux on USB , but that i can't mount the floppy drive with [ mount floppy ]
, it report unknown file system "MSDOS" , i need to force with -t vfat ,to mount it the the file system [ mount -t vfat /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy ] . Can any one tell me how can i auto mount the floppy in DSL ?

Problem 2:
i would like to chain load Grub4DOS as the 2st bootloader , i can load grldr from syslinux vie boot sector set by bootcal tool,than dump it file with .bs extension , but it stop responding and keep reading floppy disk after show 'starting grub.c{} "

Problem 3:
when i start grub4ods from Windows ME DOS , grub.exe also stop responding , when i type [ find ( ] command or other command that will read disk.

#2 Lancelot

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Posted 15 September 2008 - 10:06 AM

I am not an expert, these are what i know:

i would like to chain load Grub4DOS as the 2st bootloader

i use grub4dos as 2nd bootloader, 1st is ntldr 5.2 (i got it from hp utility)
so in my usb in boot.ini it writes

[Boot Loader]

timeout=0

default=C:\grldr



[Operating Systems]

C:\grldr="Start GRUB"

you can find lots of info about it through google.
It has a significant advantage of not using grub.exe which leads to overcome menu.lst size limit (so now no limit) and also you dont need
configured dos to run grub.exe.
I also run Dos from .ima files (win98, dos small, winme etc....) so runing dos applications from fat32 formated usb is no problem.

and for old dos games, you dont have to use real dos, DosBox works great even under windows x64 :huh: (search redalert on bootland)




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