DOS Floppy image w/ grub?

hroman · 09-20-2004, 01:54 AM

I'm creating a livecd which will contain a couple dos floppy images. I've been able to do this using isolinux w/ memdisk but I wanted to move over to using Grub on the livecd.

Is there a way to have grub boot a DOS image? I tried using memdisk with grub but it fails stating "non-system disk or disk error"

I also wanted to know if there is a way to enter comments in the menu.lst file that will show up on the boot screen...not as menu items but as comments above or below the menu...thanx!

help me please!

aus9 · 10-03-2004, 08:32 AM

your second question use
cat /path to file /textfile

note make sure you use root (hdX,y) first to set the pathway othewise you will need to use absolute path like
cat (hd0,6)/var/mytext file

2) you may need to add a pause command to give you time to read it
title boot me and kick me
root (hd0,0)
cat /file
pause "press a key to continue"
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda5 ro
cat /file2
pause
initrd /boot/initrd.img

B) NO answer to your dos as I have never tried it but try as a chainloader command

title dos image
rootnoverify (hd2,11) change to what dos image is to boot
map (hd0) (hd2) may delete depending on if windows is (hd0,0)
map (hd2) (hd0) may delete etc
chainloader +1

aus9 · 10-03-2004, 11:12 PM

since you have not yet replied I am just thinking out loud that you can probably just use the pause command if the text to be displayed is on ONE line.

report back your results to help others please

hroman · 10-08-2004, 04:07 PM

sorry i took so long to reply...

no i haven't been able to boot the dosimage file so i've gone back to using isolinux/memdisk combination...it works...

Thanx!

homey · 10-08-2004, 04:23 PM

I have used the grub patch which comes on RIP linux cdroms to create a multi boot grub cdrom menu.. The version of grub which comes with RIP (or the patch) was a bit fussy and didn't allow any extras like "default=" or "timeout=" or even blank lines. I suspect that may be a function of the patch but other wise things work quite well.

Below is an earlier vesion of my /boot/grub/menu.lst

Code:

color light-gray/blue black/light-gray
title *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* R.I.P. *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*
root (hd0)
title RIP V7.8
kernel /boot/kernel3
initrd=/boot/initrd3.gz vga=normal devfs=nomount load_ramdisk=1 init=/linuxrc prompt_ramdisk=0 root=/dev/ram0 rw
title Rescue CD V0.2.10
kernel /boot/vmlinuz1 video=i810fb:xres=800 acpi=off root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc nokeymap
initrd=/boot/initrd1
title Feather Linux V0.3.7
kernel /boot/memdisk
initrd=/images/knoppix.img
Puppy Linux V0.8.4
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/ram0 ramdisk_size=55296 initrd_archive=ext2 PFILE=pup080-none-262144
initrd=/boot/image.gz
title Slax Linux V4.0.1
kernel /boot/vmlinuz2 max_loop=255 init=linuxrc livecd_subdir=/ load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=0 ramdisk_size=7777 root=/dev/ram0 rw
initrd=/boot/initrd2.gz
title Mulinux V14r0
kernel /boot/mulinuz root=/dev/ram0 ramdisk_size=4600 vga=normal max_scsi_luns=1
initrd=/boot/root.gz
title Freedos V9
kernel /boot/memdisk
initrd=/images/freedos.img
title Tomsrtbt Linux
kernel /boot/memdisk
initrd=/images/tomsrtbt.img
title Ranish Tool V2.44
kernel /boot/memdisk
initrd=/images/ranish.img
title Memtest
kernel /boot/memdisk
initrd=/boo/memtest.bin

Once you have the systems loaded into the working directory ( cdbase ) and have the menu.lst setup, you can proceed as follows....

CD into the cdbase and type:
cdrecord dev=0,0,0 blank=fast

mkisofs -J -R -b boot/grub/iso9660_stage1_5 -c boot/boot.cat \
-o /home/bootcd.iso -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 32 -boot-info-table .

cdrecord -v speed=4 dev=0,0,0 -data /home/bootcd.iso

aus9 · 10-09-2004, 12:23 AM

homey

love your work.

if you have time can you explain your use of the ramdisk and the reason I ask is can I use it to create a ramdrive like toms that loads a initrd file that has a /dev structure that accepts /dev/fd0u1680 ?

which might then be used for spanning floppies with a kernel that is at size 1680 the initrd is likely to be about 400 kb and the rest of grub stuff a few hundred Kb.

I am still thinking of my failure to get 1680 multi floppies to load 2.6 kernels but have got 1440 Kb floppies to work using the pause command.

any clues or tips would be appreciated.

thanks for reading my wish list in any case.

Broman I hope you can forgive my sidetrack