Boot Disks

[Counterspy]

Change that 2.88 setting back to 1.44. There was once a 2.88 floppy drive but it never gained any acceptance and that is there for those who did have it as a legacy drive. Even with a program for higher formatting in Windows, there are none that will work over 2.0 mb.

 

Counterspy

[AussieJohn]

Thank you IPHITUS. Another Aussie I believe.

 

I am going to try your suggestion of using LILO. Up to now I have been using GRUB. When you install and use grub as the bootloader, it shows FLOPPY in the boot menu. I got a similar idea to yours and tried to foot the floppy from there but it did not work. Maybe it will work using LILO instead.

 

COUNTERSPY, hello and thanks for your homeland info that you are from Canada.

The 2.88mbs floppy setting in the bios does not seem to effect anything at all so I may change it back sometime later. However the history is informative and I appreciate that.

More pieces in the jigsaw puzzle that is MANDRAKE Boot disk.

 

We still haven't heard from anyone who maybe has been successful in booting Mand9.2 from a floppy so If there is anyone then please come forward because I am sure I am not the only one who would like to know.

 

Cheers all. Will keep you posted. John (69yrs young)

[bvc]

kuchwas posted a link about kernel-2.6;

http://www.codemonkey.org.uk/docs/post-hal...lloween-2.6.txt

in another thread;

http://www.mandrakeusers.org/index.php?sho...opic=9810&st=45

which says

- Direct booting from floppy is no longer supported.

  You should now use a boot loader program such as syslinux instead.

  "make bzdisk" continues to work (now using syslinux).

So, remembering this thread I thought it may interest some. I have no need for a floppy if I have CD1 rescue mode. Since I have little interest in the subject my search was minimal and I do not understand what it's all about really......don't care to read it all, you know how kernel devel reading/sorting details can be. Here's a few links;

 

the_google_search

Allen Cox

    He also is dropping some support for older hardware (things that as he said "one in every one-hundred-thousand users has"), mainly older ISA devices.

 

Kinda makes you wonder how long it will take before floppy disk support is phased out of the kernel. My new computer, which I got last fall, already shipped without any floppy drive whatsoever... Outside of that, wasn't uClinux already merged, around 2.5.46? -- schnee

 

Joseph Pranevich

And finally, support for using a special kernel-included boot sector for booting off of a floppy disk has also been removed; you now need to use SysLinux instead.

One of my pc's doesn't have a floppy drive either, and it has never needed one since not having one and a long time b4.

[Counterspy]

My two machines are set up with CDROM>Floppy>HDD0 and I use a floppy to boot Mandrake 9.2.

 

Counterspy

[bvc]

Then I'm really seriously confused......

We still haven't heard from anyone who maybe has been successful in booting Mand9.2 from a floppy so If there is anyone then please come forward because I am sure I am not the only one who would like to know.

I use a floppy to boot Mandrake 9.2

:unsure: :huh: :wacko: :D

[Pzatch]

I use a floppy to boot 9.2.

But instead of trying to jam the whole kernel on it I just put lilo on it. Works perfectly. I figured if I needed the kernel to resque something then I would use the instation disk in resque mode.

[Counterspy]

I was not clear in my post but I have Grub only on my floppies.

 

Counterspy

[pmpatrick]

I was able to make a working boot floppy from 9.2 using superformat from fdutils and /dev/fd0u1722. As far as syslinux is concerned, that's been the boot loader on linux boot floppies since 8.2 and probably earlier. Prior to syslinux, loadlin was a common boot loader used to boot linux from DOS but it was just too big and once kernels got bigger they wouldn't fit on a floppy. Loadlin is now of mainly historical interest and is rarely used.

 

I think there is some confusion about boot floppies in 9.2 because the install program has an option to install the boot loader to a floppy but IIRC it will only work if you have a working boot loader installed on your hard drive mbr like lilo or grub. I originally installed that way and it seemed to work like an ordinary boot floppy, i.e. it booted directly into 9.2 off the floppy without the lilo screen coming up. Unfortunately, I didn't take a good look at the files on it but it must be different than the boot floppy you make using superformat and the boot floppy maker in mcc. That floppy will work even if your hard drive boot loader is totally screwed up or even not there. Also, the boot floppy you get from the install is not an extended format floppy; it's a standard 1.44MB floppy so it's gotta be doing something different.

 

As far as floppy drives disapearing any time soon, I don't think it will happen. They're cheap and useful for many diagnostic programs. Try flashing your bios w/o one. I know you can flash your bios from within windows on most motherboards now but the thought of a windows crash in the middle of a bios update is enough to disbuse me of that practice. I've toyed with the idea of not including a floppy drive in a build but find that sooner or later I always need it.

[Counterspy]

Phoenix is talking about doing away with the bios as we now know it. Tonight, MSI, my motherboard manufacturer updated my bios live in Windows but not before the program demanded a backup floppy unless the live install went awry. I have half a shelf of 51/4 disks and have been thinking about getting a drive from a second hand computer store just to make sure I don't throw away something I'd rather not do.

 

Counterspy

[AussieJohn]

Thank you PMPATRICK, COUNTERSPY and PZATCH.

Good info in terms I can understand. I am learning immensely here.

 

Will keep my promise to report on how I make out.

 

Thanks and cheers. John (69yrs young)