China DOS Union

blue777:

Have you tried it? Even with your virtual machine, just copy according to what I said to generate a grldr.iso. It shouldn't be difficult, right? This file is very small, only 1.5M, but it can be used as a bootable ISO.

You're starting to suspect there's something wrong with GRLDR again. Can't you stop suspecting? Or at least not suspect for the time being?

Any bootable 1.44M floppy disk can be made into an ISO, so that the ISO becomes a bootable CD. I'm saying "any" here, and pay attention to these two words which are very important.

Since GRLDR has been made into a bootable floppy disk, it's certainly no problem to use it to make a bootable CD. This is stipulated by the CD boot standard. As for the one you made that can't boot, heh heh, of course you should find the problem in your making process. The software you used in your making process may not be reliable.

How can there be such a reason: a normally bootable floppy disk can't be made into a bootable CD? Think again if this makes sense. A bootable CD is originally bootstrapped by a floppy disk image. At this time, the floppy disk image is okay, but the CD doesn't boot. It's obvious that there's an error in the making process.

What you want to ask me is nothing but why the GRLDR boot image I made is so special and why it can't boot?

I can tell you that the boot sector of this GRLDR has no instructions to detect the CD medium, and it's the same as other floppy disk boot sectors. You can also test this program yourself, it's only 512 bytes in size. There's根本 no reason like "can only run from floppy disk but not from CD". So, no problem can be found here. Moreover, I have made a CD and it can indeed boot, which verifies that the GRLDR method is reliable, and the problem you mentioned only occurs with you. If there are no instructions to detect the CD medium, then there's no reason like "can run on ordinary medium but can't run when booting from CD".

The way to check if a floppy disk image can be used as a CD boot image is to make a bootable image. Now this image has been made, which completely proves that the GRLDR.IMG is okay. If another image made with this IMG also fails to boot, it can't deny the fact that the IMG is correct. Because to prove that the IMG is wrong, you first must prove that the ISO you made is a legal bootable CD. It's not that just because your software says it's legal, it is. Your software of course thinks what it made is legal; otherwise, if it found it's illegal, how would it let you use it? There's a misunderstanding in your mind, that is, you particularly believe in your software, and as long as your software makes it, you believe it's legal, but you haven't personally tested its legality.

Now you should believe that it's you who made a mistake.

Oh! I made you go to so much trouble to enlighten me.
The only requirement I have now is: How do I make a bootable ISO from a 1.44M image guided by grldr?
Is it by using copy /b before.iso + grldr.img after.iso (where before.iso is the unbootable ISO before making, and after is the bootable ISO after making)

What Brother GOTOmsdos said is indeed that I didn't explain clearly.

Before pre4, our --mem emulation only supported disk images. That is to say, if emulating a floppy disk, only an image without a partition table can be used; if emulating a hard disk, only an image with a partition table can be used.

In pre4, this restriction was partially broken. When using ---mem to emulate a hard disk, the image file can be just a partition, that is, without a partition table. An image without a partition table was originally completely impossible to be used to emulate the entire hard disk. Of course, we need to additionally add a partition table to this partition image (actually, a track is added in front of it). Since our emulation operates in memory, this is very easy to do. We not only added a partition table to it, but also wrote a short master boot record (MBR) program code for it. The position of the partition image in the emulated hard disk partition table is (hd0,0), and there is only such a partition in the entire emulated hard disk, and this partition fills the entire hard disk space (of course, except for the first track master boot track we added).

==============

A partition image does not contain a partition table. Although there is a "virtual" partition table before the start of a logical partition, this track is not counted in the partition. The start of the partition starts with the partition's own DOS boot record, not starting from the "virtual" partition table.

Due to the existence of this "virtual" partition table, it made it possible for us to use it to emulate the entire hard disk as early as version 0.2.0. At that time, there was no --mem parameter, but the disk medium was used for in-place emulation. However, in this case, we only have the partition table, not the master boot record (MBR) program code, because the boot record code of the "virtual" partition table sector is empty, and we cannot randomly write to it (because writing to the disk is unwise and will cause serious consequences to the real disk). Of course, for emulating a disk, whether there is MBR code or not is essentially not a big deal, and the partition table is the key.

blue777：

Didn't I say that earlier? It's a pity you haven't downloaded and tested yet: copy /b win98_head.iso + grldr.img your_real_bootable.iso

Among them, win98_head.iso is on ftp://ftp.linuxeden.com/tinybit/, and grldr.img is your own bootable floppy disk. The generated your_real_bootable.iso must be bootable. Now it should be clear enough, right?

The length of win98_head.iso is 43008 bytes, the length of grldr.img is 1474560 bytes, and the length of your_real_bootable.iso is 1517568 bytes.

－ Hello everyone!
-----------------------
－ The IELDR uses the basic structure of grldrstart.S + isoemu. When grldrstart.S places the main part of isoemu at 0x0000:0x8200, the code of the main part of isoemu will first move the entire isoemu to another address to run... ;）
－ Passing by, saw such a wonderful discussion. ^_^ Don't click to add oil! I have such an idea: Can you also put the patch for Chinese display into Grub4Dos for 0.96?

－＝Grub4Dos ＝－， I'm lovin it!

Bu dian xiong, I mean you didn't understand either. Of course I know that copy /b win98_head.iso + grldr.img your_real_bootable.iso can be booted. But I want to make a CD of my own with various things like universal ghost, etc., and finally I want it to be bootable, and I just hope to use grldr.img as its boot file. I just want to ask what to do at this time?

blue777, could you please send the tinybit's win98_head.iso and your NTFS reading and writing software to my email address feelkilller@163.com? I always can't open the tinybit's FTP, and I also can't download the files completely from your network disk. Thanks

Don't click, I have no objection to giving up NTFSdos Pro, thank you for the detailed explanation. Additionally, I found that after grldr virtualizes the hard disk or floppy drive, the real hard disk and floppy drive cannot be used. Is there any way to solve this?

Gandalf:

You are welcome to come. I seem to be mainly focused on the basic structure of GRUB (FORDOS) itself, and I think these are more urgent. Your Chinese localization patch, indeed I also have the intention to elevate it to international language support. However, I hope that before I do it, someone else can complete it first. Why? Because after all, one person's energy and time are not allowed. I really thank windrv. At that time, if something major and irreparable happened to my body, I might have said goodbye to everyone. I was very sick at that time, half in mind and half in body. Thanks to bean123 for being able to come out and save the situation. Now the body has recovered completely, which is really unexpected.

As for Chinese localization itself, if it does not have internationalization capabilities, in my opinion, it is not suitable to be placed in GRUB for DOS. If a Chinese localization patch is added, it may affect the internationalization design route in the future. But in this way, if you agree to be responsible for providing the Chinese localization patch, of course I can add the patch you provide to the existing patch sequence. To be honest, I have studied your patch before and know that this patch needs to be improved to support internationalization. So later I didn't touch it again. Therefore, this patch still needs you to make. You can base this patch on pre4. After making it, give a download address so that I can download it. Then you don't need to care about it anymore, and I will automatically make this patch adapt to the new version. Not only can you do this for Chinese localization, but also for scdrom, ISO simulation, etc. You can also make the patches well. I don't need to study the content of the patches, just apply them and be responsible for making these patches adapt to the new version. Unless you need to upgrade the patches you made, only then do you need to re-make the patches again. Otherwise, you don't need to care anymore, and I will be responsible for following and maintaining. Do you think this is okay? The order of the patches can be inserted before the existing scdrom or placed at the end, depending on your convenience. Moreover, the scdrom patch I provide at present should of course be removed (if you also make this patch).

It's so late. After posting this thread, I'm going to leave. You guys continue playing.

blue777:

You want to make a bootable image. Well, it shouldn't be difficult. You just need to search for "bootable cd-rom specification" to find relevant materials and read them, and then you can manually make this CD. I really don't know how many ISO-making software there are under Windows, and I don't know which one is the best. This is something you need to figure out on your own. You can try all those famous ISO-making software one by one, and see which one can boot normally, and that one is the one without bugs.

Esme:


> I have no objection to giving up ntfsdos pro, thank you for the detailed answer.
You might as well follow the suggestion of brother blue777 and switch to ntfs4dos that he recommended. It seems that he said that there are no problems with the software ntfs4dos.
> Also, I found that after grldr virtualizes the hard disk or floppy drive, the real hard disk and floppy drive cannot be used. Is there any way to solve this?
Of course there is a way. Just take an example below:
map --mem (hd0,0)/win98.gz (hd0)
map (hd0) (hd1)
map --harddrives=2
map --hook
chainloader (hd0)+1
rootnoverify (hd0)
boot
Note that map --mem (hd0,0)/win98.gz (hd0) treats win98.gz as the first hard disk, and the original real first hard disk is no longer visible. Therefore, the next second disk mapping command map (hd0) (hd1) is needed. This command treats the old (hd0) as the new second hard disk (hd1) to use. That is to say, when you access (hd1), you are actually accessing the real machine's (hd0)
map --harddrives=2
Why is this command needed? I think everyone can guess it. Originally, the number of hard disks known by your BIOS might be 1. Now tell the BIOS that the number of hard disks is not 1, but has been 2.
Okay, I'm going back. I'll come again tomorrow if I have time. You guys should also rest.

I just asked about all bootable ones. After reading the detailed process explained by User Budian, I mainly want to add that as Brother Budian also made clear above, each partition has a virtual partition table, and when creating the boot image, the boot information will be added. In general, in terms of boot functionality, the so-called "hard disk" image and "partition" image are the same..

In addition, for BLUE777:
There are mainly two types of CD - boot information:
1. Non - virtual (-no - emul - boot, emul, emulate, simulated), that is, real, which can be understood as the way of the CD medium itself. diskem1x, win2k, winxp's W2KSECT.BIN, WXPSECT.BIN are usually about 2KB.
2. Virtual, mainly divided into two types: virtual as a floppy disk and virtual as a hard disk.
Virtual as a floppy disk: no master boot record, with a system partition boot (A with a capacity generally of 1.44, 2.88 common. After running, it is A:
Virtual as a hard disk: with a master boot record, of course, there is also a system partition boot, with a capacity probably within 600MB. After running, it is C:
WINIMAGE, ULTRAISO, and EASYBOOT can all be used to do this. To add which kind of boot information option, it seems all are CD - boot. Boot information and other words....

I use LOADLIN to boot directly from DOS to LINUX, it feels awesome! But can't use EMM386! To listen to music, need EMM386! How to have both? Is there a solution, share experiences ah!

ULTRAISO is really lousy! I respectively made 1.44M bootable images guided by grldr and syslinux. After making them into CDs with ULTRAISO, neither can boot, while the win98_head.iso made by Brother Dian can boot.

The following is the speech by Budian at 22:29:44 on March 23, 2005:
Gandalf:

It's good that you're here. It seems that my main energy is on the basic structure of GRUB (FORDOS) itself, and I think these are relatively urgent. Your Chinese localization patch, indeed, I also have the intention to elevate it to international language support. But I hope that before I do it, someone else can complete it first. Why? Because one person's energy and time are after all not enough. Really thank windrv, at that time, if something major and irreversible happened to my body, I might have said goodbye to everyone. I was very sick at that time, half mentally and half physically. Thanks to bean123 for being able to come out and rescue, and now the body has recovered completely, which is really unexpected.

Regarding Chinese localization itself, if it does not have internationalization capabilities, in my opinion, it is not suitable to be placed in GRUB for DOS. If an additional Chinese localization patch is added, it may affect the internationalization design route in the future. But this way, if you agree to be responsible for providing the Chinese localization patch, of course I can add the patch you provide to the existing patch sequence. To be honest, I have studied your patch before and know that this patch needs to be improved to support internationalization, so I didn't contact it later. Therefore, this patch still needs you to apply. You can apply this patch based on pre4, and after applying it, give a download address so that I can download it. Then you don't need to care about it later, and I will automatically make this patch adapt to the new version. Not only Chinese localization can you do this, but also scdrom, ISO emulation, etc., you can all make good patches. I don't need to study the content of the patches, just apply them and be responsible for making these patches adapt to the new version. Unless you need to upgrade the part of the patches you made, only then do you need to reapply the patches again. Otherwise, you don't need to care about it anymore, and I will be responsible for following up and maintaining. Do you think this is okay? The order of the patches can be inserted before the existing scdrom or placed at the end, depending on your convenience. Moreover, the current scdrom patch I provided should of course be removed (if you also apply this patch).

Dear Tinybit,
You are welcome! I am glad to hear that you are fully recovered. We are all friends to help each other!
I shall shortly release my experience about making bootable iso / cd with grldr as bootloader both in emulation and non-emulation mode. please go to windrv.net to see the help documentation there.
In the coming weeks, help documentation will be written up and released on how QEMU and GRUB can be used in conjunction with WINDRV to make and test bootable image files and iso files.