Phoebus1966 wrote:

What is the purpose of boot and imgboot.

I read these:

Their purpose is to allow booting from disk images. Is that not clear from those threads?

To include 'boot' and 'imgboot' however not being able to really boot is misleading.

They let you "really boot" from disk images. This is not especially misleading.

EDIT: Also, while "boot" and "imgmount" are valud commands, "imgboot" isn't a real command and never has been.

DOSBox has a wiki and a readme. Try reading them.

[Thread moved to DOSBox General Section]

OK, thanks for replying.

I tried a few image creators. DosBox can't read them. Wait, one worked: WinISO but that was for a MSDOS floppy image. But my goal is making images from a bootable SD card. My WinISO isn't able to do that.

But for everyone else: Which image creators did the developers use? What's the standard (deviation) for img files used in DosBox? The guide just says image files.

If I'm not mistaken, an image file is just an ordinary, raw dump of the contents of a disk. There is no real "standard".

WinImage is usually the tool of choice. I think IsoBuster might work as well. If you have Linux, I think you can just use "dd". DiskExplorer might also work.

which why you need to specify parameter about the image's "geometry".

Joey_sw wrote:

which why you need to specify parameter about the image's "geometry".

If you don't know about the parameter values, how to detect?

1. the most compatible image are created with Bochs.
2. use SVN of DOSBox, it has an autosize or something similar parameter.

Thank you. These are important answers. Because there is software who pretend to create images, add the img extention, however use a geometry. Example: HDClone by Miray Software, USB Image Tool 1.70 Copyright (c) 2006-2014 Alexander Beug and PassMark ImageUSB V1.3 Copyright (C) 2010-2016 PassMark Software albeit not using the img extention.

It could be good to add that to the Wiki, the fact what an image file is, that there is no compatibility involved, no geometry, and softwares x, y or z are recommended to create those images.

Cheers & thanks again.

[edit] PS: Bochs x86 Emulator, makes me think of the Compaq Mac et al emulators, very tantalizing. This might solve my most important issue: A slow system where I can run Scheider/Telemecanique's PL7-2 programming software without the need to buy or salvage extra hardware: http://www.schneider-electric.com.eg/en/faqs/FA228094/ [edit]

[edit 2] I will forget Bochs: not userfriendly, no portable installation files, no default working configuration, too much trouble ... [edit 2]

Who said there is no geometry involved, I hope it wasn't one of the developers.
Sure there's a geometry since DosBox reports on it.
I used WinImage to create the image of a 1GB SD via USB stick with MSDOS on it. This 1GB SD via USB stick boots and everything from BIOS on a machine.
It is strange DosBox cannot by itself extract the geometry. Is WinImage that exotic 😉?

Most software that creates a imagefiles would usually also spit out the image supposedly geomety, but...
there case where such geometry aren't adhere to IBM PC's Int 13h specification/limitation.
- Can only have max 63 sectors per cylinder,
- Can only have max 1024 cylinders per head,
- Can only have max 255 heads

If the image hasn't contain any useful information yet (ie unformatted), AND its capacity is acceptable for INT 13h (no more than 8,422,686,720 (512 x 63 x 1024 x 255) bytes),
you can work it around by re-arranging its geometry values.
For example you can look for common divisor value between the heads & cylinders, and apply them so the geometry would fit for INT 13h limitation, while still maintaining the same overall values (sectors x cylinders x heads).

IMPORTANT: The above workaround are NOT advisable for image files that already contain data, as such rearrangement may changes the logical sectors numbering.

Phoebus1966 wrote:

It is strange DosBox cannot by itself extract the geometry. Is WinImage that exotic 😉?

I do not use WinImage, so I'm not sure how you could get geometry data from there. But as Dominus suggested, autodetection of geometry is apparently a feature included in SVN builds of DOSBox.

You can get SVN builds at http://blog.yesterplay80.net/dosbox-ece-en/ .