ntalaec wrote on Today, 11:37:

I'm using a Netbook with Intel Atom N280 and 1 GB of RAM.

Hence, perfectly capable of running hiren's boot cd (which is a minimal XP live image with many utilities included), just use Rufus to put ISO image a pendrive and boot from it, once you are in the GUI install the windows bootloader on the HDD and configure it using easybcd

Also, I'm using an USB stick to boot from DOS. I can boot from the USB floppy drive but then, I have not access to the USB stick. If I boot from the USB stick I can use the USB floppy drive as A:.

That machine has an internal HDD, right?, hence you can copy whatever image you like on it, dos included, configure the bootloader using easy bcd, then boot whatever dos image from the windows bootloader.

No need to use USB or physical floppy drive, once you have done

ntalaec wrote on Yesterday, 10:29:

Do you know how to use GRUB4DOS?

No, I don't but I'm using it anyway. It's on all my PCs. Also on UEFI / Windows / WinPE / Linux setups.

This is the line that I use in DOS config.sys:

1DEVICE=C:\UTILS\GRUB4DOS\GRUB.EXE --CONFIG-FILE=C:\UTILS\GRUB4DOS\MENU.LST

This is the part of my Menu.lst file that is responsible for booting MS-DOS image:

1title MS-DOS 7.1 -> Windows 3.1x Enhanced Mode
2map /utils/grub4dos/msdos71.img (fd0)
3map --hook
4chainloader (fd0)/io.sys

Booting SvarDOS was a bit different:

1title svardos
2map --mem /utils/grub4dos/svardos.img (fd0)
3map --hook
4chainloader (fd0)+1
5rootnoverify (fd0)

WinPE 7:

1title WinPE7
2uuid ()
3kernel /utils/grub4dos/ntloader uuid=%?% file=/utils/grub4dos/winpe7.wim
4initrd /utils/grub4dos/initrd

Win XP (well, not really but Micro2003 is almost the same):

1title Micro2003
2root (hd0,0)
3chainloader +1
4boot

ntalaec wrote on Today, 09:42:

This is only source code, there are no binaries. […]
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Ringding wrote on Yesterday, 12:45:

https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/6.xx/

This is only source code, there are no binaries.

wierd_w wrote on Yesterday, 12:46:

I'd just see if loadlin would work first. […]
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I'd just see if loadlin would work first.

You just fire that from the commandline, feed it memdisk as the kernel, and the disk image as the initrd.

(Found in the .tgz file here)
https://mirrors.slackware.com/slackware/slack … urce/a/loadlin/

I'm trying to boot DOS images not Linux, but I've tried anyway.

I've downloaded FLOPPINUX:
https://krzysztofjankowski.com/floppinux/
https://github.com/w84death/floppinux

Extracted the bzImage inside the disk image file and tried to boot the image using this command:

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1loadlin bzImage root=/dev/hdb2 ro vga=3

But instead of loading the image, computer reboots. I have write the FLOPPINUX image to a diskette and boot from it using an USB floppy drive and it boots ok.

I just realized that there is an update for loadlin (version 1.6c). I'll try later to see if there is any difference.

You seem confused about what memdisk *is*, and why I have suggested a commandline based dos linux loader.

1) memdisk is a small program that allocates memory, patches software interrupt 15's return about how much xms is available (so that downstream OSes dont overwrite that allocated memory), copies a raw disk image into that memory, installs a software interrupt 13 handler to present that raw disk image as a disk to bios call using software, then executes the disk image's boot sector code.

It is *intended* for use on a machine where linux is already installed, (or at least, where a linux bootloader is), for loading legacy operating system from that bootloader. (I use it to boot floppy images of win9x boot disks, to start different flavors of win9x, on my linux equipped retroplay laptop)

To accomplish that, it *presents itself* as a linux kernel image to that boot loader, and accepts the path to the disk image to load (and any configuration data about that image, like CHS data) on the kernel arguments string.

This allows it to be used with a wide assortment of linux bootloaders out there in the wild. As far as those bootloaders are concerned 'memdisk' is a flavor of linux.

2) You are using a DOS machine, and want to start a booter image from the command prompt.

Memdisk + loadlin, can accomplish that.

Loadlin is a legacy boot method for linux kernels. It is meant to start linux FROM dos, at a dos prompt.

Since memdisk works like it was a linux kernel, we can use it to start memdisk, and get all of its functionality.

You tell loadlin to boot 'memdisk', then supply it the name and path of the initial ramdisk. Memdisk accepts that as the path of the image file to load.

It faithfully does that, memdisk assumes full control of the computer from DOS, copies the image into RAM, sets up its handlers, then executes the images boot sector.

Result:

A booter image is launched from a dos prompt.