[SOLVED] DosBox locks when attempting to write on a mounted HDD image \ VOGONS

[SOLVED] DosBox locks when attempting to write on a mounted HDD image

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First post, by marooned_on_mars

Posted on 2012-08-25, 13:21

marooned_on_mars Offline

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Regardless of what type of disk writing action I do (from copying to directory creation) DosBox hangs, and the HDD file bloats (gets over 2GB in size)

Here's the creation in bximage

1========================================================================
2                                bximage
3                  Disk Image Creation Tool for Bochs
4          $Id: bximage.c 10933 2012-01-04 19:34:08Z vruppert $
5========================================================================
6
7Do you want to create a floppy disk image or a hard disk image?
8Please type hd or fd. [hd]
9
10What kind of image should I create?
11Please type flat, sparse or growing. [flat]
12
13Enter the hard disk size in megabytes, between 1 and 129023
14[10] 200
15
16I will create a 'flat' hard disk image with
17  cyl=406
18  heads=16
19  sectors per track=63
20  total sectors=409248
21  total size=199.83 megabytes
22
23What should I name the image?
24[c.img]
25
26Writing: [] Done.
27
28I wrote 209534976 bytes to c.img.
29
30The following line should appear in your bochsrc:
31  ata0-master: type=disk, path="c.img", mode=flat, cylinders=406, heads=16, spt=63

ImgMount in DosBox (before formatting):

1imgmount 2 C:\Portable\Games\DosBox\c.img -t hdd -size 512,63,16,406 -fs none

ImgMount in DosBox (after formatting with FreeDos's FDISK):

1imgmount c C:\Portable\Games\DosBox\c.img -t hdd -size 512,63,16,406 -fs fat

When I load DosBox all that I can see as a hint to the problem is in the console:

1Using Partition 0 on drive; skipping 63 sectors
2Loaded image has no valid magicnumbers at the end!
3Mounted FAT volume is FAT32 with 17395994 clusters

The weird thing is that I formatted the partition as FAT12 not 32, as I assumed FAT32 wouldn't work.

Last edited by marooned_on_mars on 2012-08-28, 15:43. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 1 of 13, by Dominus

Posted on 2012-08-25, 13:55

Dominus Offline

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Try autosize parameter.

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Reply 2 of 13, by Joey_sw

Posted on 2012-08-25, 13:57

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well FAT12, max cluster = 2^12 about 4K cluster,
max sectors/cluster = 2^16 = 64K sectors
1 sector = 512 byes
so, max bytes/cluster = 32 KB

32KB * 4K = 128 MB

and your HDD image size was ?

-fffuuu

Reply 3 of 13, by marooned_on_mars

Posted on 2012-08-25, 14:51

marooned_on_mars Offline

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@Dominus

That being?

@Joey_sw
Does that mean FAT12 partitions cannot exceed 128MB in size, or that I need to re-calculate the clusters?
Was 200MB BTW

Reply 4 of 13, by Dominus

Posted on 2012-08-25, 14:54

Dominus Offline

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ah, it's not in the readme. Just do not give the -size option.

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Reply 5 of 13, by marooned_on_mars

Posted on 2012-08-25, 15:03

marooned_on_mars Offline

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Thanks, but seems to have no effect whatsoever, same message in the console, and still hangs up. Tried formatting to FAT32 and that doesn't seem to help.

Reply 6 of 13, by Joey_sw

Posted on 2012-08-25, 15:28

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FAT12 can't exceed 128 MB (about 134 million bytes)
as mount with "imgmount (letter) -t hdd" that mean you can only have 1 partition on it.

how about formating to FAT16?
-max 2GB,
-max 63 sectors per tracks
-max 1024 cyls per heads
-max 255 heads

the limitation are based on INT 13h specs, and FAT16 limitation.

please tell, how the hdd image was partioned.

-fffuuu

Reply 7 of 13, by marooned_on_mars

Posted on 2012-08-25, 15:45

marooned_on_mars Offline

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Apparently the partition is FAT16 instead of FAT32 and there's only one primary partition.

Reply 8 of 13, by Jorpho

Posted on 2012-08-27, 03:32

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Wait a second:

marooned_on_mars wrote:
ImgMount in DosBox (after formatting with FreeDos's FDISK):

Did you actually run FORMAT.COM , or did you only run FDISK?

Admittedly I have never used FreeDOS FDISK, but I would not be surprised if, after partitioning a drive with FDISK, you still need to format it.

Joey_sw wrote:
FAT12 can't exceed 128 MB

Wikipedia says 32 MB, which at least fits with my memories of DOS 3.3.

Reply 9 of 13, by marooned_on_mars

Posted on 2012-08-27, 17:43

marooned_on_mars Offline

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When I try to format, this is reported:

1  Boot Sector contents implausible, disk not yet FAT formatted
2
3Win98? Default BPB *FAT1x* 65535 sectors/FAT, 0 root size. FAT32 forced.
4GENIOCTL/4860 error 0D. No FAT32 kernel?
5FAT1x FAT size 65535 sectors?
6
7  [Error 55]

Have no idea what's the problem. FDISK reports the partition as FAT16 😖

Reply 10 of 13, by DosFreak

Posted on 2012-08-27, 20:25

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Windows 9x DOSBox Guide (Not officially supported)

See attachments in first two posts.

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Reply 11 of 13, by marooned_on_mars

Posted on 2012-08-27, 21:16

marooned_on_mars Offline

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Which ones specifically? By the way, I'm not interested in installing Win98 in DosBox, I only want to format the HDD image and just use DOS.

Reply 12 of 13, by Jorpho

Posted on 2012-08-28, 03:26

Jorpho Offline

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If I am not mistaken, 2GBpartitioned.zip, 2GBFreeDOS.zip, and 2GBFAT16NO-OS.zip are all completely empty disk images which should mount fine in DOSBox, and onto which you can install anything you like.

marooned_on_mars wrote:
When I try to format, this is reported:

What were you typing when you mounted the image, and what were you typing when you ran Format?

Alternatively, apparently the Megabuild version of DOSBox includes a utility called Imgmake which might work a little better than bximage. There is a very old thread about it at Patch: Imgmake - creates floppy or harddisk images ; the Megabuild is available at http://home.arcor.de/h-a-l-9000/ . (You need to run Imgmake after starting that version of DOSBox.)

Reply 13 of 13, by marooned_on_mars

Posted on 2012-08-28, 03:46

marooned_on_mars Offline

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2GB is a bit too much for me. I intend to make the image "portable"

Mount command:

1imgmount c C:\Portable\Games\DosBox\c.img -t hdd -fs fat

Format command:

1format C:

I'll try that custom build that you suggested

EDIT: Works like a charm, thanks! ^^

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