Re: lnx4win

[Damion Yates <nospam [at] rd.bbc.co.uk>]

On Mon, 3 Apr 2000, Paul Sims wrote:

> Second install, second bomb on X config, despite my card being supported.
> 
> There's nothing really windows-specific about lnx4win - apart form the
> graphical "select filesystem size" box. Just a modified config.sys &
> autoexec.bat to select either win or linux at boot time. With cdrom drivers
> loaded it'd be just as happy loading from dos, if it wasn't for that GUI
> chooser box.since all it does is to boot into mandrake at the first
> opportunity & create the filesystem reserved for it.

This sounds completely lame!  If you're running under windows you have access
to the driver database FFS, how lame are these winlinux dists.  I
pondered doing one myself but never got the time, I've just finished a r/o
embedded dist for realmedia encoders, had to patch lilo's boot.b in second.S
for improved serial console support for remote support, loverly x86 coding at
work and paid for it Mmmm!

I've seen from c.o.l.a. another coder with similar ideas as me has written
something that can read/write to ext2 image files for using as loop back
devices:

http://jnewbigin-pc.it.swin.edu.au/Linux/Explore2fs.htm

John Newbigin.

Another of my ideas (other than nicking windows driver info for a perfectly
simple install) is to not use lo/umsdos for linux on fat but to pass the
kernel fake HD param's so it thinks the loopbackfile (if it can be made
contiguous) is a partition of it's own.  This would be vastly more efficient.

Damion

-- 
Damion Yates - Senior Internet Operations Engineer - Internet Services
email: Damion.Yates [at] bbc.co.uk - phone: +44 1737 839510

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