How I make a DOS + multi-Puppy PC

[artsown]

My notion of a puppies pc grew out of experiences this past year
where certain pups worked so well on several different machines
I had here that I began to consider dropping my old habit of
multibooting Windows XP and several different pups. I manage
to get my hands on PCs less than 10 years old, and installing
Windows on them seems no longer worth the effort.

The method I use involves the creation of a small FAT32 DOS boot
partition followed by one or more Linux partitions (I use ext4). I use
live CDs of pups and copy their required files to folders (on sda2
for example). Good old Win 98 boot CD handles the DOS
installation to sda1 (the C: partition in DOS-Windows-speak).

http://www.allbootdisks.com/download/iso.html

The first step involves one of the pups live CD. Once that pup
is up and running, invoke gparted. Delete all existing partitions,
then create a small FAT32 partition. 10 meg in size in plenty
large enough unless you're a DOS guru requiring something much
larger. Set the flag to boot for this first (primary) partition. Next,
create one or more Linux partitions. Exit gparted and mount
sda2. Open the console. To create a folder for tahr64 (for
example) type:

mkdir /mnt/sda2/tahr64

While you're at it, create folders for the other pups as well.

Next, mount the CD drive and copy the sfs file(s), vmlinuz and
initrd.gz (initrd and vmlinuz only for Fatdog) to the appropriate
folder.

Three files must be copied to sda1. You may have included them
on a data disc, or placed them on a thumb drive. So either
insert the data disc CD or the thumb drive and copy the three
files (see ** below for info).

For the second step, remove the live CD and insert the Win 98
boot CD. Then reboot. The format file may be in ramdrive
D: so type cd D: Then type format C: /s to install DOS.

Now, remove the CD and type Ctrl-Alt-Delete to reboot. If all
has gone well, you can now test by selecting the installed pup
from the menu.

It now remains to copy files from the other pups to their folders
using live CDs.

** The three files are:
1. grub.exe
http://www.icpug.org.uk/national/programs/grub.exe

2. menu.lst (example)

timeout=10
default=0
color white/blue
title tahr64
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
kernel /tahr64/vmlinuz pmedia=atahd pdev1=sda2 psubdir=tahr64
initrd /tahr64/initrd.gz
boot
title fatdog
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
kernel /fd64/vmlinuz
initrd /fd64/initrd
boot
title DOS
quit

3. autoexec.bat

Script containing only the word grub

[nic007]

Why do you need the windows 98 installation disk? You don't need DOS, do you?

[artsown]

@ nic007

Please explain why the DOS partition is unnecessary. What
exactly are the alternatives?

[nic007]

Why do you need a DOS partition, I don't think you do (I may be wrong just asking)? The reason I'm asking is that I have formated numerous flashdrives before in either fat32 or ext3 (one partition) and were able to boot various puppy's via grub without having a DOS partition on the drive.

[artsown]

@nic007

Actually, I wondered the same thing. I don't know either. I couldn't
find anything on the subject when I researched it .... seems
"everyone" wants to multiboot with Windows or Ubuntu. I simply
don't know the various capabilities of the various forms of
"grubs"

I probably went this route though because having real instead
of simulated DOS available did (does) have some appeal. I used
to be addicted to DOS programming.

Art

[nic007]

DOS need to be present if you want to boot an older Windows system (or multibooting windows with grub). This is because you can't boot windows directly with grub, grub boots windows via a chainloader. In your case you don't need it because you only have puppys you want to boot.

[artsown]

@nic007

BTW, the win 98 disk is not a installation disk, it's the repair
disk (originally on a 1.44 meg floppy). I just edited my original post
and supplied a url to allbootdisks.com where the iso can be
downloaded. Anyone interested should be advised to avoid the
Windows ME disk since MS dropped the format utility because of
space limitations on floppies.

Anyway, what "grub" did you use or do you suggest? I used
grub.exe for DOS as you can see in my original post.

Art

[Sailor Enceladus]

I have a fat32 sda1 too, and use it to dual boot Puppy and Freedos (all you need for it is 2 files, command.com and kernel.sys)

[davids45]

G'day artsown,

I too am puzzled why you want to have a MS DOS partition for a Puppy PC, particularly an old PC.

I have four old HP desktops (~10 years old) in a home network (1 for me, 3 for the grandkids to play games). None has any DOS partitions.
Each has two hard drives (of various sizes, accumulated over the years).
I started by totally wiping and reformatting each computer's hard drives using a Puppy Live CD.
I created several ext2 or ext3 partitions on each drive (up to 15), one for booting on one of the drives, one big partition for data (per drive), one for keeping lots of Frugals on, and the rest as small partitions for various Full Puppies (Fulls need one partition each - I find 3GB per Full is plenty).

Once the drives were formatted, I installed a Full Puppy from a LiveCD (to a 3GB sda1 for simplicity) and set up grub4dos as the boot loading facility during the Universal Installer run.

I then also installed a Frugal version of this Puppy to the Frugals partition and ran Grub4Dos again so it collected the Full and Frugal Pup in its booting option menu.lst. I checked the menu.lst file in sda1 that both Pups were now listed.

Other Pups were then added as I felt the need or whim.

Videos, music and games were copied to the data partitions for the kids to run via desktop icons.

I still use several MS programs but wine is very good at running these whenever needed.

But please feel free to be nostalgic and do it as you like with your DOS partition. I do have an older desktop that boots XP but with Pups as well of course - it just hardly ever gets turned on now.

David S.

[artsown]

@davids45

Thanks for the detailed description. When you guys ask me why
the DOS partition, my reaction is .... why not?

Art

[nic007]

@nic007

BTW, the win 98 disk is not a installation disk, it's the repair
disk (originally on a 1.44 meg floppy). I just edited my original post
and supplied a url to allbootdisks.com where the iso can be
downloaded. Anyone interested should be advised to avoid the
Windows ME disk since MS dropped the format utility because of
space limitations on floppies.

Anyway, what "grub" did you use or do you suggest? I used
grub.exe for DOS as you can see in my original post.

Art

Hi, Art. There is nothing wrong with your procedure,you just don't need to create the DOS partition AND you don't need any windows installation disks. I use grub4dos. Grub4dos is an extension of the older grub to support DOS users (it allows the running of the configuration console directly in real mode - whatever that means but that's the developer's description)....but you don't need DOS to use it. General method - Boot puppy live CD > create partitions with gparted and make the partition you want to boot from bootable > create the different folders for your puppy's and copy the necessary files > run the grub4dos utility from menu > check the created menu.lst file and edit if necessary > everything should now be setup so reboot which should take you to the grub menu. To conclude - you can use a DOS partition if you like but it's unnecessary.

[Les Kerf]

@davids45

Thanks for the detailed description. When you guys ask me why
the DOS partition, my reaction is .... why not?

Art

I, too, have set up several PC's with a DOS partition. Why? Because I can

It is certainly not necessary, but it does no harm.

I have booted these using Grub4Dos.
Les

[artsown]

@nic007

I did the automatic grub4dos bootloader config thing from
menu - system in tahr64. I see that it's available in many or
most pups. It worked fine. It certainly does simplify matters
for those not interested in a DOS option. Not so sure I'm
much interested in the DOS option either It was simply a
(manual) method I tried that worked.

Thanks,

Art

[Pelo]

It's an evidance !
the harder is to convince old methodists.