From owner-freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Sun Oct 7 21:40:43 2018 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2610:1c1:1:606c::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1711B10CDE72; Sun, 7 Oct 2018 21:40:43 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Received: from mout.kundenserver.de (mout.kundenserver.de [212.227.126.135]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 (128/128 bits)) (Client CN "mout.kundenserver.de", Issuer "TeleSec ServerPass DE-2" (verified OK)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 8321E95CBD; Sun, 7 Oct 2018 21:40:42 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Received: from r56.edvax.de ([92.195.59.48]) by mrelayeu.kundenserver.de (mreue010 [212.227.15.167]) with ESMTPA (Nemesis) id 1MPp0l-1gM6o71R7z-00Mx6g; Sun, 07 Oct 2018 23:40:40 +0200 Received: from r56.edvax.de ([92.195.59.48]) by mrelayeu.kundenserver.de (mreue010 [212.227.15.167]) with ESMTPA (Nemesis) id 1MPp0l-1gM6o71R7z-00Mx6g; Sun, 07 Oct 2018 23:40:40 +0200 Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2018 23:40:40 +0200 From: Polytropon To: FreeBSD Questions Cc: FreeBSD Hackers Subject: FreeBSD boot manager customization for single-disk multiboot (4 x DOS) Message-Id: <20181007234040.028639f8.freebsd@edvax.de> Reply-To: Polytropon Organization: EDVAX X-Mailer: Sylpheed 3.1.1 (GTK+ 2.24.5; i386-portbld-freebsd8.2) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Provags-ID: V03:K1:vz9xg9+WtbrjajfHP/Hkwh33J2jKP6ygPkEzsmWQtx2ZyizkVKW vD9X6h5tyVq7HzEplWkXN1e+zJ7JDIxxhIb/osRkHKP8nGcG4UImj+szvc/61kuQrCpOUjr 7kaZvkJcVO6KHJmDW4am0nogPmPbgycmMG5T+A3lxRKxeWlbYSJHBQ6SQdXfLfCbF37TgU9 9FUBxTcgPfqbjotkJgBtQ== X-UI-Out-Filterresults: notjunk:1;V01:K0:OAYtdTyZHVw=:tOgPkujMvyjFqH8XbJWLe1 7+uF18M6k2CcS82TiAWUxwWjLddnqByvhOR0KpMprGygR6LEDSg3L2dHfCsZtlzm9IKc3r4N+ aJz3CqpelKVWxODWDbJ/fyOoOHcKISeglIAku8Cv1+Ab0QWEd5hKcttEOQlpgiVtrSDLz1npw FtoLl3Ao8DaBKn0KxIP7nahEqDJv/7gPouJz++TiWa5yI5t9zXHjeYnTDYo+fUP/7Mkkhu9lS lISBhAtI/Jhrc26cbG2YwUXP1mXMmVyGCxL3WURTFnQuDubniLl64bTFSh/eNw3SedQtdDyNt vnUTdmY5a8dBsP2eaD6iovLC+1omqzV+sH8P8/LDmc8LZU28FzT02CmLwd/CzpogichkLSFuV igwQKTJ/H20CbM3eX1hRP4HjyODLW2Qpc3u6ON3v4iylEhZ0pl/cVrbtP/fhboA6rfFdxVP+P wlJH68WfJGUph4SObBFkiUP3SCEtxsvzlYKdRL0LUKKL3tbm1hZXTwZTv8A+LCmFTocUmj7BW 2iFJC4uDDXgtjN2kt4sEfD6JrYhnAxi9gbLboCdTIsdu/+0o+DkqxmbwWCuMFOQrVQrGnTcff wQq+9JR++0sLtgBLcBzj4kKLCqqK1f91k9zvmymdLzmWjmzNgKmvCPb41jc6vU+999K3n4FJS 7fEo3ukFGT/BOZMGAy3eaIUS/+bOMf2HKKjYtqPxmgug5etr6eu6SZmxs59ej0y51vyRzIupQ EhLa4cKfLddAlf60 X-Mailman-Approved-At: Mon, 08 Oct 2018 01:36:11 +0000 X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.27 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 07 Oct 2018 21:40:43 -0000 I'm crossposting to the freebsd-hackers@ list, hope that's okay. Replies from that list please keep me CC'd as I'm not subscribed to that list. Thanks in advance! I have a strange and unique problem to solve and would like to ask for pointers into the right direction (or at least pointers into wrong directions _not_ to take). My IBM Thinkpad 755C died. In fact, the very special PSU exploded. It provided special voltages (10V=, 20V=) on a special plug (4-pin semi-rectangular). Its special disk can't be placed into a comparable laptop as it's not a regular 2.5" unit - it's a little bit taller and therefore won't fit the usual (P)ATA 2.5" disk bays. There is some special software on that disk that I need to use from time to time, and there is no way to use a modern laptop (too fast, missing required connectors and drives, as well as low-level control over those resources). The software I have to use is very special and cannot be replaced by anything else. I can access (P)ATA laptop disks fine with FreeBSD and a USB disk adapter, so reading disk content and copying it to somewhere else is not a problem. I plan to dedicate a Fujitsu-Siemens Litebook LFL-G (500 MHz AMD CPU, 128 MB RAM) as a replacement. It will also obtain the functions formerly provided by a Toshiba T-2130CT laptop whose disk drive, power supply, battery, case etc. died. But the disk is still there. The Litebook will get a hard disk of 10 GB (or less, if I still have one) partitioned as follows: 1st slice: 100 MB MS-DOS 5.0 from the Toshiba T-2130CT 2nd slice: 500 MB MS-DOS 6.22 + NDOS from a different DOS system 3rd slice: 1000 MB "Windows '95" + NDOS hybrid that was on the IBM disk in the Thinkpad 755C 4th slice: remaining space: "Windows '98" as it came with that laptop (original CD and license key present) The intended use of "slice" indicates that there will be 4 "DOS primary partitions" on the disk. Staying with the "drive letters" from DOS, every OS should see the partition it booted from as C:, and it would be great if it didn't touch (or maybe even didn't recognize) any of the other partitions. I think I could even use a 500 MB disk and strip everything down to 50 + 100 + 150 + 200 MB as per the layout shown above! That would also be fully sufficient for the special purposes. What I'm asking for _now_ is a convenient way to select which OS to boot. I would not want to use today's GRUB because I don't plan to use Linux on that particular system. In my opinion, the FreeBSD boot manager will work nicely, but it will list all 4 systems with the name "DOS". From what I learned by reading its source, this is due to auto detection. I don't need that feature, I'd think about altering the code in order to hard-code 4 names, like this: F1 DOS 5 F2 DOS 6 F3 Win 95 F4 Win 98 Default: F1 So if I needed to boot the system that formerly ran on the Thinkpad 755C, I'd press F3 and it would boot. Sure, I understand that there is a good chance that I have to reconfigure drivers and such (as it's a typical thing with "Windows"), but that won't be the big problem. I know everything has to fit 512 bytes (and the code of the boot manager illustrates this requirement very nicely by how the text for the possible boot options is stored and selected). Questions: Would you say this is a possible way to go? Or would you suggest that I refresh my assembly knowledge and write something myself, maybe using the existing FreeBSD boot manager as inspiration and organ donor? ;-) Or maybe there is something that can be installed and initially configured from DOS? Distant past... I know there _were_ multi-boot utilities decades ago, but I cannot remember any names. There is no luxury required, no GUI, no boot graphics - just a simple means to select the OS that should be booted. Oh, or maybe there is a long-forgotten functionality in the newer "Windows" versions ('95 and '98 will be finally installed, but none of then will ever see the Internet, of course), those also once contained some kind of strange boot manager? If everything fails, I could still try to use the FreeBSD boot manager "as is", with the following result predicted: F1 DOS F2 DOS F3 DOS F4 DOS Default: F1 I'm not sure if it will recognize old-fashioned "Windows '95" as "DOS" or "Windows"... Thank you for any inspiration! :-) -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...