Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Wed, 31 Jan 1996 10:58:18 -0700 (MST)
From:      Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org>
To:        msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au (Michael Smith)
Cc:        pbanks@candle.com, questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Run BSD under DOS
Message-ID:  <199601311758.KAA10081@phaeton.artisoft.com>
In-Reply-To: <199601310259.NAA17075@genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au> from "Michael Smith" at Jan 31, 96 01:29:22 pm

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
> >      It is possible to load and run BSD from a DOS partition?
> >      
> >      For various reasons, I can not re-format my hard disk to create unique 
> >      partitions for BSD. 
> 
> I'm working on code to do this, but at this point in time you need to 
> repartition.
> 
> Note that you don't have to reformat, you can use a tool like FIPS to shrink
> your DOS partition to make room for FreeBSD.

There is no umsdos driver for FreeBSD.

Linux does this by establishing an attributes file called "--LINUX-.---"
in each directory of a subtree hierarchy to combat POSIX non-compliance
of the FAT FS.  This should probably be called "-UMSDOS-.---" to be OS
independent, IMO.

The file is used to store attributes (uid/gid/ctime/modes) for the files
in the directory.

Obviously, this file is not updated or respected by DOS when accessing
the FS.

This requires a second stage boot that knows about the FAT/UMSDOS FS
(or, more typically, Linux uses a boot floppy that mounts / from the
hard drive from a "/linux" directory under the FAT root that has
UMSDOS permissions on the underlying hierarchy.


One alternative for FreeBSD is to make a boot floppy and then use
vnconfig to configure a DOS file as a file system and mount it.  This
is a bit of work.

Is there some technical reason that you need to use a 8-10 times slower
FS to store your files?


					Terry Lambert
					terry@lambert.org
---
Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present
or previous employers.



Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?199601311758.KAA10081>