From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Oct 13 13:43:37 2007 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B3D2116A41A for ; Sat, 13 Oct 2007 13:43:37 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from cyberleo@cyberleo.net) Received: from pizzabox.cyberleo.net (alpha.cyberleo.net [198.145.45.10]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6F31413C45B for ; Sat, 13 Oct 2007 13:43:37 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from cyberleo@cyberleo.net) Received: (qmail 63902 invoked from network); 13 Oct 2007 13:43:36 -0000 Received: from adsl-75-3-116-182.dsl.chcgil.sbcglobal.net (HELO ?172.16.44.14?) (cyberleo@cyberleo.net@75.3.116.182) by alpha.cyberleo.net with ESMTPA; 13 Oct 2007 13:43:36 -0000 Message-ID: <4710CB81.2000902@cyberleo.net> Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2007 08:43:29 -0500 From: CyberLeo Kitsana User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.6 (X11/20070819) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: "O. Hartmann" References: <470FA23C.6070507@zedat.fu-berlin.de> In-Reply-To: <470FA23C.6070507@zedat.fu-berlin.de> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Howto: Prepare USB key with FreeDOS using FreeBSD X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2007 13:43:37 -0000 O. Hartmann wrote: > Does anyone do have an idea? Ah, the disproportionate march of progress... The easy way out would be to procure a USB floppy drive. If the machines support booting from a USB stick, they can handle booting a USB floppy in legacy mode. If you're really bent on using a USB thumbdrive, you're in for quite a ride. Due to the way DOS is designed, it needs a pretty nonstandard (nowadays) method of booting. You could 'format' the thumbdrive with FAT12 or FAT16 and put the files on there, but you would need to find a way to do so from within DOS itself, as neither Linux nor FreeBSD can create FAT filesystems that boot DOS. Your best bet is to use an already existing bootable DOS floppy image, loading the files onto there (using mdconfig to mount it), and using GRUB (or another modern boot loader) and memdisk (part of syslinux) to boot the floppy image off the thumbdrive. This worked for me when building a thumbdrive capable of booting Norton Ghost, PM8, FreeDOS, and a few other DOS-only utility diskettes. I believe it's also the method used by the Ultimate Boot CD. Good luck! -- Fuzzy love, -CyberLeo Technical Administrator CyberLeo.Net Webhosting http://www.CyberLeo.Net Furry Peace! - http://wwww.fur.com/peace/