From owner-freebsd-questions Mon Jul 8 06:32:26 1996 Return-Path: owner-questions Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id GAA03984 for questions-outgoing; Mon, 8 Jul 1996 06:32:26 -0700 (PDT) Received: from po1.glue.umd.edu (po1.glue.umd.edu [129.2.128.44]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id GAA03976 for ; Mon, 8 Jul 1996 06:32:23 -0700 (PDT) Received: from downlink.eng.umd.edu (downlink.eng.umd.edu [129.2.98.182]) by po1.glue.umd.edu (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id JAA15276; Mon, 8 Jul 1996 09:32:19 -0400 (EDT) Received: (from chuckr@localhost) by downlink.eng.umd.edu (8.7.5/8.7.3) id JAA15522; Mon, 8 Jul 1996 09:32:18 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 8 Jul 1996 09:32:15 -0400 (EDT) From: Chuck Robey X-Sender: chuckr@downlink.eng.umd.edu To: Tim Vanderhoek cc: Derek Law , questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: i have a question In-Reply-To: Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-questions@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk On Mon, 8 Jul 1996, Tim Vanderhoek wrote: > On Sun, 7 Jul 1996, Derek Law wrote: > > > I have a question about freebsd. I am interested in using it on my > > computer (Pentium 75, 24 MB RAM, 850 MB HDD). Here is my question: Can I > > use freebsd and keep and continue to use my current MS-DOS/WIN 3.1/WIN95 > > operating systems on it? Do I have to reformat my HDD and make additional > > partitions on it? Can I run all of my current DOS/WINDOWS programs if I > > get it? Is there any way to uninstall it if I don't like it? > > In order... > > Yes. See the file at the other end of > ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/2.1.0-RELEASE/INSTALL. If you wait a > little while, you should soon be able to install 2.1.5-RELEASE. > > No...with conditions. If you split a DOS partition with Fips, it would > be ....unwise.... to read the partition with FreeBSD. `mount_msdos' in > FreeBSD has bugs that are particularly likely to show up when reading DOS > partitions that have been fips'd. These bugs are being fixed, but for > the moment, `mount_msdos' can be unreliable...ie. it can destroy your data. Just to make that a little clearer, it's fine to read the dos partition, but the risky part comes in WRITING TO the dos partition. I've never seen the least problem reading the data. Probably safest to do the mount as a read only mount. > Yes, but not necessarily from FreeBSD. Windows and DOS emulation exist. > For text only programs, PCEMU works well (emulates an XT). > > Yes. Run `fdisk /mbr' from DOS to remove the Boot Selector. You can the > just reformat the FBSD partition for DOS (use DOS's fdisk again w/ format > d:). If you used Fips to split a partition, you can probably just use > Fips's undo disk, but I'd like someone else from the list to confirm that > this won't cause damage... > > 60-70 columns per line, please. > > > -- > Outnumbered? Maybe. Outspoken? Never! > tIM...HOEk > > > > ----------------------------+----------------------------------------------- Chuck Robey | Interests include any kind of voice or data chuckr@eng.umd.edu | communications topic, C programming, and Unix. 9120 Edmonston Ct #302 | Greenbelt, MD 20770 | I run Journey2 and n3lxx, both FreeBSD (301) 220-2114 | version 2.2 current -- and great FUN! ----------------------------+-----------------------------------------------