Need your advice on these thoughts:

Need your advice on these thoughts:

[Oliver Ob]

Hello Dosemu friends,

the 80s have just returned to me somehow - my BBS is back!!!!!

I have been using Dosemu from 0.66 to 0.97 and have NOW FINALLY
recovered my BBS from a HD crash (successfully, as you see...)

Now having this done, I want to set my BBS back up and need your
advice on how to do that Dosemu-wise. Way back, I have had some 
friend student at our university here who installed that all - and 
second, there are different ways to boot that dos. Read on!

Let me introduce you to the general scenario. I have been running
PC BOARD 15.22 under Dosemu 0.67 - where lredir yet worked as it
should, nowadays, as I can hurtingly see from my first test, you
are no longer allowed to boot from a physical dos partition,
which is mounted into Linux tree AND redirect it back to DOS 
access - Bart, is that really a feature?

I know that this SHOULD have something to do with the problem
like concurrent access from Linux and dosemu BIOS Calls to the 
same partition without data corruption. But I do NOT access from
both at the same time. So how do I reenable that? I have NEVER
had any problems with that GOOD option. Read below...

I have had Dosemu set to enable direct partition access to
/dev/hda1 and a second dir for the up/downloads.

Running Dosemu, I used to boot from an hdimage, which I built
using the script included in the package. The hdimage consisted
ONLY of the necessary Dos 6.22 files to boot, meaning the
config.sys, command.com, io.sys and autoexec.bat.

The next step has been the very first command in the autoexec.bat,
I had my physical DOS Partition mounted to /mnt/c already and now
redirected it to Dosemu - which apparently does no longer work.
Bart, is that correct or have I missed something over the years!?!?

THIS redirection VIRTUALLY overwrote the autoexec.bat which
Dosemu was referring to, so the actual DOS-BOOT was ONLY AT FIRST
using the autoexec.bat inside the hdimage, THEN after redirection
ALL of the C: was visible to Dosemu and the rest of the ACTUAL
autoexec.bat on C: was executed.

Another issue is the conventional memory which I have been able
to assign to Dosemu to almost 900k (need that for ISDN drivers!),
but as I see now, not more than 640k are possible?!? Has Dosemu
limits on this by now??? 

Bart and St. and all others: Am I wrong or has Dosemu taken
some steps back? Precisely THESE options were the reasons for me
to run Dosemu and no longer Desqview+Qemm under Dos!!!!

So for now, how should I do all this _nowadays_?

In short: Dosemu+PCBoard Multinode+I need loadsa RAM

I would LOVE to put all the Dosemu stuff (which means 5 tasks
for 5 nodes) into RAM Disk (calculating 1.2 MB for each node
this does 5 times 1.2=6MB RAM + extra data needed by Dosemu so 
maybe 8 MB of RAM for that RAMDISK) to have it run faster - how to 
do that at best?

Also the booting should (we live in 21st century....) now 
rather be done from a virtual image NO longer redirecting 
EVERYTHING from physical drives - but there is another problem
which arises here: The BBS writes a lot of data, if it stores
this data to virtual image only, it's lost, sure. So how can
I for example store the logs and the new uploads on a type 83 
directory on the Linux tree - is that at all possible? Can Dosemu
write to NON-FAT partitions?

Geeeez.
I hope this was not too much for the first time that I am back.
But I also hope that I have given you enough details so that
you now at least have a most complete picture of what I might
go through.

ANY * REPEAT * ANY friendly idea, pointer or alike appreciated.

Also, excuse my English. I am strongly working on it.
But I am only German, and you know, we lost the war.... :-)

Best regards from North Germoney :-)

-- 
*º¤., ¸¸,.¤º*¨¨¨*¤        =Oliver@home=         *º¤., ¸¸,.¤º*¨¨*¤
I       http://www.bmw-roadster.de/Friends/Olli/olli.html       I
I       http://www.bmw-roadster.de/Friends/friends.html         I
I       http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VGAP-93                   I
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Re: Need your advice on these thoughts:

[Bart Oldeman]

On Tue, 9 Jul 2002, Oliver Ob wrote:

> Let me introduce you to the general scenario. I have been running
> PC BOARD 15.22 under Dosemu 0.67 - where lredir yet worked as it
> should, nowadays, as I can hurtingly see from my first test, you
> are no longer allowed to boot from a physical dos partition,
> which is mounted into Linux tree AND redirect it back to DOS 
> access - Bart, is that really a feature?

yes, and it has been true since dosemu pre0.53.55. DOSEMU 0.67 and
1.1.3 behave exactly the same in this respect: they refuse to use direct
partition access if the partition is already mounted.

> Running Dosemu, I used to boot from an hdimage, which I built
> using the script included in the package. The hdimage consisted
> ONLY of the necessary Dos 6.22 files to boot, meaning the
> config.sys, command.com, io.sys and autoexec.bat.
> 
> The next step has been the very first command in the autoexec.bat,
> I had my physical DOS Partition mounted to /mnt/c already and now
> redirected it to Dosemu - which apparently does no longer work.
> Bart, is that correct or have I missed something over the years!?!?

Yes. But this is not direct partition access -- this is accessing a
Linux filesystem through Lredir and is safe. This still works.
Moreover it is generally no problem to have multiple programs access
the files at the same time.

You could even use $_hdimage = "c" where c is a symlink that points to
your mounted DOS partition, no problem, and no need for hdimages.

What we do not allow is $_hdimage = "/dev/hda1" unless it is not
mounted and you want to access it read only, and even then this is only
possible if you have root privileges.

> THIS redirection VIRTUALLY overwrote the autoexec.bat which
> Dosemu was referring to, so the actual DOS-BOOT was ONLY AT FIRST
> using the autoexec.bat inside the hdimage, THEN after redirection
> ALL of the C: was visible to Dosemu and the rest of the ACTUAL
> autoexec.bat on C: was executed.

Sure - you can still do that. Where does it fail for you?

> Another issue is the conventional memory which I have been able
> to assign to Dosemu to almost 900k (need that for ISDN drivers!),
> but as I see now, not more than 640k are possible?!? Has Dosemu
> limits on this by now??? 

Nothing different from what it was. 900k conventional RAM is impossible
now and as it used to be because the video RAM starts at 640K (or 736k
if you don't need graphics). Beyond that there is between 64k and 192k
space for UMBs, depending on whether you have an EMS page frame, use
graphics, ...

> I would LOVE to put all the Dosemu stuff (which means 5 tasks
> for 5 nodes) into RAM Disk (calculating 1.2 MB for each node
> this does 5 times 1.2=6MB RAM + extra data needed by Dosemu so 
> maybe 8 MB of RAM for that RAMDISK) to have it run faster - how to 
> do that at best?

Probably no need for a RAM disk: the Linux caching mechanisms are quite
good.

> Also the booting should (we live in 21st century....) now 
> rather be done from a virtual image NO longer redirecting 
> EVERYTHING from physical drives - but there is another problem
> which arises here: The BBS writes a lot of data, if it stores
> this data to virtual image only, it's lost, sure. So how can
> I for example store the logs and the new uploads on a type 83 
> directory on the Linux tree - is that at all possible? Can Dosemu
> write to NON-FAT partitions?

That's the whole point of lredir. You can boot from and see any Linux
directory from DOSEMU.

lredir d: linux\fs/

and you have your whole Linux fs in d:\ with write access where you
would normally have it too.

similarly
lredir e: linux\fs/home/ob_ok
...

Now I say GEEEZ. How much more flexibility do you want?

Bart

Re: Need your advice on these thoughts:

[Justin Zygmont]

are you actually using it for dialup?  If you get he chance i'd be
curious to know what you think of this one:  telnet://solarflow.dyndns.org


On Tue, 9 Jul 2002, Oliver Ob wrote:

> Hello Dosemu friends,
>
> the 80s have just returned to me somehow - my BBS is back!!!!!
>
> I have been using Dosemu from 0.66 to 0.97 and have NOW FINALLY
> recovered my BBS from a HD crash (successfully, as you see...)
>
> Now having this done, I want to set my BBS back up and need your
> advice on how to do that Dosemu-wise. Way back, I have had some
> friend student at our university here who installed that all - and
> second, there are different ways to boot that dos. Read on!
>
> Let me introduce you to the general scenario. I have been running
> PC BOARD 15.22 under Dosemu 0.67 - where lredir yet worked as it
> should, nowadays, as I can hurtingly see from my first test, you
> are no longer allowed to boot from a physical dos partition,
> which is mounted into Linux tree AND redirect it back to DOS
> access - Bart, is that really a feature?
>
> I know that this SHOULD have something to do with the problem
> like concurrent access from Linux and dosemu BIOS Calls to the
> same partition without data corruption. But I do NOT access from
> both at the same time. So how do I reenable that? I have NEVER
> had any problems with that GOOD option. Read below...
>
> I have had Dosemu set to enable direct partition access to
> /dev/hda1 and a second dir for the up/downloads.
>
> Running Dosemu, I used to boot from an hdimage, which I built
> using the script included in the package. The hdimage consisted
> ONLY of the necessary Dos 6.22 files to boot, meaning the
> config.sys, command.com, io.sys and autoexec.bat.
>
> The next step has been the very first command in the autoexec.bat,
> I had my physical DOS Partition mounted to /mnt/c already and now
> redirected it to Dosemu - which apparently does no longer work.
> Bart, is that correct or have I missed something over the years!?!?
>
> THIS redirection VIRTUALLY overwrote the autoexec.bat which
> Dosemu was referring to, so the actual DOS-BOOT was ONLY AT FIRST
> using the autoexec.bat inside the hdimage, THEN after redirection
> ALL of the C: was visible to Dosemu and the rest of the ACTUAL
> autoexec.bat on C: was executed.
>
> Another issue is the conventional memory which I have been able
> to assign to Dosemu to almost 900k (need that for ISDN drivers!),
> but as I see now, not more than 640k are possible?!? Has Dosemu
> limits on this by now???
>
> Bart and St. and all others: Am I wrong or has Dosemu taken
> some steps back? Precisely THESE options were the reasons for me
> to run Dosemu and no longer Desqview+Qemm under Dos!!!!
>
> So for now, how should I do all this _nowadays_?
>
> In short: Dosemu+PCBoard Multinode+I need loadsa RAM
>
> I would LOVE to put all the Dosemu stuff (which means 5 tasks
> for 5 nodes) into RAM Disk (calculating 1.2 MB for each node
> this does 5 times 1.2=6MB RAM + extra data needed by Dosemu so
> maybe 8 MB of RAM for that RAMDISK) to have it run faster - how to
> do that at best?
>
> Also the booting should (we live in 21st century....) now
> rather be done from a virtual image NO longer redirecting
> EVERYTHING from physical drives - but there is another problem
> which arises here: The BBS writes a lot of data, if it stores
> this data to virtual image only, it's lost, sure. So how can
> I for example store the logs and the new uploads on a type 83
> directory on the Linux tree - is that at all possible? Can Dosemu
> write to NON-FAT partitions?
>
> Geeeez.
> I hope this was not too much for the first time that I am back.
> But I also hope that I have given you enough details so that
> you now at least have a most complete picture of what I might
> go through.
>
> ANY * REPEAT * ANY friendly idea, pointer or alike appreciated.
>
> Also, excuse my English. I am strongly working on it.
> But I am only German, and you know, we lost the war.... :-)
>
> Best regards from North Germoney :-)
>
> --
> *º¤., ¸¸,.¤º*¨¨¨*¤        =Oliver@home=         *º¤., ¸¸,.¤º*¨¨*¤
> I       http://www.bmw-roadster.de/Friends/Olli/olli.html       I
> I       http://www.bmw-roadster.de/Friends/friends.html         I
> I       http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VGAP-93                   I
> I       mailto:VGAP-93-subscribe@yahoogroups.com                I
> I       http://home.t-online.de/home/spacecraft.portal          I
> >>>  Telek0ma iBBMS - now back online +49.4504.TRSi1/TRSi2   <<<
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-msdos" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
>

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Re: Need your advice on these thoughts:

[Oliver Ob]

Bart Oldeman schrieb:
> 
> On Tue, 9 Jul 2002, Oliver Ob wrote:
> 
> > Let me introduce you to the general scenario. I have been running
> > PC BOARD 15.22 under Dosemu 0.67 - where lredir yet worked as it
> > should, nowadays, as I can hurtingly see from my first test, you
> > are no longer allowed to boot from a physical dos partition,
> > which is mounted into Linux tree AND redirect it back to DOS
> > access - Bart, is that really a feature?
> 
> yes, and it has been true since dosemu pre0.53.55. DOSEMU 0.67 and
> 1.1.3 behave exactly the same in this respect: they refuse to use direct
> partition access if the partition is already mounted.
iO I am now building this back from scratch.
ie I use the default dosemu.conf with a physical 64 MB drive
for c: dos to boot.
No more hdimage.
come back to that later.

now, i redirected drives into /var/lib/dosemu/drives
all works fine. i do no longer need lredir!

but: how can I made the charsets to look like original dos?
the "I" chars which are used to build windows look strange.
also, ansi grafix are more than ugly now.

> Nothing different from what it was. 900k conventional RAM is impossible
> now and as it used to be because the video RAM starts at 640K (or 736k
> if you don't need graphics). Beyond that there is between 64k and 192k
> space for UMBs, depending on whether you have an EMS page frame, use
> graphics, ...

There HAS been an option to at least assign those 736kb to an
application that runs console (non-gfx!) only.
so how can I use so much ram?
(for my isdn drivers....)
 
> Probably no need for a RAM disk: the Linux caching mechanisms are quite
> good.

wouldnt that speed up the system again?
imagine: i got FIVE dosemu tasks.
 
> That's the whole point of lredir. You can boot from and see any Linux
> directory from DOSEMU.
thanks it works fine.
 

-- 
*º¤., ¸¸,.¤º*¨¨¨*¤        =Oliver@home=         *º¤., ¸¸,.¤º*¨¨*¤
I       http://www.bmw-roadster.de/Friends/Olli/olli.html       I
I       http://www.bmw-roadster.de/Friends/friends.html         I
I       http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VGAP-93                   I
I       mailto:VGAP-93-subscribe@yahoogroups.com                I
I       http://home.t-online.de/home/spacecraft.portal          I
>>>  Telek0ma iBBMS - now back online +49.4504.TRSi1/TRSi2   <<<
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To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-msdos" in
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Re: Need your advice on these thoughts:

[Bart Oldeman]

On Thu, 18 Jul 2002, Oliver Ob wrote:

> but: how can I made the charsets to look like original dos?
> the "I" chars which are used to build windows look strange.
> also, ansi grafix are more than ugly now.

if you use dosemu in terminal mode on the console or with
xterm -font vga, play with $_term_char_set = "ibm"

"latin" is the choice to use with other fonts.

... Or run xdosemu or suid-root dosemu on the console.

> > Nothing different from what it was. 900k conventional RAM is impossible
> > now and as it used to be because the video RAM starts at 640K (or 736k
> > if you don't need graphics). Beyond that there is between 64k and 192k
> > space for UMBs, depending on whether you have an EMS page frame, use
> > graphics, ...
> 
> There HAS been an option to at least assign those 736kb to an
> application that runs console (non-gfx!) only.
> so how can I use so much ram?
> (for my isdn drivers....)

$_dosmem in dosemu.conf (ignoring the comment). Made me think.
960K is the maximum only if you use dosemu -dumb (-I 'video{none}' and
disable EMS - that way there is DOS memory all the way up to 0xf000
(where the BIOS is).
In a terminal 736 is possible.
In xdosemu 640 is the maximum.

Alternatively, use UMBs for those drivers (loadhigh etc).

> wouldnt that speed up the system again?
> imagine: i got FIVE dosemu tasks.

Try it and you'll see.

Bart