"The Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"

Dos

From Erfan on Tue, 19 Jan 1999

Hi

Can you help me with my problem?

I have just started with RedHat 5.2 and it's the first time for me to work on any Linux systems. Everything seems to goo quite godd for the moment but I have one problem.

I have made 3 parts off my harddrive, one for dos, one for Linux and one for Linux swap. I have some files in my dos drive that I would like to acces under Linux, but how do I do that???

Login as ' root 'and issue a command like:

mount -t msdos /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos_c

... where /dev/hda1 is the first partition on your first IDE hard drive (replace that with the actual Linux device name for your MS-DOS partition). /mnt/doc_c is an arbitrary directory. Just make one under any convenient name. I actually use just /mnt/c for that.

-t (type) msdos is only one option. There are versions of this that support long filenames. However, your kernel might not be configured to support that and I don't have the time to go into all those details, here.

For more details browse the UMSDOS HOWTO at

http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/UMSDOS-HOWTO.html

I have tried to start xdos, but a window comes and right away it desepears again!

xdos is an interface to DOSEMU --- a system for running DOS under Linux (technically it is not a DOS "emulator" since it runs a real copy of DOS --- but it is more of a system/BIOS emulator).

dosemu requires some configuration. (You have to essentially install a copy of DOS (MS-DOS or DR-DOS or FreeDOS or whatever) into an "hdimage" file --- which is a small, emulated boot disk. Read the DOSEMU HOWTO (http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/DOSEMU-HOWTO.html) for more on that.

My x-window works fine and i'm using WindowMaker "the version that comes along wwith RedHat 5.2-cd" The computer is P2 233 32Mb 3200Mb "about 1000 Mb for Linux, about 50 Mb for swap and the rest for dos".

If you going to put the answer on the GAZETTE page please e-mail me and tell me that.

Normally answers to all mail to "answerguy@ssc.com" and any mail to jimd@starshine.org that looks like "Answer Guy" material is published. I normally quote the entire message as I received it --- and I usually leave in all typos.

I consider it to be the cost of sending mail to me for free advice. If you really don't want your message posted, let me know. I'll forward that request to my editors.

On the other hand I also sanitize messages of most identifying information (particularly e-mail addresses). This is to protect my correspondents from spam (and I end up having to manually relay mail from other users to my previous correspondents as a result). I normally leave in a user's signature with their name as it appeared therein --- though I'd be happy to remove just a querent's last name, and corporate affiliation.

[ The script I use to aid my HTML editing tries to get your name from the headers. Sometimes I can tell it's wrong, and use your sig as a guide. If I can't tell what your name is, or any querent requests, I use Anonymous instead. I usually scrub corporate identities, unless they're mentioned elsewhere in the message. Sometimes I leave the fortune cookies in. -- Heather ]

The point of my answering questions via e-mail and republishing them on the web is to make them available to as many people as possible. People who want answers and complete privacy can hire a consultant (or post messages anonymously to the appropriate mailing lists or newsgroups).

Sometimes I also pull messages from newsgroups or mailing lists where I'm answering them anyway. I participate in those when I can (more of an addicition than a hobby really).

Thanks for everthing Erfan from Sweden

Copyright © 1999, James T. Dennis
Published in The Linux Gazette Issue 37 February 1999

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