On Tuesday 16 September 2003 12:19, Karsten M. Self wrote: (much snippage for bandwidth)
> > What I was thinking of, solely for the purposes of quick swapping > > between DOS and Linux, was a floppy with an absolutely minimal kernel > > on it, to which I could add the one app I really wanted - cfdisk - > > just to tweak the partition types. As it is, RIP boots reasonably > > quickly and has fdisk which will do. > > There's a serious difference between GNU/Linux and DOS on size here. > > For DOS, you need the "kernel" (command.com) and statically linked > executables. This combination is tiny, and you can pack a pretty > impressive array of tools onto a single floppy disk. > > For GNU/Linux, you need: > > - The kernel. > - Standard libraries (/lib). > - init > - control files (/etc) > - Kernel modules > - A shell > - Binaries (/bin, /sbin) > > By the time you get to all of this, it's hard to pack it all onto a > single 1.4 MiB floppy. In fact, Tom's Root Boot doesn't fit on a 1.4 > MiB disk, it formats the floppy to 1.7 MiB. Even then, it's using > stripped versions of many utilities, and busybox (a sort of all-in-one > utility application), a stripped-down shell (ash), and other tricks. > And its still a pretty minimal system. But it works and it's useful. Yes, I know that, and Tom's boasts that it's the most you can possibly get on a floppy. I've made one and it works. But what I wanted for quick swapping was just a floppy with cfdisk on it (plus the minimum necessary to boot it). OK, this may not be easy to do. > Again, a floppy is a bit thin for what you have in mind. I'd strongly > recommend using the LNX-BBC (shell out to the EFF for one, and do a good > deed as well as a favor for yourself). I'll check it out. > > Also of course, the images on all the rescue disks are much compressed > > and unpack into far more space in the RAMdisk. DOS being a much smaller > > and more limited OS, can easily be fitted onto a boot floppy. > > > > But because of that, the disks are full and I can't add anything else to > > them. > > <sigh> > > I guess I don't expect anyone to atually research stuff before they make > statements like this anymore.... > > http://www.toms.net/rb/tomsrtbt.FAQ > > 7) Customizing > (snip) Thanks, I've archived that for reference. Actually, I *did* notice that tomsrtbt is customizable, just that the thought of customizing a 82-track 1.7MB floppy full of compressed stuff and Busybox seemed a little like overkill for the quick'n'dirty all-I-want-is-cfdisk floppy that I had in mind. Regards cr -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
