>>> Adding block-device support would take a LOT more code > > A ramdisk is often a tiny driver. To give block device access > to UIDE disks,
Okay.. > you only need a partition table parser Yes, which would reside in the temporary (discarded) part of the driver. Of course that won't decrease it's size on disk. > and a driver similar in size to a ramdisk. No. >> I haven't asked for adding block-device to UIDE, just non-BIOS >> disks support... > > Support means you access them somehow - just "adding" them to > int 13 will not give them drive letters, only lowlevel access. Although it is *obvious* at this time, why not use Int2F.0801 (Add new block device [to the default DOS block device driver]) to add the drives after enabling the Int13 access? The only notice here is that some DOS versions use varying layouts (i.e. MS-DOS 7.10+ with FAT32 EBPBs, and I hope FreeDOS with FAT32 uses the same layout) so such a feature would have to be configured carefully for different versions and code is required to tell them apart. After all, that installation code (which leaves only the actual UPB (DDT) in memory) could easily be moved into another program. It could use a specific UIDE backdoor (or access UIDE's data, or do something else) to get to know which Int13 units are provided by UIDE exclusively; or a generic API could be written which could also process added Int13 drives provided by different drivers. Then the installation program would read from the provided unit to decide whether the first sector is the MBR, or a partition boot sector. It would parse the MBR (if any) and then add block devices for each DOS partition. Regards, Christian ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Crystal Reports - New Free Runtime and 30 Day Trial Check out the new simplified licensing option that enables unlimited royalty-free distribution of the report engine for externally facing server and web deployment. http://p.sf.net/sfu/businessobjects _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
