DOSSLACK: Install disk for Slackware® 8.1

New! A bug alert.

What:

DOSSLACK is a bootable FreeDOS™ disk image which has been designed to boot into a Slackware 8.1 install. It can boot any of the kernels in the Slackware 8.1 CD's kernels/ directory. It supports most common ATAPI (IDE interface) CD-ROM drives.

At this point we have only released a 1.44MB diskette image. Perhaps eventually a bootable ISO image can be made available for download. (Not at userlocal.org, though. :)

This is a beta project, so your feedback at the address below will be appreciated.

How:

DOSSLACK boots DOS and presents you a menu with various choices for booting the Linux kernel using loadlin.exe (or for remaining in DOS.) The DOS ATAPI driver from Mitsumi Electronics, Inc. loads and provides loadlin with access to the kernel images and the initrd (initial ramdisk) image required for Slackware setup.

You should boot from the DOSSLACK floppy with the Slackware CD in your CD drive (or inserted when the initial menu comes up.) Follow the on-screen instructions. Install Slackware 8.1. Enjoy.

You need to decompress a .gz file, to write the image file to disk. Here are instructions for some operating systems:

	DOS:
	(Use WinZip or a DOS version of gzip.exe to decompress the dosslack.img.gz file. Rawrite.exe is available on the Slackware CD.)
	rawrite [drive:][\path-to\]dosslack.img a:
	UNIX/Linux:
	gunzip [/path-to/]dosslack.img.gz
	dd if=[/path-to/]dosslack.img of=/dev/fd0
	(/dev/fd0 will work under most Linux flavours; under other Unices, substitute the device name for your bootable floppy drive.)

You could also use this boot image to make a bootable CD. Use the dosslack.img file (uncompressed) in place of the boot image. See the isolinux/README.TXT for details. Substitute dosslack.img for the file after the -b, isolinux/isolinux.bin. Also remove the "-no-emul-boot" option. (You might also need to remove the other boot options, "-boot-load-size 32 -boot-info-table" as well; we haven't tried it yet. Please let us know if you try it.)

Why:

The Slackware 8.1 ISO image used a "no-emulation" boot image. Most recent BIOS's are capable of booting that CD, but many older (and some not-so-old) systems cannot.

If your system is unable to boot the 8.1 CD you have several choices. The standard "supported" method is to create a boot disk and 5 root disks from images available for download (or on the second CD if you purchased the official Slackware set from store.slackware.com).

We find that we are lucky to have one working diskette; six is out of the question. So DOSSLACK lets us install Slackware with that one good floppy.

Why Not:

If you can boot the regular Slackware CD, you don't need DOSSLACK. If your CD-ROM drive is SCSI or an old proprietary bus, DOSSLACK won't help you (although you could use your DOS SCSI drivers in place of the ATAPI driver we included.) If you are fortunate enough to have six good floppy disks in the right place and right time, and if you are masochistic, you don't need DOSSLACK.

Who:

DOSSLACK was designed and initially tested by /dev/rob0 and AthlonRob . The concept was born in these discussions in news://alt.os.linux.slackware:

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&threadm=ck0eb7.aa.ln%40well.i.dont.have.a.hostname&rnum=1&prev=/groups%3Fselm%3Dck0eb7.aa.ln%2540well.i.dont.have.a.hostname
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&threadm=d2f9a21b.0207121004.40b0dc46%40posting.google.com&rnum=1&prev=/groups%3Fhl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3Dutf-8%26selm%3Dd2f9a21b.0207121004.40b0dc46%2540posting.google.com

Slackware is a registered trademark of Slackware Linux, Inc.: http://www.slackware.com/

FreeDOS is a trademark of Jim Hall: http://www.freedos.org/

Loadlin.exe is licensed under the GNU GPL by Hans Lermen.

MTMCDAI.SYS is a freeware download provided by Mitsumi Electronics, Inc.

Where:

Information (this text):
http://www.userlocal.org/dosslack/

Download:
http://www.userlocal.org/dosslack/dosslack.img.gz
Md5sum:
a67fc500444e1e6526c52b2495b2c200 dosslack.img.gz

See how it's done:
http://www.userlocal.org/dosslack/config.sys
http://www.userlocal.org/dosslack/autoexec.bat

Big Bad Bug alert!

Shortly after the release we were notified of a serious bug involving the tdsk.exe driver in config.sys. Quite simply, it does not work.

The good news is that if you're reading this version of the Web page and README, the offending driver is removed. The bad news is that without a working ramdisk driver, the advanced options (to specify boot parameters for the Linux kernel) cannot work as an El Torito boot image. It requires write access to the diskette, and that's not possible with a CD.

Further note: at this time we're having to altogether eliminate the ability to pass boot parameters to the Linux kernel. If anyone would like to work on this issue please feel free to help out! Maybe we'll have to go with bash.exe as shell instead of command.com?

You can, however, use boot menu item #3 to boot to DOS, then manually run loadlin to boot linux. In this way you can pass your boot parameters to Linux.

The Fine Print (a disclaimer):

We hate to have to do this, but there are a lot of stupid and greedy lawyers who might help their stupid and greedy clients get something for nothing.

This is a free software project, and you are using this entirely at your own risk. No warranties of fitness or otherwise, blah blah blah if you want to sue us or any of the good people who provided the various software we've included, you shall suffer at least seven (7) years of bad luck. And you are ugly. Go jump in the nearest body of water with the lawyer you rode in on, lest we shall taunt you some more.

DOSSLACK is by AthlonRob and /dev/rob0. We don't see any need to copyright or license this work. We hope it's useful.