From: almesber@nessie.cs.id.ethz.ch (Werner Almesberger) Subject: Re: mtools on root image Date: 15 Mar 1992 21:44:01 GMT
In article <1992Mar15.164911.2835@muddcs.claremont.edu> jwinstea@jarthur.claremont.edu (Jim Winstead Jr.) writes:
>> The devices database could be loaded at run-time. If you stuff everything
>> into a single binary, this gets even easier (single entry point).
>
> Easier to program, but not necessarily easier to use by a novice.
Why ? I have an /etc/mtools file right now, which looks like that:
A /dev/at0
B /dev/PS1
C /dev/hda1
No FAT bits, no sector numbers, etc. Of course, if the defaults don't
fit, or if the device has a strange name, one would have to specify the
other parameters too. (E.g. B /dev/dosB 12 80 2 18)
I few questions remain, however:
a) has anybody *ever* seen a floppy disk with a 16 bit FAT on it ?
b) has anybody *ever* seen a hard disk with a 12 bit FAT on it ?
c) what are the /dev/dosA and /dev/dosC devices for ?
(Please mail, this mtools discussion already hogs alt.os.linux too much.)
There is a mechanism by which DOS determines the disk parameters, which is
based on a historically grown mixture of media bytes and format descriptors
(very ugly). I think it should be relatively easy to use that one.
> If you can pull this off, and I can fit it on the root floppy, it will
> be there. In any case, a better mtools would be ideal - the current
> one obviously has some holes in it.
Hmm ... are there any other known problems other than its awkward
configuration ?
- Werner
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