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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!nntp.coast.net!news.sprintlink.net!news-peer.sprintlink.net!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde.nde.swri.edu!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!news.msfc.nasa.gov!newsfeed.internetmci.com!panix!news1.erols.com!news From: Ken Bigelow <kbigelow@www.play-hookey.com> Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: DOS<->BSD problem Date: Tue, 17 Sep 1996 19:20:15 +0000 Organization: Erol's Internet Services Lines: 80 Message-ID: <323EF9EF.22D8@www.play-hookey.com> References: <518mko$9j7@pf1.phil.uni-sb.de> <32385FBC.7E2D@www.play-hookey.com> <51jv3t$gj@anorak.coverform.lan> Reply-To: kbigelow@www.play-hookey.com NNTP-Posting-Host: kenjb05.play-hookey.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0 (Win16; U) Brian Somers wrote: > > Ken Bigelow (kbigelow@www.play-hookey.com) wrote: > : Andreas Paul wrote: > : > > : > Hello! > : > > : > I have just installed RELEASE-2.1.5 onto my system (IBM DORS 32180 SCSI-HDD, > : > first Gig BSD, 2nd Gig DOS). > : > Now I have some serious problems with mounting the DOS partition (Win95): > : > I was able to mount it (rw), but during the boot-up, the warning > : > "Mountmsdofs() : root directory is not a multiple of the clustersize in lenght" > : > occured. > : > > : > I didn't care and tried to write to the dos FS, which lead to destruction of > : > my BSD partition(!). The DOS partition was slightly damaged. > : > > : > I did NOT use fips. > : > > : > What is the reason for this bug? > : > What do I have to do? > : > Can someone help me? > : > > : > Thank you in advance! > : > > > : This is rooted not in DOS, nor strictly in FreeBSD, but rather in the > : way M$ screwed with the directory structure and disk layout to permit > : those long filenames in Win95, plus some other diddling. Because of > : Win95, that slice is no longer truly a DOS partition in all respects. > > It *is* actually strictly in FreeBSD. I installed a 140Mb FreeBSD slice > (40Mb root, 100Mb swap) alongside a 1.45Gb MSDOS partition. The MSDOS > partition was version 6.2 and had *nothing* except the 3disk installed > MSDOS. I booted FreeBSD, got this error & copied some files to the DOS > disk. This resulted in corrupting not only the FreeBSD partition on that > disk, but also a FreeBSD partition on a different disk on a different > controller ! Interesting. I've always kept my DOS partitions down to 255.9 MB (the largest possible partition with clusters limited to 4KB). Right now I'm reading and posting news running Netscape 3.0 on Windoze 3.1, from just such a partition on a 1.2 GB drive (the rest is for FreeBSD). My reason for using this arrangement is that it's easier for me to print out pages from Netscape using Windoze, as my copy of gs does not support the StarJet SJ-48 inkjet printer I have. In any case, I've never had any errors reading or writing DOS 6.2/Win3.1 files from FreeBSD, or running ftp to access them remotely. I haven't tried Win95 in this regard -- there's been so much trouble with that abortion that I refuse to put it on any computer in my subnet. > > : I understand the FreeBSD team are working on the necessary adjustments > : to allow FreeBSD to handle it correctly. Until then, I suggest you > : forget writing to it from FreeBSD. > > I suspect that keeping your DOS partition sizes less than 512Mb will > circumvent the problem - seems to for me .... but *DON'T* quote me > on that ! This bug jumps up and seems to hit people for no reason ! > If ya wanna experiment, do a backup first ! That may be the reason. However, I understand the MicroSquish site has a Win95 patch available because even Win95 itself can screw up extended DOS partitions. Thanks anyway, but I'll stick with FreeBSD as my 32-bit OS! It has a proven track record. (Well, so does Win95 now, but it's nothing to brag about, IMHO.) > > As Ken says, wait for the new & improved version :) > And that still seems to be the bottom line, doesn't it? -- Ken Are you interested in | byte-sized education | http://www.play-hookey.com over the Internet? |