LoneCrusader

If you keep the site up, I'll keep donating. Hopefully others will too. Yes, I decided to pitch in a bit as well. I'm not showing up orange though yet, haha.

Yes, mine are like that as well, except they have a little magnifying glass icon.

I suppose I'm talking about the same things 5eraph was talking about, the blue highlighted words that if you mouse over them they bring up a "Vibrant" popup. I was not seeing many of them when logged in before the update, but now they're everywhere. I understand about the cost of maintaining things though.

There seems to be a great proliferation of pop-up advertisements that were previously not showing up when logged in, not to mention the "Ad Bot" posts coming up in the threads. When some pages are loaded, a large black box opens momentarily at the top of the page and then disappears. (Windows 98 SE, Firefox 2.0.0.20, Flash Player 9.0.124) IMHO, a white background is hard on the eyes. I don't suppose it would do any good to say it was better before.

Yes I suppose I am a "happy bunny" now. And I must thank you again jaclaz for another very good program recommendation (ImgBurn). I just wish we had taken this route to begin with. Actually it may not be that difficult to reproduce, or maybe even to explain what was going on. This time I did pay attention to the filesystems settings during setup. The resulting DVD that worked had two filesystems - ISO9660 (Bootable) + UDF 1.02. I do not claim to understand all of these different CD filesystems, however, we made references to Joliet in the MKISOFS command syntax, and it seems that Joliet was not used/required, but UDF was instead. If any of you have questions about the resulting DVD, I'd be happy to try to answer them. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- These will require further testing. When I get a chance, I will try to report back on these questions.

But it will, rest assured it will!.....I'll say that the reason for recommending quite strongly SHSUCDX is simply that it was written to be much more forgiving than MSCEDEX, so that it can read many optical media that are beyond MSCDEX strict format requirements. Even if you don't feel like testing it right now, do have a copy of it in your toolbox, because, sooner or later you'll find it quite handy.... When that day comes I will be perfectly willing to give SHSUCDX a try. I don't have a problem with any of the tools discussed in this thread except MKISOFS In fact, I've had some ideas about using GRUB4DOS for another project, but I must find a way to use it to make a bootable ISO without having to use mkisofs, haha. Anyhow, thanks for your help as well.

This has definitely been a learning experience. Yes, I took a few files out of my ISO_Root folder so that the ISO would be <4GB for FAT32, but I also noticed that ImgBurn has the ability to split the ISO into multiple files I have not tested that particular item yet however. Thanks for your help!

Since I was using graphical tools, I never paid attention to these settings. All I know is that they worked, without any bizarre errors. If this is the case, I believe (I may be wrong) the problem may have been the fact that Windows 98 automatically displays file names in lowercase except for the first letter. Whichever one is standard in 98SE. 7.0 I think. My input was specifically stated above. What was wrong with it? I do not have broken hardware in multiple machines. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- None taken. You are under no obligations, and I appreciate your help and suggestions. However, if you're going to make suggestions, I feel that you should be able to explain why you are recommending one thing over another. One can go anywhere on the internet and find an endless supply of opinions and suggestions, but if they cannot be backed up with good reasoning, they are worthless. I am not implying that you could not back up your recommendations if you so desired. I have no desire to argue about these things either, I simply asked for an explanation of why you consider one to be better than the other and why I should use one over the other. Yes. Why do I have a feeling this program might be a GUI for MKISOFS? Just Kidding BTW, it works now. No bizarre errors, long file names, short file names, all caps in DOS, MSCDEX functioning properly, JO.SYS booting properly, etc etc. MagicISO and Nero must have been the culprits, as both of them failed to produce a properly bootable DVD.

If any or all of my assumptions are wrong, then feel free to correct me. I have said this before and have stood corrected by you before. Just be specific and explain WHY they are wrong. You still did not answer the question that I asked. You are leading the discussion, because you are trying to persuade me to use MKISOFS, GRUB4DOS, and SHSUCDX, without giving me an answer as to whether I can use a standard Win98 Boot Disk and standard El Torito emulation to do this. I do not want to use ANY of these things if this project can be accomplished without them. I seem to remember another thread where I asked you to recommend a specific program to do something, and you refused to do so. But now, you act as if MKISOFS, GRUB4DOS, and SHSUCDX are the only way to achieve this. If they ARE the ONLY way to do this, then explain WHY? MSCDEX has NEVER ONCE failed to work for reading ANY OPTICAL DISC that I have wanted to use. I see no reason to change it simply based on someone saying "SHSUCDX is better." If I followed this principle then I would be using Windows 7 because some id*** says that "It's better." If it isn't broke, don't fix it. When it fails me under normal conditions then I will concede that you are correct. However, based on my experiences here, I do not consider anything created by MKISOFS to be "normal." I might also add, that the first DVD that I created with MagicISO using the standard emulation CAN BE READ PERFECTLY with MSCDEX using a Boot Floppy to access it. It fails to Boot, but otherwise is PERFECT.

Well, I did say those things, just not ALL in one post, or one sentence. But you're dealing with a TOS Romulan, not one of those bastardized TNG Romulans, so I have some honor. I very much appreciate your help and your expertise jaclaz, I think there's been a lot of miscommunication in this thread. I'm going to go back to the basics on this one, and start by asking what should be a simple enough question to be able to get a definite Yes or No answer to, and should be able to verify with a simple experiment. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Is it possible to use a standard Windows 98 Boot Disk with standard El Torito Floppy Emulation to create a bootable DVD? If the answer is Yes, I would greatly appreciate it if someone could actually test this for me and give me a detailed report on the process used, software/hardware/media used, and the results, as all of my tests have been unsuccessful. I would prefer to use this method, as it was my original intent. If I can get a standard floppy working this way, then I can work on finding out if my custom one works or not. If the answer is No, then we can move on to discussion of MKISOFS and GRUB4DOS. ------------------------------------------------------------------ I know what standard DOS filenames are. What is puzzling to me about this, is that I have created DVD's before using mixed case and length file names (of course the DOS files were only accessed in DOS and vice versa) and never encountered a problem like this. It seems that MKISOFS and/or the -iso-level 4 option translated ALL of my DOS filenames within the ISO to lowercase, even though they showed up as uppercase before under normal DOS conditions. This is idiotic. I assume -iso-level 3 will not do this? Or will it translate all of the lowercase names to uppercase? This must be a "bug" (from DOS/Windows standpoint) somehow left over from MKISOFS being a Linux command, as Linux is case sensitive. I stand by what I said earlier, MKISOFS belongs in the trash bin. You say it is possible to use standard floppy emulation on a DVD. I'm very glad to hear that, (per my question above) could you please give a more detailed report on how it is done? I read the CD that I had successfully created earlier using my custom floppy image and standard El Torito emulation to an ISO. Then tried burning it to a DVDRW on a different machine. Nero refused to burn it, ejected my DVDRW and requested a CD or CDRW. MagicISO burned it to the DVDRW and reported success, but the disc was unreadable on any system I put it in.

It sounds as if you may have multiple problems with this computer. The "MODIFICATION BEGIN" probably indicates that some program or script is running when the computer starts up that may be causing problems. First, is there anything listed in the Start Menu\Programs\StartUp folder? If so, what? Second, click Start, Run, and type MSCONFIG and click OK. Post the contents of the "Startup" tab, and maybe myself or someone else can give you some assistance.

Ugh, now I have to log in again every time I visit MSFN. Even if I just logged on in the past few minutes, and check "Remember Me," if I close my browser (Firefox 2.0.0.20), I have to login again.

No. Read my first post that started this thread. As for why did I use a custom floppy? 1. The original intent was to have a standard El Torito emulation DVD that would load the floppy image on boot. 2. I wanted JO.SYS so that I did not have to remove the DVD on each restart during an OS install or update install, or go and change a BIOS setting every time. 3. The CONFIG.SYS / AUTOEXEC.BAT menu was heavily modified so that I could just choose a number and install a given OS. I had created this prior to learning that for some reason my DVD does not work with standard emulation. Here is what my floppy disk menu looks like: Microsoft Windows Startup Menu ------------------------------------------- 1. Command Prompt with CD & DVD support. 2. Command Prompt without CD & DVD support. 3. Manage partitions with FDisk. 4. Run Partition Magic 8.05. 5. Run DriveImage 2002. 6. Run TestDisk 6.11. 7. Install Windows 95 C OSR 2.5. 8. Install Windows 98 Second Edition. 9. Install Windows Millennium Edition. For example: Choosing "Install Windows 98 Second Edition" starts the computer with CD & DVD support, creates the folder C:\WINDOWS\SETUP, copies all of the files in the \OPSYS\WIN98 directory on the DVD to that folder, and then calls SETUP.EXE from there. This works perfectly on a CD, and I spent a lot of time getting it working, so I plan to keep using it. jaclaz I apologize for missing that when I read your batch file. However, I say again, why did you not just say this to begin with? I posted the syntax of the mkisofs command that I used, which included -iso-level 4. If you assumed that I was using a standard boot floppy, this would mean that I was using MSCDEX. You could have just said "-iso-level 4 does not work with MSCDEX."

No problem. Good luck!

Uh-uh!!! (Probably) Won't work!!! Original is only (proabably) good for CD's. Have you tried the Bart's JO.SYS Replacement? Not sure if this will work, but hey (and I believe it WILL work)...It does work On CD and on a floppy disk. All you need is the w98btfix.zip on that page you linked to. If this is the case then why did you not say that to begin with? And technically it is still NOT working, only partially working. I don't mind giving it a try, but I have never once had a problem accessing a DVD with MSCDEX. I can read the DVD, I can see and navigate through all of the directories, and I can type DIR and list the contents of those directories, but I cannot get any programs to run. @All I apologize for it taking me so long to respond sometimes on this thread or to run new tests, I have several projects going on at once.

Welcome to MSFN Have a look at dencorso's thread on large hard drives.

Bizarre. Logging in again fixed it, but the "Log me in as invisible" box was not checked. And I had to already be logged in to post. Thanks

I have noticed the past few times that I have visited the forum that my name has not been showing up in the users list, and if I am viewing a topic it says "1 Anonymous User." I am logged in and can post and access all of my controls, but I do not see an option/checkbox for this anywhere. Wondering how this got set that way, and how to fix it? I'm sure it's going to be something really simple that I am overlooking somehow Thanks in advance

This sequence of commands made the files/tools on the Floppy Image (Drive A:) work, but the same "Bad command or file name" error still exists for DOS tools on the DVD (Drive D:). It also bypassed JO.SYS, which allows choosing to boot from the DVD or from the HDD. (I tried "chainloader /jo.sys", but it produced an error, said the kernel must be loaded first.) Broken media or broken writer. Use high quality media. It's possible that the burner may have a problem, however if so the problem exists only for DVD±RW's. It burns all other media properly. I have been using Maxell (Nero Info Tool lists manufacturer as RITEKW01) DVD-RW and Memorex (Nero Info Tool lists manufacturer as CMC MAG W02) DVD+RW discs. This indicates hardware too. Try another hardware. *It should be noted that this problem was encountered prior to using GRUB4DOS, and is not related to the GRUB4DOS/mkisofs problems.* I have tested that particular disc in 4 different computers. I know that I do not have 4 computers all with faulty DVD drives. It may be possible, as jaclaz said, that the BIOS of these computers has trouble with Floppy Emulation on DVD's but not CD's however. I will attempt this (with a DVD RW) on another machine. I'm getting tired of wasting discs, haha.

***UPDATE 2-10-09*** The first post in this thread has been updated with new information/methodology pertaining to Windows 95 Setup. A new version of FIX95CPU.ZIP is available. Slipstreaming as discussed by BeatZero and myself above does not appear to be a viable option for applying this fix. I remain open to suggestions for improvement however.

I already answered most of those questions above. I posted the exact mkisofs syntax that I used for the last test here: I had not posted my MENU.LST, however, I did not have a problem with it, or GRUB4DOS, just with mkisofs. Here it is: As for the floppy, it is customized version of a standard Windows 98SE Boot Disk from Microsoft. Not one created in 98 that uses a ramdisk, or one from BootDisk.com, but a factory one. I added JO.SYS from the bootable 98SE CD, some files from the WINDOWS\COMMAND folder, and DOSKEY to it, along with customizing the AUTOEXEC.BAT/CONFIG.SYS menu. It works perfectly on a floppy, and also works perfectly when imaged and written to a CD using El Torito emulation. Here is a snapshot of the contents: All of this testing is being done in a real environment. I said above: and then later (after these errors Im referring to) I said to dencorso:

I'm not using ISO's on the DVD itself, just making an ISO of the DVD to mount in a VM or burn. So mkisofs is really the issue, not GRUB4DOS. I'm only using GRUB4DOS to chainload an image of a DOS floppy boot disk, then the floppy disk takes over. I actually would prefer not to have to use GRUB4DOS at all, and just use standard El Torito floppy emulation on the DVD, but as you saw above, it doesn't work for some reason. I'm not knocking GRUB4DOS though, I see a lot of potential uses for it, and I'm not as opposed to it as I originally was when I started this project. I'm very much beginning to detest mkisofs however. Normally I prefer simple things, and usually the command line is about as simple as you can get, it either works or it doesn't. But I would pitch mkisofs into the proverbial trash can. Several attempts at creating an ISO with it produced errors about filenames, and this idiotic "RR_MOVED" directory inside the ISO that should not have been there. I have created several ISO's with graphical tools and never had problems like that. Then, after finally solving the filename and RR_MOVED issues,(see syntax above), the resulting ISO/DVD had the most bizarre errors. For example: GRUB4DOS functioned properly, and chainloaded the floppy and mapped it to fd0, drive A: In the root of that floppy is FDISK.EXE, (and PATH=A:\ in AUTOEXEC.BAT) If I typed FDISK from the A:\> prompt, i get "Bad command or file name" No matter how I entered it, FDISK, FDISK.EXE, fdisk, fdisk.exe, it would not work. The same went for TESTDISK and some other DOS tools I had included.

Blu-Ray? Maybe someday, who knows? haha Seriously though, it was maddening my DVD project is 4.33 GB in size, it will fit on the DVD but I can't build the ISO in 98. And then it was all for nothing, it didn't work when I burned it to DVD. I'm going to have to set up some kind of reliable VM.

Yes and No. Those are settings that could be allright for your present purpose, but that are by no means the "right" ones for a more "complete" grldr CD (like various NT based OS, PE's, etc. A "better" example is in the given link. jaclaz jaclaz, I looked at your mkisofs command syntax. I'm pretty comfortable with command lines, but I was wondering, would you mind to explain what each one of these individual switches do, or give me a link that explains them? I understand things better if I know what's going on Also, I assume there are several different versions of mkisofs. How do I know that I have the latest and/or best version? BTW, I have now moved my project to a XP/NTFS partition so I can avoid the 4GB limit. *** EDIT *** Nevermind the switch info. I found it, just had to dig a little deeper. Trying mkisofs with the following syntax:

Nero appears to burn the entire disc, and then during the lead-out phase produces an "Invalid write state" error. I don't remember exactly what output MagicISO gave. The discs then sometimes appear to have the files on them, but they are corrupted, or the disc appears blank, but is not, and cannot be "erased" with Nero. I turned up a thread somewhere that advised making sure your DVD drive was in DMA mode, and gave some instructions for doing this. I looked into it, but I am using the Intel Application Accelerator and my settings are different than a system without it. The IAA software says my DVD drive is operating in UDMA-2 mode.