Syslinux - Mar 2004 - Supporting WinImage compressed images

I am using PXELINUX, ISOLINUX, and memdisk in my project
(http://unattended.sourceforge.net/).  When memdisk gained support for
compressed images, I started using it because it is cool.  I used gzip
to compress floppy.img to create floppy.imz, and all was good.

But now my users are complaining that they cannot use WinImage (a
Windows floppy image editing tool) to edit my floppy.imz files.

I have learned that WinImage does understand compressed floppies, and
it does use a ".imz" suffix for them, but they are not the same as the
files produced by gzip.  They are instead a ZIP archive containing a
single "floppy.ima" (or "floppy.img") file.

In other words, WinImage does not want the .imz file to be a straight
compressed stream; it wants it to be an actual ZIP archive with one
member.

I have found that "gunzip" will handle either of these formats and
generate the original 1.44M data stream.

But memdisk (2.09-pre13) does not recognize it as a compressed file
and chokes.

I realize that compatibility with WinImage is probably a very low
priority.  But is there a chance you add it anyway?  Or to put it
another way...  If I come up with patches to add support for these
archives, might you accept them?

Thank you!

 - Pat

Patrick,
have you seen the "how to pass paramters from Syslinux to DOS images"
thread?
this mailinglist mentioned it first, and I paid attention :)

http://www.911cd.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=5706

HPA, 
any chance for MDISKCHK to put the "CMDline=" line as first output?
should not be so difficult for me but first have to figure out OpenWatCOM
packages and setup.

putting that line as first output would avoid putting the FIND program on
bootdisk and thus save precious diskspace. (MDISKCHK | FIND "CMDLINE"
> TEMP.BAT)

MDISKCHK > temp.bat 
call temp.bat
(which will contain CMDLINE "rest-of-output" and when invoked execute
cmdline command, here represented by cmdline.bat

cmdline.bat:
@echo off
rem put last commandline parameters passed to memdisk into variable.
set param=%6
goto %param%
rem rest of batchfile

freedos emm386 also seems almost usable by now. 

Bernd Blaauw

Regarding arguments to DOS images:

Check out people.cs.uchicago.edu/~gmurali/gui/downloads.html

You may find getargs.c useful.

- Murali

On Thu, 25 Mar 2004, Blaauw,Bernd B. wrote:
> Patrick,
> have you seen the "how to pass paramters from Syslinux to DOS
images" thread?
> this mailinglist mentioned it first, and I paid attention :)
>
> http://www.911cd.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=5706
>
> HPA,
> any chance for MDISKCHK to put the "CMDline=" line as first
output?
> should not be so difficult for me but first have to figure out OpenWatCOM
packages and setup.
>
> putting that line as first output would avoid putting the FIND program on
bootdisk and thus save precious diskspace. (MDISKCHK | FIND "CMDLINE"
> TEMP.BAT)
>
> MDISKCHK > temp.bat
> call temp.bat
> (which will contain CMDLINE "rest-of-output" and when invoked
execute cmdline command, here represented by cmdline.bat
>
> cmdline.bat:
> @echo off
> rem put last commandline parameters passed to memdisk into variable.
> set param=%6
> goto %param%
> rem rest of batchfile
>
> freedos emm386 also seems almost usable by now.
>
> Bernd Blaauw
>
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don't know if it's appreciated by the mailinglist owner to discuss this
at the mailinglist.

MDISKCHK has output: x1=y1, x2=y2 and so on.

so what about a command
GETARGS x1

which, if x1 has non-empty value, does SET x1=y1 in dos?
(getargs.* exports the environment. maybe setenv() command?)

@echo off
rem get number of 512 byte units by querying for "len"
getargs.com len
if "%len%"=="" echo Memdisk not loaded because
"len" not set.
if "%len%"=="2880" echo 1.44MB image was loaded.
getargs chs
if "%chs%"=="80/2/18" echo 1.44MB image confirmed!


thanks for repointing me to your code.

Bernd

I dont think GETARGS can change the environment of its parent. Linux does
not allow that. I think DOS does not allow that either. So for now you
will have to say

echo off
getargs.com > CONFIG.BAT
CALL CONFIG.BAT
...

The other advantage of this is that all your scripts can CALL CONFIG.BAT
to find all the boot time parameters. For example, my network script looks
at one variable to decide whether (or how) to start network. Mount script
looks at another variable to decide what (or whether) share to mount...

- Murali
> @echo off
> rem get number of 512 byte units by querying for "len"
> getargs.com len
> if "%len%"=="" echo Memdisk not loaded because
"len" not set.
> if "%len%"=="2880" echo 1.44MB image was loaded.
> getargs chs
> if "%chs%"=="80/2/18" echo 1.44MB image confirmed!
>
>
> thanks for repointing me to your code.
>
> Bernd
>
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> Unsubscribe or set options at:
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> Please do not send private replies to mailing list traffic.
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>
>

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