newfs_msdos -B

[Victor Sudakov]

Nikola Lecic wrote:
> > 
> > I need to create a bootable MS-DOS slice on a HDD.
> > Where can I obtain a DOS VBR for "newfs_msdos -B" ?
> 
> Hello Victor,
> 
> On your place I'll just create msdos partition and install FreeDOS
> (http://www.freedos.org/) there. (Actually I did use FreeDOS once to
> run some ancient programs of mine, but life is easier with
> emulators/dosbox).
> 
> If you need a bootloader there, then
> 
>   http://mbrbm.sourceforge.net/
> 
> should work.

I am quite happy with the FreeBSD bootmanager (/boot/boot0).

> 
> However, if you need exactly m$'s dos, it's logical that you must
> borrow from there (from existing m$-dos or window$-9*). A quick googling
> shows that on
> 
>   http://mail-index.netbsd.org/tech-userlevel/2004/03/07/0000.html
> 
> you can read how to borrow and how much. :)
> 
I got the idea. Thank you. For FreeBSD, it should be like 

% dd if=/dev/ad0s1 of=/tmp/dos_fat16.dd bs=512 count=1
% dd if=/dev/ad0s1 of=/tmp/dos_fat32.dd bs=512 count=3

BTW about FreeDOS: how many sectors for its bootblock must I copy?
I did not know that fat16 and fat32 VBRs had different size (1 sector
vs 3 sectors).

-- 
Victor Sudakov,  VAS4-RIPE, VAS47-RIPN
sip:sudakov at sibptus.tomsk.ru