A journal on everything technological and everything to do with structure: from building structures, to organisation structures, politics, education, and business. If it has structure I will essay it, if it ought to have structure I will essay it. If it don't have structure and it is chaos, I essay that too!
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Monday, January 27, 2014
Plane Frame Analysis with Graphics
It can be called by typing the following in a command prompt:
gpframe
It will then bring up a menu system which will allow selecting a file. (The file name needs to conform with 8.3 conventions, as does the folder structure where the file is located. Which messes up using it under "Documents and Settings\user name\My Documents". The files also need to be in the same folder as the application as it doesn't support moving around folders: the current working directory. The things we now take for granted, though never really a problem in DOS as always worked in the folder where the files were, and called the applications via batch files.)
 |
| Opening Screen |
 |
| Main Menu |
 |
| Plot Menu |
 |
| Geometry |
 |
| Loads |
 |
| Moment Diagram |
 |
| Shear Force |
 |
| Axial Force |
 |
| Deflection |
It can be downloaded here.
DISCLAIMER :
Users of the software must accept this disclaimer of warranty :
The software is supplied as is. The author disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, including without limitation, the warranties of merchantability and of fitness for any purpose. The author assumes no liability for damages, direct or consequential, which may result from the use of the software.
Related Posts:
Revisions:
[27/01/2014] Original
[23/04/2016] Changed download links to MiScion Pty Ltd Web Store
Saturday, January 25, 2014
Plane Frame Analysis
 |
| Sample03 |
I have taken the plane plane frame analysis application I previously blogged about here, and ripped out all the DOS based full screen graphics and reduced it to a command line application, and made available for download. To me this is not diminished capability but an enhancement. I never used the user interface as I auto-generated the data files using Borland Quattro Pro (QPro) spreadsheet. However whilst I could launch pframe from within QPro I had to open the data file, run the analysis and then save the results: three steps where one would have done. Now with a command line parameter, the data file can be created and then cpframe can be called from an MS Excel routine to run the analysis on the data file and produce the results file. Though it can be simply used at the command prompt. If type name in without a file name then it will show a brief message on how to use.
 |
| cpframe usage |
 |
| run cpframe |
cpframe refF_wrk.dat
 |
| screen dump as program runs |
 |
| Sample01 |
Noting the benefit of being able to see the geometry and the direction of loading to check the validity of the model, in the near future I will release a version with the menus and graphics put back. However I will be removing the menus for data file creation, as objective is that data files will be created by an external application and I don't wish to expend time fixing such menus up. The source code has already been transferred to Delphi and a windows version part written. We also have a version in Excel/vba (.xla) which is providing the structures engine for cold-formed steel carport and veranda software. {Sorry! Cannot release the original version as the report file it produces implies we did the design of the structure being analysed. Plus it was compiled back in 1996 using Turbo Pascal, and finding the complete source code to compile something similar got complicated.}
Any case the idea isn't to write a stand alone frame analysis application but provide a library, or COM automation server or .net component which can be referenced in other applications, which need structural analysis as a component of a much larger system. A command line application provides a stepping stone towards such objective, it allows use in other applications, but in a more limited way than is possible if can send data direct into the analysis.
In future posts I will provide more sample data files, and an MS Excel workbook with vba code to write such data files. Resources for calculating wind loads and checking capacity of members can be found over on my ExelCalcs profile. Of course meshing it all together to fully automate simple buildings at the point of sale is a fairly massive exercise.
For small manufacturers approaching small engineering consultancies the one thing the consulting engineers have missing from their tool box is frame analysis. The consultants typically use MicroStran, Spacegass or Multiframe to conduct analysis, and therefore the engineers do not have their own tools to integrate into the software they are asked to develop. The simple solution to this is to use Kleinlogel formula, however new publications with such formula are now rare, and the older publications difficult to get hold of. Further there is the problem of finding the appropriate formula for the structure being considered. Sure they could attempt to derive the appropriate formula but that is more time and effort, and as the manufacturer introduces more variety into the structures more formulae are required. Where as matrix structural analysis is more general purpose, once again there is still the problem of writing the source code and testing it. Also transforming theory into source code not so easy, and books with sample source not so readily available. Though a search of the web indicates recent engineering students/graduates may have experimented with matrix structural analysis using either MatLAB or SciLAB.
My previous contribution to easing this shortfall of analysis tools has been:
- Release height/span charts showing the limitations of c-sections for the typical gable frame shed so that can limit the number of standard designs produce detailed calculations for.
- Release MS Excel workbooks with Kleinlogel calculations in the worksheet.
- Release MS Excel workbook with Kleinlogel formula as vba code for gable frame.
- Release table of Contents of Kleinlogel formula book
- Release a simple program for checking gable frame size based on Kleinlogel formula.
All of these tools we use in-house for quick decision making, though admittedly my gable frame spreadsheet contains the full design for cold-formed steel: still I believe I've provided all the resources for interested parties to build something similar better adapted to their needs. All the previous releases however have been focused on the gable frame (sample01) where as design of the so called American barn style structure (sample03) is often wanted by manufacturers. Using plane frame application this is now more practical to accomplish than setting up worksheet calculations in Excel.
The program can be downloaded here.
DISCLAIMER :
Users of the software must accept this disclaimer of warranty :
The software is supplied as is. The author disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, including without limitation, the warranties of merchantability and of fitness for any purpose. The author assumes no liability for damages, direct or consequential, which may result from the use of the software.
Users of the software must accept this disclaimer of warranty :
The software is supplied as is. The author disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, including without limitation, the warranties of merchantability and of fitness for any purpose. The author assumes no liability for damages, direct or consequential, which may result from the use of the software.
Related Posts:
Plane Frame Analysis History our Development
Plane Frame Analysis with Graphics
Plane Frame Analysis Front-End
Plane Frame Analysis Alternative Front-End
Plane Frame Analysis Back-End
Plane Frame Analysis Future Developments
Revisions:
[25/01/2014] Original
[23/04/2016] Changed download links to MiScion Pty Ltd Web Store
Friday, January 03, 2014
I Believe there is a Need to Define the Concept of Software Upgrade
An issue I have with software companies is that what they call upgrades are light years from being upgrades. There should be some peoples law which defines an upgrade. Changing any of the following breaches the concept of upgrade:
If I cannot generate the same reports with the software, then it is clearly a different product: the output expected from the product is no longer there and therefore it is clearly different. So if have engineering, accounting software or similar and the developers change the reports, then they have changed the product. If they retain the original reports and add more reports then can consider it to be an upgrade.
If the old program cannot read the file of the new program then its not an upgrade its a change of product. The file format should therefore be designed so that additional data can be added in future. Whilst the file parser/reader should be designed so that it can read what it needs and ignore the rest. Similarly the file writer should be designed so that it can update the data it uses, but otherwise doesn't touch and retains the data it doesn't use. Most old software isn't written such way, and therefore changing the file format would result in a change of product not an upgrade.
Changing the user interface is clearly a change of product. Replacing the popup menus with a ribbon bar, is not an upgrade. Changing the locations of commands in a menu is not an upgrade its a change of the product. Increasing necessity of a mouse and removal of keyboard commands is not an upgrade. Removing commands, renaming commands, none of this represents an upgrade.
Any change which results in a learning curve to get back up to speed with using the software is a change of product not an upgrade. The learning curve should only be for new features, and if don't need them don't need to upgrade, and don't need to learn how to use them.
- File format
- User Interface
- Reports generated
If I cannot generate the same reports with the software, then it is clearly a different product: the output expected from the product is no longer there and therefore it is clearly different. So if have engineering, accounting software or similar and the developers change the reports, then they have changed the product. If they retain the original reports and add more reports then can consider it to be an upgrade.
If the old program cannot read the file of the new program then its not an upgrade its a change of product. The file format should therefore be designed so that additional data can be added in future. Whilst the file parser/reader should be designed so that it can read what it needs and ignore the rest. Similarly the file writer should be designed so that it can update the data it uses, but otherwise doesn't touch and retains the data it doesn't use. Most old software isn't written such way, and therefore changing the file format would result in a change of product not an upgrade.
Changing the user interface is clearly a change of product. Replacing the popup menus with a ribbon bar, is not an upgrade. Changing the locations of commands in a menu is not an upgrade its a change of the product. Increasing necessity of a mouse and removal of keyboard commands is not an upgrade. Removing commands, renaming commands, none of this represents an upgrade.
Any change which results in a learning curve to get back up to speed with using the software is a change of product not an upgrade. The learning curve should only be for new features, and if don't need them don't need to upgrade, and don't need to learn how to use them.
FreeDOS and USB Flashdrive on Asus EEE PC Netbook
On attempting to get the USB flashdrive to work on my netbook, I read several websites about various drivers the most useful articles being:
I started out with what appeared to be the simplest and most common appoach of using the seemingly universal Panasonic drivers. It didn't seem to work, but then too many other variables to get a clear check on things. So I decided to take the plunge and start reading Bret Johnson's 186 page document, plus randomly typing commands into DOS with the help switch option, or simply running and waiting for the complaint, then go read the instructions. Actually no real instructions. I opted for putting the following at the end of my autoexec.bat file:
USBUHCI
USBDRIVE
I'm not sure if USBUHCI should be in config.sys. It seemed to work but not consistently. First boot and my drive was E: and a second boot and drive was F:, boot again and back to E: and so forth. However messing with USBHOSTS and DRIVES, I decided I was probably wasting my time.
Wasting my time, because I was starting to get the impression that none of the drivers were actually doing anything. One of the problems is that when the netbook boots most of the information it displays flies off the screen fairly quickly. However, just before disappears off the screen do get to see that it finds either the USB flashdrive or the extrenal USB CD ROM drive if plugged in. I can boot the computer from either.
Actually that was a problem. A while back I downloaded FreeDOS and burnt the ISO file to CD. This time round I downloaded the FreeDOS ISO file and used Rufus to create a bootable USB flashdrive. Problem was that even though can boot from the flashdrive, the installation expects a A: floppy disk drive: so doesn't install. The result I installed the older version of FreeDOS from the CD. Didn't have that problem with Ubuntu, I installed from the flashdrive.
Any case I can boot the flashdrive and work from it. So using my MS Windows XP machine I created a new bootable FreeDOS stick using Rufus, with minimum requirements. That booted and provided access to the two DOS partitions on my harddrive: further more it didn't complain about the partition, as I described in earlier post. This I guess is because the memory stick, was now the C: and the partitions were D: and E:. So it appears it could be a boot sector problem.
Booting from the flashdrive (I prefer memory stick, mainly because I thought flashdrive was one specific brand), I got a nice clean display of all the drives recognised when FreeDOS booted: not cluttered by error messages.
So my next exercise was to disable the autoexcec.bat and config.sys files on my harddrive and boot from the harddisk. Didn't seem much of a problem, as I don't know what most of the rubbish in these files is for anyhow: I'm guessing mostly only of use by those who want to play old DOS games. So all up not having my display cluttered with error messages about stuff I don't have nor need was a good thing. The system thus booted ok, with just the message about the bad partition.
Next thing was to plug in a non-bootable memory stick, and reboot from the harddisk. As expected the computer found the memory stick. Since my harddisk is partitioned I was expecting the harddisk to be C: and D: drives. However the memory stick became the D: drive and the second harddisk partition the E: drive.
Still its something I can work with. As to why it was not apparent in the first place, I guess that is because the memory stick I was using, was set up to be bootable, therefore I removed it from the drive when booting from the harddisk. The flashdrive /memory stick needs to be plugged in at boot time for the computer to find it.
Having to plug the memory stick in, at bootup is not a problem for me: I only have simple uses for a fast operating system. For some people it may be a problem, and the computers ability to find the flashdrives may be a problem if using drivers, Bret Johnson's document provides some trouble shooting guidelines if have such problem. Its how I decided that may be I didn't need any drivers and I was potentially wasting my time trying to get such to work. {With approach adopted I don't need any third party drivers, and therefore no licensing issues.}
I started out using an old 128Mbyte flashdrive, then I setup a 2Gbyte flashdrive to boot to FreeDOS. Given my intended use of FreeDOS either of these flashdrives is plenty big enough to work from without need to setup the computer harddisk.
- DOS USB Drivers (At BootDisk: a useful site for information about booting DOS and/or windows from CD's,to fix problems)
- Yes, there are USB drivers for DOS... (From FreeDOS site itself)
- Run USB devices under DOS! (TechSpot Forum: From memory where I actually got the drivers from, most other sites had dud links.)
- Bret Johnson (A collection of programs for working with USB's at DOS, and extensive documentation of USB technology. Though no quick guide, or example Autoexec.bat and config.sys files.)
- USB Made Simple (For those interested in the electronics)
I started out with what appeared to be the simplest and most common appoach of using the seemingly universal Panasonic drivers. It didn't seem to work, but then too many other variables to get a clear check on things. So I decided to take the plunge and start reading Bret Johnson's 186 page document, plus randomly typing commands into DOS with the help switch option, or simply running and waiting for the complaint, then go read the instructions. Actually no real instructions. I opted for putting the following at the end of my autoexec.bat file:
USBUHCI
USBDRIVE
I'm not sure if USBUHCI should be in config.sys. It seemed to work but not consistently. First boot and my drive was E: and a second boot and drive was F:, boot again and back to E: and so forth. However messing with USBHOSTS and DRIVES, I decided I was probably wasting my time.
Wasting my time, because I was starting to get the impression that none of the drivers were actually doing anything. One of the problems is that when the netbook boots most of the information it displays flies off the screen fairly quickly. However, just before disappears off the screen do get to see that it finds either the USB flashdrive or the extrenal USB CD ROM drive if plugged in. I can boot the computer from either.
Actually that was a problem. A while back I downloaded FreeDOS and burnt the ISO file to CD. This time round I downloaded the FreeDOS ISO file and used Rufus to create a bootable USB flashdrive. Problem was that even though can boot from the flashdrive, the installation expects a A: floppy disk drive: so doesn't install. The result I installed the older version of FreeDOS from the CD. Didn't have that problem with Ubuntu, I installed from the flashdrive.
Any case I can boot the flashdrive and work from it. So using my MS Windows XP machine I created a new bootable FreeDOS stick using Rufus, with minimum requirements. That booted and provided access to the two DOS partitions on my harddrive: further more it didn't complain about the partition, as I described in earlier post. This I guess is because the memory stick, was now the C: and the partitions were D: and E:. So it appears it could be a boot sector problem.
Booting from the flashdrive (I prefer memory stick, mainly because I thought flashdrive was one specific brand), I got a nice clean display of all the drives recognised when FreeDOS booted: not cluttered by error messages.
So my next exercise was to disable the autoexcec.bat and config.sys files on my harddrive and boot from the harddisk. Didn't seem much of a problem, as I don't know what most of the rubbish in these files is for anyhow: I'm guessing mostly only of use by those who want to play old DOS games. So all up not having my display cluttered with error messages about stuff I don't have nor need was a good thing. The system thus booted ok, with just the message about the bad partition.
Next thing was to plug in a non-bootable memory stick, and reboot from the harddisk. As expected the computer found the memory stick. Since my harddisk is partitioned I was expecting the harddisk to be C: and D: drives. However the memory stick became the D: drive and the second harddisk partition the E: drive.
Still its something I can work with. As to why it was not apparent in the first place, I guess that is because the memory stick I was using, was set up to be bootable, therefore I removed it from the drive when booting from the harddisk. The flashdrive /memory stick needs to be plugged in at boot time for the computer to find it.
Having to plug the memory stick in, at bootup is not a problem for me: I only have simple uses for a fast operating system. For some people it may be a problem, and the computers ability to find the flashdrives may be a problem if using drivers, Bret Johnson's document provides some trouble shooting guidelines if have such problem. Its how I decided that may be I didn't need any drivers and I was potentially wasting my time trying to get such to work. {With approach adopted I don't need any third party drivers, and therefore no licensing issues.}
I started out using an old 128Mbyte flashdrive, then I setup a 2Gbyte flashdrive to boot to FreeDOS. Given my intended use of FreeDOS either of these flashdrives is plenty big enough to work from without need to setup the computer harddisk.
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Installed wordpress on usb memory stick
Installed WordPress on a usb memory stick by making use of usbwebserver and part following guidelines from the following blog:
Carry WordPress in your Pocket : USB WebserverSo that may be I can experiment with custom themes, and otherwise building a website. At moment not sure I like having a blog as the main page to website, but then not sure what alternative to put there. Though I don't need a web server to test the alternatives: unless create a static home page in WordPress.
FreeDOS and Ubuntu on Asus EEE PC Netbook
Accidentally killed MS Windows XP on my netbook. Used Partition Magic 8 to create partitions on my Netbook. All seemed to be going fine, then turned out that it wasn't. I got the netbook a while back now, the general idea was hopeful expectation that it would boot faster than Windows XP laptop, if it didn't then I would install MS DOS (Assuming I could figure out how to get around it being on 3.5" floppy disks) At the time I downloaded FreeDOS and Unbuntu for netbooks, but never got round to installing. Though I did burn CD's and otherwise load Ubuntu onto a bootable usb memory stick/flashdrive which was useful for fixing MS Windows problems. Also at the time I managed to network the netbook with my laptop share the laptop CD drive and install Powerquest Partition Magic on the netbook, though Bootmagic didn't seem to install. Any case problem was only allowed to have 4 primary drives and the netbook already had so I didn't pursue any further: primarily because have no Windows XP disks to re-install the system. On top of which at the time didn't fully understand how to get the system back without installation disks: it seemed like needed to install over Internet or something. Instructions didn't seem clear, and I didn't have time to pursue further.
So this time round I took a closer look at the partitions and identified one of them as the recovery partition for Windows XP, this was after I removed its hidden status with Partition Magic, and rebooted and could see in windows explorer. After which I discovered I could have probably browsed the files in Partition Magic. Any how I proceeded to remove the 4 primary drives and create a single primary partition and an extended partition. In the extended partition I then set up swap partition and ext2 partition for Linux. That all seemed to go fine. I then installed Ubuntu netbook edition from the usb drive. That all seemed to go fine too. The grub bootloader was automatically setup, and allowed booting Windows XP, Ubuntu, and also the Win XP recovery drive. However I didn't like the Ubuntu netbook edition, as none of the user guides I could find gave instructions which matched the Unity desktop it used. For that matter one guide discussed a gnome desktop.
I did also install both FreeDOS and Ubuntu netbook edition in virtual machines on my 64 bit laptop using Oracle Virtual Box. It seemed to go fine. For that matter Ubuntu in the virtual box made a connection to the Internet and spent an hour or more downloading and installing upgrades. I thought these upgrades would change the desktop to match the more recent user guides but it didn't. Installing Ubuntu 12? into virtual box didn't go so smoothly. But then virtual box wanted to update. After Virtual Box update, and allowing more ram for Ubuntu the installation, with power supply, and Internet connection, the install went more smoothly. I also tried the 64 bit version of Ubuntu, that wasn't compatible. So things went relatively ok in virtual box: only problem with respect to FreeDOS was how do I get files and other software into the virtual machine. That seemed somewhat complicated: further no real value to using FreeDOS inside a virtual box under MS Windows 7. The real objective was to boot my netbook fast and otherwise install Turbo C and Turbo Pascal along with maybe Paradox, and take a look at some of my old programs. {As there are some memory problems running at the Windows Command Prompt}.
The real objective a fast DOS box for writing and number crunching: don't need all the fancy graphics, my HP 28S calculator doesn't have such. Switch a calculator on get straight to crunching numbers, switch a word processor on get straight to typing. Switch a Windows computer on, get straight to no where: all that power and flexibility is good but its not always appropriate.
So creating another partition for FreeDOS on my netbook was the next task: that's where I hit problems. Partition magic would no longer start, complaining about drive assignment. I ran Ubuntu from the flashdrive again and went through the install, its partitioner indicated that none of the drive was allocated.
I then downloaded and installed GParted on a Live CD. I ran that but had problems, didn't seem to have any touch pad or keyboard control: touch pad could move cursor but couldn't execute any commands or select anything. After booting and trying a few times, eventually it worked with mouse plugged into usb port. It confirmed that none of the drive was allocated. Hunting down this problem, seemed that the partitions overlapped or something similar. So whilst XP and Ubuntu didn't seem to mind, and seemed to run ok, the disk partitioner didn't like. I ran a program called TestDisk, that seemed to identify the problem, and could apparently fix the problem. That is where I did something wrong or missed something: as after the fix I lost the bootloader and thus access to everything. One dead netbook.
Well not entirely dead as the data obviously still there on each partitions. So that using Ubuntu from a Live CD and further use of TestDisk could probably get everything back and adjust the start and finish of each partition. But seemed all too hard. So I just adjusted the partitions on the hard disk, created a partition for FreeDOS and installed FreeDOS then installed the most recent stable version of Ubuntu, which created a new bootloader menu for both FreeDOS and Ubuntu. So my netbook can now run either FreeDOS or Ubuntu.
Though the partitions are still not right. FreeDOS complains about faulty partition starting at 1 MByte, but when using GParted such no longer shows up: though it did when I created the partition. For some reason it had 1 Mbyte of free space before the partition. I simply accepted this. As another thing I discovered is that there should be unallocated space between a primary partition and a extended/logical partition: I didn't do this at the beginning. I did do this when I created new partitions. I don't remember doing such several years back when I set up my desktop for Windows XP, MS DOS and Linux.
Part one of objective achieved the netbook boots into FreeDOS fast. Only problem now is getting data to and from the netbook. It doesn't have any CD Drive, nor floppy disks, only usb: and DOS doesn't recognise USB drives without additional software. Problem is how to get that additional software onto the FreeDOS drive if it doesn't recognise the usb flashdrive. For installation can boot to Unbuntu, it recognises the usb drive and the FreeDOS drive, and can therefore copy files across. For general operations however booting to Ubuntu for copying files not practical when objective is a fast booting device. So hopefully can get the USB drivers to work in FreeDOS. If can then that would be good.
Already copied Turbo C and "As Easy As" over to FreeDOS drive. So far only tested that they open. As Easy As is a Lotus 123 like spreadsheet: a relatively small program and cost considerably less than Lotus, but was mostly compatible with: so something to crunch numbers with.
So this time round I took a closer look at the partitions and identified one of them as the recovery partition for Windows XP, this was after I removed its hidden status with Partition Magic, and rebooted and could see in windows explorer. After which I discovered I could have probably browsed the files in Partition Magic. Any how I proceeded to remove the 4 primary drives and create a single primary partition and an extended partition. In the extended partition I then set up swap partition and ext2 partition for Linux. That all seemed to go fine. I then installed Ubuntu netbook edition from the usb drive. That all seemed to go fine too. The grub bootloader was automatically setup, and allowed booting Windows XP, Ubuntu, and also the Win XP recovery drive. However I didn't like the Ubuntu netbook edition, as none of the user guides I could find gave instructions which matched the Unity desktop it used. For that matter one guide discussed a gnome desktop.
I did also install both FreeDOS and Ubuntu netbook edition in virtual machines on my 64 bit laptop using Oracle Virtual Box. It seemed to go fine. For that matter Ubuntu in the virtual box made a connection to the Internet and spent an hour or more downloading and installing upgrades. I thought these upgrades would change the desktop to match the more recent user guides but it didn't. Installing Ubuntu 12? into virtual box didn't go so smoothly. But then virtual box wanted to update. After Virtual Box update, and allowing more ram for Ubuntu the installation, with power supply, and Internet connection, the install went more smoothly. I also tried the 64 bit version of Ubuntu, that wasn't compatible. So things went relatively ok in virtual box: only problem with respect to FreeDOS was how do I get files and other software into the virtual machine. That seemed somewhat complicated: further no real value to using FreeDOS inside a virtual box under MS Windows 7. The real objective was to boot my netbook fast and otherwise install Turbo C and Turbo Pascal along with maybe Paradox, and take a look at some of my old programs. {As there are some memory problems running at the Windows Command Prompt}.
The real objective a fast DOS box for writing and number crunching: don't need all the fancy graphics, my HP 28S calculator doesn't have such. Switch a calculator on get straight to crunching numbers, switch a word processor on get straight to typing. Switch a Windows computer on, get straight to no where: all that power and flexibility is good but its not always appropriate.
So creating another partition for FreeDOS on my netbook was the next task: that's where I hit problems. Partition magic would no longer start, complaining about drive assignment. I ran Ubuntu from the flashdrive again and went through the install, its partitioner indicated that none of the drive was allocated.
I then downloaded and installed GParted on a Live CD. I ran that but had problems, didn't seem to have any touch pad or keyboard control: touch pad could move cursor but couldn't execute any commands or select anything. After booting and trying a few times, eventually it worked with mouse plugged into usb port. It confirmed that none of the drive was allocated. Hunting down this problem, seemed that the partitions overlapped or something similar. So whilst XP and Ubuntu didn't seem to mind, and seemed to run ok, the disk partitioner didn't like. I ran a program called TestDisk, that seemed to identify the problem, and could apparently fix the problem. That is where I did something wrong or missed something: as after the fix I lost the bootloader and thus access to everything. One dead netbook.
Well not entirely dead as the data obviously still there on each partitions. So that using Ubuntu from a Live CD and further use of TestDisk could probably get everything back and adjust the start and finish of each partition. But seemed all too hard. So I just adjusted the partitions on the hard disk, created a partition for FreeDOS and installed FreeDOS then installed the most recent stable version of Ubuntu, which created a new bootloader menu for both FreeDOS and Ubuntu. So my netbook can now run either FreeDOS or Ubuntu.
Though the partitions are still not right. FreeDOS complains about faulty partition starting at 1 MByte, but when using GParted such no longer shows up: though it did when I created the partition. For some reason it had 1 Mbyte of free space before the partition. I simply accepted this. As another thing I discovered is that there should be unallocated space between a primary partition and a extended/logical partition: I didn't do this at the beginning. I did do this when I created new partitions. I don't remember doing such several years back when I set up my desktop for Windows XP, MS DOS and Linux.
Part one of objective achieved the netbook boots into FreeDOS fast. Only problem now is getting data to and from the netbook. It doesn't have any CD Drive, nor floppy disks, only usb: and DOS doesn't recognise USB drives without additional software. Problem is how to get that additional software onto the FreeDOS drive if it doesn't recognise the usb flashdrive. For installation can boot to Unbuntu, it recognises the usb drive and the FreeDOS drive, and can therefore copy files across. For general operations however booting to Ubuntu for copying files not practical when objective is a fast booting device. So hopefully can get the USB drivers to work in FreeDOS. If can then that would be good.
Already copied Turbo C and "As Easy As" over to FreeDOS drive. So far only tested that they open. As Easy As is a Lotus 123 like spreadsheet: a relatively small program and cost considerably less than Lotus, but was mostly compatible with: so something to crunch numbers with.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)