Re: giving dos/win3.1/win95 access to a linux partition
On Mon, 6 Jul 1998, Micha Feigin wrote:
> can i give my dos (win 3.1 right now) or win95 access to my linux
> partition, at list for reading?
> If so, how is it done?
Micha
There is an program called ext2tool that allows dos and (I think) Lose
3.1 read access to your ext2 file systems, if the drive is controlled by
the bios. If I understand ide drives, they are all controlled by the
bios, that is not an issue for most folk.
SCSI is different, I had to turn on the bios on the drives I wanted dos
to be able to read, since the bios only needs to control the boot drive.
The README doesn't say it works under Lose 95, but if the code will run,
I can't see why it wouldn't work. It depends only on bios access to the
drive.
I have attached the README from the Version 1.1, dated 9 January 1996.
The zip file should be on sunsite. I have not looked for a Debian
package. I wish you luck.
--David
EXT2 TOOLS
==========
Version 1.1 - 9 January 1996
CHANGES SINCE VERSION 1.0
-------------------------
E2LS now supports wildcards.
A bug relating to handling disks with more than 2 partitions within
an extended partion has been corrected.
The need to customize E2CD for 4DOS has been removed.
INTRODUCTION
------------
The ext2 tools are a set of programs that enable you to read a Linux
ext2 file system under DOS.
The ext2 tools consist of the following programs:
E2CAT analogous to the Linux cat command
E2CD analogous to the Linux cd command
E2CP analogous to the Linux cp command
E2LS analogous to the Linux ls command
E2PART lists hard disk partitions
E2PWD analogous to the Linux pwd command
All these programs have been compiled with GCC and require the GO32
DOS extender in order to execute.
There are currently no programs for writing to an ext2 file system and
probably never will be unless someone else would care to make them.
The programs are distributed in both binary and source code form.
COPYRIGHT
---------
The ext2 tools are copyright (C) 1995 Claus Tondering (ct@login.dknet.dk).
Note: The ext2fs routines are copyright (C) 1993, 1994 Theodore Ts'o.
For further copyrights, see the source code files.
The ext2 tools may be redistributed under the terms of the GNU General
Public License, which is included in the file called COPYING.
For your convenience the GO32 program has been included in this
distribution. It is part of the DJGPP distribution, which can be obtained
by anonymous FTP from oak.oakland.edu in the directory /SimTel/vendors/djgpp.
DISCLAIMER
----------
This is free software. Use it at your own risk. If it doesn't work,
it's your problem, not mine.
BASIC PRINCIPLES
----------------
Before you use the ext2 tools, you must set the environment variable
E2CWD using a statement similar to the following:
SET E2CWD=129:5
or
SET E2CWD=129:5:234
The three numbers after the equals sign are interpreted thus:
The first number (129 in the above example) identifies the physical
disk on which the ext2 file system is located. The number is used as
the second parameter to the DOS biosdisk() routine (BIOS interrupt
0x13). Typical values are:
0 for A: disk
1 for B: disk
128 for first hard disk
129 for second hard disk
(See the 'BUGS' section at the end of this document for information
about using a third hard disk.)
The second number (5 in the above example) is the number of the disk
partition on which the ext2 file system is located. This number is
typically part of the Linux file name for the disk device. If, for
example, you are used to referring to the disk as /dev/hdb5 under
Linux, the partition number is 5. The E2PART program can help you
identify the partitions.
The third number is the inode number of the directory that is to be
your current working directory. If this number is omitted, 2 (the root
inode number) is used. If you don't know what an inode is, don't worry.
Just omit the final number from E2CWD.
Note: File names starting with / will be interpreted relative to the
root directory on the particular disk identified by the E2CWD
environment variable.
Only E2LS supports wildcards.
Be sure to have the GO32.EXE program somewhere in your PATH.
E2CAT
-----
SYNOPSIS
E2CAT [-bt] pathname
DESCTIPTION
The E2CAT program will copy the contents of the file identified
by ext2 pathname to the standard output.
The following options are available:
-b Binary mode. No translation performed.
-t Text mode (default). LF translated to CR/LF.
E2CD
----
SYNOPSIS
E2CD pathname
DESCRIPTION
The pathname must identify an ext2 directory. That directory is
made the current working directory.
NOTE
E2CD is a .BAT file that creates another .BAT file (called
___E2CD.BAT) that modifies the E2CWD environment variable. It
then executes ___E2CD.BAT and deletes it. (So beware if you
already have a file called ___E2CD.BAT.)
For use with 4DOS, an E2CD.BTM file is also included. 4DOS
will use that instead of E2CD.BAT.
E2CP
----
SYNOPSIS
E2CP [-bt] file1 file2
DESCTIPTION
The E2CP program will copy the contents of the file identified
by ext2 pathname 'file1' to the MSDOS file 'file2'.
The following options are available:
-b Binary mode (default). No translation performed.
-t Text mode. LF translated to CR/LF.
E2LS
----
SYNOPSIS
E2LS [-adiltr] pathname ...
DESCRIPTION
The pathnames may identify ext2 directories or files. Wildcard
characters (*, [], ?, etc.) may be used in a manner similar to
what the Linux shell allows.
The E2LS program provides a directory listing of the specified
pathnames in a manner similar to the Linux ls program.
The following options are supported:
-a Include file names starting with . in listing.
-d List only pathname, even if it is a directory.
-i Include inode number in listing.
-l Produce a long listing.
-t Sort by modification time.
-r Reverse the sort order.
E2PART
------
SYNOPSIS
E2PART diskno
DESCRIPTION
The E2PART program lists the partitions that are available on a
particular physical disk. This program does not use the E2CWD
environment variable, instead the disk number is given as an
argument to the E2PART program.
BUGS
The program is not very good at identifying MSDOS file systems.
E2PWD
-----
SYNOPSIS
E2PWD
DESCRIPTION
The E2PWD program prints the current directory.
HOW TO CONTACT THE AUTHOR
-------------------------
The author can be contacted by e-mail at ct@login.dknet.dk.
BUGS
----
If you have a third hard disk, you may or may not be able to use it
with the ext2 tools. The reason is that there is no standard way to
access a third hard disk through the BIOS. The ext2 tools use BIOS
interrupt 0x13 to access the disks, and the useability of the ext2
tools depends on how your BIOS accesses a third hard disk.
If you have an SCSI disk, you may or may not be able to use it with
the ext2 tools. Again, the useability depends on whether your disk is
accessible through BIOS interrupt 0x13.
If your disk is too large for the BIOS to handle, you cannot use the
ext2 tools on partitions that extend beyond what the BIOS can handle.
The pathnames given as arguments to the programs must not traverse
directories that are symbolic links.
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