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distributions/TAMU/dos_utils/README.rawfd

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+ANNOUNCING:  RAWFD
+
+What:   rawfd.exe is a raw floppy disk device driver and control program
+        for DOS that allows you to format a floppy and ftp or copy an entire 
+	raw disk image directly onto it in a single step, without using any
+        harddisk space.
+
+Why:    Downloading the floppies for a linux distribution is the single
+        most time consuming part of doing a linux installation.  There 
+        are two standard formats for downloaded disks: multiple DOS
+        files on a DOS formatted diskette, and a single raw image of
+        the entire disk. All current linux distributions use the
+        raw image method for the boot diskette.  Most distributions use
+        the DOS method for all other diskettes, while TAMU uses raw
+        images for all diskettes.  The advantages of the raw image
+        method are that it requires fewer diskettes (you don't waste
+        space on the DOS file system), and it is easier to do on 
+        unix machines, as mounting diskettes as filesystems is normally
+        a restricted operation. The disadvantage of this method was
+        that on DOS machines you had to ftp the image to a hard disk,
+        and then rawrite the image to floppy.  In some cases, people
+        had access only to machines which lacked either space or
+        permission to put the images on harddisk.  
+	
+	With RAWFD, DOS machines can now do the format, ftp, and
+	rawrite operations directly to the floppy in a single step,
+        without any use of harddisk.
+
+How:    rawfd.exe is a DOS device driver that can be installed either
+        with a "device=rawfd.exe" in config.sys, or directly by
+        running "rawfd" at the DOS command prompt. Once installed,
+        it creates two devices "rawfda" and "rawfdb" (for drives
+        a: and b: respectively) which can then be copied or ftp'ed
+        to as any normal file. For example, using ftp, you would
+        simply do "get boot rawfda" to ftp the "boot" disk image to
+        the floppy in drive a.  If you already have a local copy of 
+        the disk image, you can replace "rawrite" with a simple
+        "copy /b boot rawfda".  By default, the raw device driver
+        formats the diskette during transfer, although this option
+        can be turned on and off as desired. Rawfd uses track
+        buffering for extremely high speed operation.
+
+Where:  Source and binaries are available in 
+		net.tamu.edu:pub/linux/dos_utils
+
+        Note that pub/linux/os2_utils includes a version of "dd"
+        for os/2 to enable ftp directly to floppy on those machines.
+
+Questions/Comments: dave.safford@net.tamu.edu