Patch for bootcode

[pali]

Sam Bingner in 2003 wrote patch for mkdosfs which adds support for writing custom boot code to FAT boot sector: https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2003/06/msg01316.html

This patch was included into Debian version 2.11-5 of mkdosfs, but reverted in 2.11-6 as it cause problems for syslinux. Daniel Baumann wrote that proper fix would be later. See bug report: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=489292

Apparently Sam Bingner's patch was never fixed and never entered into upstream dosfstools.

It would be nice to have boot code support in mkfs.fat. I suspect that problem reported in above bug is because bs.hidden needs to be set to bs.secs_track only if using external boot code.

[luzemario]

So, including FreeDOS/SvarDOS bootcode is not an option?

[pali]

@luzemario: Has FreeDOS/SvarDOS patch for dosfstools's mkfs.fat which can add custom boot code to FAT boot sector?

[luzemario]

  No. I mean to put FreeDOS/SvarDOS bootsector verbatim on the disk, and their IO.SYS/COMMAND.COM too, directly from dosfstools. As 15 years running Linux only, and having  hundreds of times the need for a single DOS boot disk without using pirated Windows only for making a boot disk, I would like to see a way to have working DOS boot disks created from Linux. I don't care if they come from another project, since their license allows this. Please get in touch with these projects if needed, and solve the DOS boot issue once and for all.

[pali]

No. I mean to put FreeDOS/SvarDOS bootsector verbatim on the disk

And obviously this cannot be done due to this open issue.