Re: [Freedos-user] Ré : Installing freedos to virtualbox them copying dice contents to an actual computer

[Louis Santillan]

One thing you can try is to remove the IDE HDD drive from the 486, connect
it to a USB drive adapter, then use VirtualBox/qemu/et al. to install
FreeDOS to it.  You can use an adapter like this one (
https://www.ebay.com/itm/124411032918).  Should have a JMicron chip in it
which all modern OSes will know how to deal with.

On Tue, Mar 29, 2022 at 2:50 PM John Vella  wrote:

> Hi Eric!
>
> I do have the img images for wordperfect, which I have transferred to
> floppy disk. The pc doesn't boot from cd, in fact I can't even get the bios
> to recognise the cd drive, as the hard drive parameters have to be manually
> entered. I have an isa sound Blaster awe 64 value, with ide connector,
> which I believe will allow me to access the drive, although boring from it
> probably won't be possible. Not a problem!
>
> My main problem at this point is that the pc is currently in the living
> room, which is another reason for the original virtual machine plan.
>
> Thinking about it, I could actually have done the complete installation
> from floppy disk by now! I'll have a look tomorrow.
>
>
> On Tue, 29 Mar 2022, 22:36 Eric Auer,  wrote:
>
>>
>> Hi!
>>
>> I think wordperfect for DOS came on floppies, yes.
>> And you can connect ATAPI CD/DVD drives to typical
>> 486  computers. There also are special boot loaders
>> which you can load from floppy to continue booting
>> from CD/DVD in case your BIOS does not yet support
>> direct booting from CD/DVD :-)
>>
>> Eric
>>
>>
>>
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Re: [Freedos-user] Installing freedos to virtualbox them copying dice contents to an actual computer

[John Vella]

The host machine will be more than capable, as I have installed virtual
freedos on this in the past. It's a 9th gen core i7 with 32gb, (I nearly
typed 32mb!) off ram but now I've had a chance to think about it I'll
probably just do the floppy install, purely because disk swapping is fun!

I'll end this by saying I also got a surprise when the machine started
working as I was convinced it had 4Mb of ram but it turns out that it's got
8 meg!



On Tue, 29 Mar 2022, 23:00 dmccunney,  wrote:

> On Tue, Mar 29, 2022 at 2:40 PM John Vella  wrote:
>
> > So, I've got the 486 computer working and am ready to install freedos
> and wordperfect.
> >
> > I'm thinking there are a couple of advantages to installing onto a
> virtualbox machine, then formatting the physical hard drive and copying the
> contents over.
> >
> > It would be a lot quicker to install and I'd have a clean image if I
> ever need to reinstall.
>
> What machine will VirtualBox be running on?  If your VirtualBox host
> machine can run it acceptably, you *may* have a plan.
>
> Getting FreeDOS working in VirtualBox can be non-trivial. Jim Hall and
> others here can provide pointers
>
> > Is there an obvious flaw to my plan?
>
> If your main intent is a quicker install, it's likely to be faster to
> just install FreeDOS and WP on the 486 on the bare metal instead of
> creating an image in VirtualBox.  (It will take the same time to do it
> in VirtualBox, with the added overhead of getting it to run in
> VirtualBox in the first place.)
>
> In the old days, when you got a new machine, you booted DOS from
> floppy, formatted the HD from DOS with format /s (which copied the DOS
> system files to the HD,)then removed the floppy, rebooted from the HD,
> and carried on.
>
> That is likely still your best option.
>
> Personally, were I to install FreeDOS in VirtualBox or another virtual
> machine, I'd do it because I wanted a full working FreeDOS
> installation, and I didn't *have* an Old Skool machine to do a bare
> metal install on.
>
> > John.
> __
> Dennis
>
>
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Re: [Freedos-user] Installing freedos to virtualbox them copying dice contents to an actual computer

[dmccunney]

On Tue, Mar 29, 2022 at 2:40 PM John Vella  wrote:

> So, I've got the 486 computer working and am ready to install freedos and 
> wordperfect.
>
> I'm thinking there are a couple of advantages to installing onto a virtualbox 
> machine, then formatting the physical hard drive and copying the contents 
> over.
>
> It would be a lot quicker to install and I'd have a clean image if I ever 
> need to reinstall.

What machine will VirtualBox be running on?  If your VirtualBox host
machine can run it acceptably, you *may* have a plan.

Getting FreeDOS working in VirtualBox can be non-trivial. Jim Hall and
others here can provide pointers

> Is there an obvious flaw to my plan?

If your main intent is a quicker install, it's likely to be faster to
just install FreeDOS and WP on the 486 on the bare metal instead of
creating an image in VirtualBox.  (It will take the same time to do it
in VirtualBox, with the added overhead of getting it to run in
VirtualBox in the first place.)

In the old days, when you got a new machine, you booted DOS from
floppy, formatted the HD from DOS with format /s (which copied the DOS
system files to the HD,)then removed the floppy, rebooted from the HD,
and carried on.

That is likely still your best option.

Personally, were I to install FreeDOS in VirtualBox or another virtual
machine, I'd do it because I wanted a full working FreeDOS
installation, and I didn't *have* an Old Skool machine to do a bare
metal install on.

> John.
__
Dennis


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Re: [Freedos-user] Ré : Installing freedos to virtualbox them copying dice contents to an actual computer

[John Vella]

Hi Eric!

I do have the img images for wordperfect, which I have transferred to
floppy disk. The pc doesn't boot from cd, in fact I can't even get the bios
to recognise the cd drive, as the hard drive parameters have to be manually
entered. I have an isa sound Blaster awe 64 value, with ide connector,
which I believe will allow me to access the drive, although boring from it
probably won't be possible. Not a problem!

My main problem at this point is that the pc is currently in the living
room, which is another reason for the original virtual machine plan.

Thinking about it, I could actually have done the complete installation
from floppy disk by now! I'll have a look tomorrow.


On Tue, 29 Mar 2022, 22:36 Eric Auer,  wrote:

>
> Hi!
>
> I think wordperfect for DOS came on floppies, yes.
> And you can connect ATAPI CD/DVD drives to typical
> 486  computers. There also are special boot loaders
> which you can load from floppy to continue booting
> from CD/DVD in case your BIOS does not yet support
> direct booting from CD/DVD :-)
>
> Eric
>
>
>
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> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
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Re: [Freedos-user] Ré : Installing freedos to virtualbox them copying dice contents to an actual computer

[Eric Auer]

Hi!

I think wordperfect for DOS came on floppies, yes.
And you can connect ATAPI CD/DVD drives to typical
486  computers. There also are special boot loaders
which you can load from floppy to continue booting
from CD/DVD in case your BIOS does not yet support
direct booting from CD/DVD :-)

Eric



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[Freedos-user] Ré : Installing freedos to virtualbox them copying dice contents to an actual computer

[Paul Dufresne via Freedos-user]

 Activé mar., 29 mars 2022 14:38:06 -0400 John Vella 
 écrit 



Hi,

So, I've got the 486 computer working and am ready to install freedos and 
wordperfect.



I'm thinking there are a couple of advantages to installing onto a virtualbox 
machine, then formatting the physical hard drive and copying the contents over. 








[Post thinking]
I did not follow your previous situation.
The obvious problem is the media... 486 unlikely to have CD... USB keys?
Is wordperfect on floppies? Then transfering them to floppy images would be 
better to keep them long.
[just don't know... End post thinking]

It sound a bit harder to me than just installing on the 486.

You would have to choose a raw format for the virtual hard drive.
Surely doable in QEmu... I am a bit less sure for others.
I would not format the hard drive because the virtual disk would be partitioned 
and formated.
Then for copying I would try to use dd command in a very light 32 bit Linux... 
but I am unsure how you want to do it.___
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[Freedos-user] Installing freedos to virtualbox them copying dice contents to an actual computer

[John Vella]

Hi,

So, I've got the 486 computer working and am ready to install freedos and
wordperfect.

I'm thinking there are a couple of advantages to installing onto a
virtualbox machine, then formatting the physical hard drive and copying the
contents over.

It would be a lot quicker to install and I'd have a clean image if I ever
need to reinstall.

Is there an obvious flaw to my plan?

Thanks in advance,

John.
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