Hi Eric,
Eric Auer wrote:
>
> Hi Frantisek, DOSEMU experts, Aitor,
>
>> Just when I tried pure autoexec.bat file from latest dosemu-devel,
>> I bump to problem with loading display.exe. Line 14 in autoexec.bat
>> is 'rem loadhi display con=(vga,437,2)', but when uncommented, then
>> give me two errors:
>>
>> 1) 'FreeCom version 0.84-pre2 XMS_Swap [Aug 28 2006 00:29:00]' which
>> is in dosemu-freedos-1.0-bin.tgz tarball referenced at:
>>
>> http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/dosemu/dosemu-freedos-1.0-bin.tgz?download
>>
>> not know 'loadhi' command; only 'lh' may be used.
>
> There is a stand-alone tool loadhi.com, the built-in command can
> be used either by the name LH or LOADHIGH. Maybe the tarball of
> dosemu wanted to use loadhi to not depend on command.com version.
You are right, I found loadhi.com somewhere - but it was version
from 1995 year, thus maybe this was existed before this function was
implemented in FreeCom. Anyway, in official dosemu-freedos tarball
this utility isn't present. And FreeCom know both 'loadhigh' and 'lh'.
>> 2) display-0.13b report error:
>>
>> FreeDOS DISPLAY ver. 0.13b
>> Syntax error (006) Unknown hardware device name
>>
>> when I retain its parameters. But when I use 'ega' instead of 'vga',
>> then all is fine. I not know, when it is display...
>
> That might be a bug in display: Reading the sources of an older
> version, VGA and EGA should both be accepted. See also my reply
> to your FreeDOS mailing list question: You can say EGA here, it
> works the same for fonts. Only the amount of graphics memory and
> the set of font sizes differ. But at least for older versions of
> DISPLAY, the setting "EGA" meant to autodetect exactly those :-)
>
>> ... documentation ... 'vga' is allowed) or dosemu problem (e.g.
>> it emulate only EGA card and not VGA).
>
> No, EGA and VGA are treated pretty much the same by DISPLAY, it
> only treats CGA in a different way. Also, DOSEMU supports VGA
> quite well, also for loadable fonts as far as I remember ;-) In
> any case, that error message is about option syntax. You would
> get a different error if no EGA/VGA card was found by DISPLAY.
>
>> According this, and as this autoexec.bat file has in its head that
>> it should be for DOSEMU + FreeDOS, maybe this change should be better:
>>
>> --- dist/autoexec.bat.old 2014-04-21 00:38:46.273663431 +0200
>> +++ dist/autoexec.bat 2014-04-21 00:50:12.053661641 +0200
>> @@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
>> lredir d: linux\fs%DOSDRIVE_D%
>> :nodrived
>> rem uncomment to load another bitmap font
>> -rem loadhi display con=(vga,437,2)
>> +rem lh display con=(ega,437,2)
>
> I would even say (EGA,,1) to use less RAM and be less strict.
>
>> rem mode con codepage prepare=((850) z:\cpi\ega.cpx)
>> rem mode con codepage select 850
>> rem chcp 850
>
> Not sure how relevant the last CHCP step is, it probably is
> duplicating the explicit setting by MODE in some aspects...
>
>> and also in freecom help file:
>>
>> --- dosemu/freedos/help/index.en.old 2003-09-28 05:55:27.000000000 +0200
>> +++ dosemu/freedos/help/index.en 2014-04-21 01:27:35.012479480 +0200
>> @@ -16,7 +16,7 @@
>> help ... you just called this one
>> join mount a drive letter into a directory
>> lib librarian for OBJ files, creating a LIB file
>> -loadhi loads a program into the upper memory
>> +lh loads a program into the upper memory
> ?
> Not sure where this file comes from. Note that you can type
> "?" as a command to get a list of commands and e.g. LH /? to
> get help about LH and so on. The HTML based HELP command has
> a page about LH aka LOADHIGH but none about LOADHI...
>
> I guess INDEX.EN is a file provided by DOSEMU, given that it
> also explains the DOSEMU-specific LREDIR.
This ('/usr/share/dosemu/drive_z/help/index.en', which should be
'Z:\help/index.en' in DOS) is, it seems, printed by 'help' command
(Z:\bin\help.exe). This file is maybe somehow customized by dosemu
team.
>> mem displays the amount of DOS memory used
>> more displays a text file one screen at a time
>> nansi nansi.sys, an enhanced MS-DOS console driver
>> @@ -80,9 +80,9 @@
>> vgaoff only for 'root'!! switch vga mode off (when on console)
>> vgaon only for 'root'!! switch on console vga graphics mode
>> NOTE: vgaoff/on may be dangerous on console, but
>> - do nothing important on X.
>> -
>> + do nothing important on X.
>> lredir set/display redirection of a Linux directory to a DOS drive
>> + or set redirection to network virtual printer.
>> unix take over Linux ENV variables, execute DOS command from
>> a given ENV variable, execute Linux commands ...
>> dosdbg set/display debug(Log) features/flags
>>
>> One thing which I not know: some FreeDOS utilities have newer version now
>> (compared with those in dosemu-freedos-1.0-bin.tgz), but is possible use
>> them with dosemu?
>> Maybe Bart patched some key components (FreeDOS kernel, FreeCOMM etc.)
>> and newer versions will not be functional? Knows someone?
>
> Maybe the problem is just that the tarball of FreeDOS things for DOSEMU
> has not been updated after FreeDOS 1.0 got released: It would surprise
> me if anything in this tarball is a special DOSEMU version. DOSEMU can
> run random software for DOS quite well. However, there are some tools
> which ONLY work in DOSEMU, such as for example LREDIR. If those are a
> part of dosemu-freedos-1.0-bin.tgz, then they are probably taken from
> a package of things-for-DOSEMU that may have been updated separately.
>
> Another example are HIMEM and EMM386: Instead of using those for real
> hardware, you can and should use the "magic" DOSEMU versions where the
> emulator provides most of the functionality itself. That way, it needs
> less (slow) hardware simulation to provide the same experience.
>
> My current DOSEMU installation contains the following special DOSEMU
> DOS tools and drivers: cdrom, ems, emufs, aspi and dumpconf.sys and
> isemu, fossil, mgarrot and generic.com: The latter is also symlinked
> to xmode, vgaon, vgaoff, unix, ugetcwd, uchdir, system, speed, lredir,
> exitemu, emumouse, eject, ecpuon, ecpuoff, dpmi, dosdbg, cmdline,
> booton, bootoff and blaster.com as calling generic.com by different
> filenames lets you invoke different "magic" things, often for setup.
> Interestingly, those files are all less than 1 kilobyte "big" each.
> They all work only in (any, not just Free-) DOS and only in DOSEMU.
>
> Regards, Eric
My questions was mainly about FreeDOS kernel.sys and FreeCom - what
would be surprising that, when it can exploit benefits of free software,
FreeDOS together with DOSEMU, will be able do some features over other
closed-source DOSes?
Eric, You are using latest (2041?) FreeDOS kernel? dosemu-freedos
package contains older 2036 version. And dosemu-freedos FreeCom
version should be '0.84-pre2 XMS_Swap [Aug 28 2006]', but freedos.org
web page (http://www.freedos.org/software/?prog=command) say that this
version is from 2011-07-29 - almost five years newer!?
And, do You think, that would update the current dosemu freedos to
newest FreeDOS versions had any advantages?
Thanks, Franta Hanzlik
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Start Your Social Network Today - Download eXo Platform
Build your Enterprise Intranet with eXo Platform Software
Java Based Open Source Intranet - Social, Extensible, Cloud Ready
Get Started Now And Turn Your Intranet Into A Collaboration Platform
http://p.sf.net/sfu/ExoPlatform
_______________________________________________
Dosemu-devel mailing list
Dosemu-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/dosemu-devel
