I don't "need" FreeDOS on that machine, full install or otherwise. All I wanted to do was take a look at FreeDOS to find out what it can do.
What I found was that the boot floppy created is incomplete and that therefore the installation doesn't work. I got around that with help from this group but found that this did not install a boot menu to allow me to carry on using the existing PC-DOS, contrary to the Install wiki which says: "If you install to a C: drive which already has another DOS or Windows 95/98 on it, the installer will often be able to automatically install a boot menu and keep FreeDOS configuration separate from the config and autoexec of the other DOS or Windows." Okay, it says "will often be able to" but in my case it didn't. There is probably a way to get it to work but at this point I concluded that it's just not worth the effort. What I will do is to start again from scratch, set up a dual boot of PC-DOS and MS-DOS, and install Windows For Workgroups (for networking) and DesqView (because I love it). I prefer PC-DOS but it doesn't seem to like QEMM which is required for DesqView; hence the need for MS-DOS. This machine was built in about 1995 and originally came with Windows 95. I was given it in about 2000, immediately replaced Win 95 with DOS and have been using it frequently ever since. I have several more powerful computers, including another laptop, but I like this one and find it useful so I'll continue running it until it dies. Here are the specs: Toshiba T1950CT CPU: 486 DX2 RAM: The maximum possible, a massive 20 Mb Graphics: VGA, VL-bus Sound card: None CD: None. Hence the problem Mouse: A tracker ball which clips on the side and works with any standard Microsoft mouse driver. Personally I hardly ever use mice on this machine and avoid them elsewhere. It also has a PCMCIA slot in which I have a network card. The original hard drive was 200 Mb but I put a 1 Gb drive in, running OnTrack Disk Manager to overcome the BIOS restriction. I use it for writing (WordPerfect), spreadsheets (Quattro Pro) and so on, as well as programming in C and Clipper. The battery life is good enough for me to take it out to the cafe, I like the keyboard and the whole machine feels solid and reliable. I'm very fond of it. Because it's my DOS computer it was the natural choice to try out FreeDOS. I also have FreeDOS on other computers, including under dosemu in Linux, but those are all multi-boot machines and DOS never seems to get used as much as the other operating systems. What I've also learned from this experiment is that the users are helpful, knowledgeable and friendly, so I'm not entirely giving up on FreeDOS! Chris ----- Original message ----- From: "Rugxulo" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2011 03:33:00 -0500 Subject: Re: [Freedos-user] Installing with no CD drive Hi, (sorry I'm late) On 6/20/11, Chris D <[email protected]> wrote: > > I am having trouble installing FreeDOS on an ancient Toshiba laptop > which has no CD drive, only a floppy. Do you really want / need a "full" FreeDOS install? In particular, what apps do you really want / need? Games? Development? Networking? I don't want to say I'm an "expert" on floppies, but as far as mini FreeDOS floppy distros go, I'm pretty used to it by now. :-) (I know Eric promotes my "old" 2008 RUFFIDEA [three disks] sometimes, or even his "Brezel" mini distro, but I halfway think mine's too old and quirky to be generally useful, esp. nowadays. Alas. And it's just too hard to update properly, and I have "real life" chapping my ass, so that doesn't help either, heheh.) Anyways, please keep up posted, and let us know if we can help more specifically. EDIT: What cpu / RAM / HD / graphics / soundcard / CD / mouse does the laptop use (if applicable)? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ All of the data generated in your IT infrastructure is seriously valuable. Why? It contains a definitive record of application performance, security threats, fraudulent activity, and more. Splunk takes this data and makes sense of it. IT sense. And common sense. http://p.sf.net/sfu/splunk-d2d-c2 _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ All of the data generated in your IT infrastructure is seriously valuable. Why? It contains a definitive record of application performance, security threats, fraudulent activity, and more. Splunk takes this data and makes sense of it. IT sense. And common sense. http://p.sf.net/sfu/splunk-d2d-c2 _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
