Hi Jerome, Trevor, Mateusz etc. :-)
Thanks for explaining how to turn 386 installs into 8086 ones!
I hope the CPU detection is now working, so the installer
will create an 8086 install when used on 8086 systems?
Does the installer have an option to manually select an
8086 compatible install result, for people who plan to
later copy the installed system to some 8086 based PC?
AT or 286 systems are an interesting case: They support
XMS and some kernel optimizations, but no 386 specific
apps, drivers or kernels. Which style of install will
people get on 286 based computers?
I notice you recommended to backup config and autoexec,
then reduce the config, but not create a lightweight
version of autoexec? Or is there a trick and I just
overlooked how the lighter autoexec is created?
Regarding the shell, I do recommend the KSSF version
of FreeCOM. While the normal version will need XMS to
swap itself out of DOS memory and have a lot of RAM
free for DOS apps, it will use a lot of RAM on systems
where no XMS is available. In particular: 8086 PC :-p
The KSSF version of FreeCOM uses a different trick
to just re-load most of FreeCOM from disk when apps
return to the prompt, to have more RAM free for apps
without needing XMS to get there.
Mateusz also has the lightweight SvarCOM shell as an
alternative. Several other shells exist for DOS, in
various sizes. ROMOS uses a minimal one. For example
http://www.rayer.g6.cz/romos/romose.htm
comes with a 10 kB small RJDOS command.com shell,
which helps making a minimal FreeDOS installation
which fits into your BIOS, together with the MM
MicroManager file manager (midnight commander or
norton commander style, you know the concept) :-)
Regards, Eric
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