Hi Eric, > On Aug 8, 2024, at 4:29 PM, Eric Auer via Freedos-user > <freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net> wrote: > > > 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?
Yes. I mentioned in the previous message. That was resolved. I also posted about it a few months back on the devel mailing list. But at present, that is only available with the Interim Builds. > > 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? Yes. As Trevor noticed. There is an option to override the machine detection on the Floppy Edition. However, with the workarounds that were present in 1.3. It is possible that the option was ignored when the kernel got installed. As I mentioned in the previous message, those workarounds have been removed. But, testing of the overrides still needs to be performed. I will get to that. But, I’ve only got so much free time. > > 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? They get a 286 install with the floppy edition. Need not worry about the CD versions because the CD driver chain requires a 386 anyway. > > 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? The floppy edition has lighter versions of config files for 286, 186 and 8086. Plus, different versions for various VMs. > > 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 > > Jerome > > > _______________________________________________ > Freedos-user mailing list > Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
