It's possible windows 95/98 won't run on freedos due to some
undocumented dos call. I recall there was some problems with both amd
processors, and with another dos, although I don't recall if it was
drdos or the opendos equivalent, where windows wouldn't run, but you
would get a message saying that the processor wasn't supported. AMD had
to take microsoft to court over that one, but the drdos problem was
easily solved with a rather small TSR that gave windows the information
it wanted, and then it ran just fine. I cannot recall the specifics on
that particular issue, though I'd wager some judicial googling of the
internet archive may turn up the information on that particular problem.
I've never tried running windows from opendos, drdos, novell dos (all
essentially the same thing), PTS dos, or freedos before, but it wouldn't
surprise me if there isn't some sort of a hidden gotcha buried in there
to prevent exactly that kind of thing from working.
For what it's worth, I don't think you need to mess around with the
command.com and the environment variables, simply place the shell= line
in the config.sys, and that should solve the problem for you.
Other than that, if windows doesn't run, perhaps you'll need to find
someone who knows enough to run a debugger on it, and see hwo it acts on
a msdos vs a freedos installation to track down the specific problem.
I no longer have a setup I can use for this kind of thing, and I was
never all that great with assembly language debugging anyway.
Perhaps others on the list will have more suggestions.
On 9/25/2023 10:42 PM, Michał Dec via Freedos-user wrote:
Hi Jürgen,
I'm not entirely sure what you're saying is correct.
>You start with a Freedos command.com
That's not true. FreeDOS started without SHELL or SHELLHIGH will
demand you enter a path to the shell program. Both FreeDOS and Windows
versions seem to work, although the Windows shell appears to have a
limited mileage.
>Therefor first you should change those DOS file locations to the
correct Freedos ones. (that's that Display, country, *.cpi and
keyboard lines). Also that c:\windows\command path should probably
point to the Freedos directory.
How will that get me any closer to running Windows 98 out of FreeDOS?
Your instructions make sense if I would like to run FreeDOS with FreeDOS.
I've sat down at the computer again, and I've noticed that at least in
the help messages for both command.com files, /P does not specify
which autoexec.bat file will be used. Could it be some undocumented
FreeDOS quirk?
On my way up to this point, Microsoft parts started complaining that
HIMEM.SYS isn't loaded, so I added it to the DEVICE lines.
Knowing that my only real hope is to force COMMAND.COM to execute the
autoexec.bat somehow, I made this:
8?SHELL=C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM C:\WINDOWS /E:1024 /P /K C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT
and then I've added WIN.COM at the end of autoexec.bat.
This keeps getting me a substantial attempt reliably:
1. First, I get "unsupported dos call INT2F/1231". This gets called 3
times.
2. Next, I get this mouthful...:
Registry File was not found. Registry services may be
inoperative for this reason.
XMS cache problem. Registry services may be
inoperative this session.
Invalid Opcode at 02AC 2116 0206 2116 000A 190D 00C4
3A65 2A38 00
05
Press any key to continue...
And after that, either I press, or wait 15 seconds, and it shuts down
the computer.
Did I forget to load something? I've also found this post, which
describes basically the same issue:
https://freedos-devel.narkive.com/pF6dlqXN/loading-other-o-ses-from-freedos
Best regards,
Michał Dec
W dniu 25.09.2023 o 11:27, Jürgen Wondzinski via Freedos-user pisze:
Hi Michał,
Maybe it get's confused from different DOS versions, like that Command.com
files. You start with a Freedos command.com, but then load a Microsoft
command.com subsequently. Therefor first you should change those DOS file
locations to the correct Freedos ones. (that's that Display, country, *.cpi and
keyboard lines). Also that c:\windows\command path should probably point to the
Freedos directory.
Greetings from Bavaria, Germany
Jürgen Wondzinski
-Ursprüngliche Nachricht-
Von: Michał Dec via Freedos-user
Gesendet: Sonntag, 24. September 2023 22:50
An: Discussion and general questions about
FreeDOS.
Cc: Michał Dec
Betreff: [Freedos-user] Booting Windows 98 from FreeDOS
Hello everyone,
I wanted to boot Windows 98 from FreeDOS 1.3, because I would like to keep all
things together without worrying about partitioning.
So I actually have a block device backup of when Windows 98 was working on this
computer. I've extracted the contents and focused on what does Windows 98 have
in its autoexec.bat and config.sys files.
So let's see autoexec.bat from Windows 98:
SET PATH=C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND
SET SOUND=C:\PROGRA~1\CREATIVE\CTSND
SET MIDI=SYNTH:1 MAP:E MODE:0
SET BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 H7
