Re: [Freedos-user] what cd rom drivers does freedos use?

[Karen Lewellen via Freedos-user]

Forcibly demand?
What an interesting choice of term..why not did the job for which i 
contracted them?




On Fri, 26 Jan 2024, Rugxulo via Freedos-user wrote:


Hi Karen,

On Wed, Jan 24, 2024 at 10:18 PM Karen Lewellen via Freedos-user
 wrote:


As many may recall I run msdos 7.1 instead of freedos for several personal
reasons.


Do the volunteers (engineers?) who help you set up your systems
forcibly demand MS-DOS 7.1 exactly?

We've discussed this before, so I'm not really trying to change your
mind on it, just curious. (Why specifically MS-DOS? Why not DR-DOS? Or
Datalight ROM-DOS?)


I recently had a new machine built, just before Christmas, which  also
included my  installing an external dectalk card, I have an ISA slot, the
ling kind on this board.
While the synthesizer works well, using it to support my writing this
message, I have an odd problem.
The dectalk software has a conflict that seems to impact cdrom drives, or
the driver provided by Microsoft.


Can't you just edit a CONFIG.SYS menu option to let you optionally
boot without DecTalk when needing to access a physical CD-ROM?

(BTW, dual boot with another OS is another possibility.)


It is more than addresses, dectalk provides a way to locate a free one,
user guides for both dectalk 4.1, what I am running, and 4.2 reference the
driver issue.
The suggested solution did not work..however I need a cd rom drive for
scores of reasons.


I assume you mean a modern DVD drive (20x speed or whatever) or
possibly DVD-RW or such.


leading to my question.
Often on list I have read that freedos is in many ways better than MS DOS,
with programs able to run under freedos.


FreeDOS is strongly compatible and "Free" (libre), but not necessarily
"better" in all ways, no.


I now have a chance to test that theory, swapping in the cd rom driver
freedos provides as a test?
my driver again is not specific to my cd rom..never has been.
Instead I use the basic driver supplied with ms dos 7.1, never having a
problem until now.


MS-DOS 7.1 was never a standalone product (unlike MS-DOS 6.22). It was
bundled as part of Win95 or Win98 or whatever variant. So I don't know
what came with it: OAKCDROM.SYS?


What does Freedos provide with that kind of universal flexibility?


I can only point you to the FreeDOS mirror on iBiblio:

* https://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/dos/cdrom/

But it's been years since I've bothered with physical CDs. (My 2022
Linux laptop has no optical drive, for instance.)


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Re: [Freedos-user] Using HDMI monitor and USB keyboard/mouse on FreeDOS

[Bill Gee via Freedos-user]

Hi Louis -

I am very familiar with the Dell 9020 system.  In my last job before I 
retired, I provided tech support to about 250 of them.  Currently I own 
one which is running AlmaLinux and handling my surveillance cameras.


Yep, I could get a 9020 from eBay for maybe $100 to $150.  Finding one 
without memory (I have spare sticks), without hard drive (I have spares) 
and without Windows is a trick.  And at that - it would be more 
expensive than what I already own.  On the other hand - A 7010 with an 
i3 processor and no hard drive might be under $50.  That is tempting ... 
 Any kind of AGP display adapter with a DVI port is going to run $30-ish.


Just to verify, I connected my cheesy VGA-to-HDMI adapter to the 9020. 
It displayed nothing until the system went into graphics mode.  No POST, 
no boot sequence, just a black screen.


===
Bill Gee

On 1/26/24 16:01, Louis Santillan via Freedos-user wrote:
The quality of the VGA to HDMI adapter isn't great but it works.  In 
particular, on an HB8088 with an NEC v20 CPU & Chips 451 VGA there's 
large banding and the signal seems to ripple on dark black.  On a Dell 
Optiplex 9020 with a Core i7-4790 the banding and ripple are reduced 
(probably a better signal coming out of the Intel HD's VGA port).  Even 
better, the Optiplex has USB for Legacy Support, Legacy BIOS boot 
option, will boot DOS off a FAT32 USB drive, has a really clean video 
signal if you use a DisplayPort to HDMI adapter (last video).  Didn't 
have a chance to do something like run PhilsComputerLab DOSBench suite 
but that could be next.  The DP to HDMI adapter happens to be a variant 
of this 
(https://www.amazon.com/DisplayPort-Gold-Plated-Avacon-Display-Adapter/dp/B01FX3K7T2/ ).  A USB keyboard, mouse, DP-to-HDMI, USB drive, and 4GB or less RAM (9020 can use 1GB & 2GB DDR3 DIMMs), you have a legacy free DOS machine (retro rocket) for very little money.  You could even add a USB Floppy to the mix.


Videos on Google Drive 
(https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1JKjjNO2t7bu8rJYmbxRFRRhD3BEyUr7x?usp=sharing ).  Apologies in advance for the poor narration, background noise, and lack of video editing.  I rushed this out before leaving the house for the weekend. I had planned to edit out the audio but ran out of time.  Video is still "processing" by Google at the time of this writing.


On Fri, Jan 26, 2024 at 11:25 AM Felix Miata via Freedos-user 
> wrote:


Bill Gee composed on 2024-01-26 12:59 (UTC-0600):

 > Go back to the original set of questions that started this ...  My
 > FreeDOS machine is plugged into a KVM switch which supports only
VGA and
 > PS2.  In the near future - 6 months or so - that KVM must be
upgraded to
 > support HDMI displays and USB keyboard/mouse.  In order to continue
 > using the FreeDOS machine, it also must support HDMI display and USB
 > keyboard/mouse.

New day after long sleep. I forgot. :)

 > I could put it on a dedicated display, but there is no place in the
 > house to set it up that way.  The FreeDOS system has to live on my
 > computer rack.

 > I was leery when I bought the adapter, but I figured for $10 it
was hard
 > to go far wrong.  It was worth a try.

It still is worth trying, but with more skill applied, and almost
certainly more
money spent. :p Surely you're not the only one with similar
configuration.

I am able to avoid KVM issues with big physical desktop, 6 displays,
3 full-time
keyboards, 2 trackballs, one mouse, and a *lot* of cable switching,
for 40+ PCs,
normally with at most 3 up at once, occasionally a 4th, along with
cable switching
multiple times most days.
-- 
Evolution as taught in public schools is, like religion,

         based on faith, not based on science.

  Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks!

Felix Miata


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Re: [Freedos-user] Using HDMI monitor and USB keyboard/mouse on FreeDOS

[Louis Santillan via Freedos-user]

The quality of the VGA to HDMI adapter isn't great but it works.  In
particular, on an HB8088 with an NEC v20 CPU & Chips 451 VGA there's large
banding and the signal seems to ripple on dark black.  On a Dell Optiplex
9020 with a Core i7-4790 the banding and ripple are reduced (probably a
better signal coming out of the Intel HD's VGA port).  Even better, the
Optiplex has USB for Legacy Support, Legacy BIOS boot option, will boot DOS
off a FAT32 USB drive, has a really clean video signal if you use a
DisplayPort to HDMI adapter (last video).  Didn't have a chance to do
something like run PhilsComputerLab DOSBench suite but that could be next.
The DP to HDMI adapter happens to be a variant of this (
https://www.amazon.com/DisplayPort-Gold-Plated-Avacon-Display-Adapter/dp/B01FX3K7T2/).
A USB keyboard, mouse, DP-to-HDMI, USB drive, and 4GB or less RAM (9020 can
use 1GB & 2GB DDR3 DIMMs), you have a legacy free DOS machine (retro
rocket) for very little money.  You could even add a USB Floppy to the mix.

Videos on Google Drive (
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1JKjjNO2t7bu8rJYmbxRFRRhD3BEyUr7x?usp=sharing).
Apologies in advance for the poor narration, background noise, and lack of
video editing.  I rushed this out before leaving the house for the weekend.
I had planned to edit out the audio but ran out of time.  Video is still
"processing" by Google at the time of this writing.

On Fri, Jan 26, 2024 at 11:25 AM Felix Miata via Freedos-user <
freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net> wrote:

> Bill Gee composed on 2024-01-26 12:59 (UTC-0600):
>
> > Go back to the original set of questions that started this ...  My
> > FreeDOS machine is plugged into a KVM switch which supports only VGA and
> > PS2.  In the near future - 6 months or so - that KVM must be upgraded to
> > support HDMI displays and USB keyboard/mouse.  In order to continue
> > using the FreeDOS machine, it also must support HDMI display and USB
> > keyboard/mouse.
>
> New day after long sleep. I forgot. :)
>
> > I could put it on a dedicated display, but there is no place in the
> > house to set it up that way.  The FreeDOS system has to live on my
> > computer rack.
>
> > I was leery when I bought the adapter, but I figured for $10 it was hard
> > to go far wrong.  It was worth a try.
>
> It still is worth trying, but with more skill applied, and almost
> certainly more
> money spent. :p Surely you're not the only one with similar configuration.
>
> I am able to avoid KVM issues with big physical desktop, 6 displays, 3
> full-time
> keyboards, 2 trackballs, one mouse, and a *lot* of cable switching, for
> 40+ PCs,
> normally with at most 3 up at once, occasionally a 4th, along with cable
> switching
> multiple times most days.
> --
> Evolution as taught in public schools is, like religion,
> based on faith, not based on science.
>
>  Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks!
>
> Felix Miata
>
>
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Re: [Freedos-user] Using HDMI monitor and USB keyboard/mouse on FreeDOS

[Felix Miata via Freedos-user]

Bill Gee composed on 2024-01-26 12:59 (UTC-0600):

> Go back to the original set of questions that started this ...  My 
> FreeDOS machine is plugged into a KVM switch which supports only VGA and 
> PS2.  In the near future - 6 months or so - that KVM must be upgraded to 
> support HDMI displays and USB keyboard/mouse.  In order to continue 
> using the FreeDOS machine, it also must support HDMI display and USB 
> keyboard/mouse.

New day after long sleep. I forgot. :)

> I could put it on a dedicated display, but there is no place in the 
> house to set it up that way.  The FreeDOS system has to live on my 
> computer rack.

> I was leery when I bought the adapter, but I figured for $10 it was hard 
> to go far wrong.  It was worth a try.

It still is worth trying, but with more skill applied, and almost certainly more
money spent. :p Surely you're not the only one with similar configuration.

I am able to avoid KVM issues with big physical desktop, 6 displays, 3 full-time
keyboards, 2 trackballs, one mouse, and a *lot* of cable switching, for 40+ PCs,
normally with at most 3 up at once, occasionally a 4th, along with cable 
switching
multiple times most days.
-- 
Evolution as taught in public schools is, like religion,
based on faith, not based on science.

 Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks!

Felix Miata


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Re: [Freedos-user] Using HDMI monitor and USB keyboard/mouse on FreeDOS

[Bill Gee via Freedos-user]

Hi Felix -

Go back to the original set of questions that started this ...  My 
FreeDOS machine is plugged into a KVM switch which supports only VGA and 
PS2.  In the near future - 6 months or so - that KVM must be upgraded to 
support HDMI displays and USB keyboard/mouse.  In order to continue 
using the FreeDOS machine, it also must support HDMI display and USB 
keyboard/mouse.


I could put it on a dedicated display, but there is no place in the 
house to set it up that way.  The FreeDOS system has to live on my 
computer rack.


I was leery when I bought the adapter, but I figured for $10 it was hard 
to go far wrong.  It was worth a try.


===
Bill Gee

On 1/26/24 12:33, Felix Miata via Freedos-user wrote:

Bill Gee composed on 2024-01-26 12:18 (UTC-0600):


But that is, in fact, what happens with the adapter I have.



https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08GZ159FJ



I plugged it into an HDMI monitor and the VGA output of my FreeDOS
machine.  When I booted the computer, the monitor said "No signal".  I
tried a few different ways to power it, just in case, but nothing.  Then
I plugged it into one of my Linux machines that was running at 1080p,
and the monitor came right up.



The HDMI monitor I was using also has a VGA input.  I switched the
FreeDOS machine to that port and it came right up.


That ad does say [quote]resolutions up to 1920x1080[/quote], so there must be a
problem somewhere with your particular components, and/or the product, that
640x480 gets you only black.

Not counting TVs, I currently have 10 working computer displays. Not one lacks a
VGA input, and only one (LG) of my 6 flatscreen TVs lacks one. How did you 
manage
to not have one? :p



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Re: [Freedos-user] Using HDMI monitor and USB keyboard/mouse on FreeDOS

[Felix Miata via Freedos-user]

Bill Gee composed on 2024-01-26 12:18 (UTC-0600):

> But that is, in fact, what happens with the adapter I have.

> https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08GZ159FJ

> I plugged it into an HDMI monitor and the VGA output of my FreeDOS 
> machine.  When I booted the computer, the monitor said "No signal".  I 
> tried a few different ways to power it, just in case, but nothing.  Then 
> I plugged it into one of my Linux machines that was running at 1080p, 
> and the monitor came right up.

> The HDMI monitor I was using also has a VGA input.  I switched the 
> FreeDOS machine to that port and it came right up.

That ad does say [quote]resolutions up to 1920x1080[/quote], so there must be a
problem somewhere with your particular components, and/or the product, that
640x480 gets you only black.

Not counting TVs, I currently have 10 working computer displays. Not one lacks a
VGA input, and only one (LG) of my 6 flatscreen TVs lacks one. How did you 
manage
to not have one? :p
-- 
Evolution as taught in public schools is, like religion,
based on faith, not based on science.

 Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks!

Felix Miata


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Re: [Freedos-user] Using HDMI monitor and USB keyboard/mouse on FreeDOS

[Bill Gee via Freedos-user]

Hi Felix -

But that is, in fact, what happens with the adapter I have.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08GZ159FJ

I plugged it into an HDMI monitor and the VGA output of my FreeDOS 
machine.  When I booted the computer, the monitor said "No signal".  I 
tried a few different ways to power it, just in case, but nothing.  Then 
I plugged it into one of my Linux machines that was running at 1080p, 
and the monitor came right up.


The HDMI monitor I was using also has a VGA input.  I switched the 
FreeDOS machine to that port and it came right up.


===
Bill Gee

On 1/26/24 11:38, Felix Miata via Freedos-user wrote:

Bill Gee composed on 2024-01-26 06:13 (UTC-0600):


That adapter on Amazon does look interesting.  Too bad it is not
currently available.  The specs show it supporting 480 and 720
resolutions, so it might work.  The adapter I got only mentions 1080.



I looked all over eBay.  Everything I found was for 1080 only.


You're almost certainly seeing what actually means supports *up to* 1920x1080,
*not* 1920x1080 exclusively. I'm not sure any such component would ever be 
limited
to any single resolution. Fox and ABC don't even broadcast in 1080. They use
1280x720 aka 720p. Many TVs, most all the smaller sizes, that "support" 1080 are
actually 1360x768 screens that emulate 1920x1080, so don't really produce it, or
for that matter 1280x720. Display densities are what they are, one native mode 
per
device, emulating everything that isn't native.



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Re: [Freedos-user] Using HDMI monitor and USB keyboard/mouse on FreeDOS

[Felix Miata via Freedos-user]

Bill Gee composed on 2024-01-26 06:13 (UTC-0600):

> That adapter on Amazon does look interesting.  Too bad it is not 
> currently available.  The specs show it supporting 480 and 720 
> resolutions, so it might work.  The adapter I got only mentions 1080.

> I looked all over eBay.  Everything I found was for 1080 only.

You're almost certainly seeing what actually means supports *up to* 1920x1080,
*not* 1920x1080 exclusively. I'm not sure any such component would ever be 
limited
to any single resolution. Fox and ABC don't even broadcast in 1080. They use
1280x720 aka 720p. Many TVs, most all the smaller sizes, that "support" 1080 are
actually 1360x768 screens that emulate 1920x1080, so don't really produce it, or
for that matter 1280x720. Display densities are what they are, one native mode 
per
device, emulating everything that isn't native.
-- 
Evolution as taught in public schools is, like religion,
based on faith, not based on science.

 Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks!

Felix Miata


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Re: [Freedos-user] what cd rom drivers does freedos use?

[Bret Johnson via Freedos-user]

Karen:

Do you know which of the two CD-ROM drivers you are having trouble with?

It takes two drivers to install a CD in DOS.  One is the hardware-specific 
driver that may come with the CD hardware itself, but there are also several of 
them (like OAKCDROM.SYS) that will work with different hardware if they are 
"standard" enough (early CD hardware was not standard at all).  The "output" of 
this driver is a character device that has a name, and all this driver does is 
provide access to the sectors on the disk -- it doesn't actually "understand" 
what the data is (e.g., whether it is a music CD or a data CD or something 
else).

The second driver is usually MSCDEX, but there are also several clones of 
MSCDEX (e.g., SHSUCDX and NWCDEX).  That driver "interfaces" with the first 
driver (you must tell MSCDEX what the name of the first driver is) and the 
"output" is a drive letter (a block device instead of a character device) that 
DOS can use (like D:) to access the files.  Just like with floppies and hard 
drives where you can have different kinds of formatting (FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, 
exFAT, NTFS, HPFS, etc.), you can also have different kinds of formatting on 
CDs, DVDs, and BDs.  The second driver is the one that needs to "understand" 
the different kinds of formatting to be able to turn it into a drive letter.


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Re: [Freedos-user] Using HDMI monitor and USB keyboard/mouse on FreeDOS

[Bill Gee via Freedos-user]

Hi Louis -

That adapter on Amazon does look interesting.  Too bad it is not 
currently available.  The specs show it supporting 480 and 720 
resolutions, so it might work.  The adapter I got only mentions 1080.


I looked all over eBay.  Everything I found was for 1080 only.

===
Bill Gee

On 1/26/24 01:55, Louis Santillan via Freedos-user wrote:
I used this adapter in the past 
(https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07F1K3QQX/ 
).  Tons of similar 
adapters on eBay, Amazon, AliExpress.  Pretty sure it worked with an old 
Dell monitor over HDMI.  I can try retesting it this weekend.



On Thu, Jan 25, 2024 at 7:54 PM Felix Miata via Freedos-user 
> wrote:


Bill Gee via Freedos-user composed on 2024-01-25 12:20 (UTC-0600):

 > Lots of good graphics modes on that card you are using.  Problem is,
 > that all came from Linux.  What happens if you boot the system in
 > FreeDOS?  Will it show the POST?

Turns out that PC had primary #2 allocated for FreeDOS, but it never
got installed. It does have WinXP and MDOS 7.1, which boots just
like PC DOS 2000 and older MDOS versions, same default 80x25 mode as
for BIOS setup. I have very few "active" PCs with populated AGP
slots. Most AGPs I have are in storage.

The following, which like the prior, has WinXP and MDOS 7.1 but no
FreeDOS, and boots BIOS and DOS in 80x25 text, has PCIe instead of AGP:
# pinxi -CMSz --vs
pinxi 3.3.31-70 (2024-01-23)
System:
   Kernel: 6.5.9-3-default arch: i686 bits: 32
   Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 5.27.9 Distro: openSUSE Tumbleweed 20231126
Machine:
   Type: Desktop System: Dell product: OptiPlex GX280 v: N/A serial:

   Mobo: Dell model: N/A serial:  BIOS: Dell v: A07 date:
11/29/2005
CPU:
   Info: single core model: Intel Pentium 4 bits: 32 type: MT cache:
     L2: 1024 KiB
   Speed (MHz): avg: 2793 min/max: N/A cores: 1: 2793 2: 2793
# pinxi -Gaz
Graphics:
   Device-1: AMD RV516 [Radeon X1300/X1550 Series] vendor: Dell
driver: radeon
     v: kernel alternate: amdgpu arch: Rage-7 code: R200 process:
TSMC 150nm
     built: 2001-06 pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 16 ports:
     active: DVI-I-1,VGA-1 empty: SVIDEO-1 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID:
1002:7183
     class-ID: 0300
   Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.9 compositor: kwin_x11 driver: X:
     loaded: modesetting dri: swrast gpu: radeon display-ID: :0
screens: 1
   Screen-1: 0 s-res: 3600x1200 s-dpi: 120 s-size: 761x253mm
(29.96x9.96")
     s-diag: 802mm (31.57")
   Monitor-1: DVI-I-1 pos: primary,left model: NEC EA243WM serial:

     built: 2011 res: 1920x1200 hz: 60 dpi: 94 gamma: 1.2
     size: 519x324mm (20.43x12.76") diag: 612mm (24.1") ratio: 16:10
modes:
     max: 1920x1200 min: 640x480
   Monitor-2: VGA-1 pos: right model: Dell P2213 serial: 
built: 2012
     res: 1680x1050 hz: 60 dpi: 90 gamma: 1.2 size: 473x296mm
(18.62x11.65")
     diag: 558mm (22") ratio: 16:10 modes: max: 1680x1050 min: 720x400
   API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: amd r300 platforms: gbm: egl: 1.4 drv:
r300 x11:
     drv: swrast inactive: wayland
   API: OpenGL v: 4.5 compat-v: 2.1 vendor: mesa v: 23.2.1 glx-v: 1.4
     direct-render: yes renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 17.0.5 128 bits)
     device-ID: : memory: 1.42 GiB unified: yes
# xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 3600 x 1200, maximum 8192 x 8192
DVI-I-1 connected primary 1920x1200+0+0 (normal left inverted right
x axis y axis) 519mm x 324mm
    1920x1200     59.95*+
    1920x1080     59.96    59.93
    1600x1200     60.00
    1680x1050     59.95    59.88
    1400x1050     59.98    59.95
    1600x900      59.95    59.82
    1280x1024     60.02
    1440x900      59.90
    1400x900      59.96    59.88
    1280x960      60.00
    1440x810      59.97
    1368x768      59.88    59.85
    1280x800      59.99    59.97    59.81    59.91
    1280x720      60.00    59.99    59.86    60.00    59.94    59.74
    1024x768      60.04    60.00
    960x720       60.00
    928x696       60.05
    896x672       60.01
    1024x576      59.95    59.96    59.90    59.82
    960x600       59.93    60.00
    960x540       59.96    59.99    59.63    59.82
    800x600       60.00    60.32    56.25
    840x525       60.01    59.88
    864x486       59.92    59.57
    700x525       59.98
    800x450       59.95    59.82
    720x480       60.00    59.94
    640x512       60.02
    700x450       59.96    59.88
    640x480       60.00    60.00    59.94
    720x405       59.51    58.99
    684x384       59.88    59.85
    640x400       59.88    59.98
    640x360       59.86    59.83    59.84    

Re: [Freedos-user] what cd rom drivers does freedos use?

[Rugxulo via Freedos-user]

Hi Karen,

On Wed, Jan 24, 2024 at 10:18 PM Karen Lewellen via Freedos-user
 wrote:
>
> As many may recall I run msdos 7.1 instead of freedos for several personal
> reasons.

Do the volunteers (engineers?) who help you set up your systems
forcibly demand MS-DOS 7.1 exactly?

We've discussed this before, so I'm not really trying to change your
mind on it, just curious. (Why specifically MS-DOS? Why not DR-DOS? Or
Datalight ROM-DOS?)

> I recently had a new machine built, just before Christmas, which  also
> included my  installing an external dectalk card, I have an ISA slot, the
> ling kind on this board.
> While the synthesizer works well, using it to support my writing this
> message, I have an odd problem.
> The dectalk software has a conflict that seems to impact cdrom drives, or
> the driver provided by Microsoft.

Can't you just edit a CONFIG.SYS menu option to let you optionally
boot without DecTalk when needing to access a physical CD-ROM?

(BTW, dual boot with another OS is another possibility.)

> It is more than addresses, dectalk provides a way to locate a free one,
> user guides for both dectalk 4.1, what I am running, and 4.2 reference the
> driver issue.
> The suggested solution did not work..however I need a cd rom drive for
> scores of reasons.

I assume you mean a modern DVD drive (20x speed or whatever) or
possibly DVD-RW or such.

> leading to my question.
> Often on list I have read that freedos is in many ways better than MS DOS,
> with programs able to run under freedos.

FreeDOS is strongly compatible and "Free" (libre), but not necessarily
"better" in all ways, no.

> I now have a chance to test that theory, swapping in the cd rom driver
> freedos provides as a test?
> my driver again is not specific to my cd rom..never has been.
> Instead I use the basic driver supplied with ms dos 7.1, never having a
> problem until now.

MS-DOS 7.1 was never a standalone product (unlike MS-DOS 6.22). It was
bundled as part of Win95 or Win98 or whatever variant. So I don't know
what came with it: OAKCDROM.SYS?

> What does Freedos provide with that kind of universal flexibility?

I can only point you to the FreeDOS mirror on iBiblio:

* https://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/dos/cdrom/

But it's been years since I've bothered with physical CDs. (My 2022
Linux laptop has no optical drive, for instance.)


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