Re: [Freedos-user] QEMU - Max size of Linux access folder
On Mon, 11 Mar 2024 at 23:00, Jim Hall via Freedos-user wrote: > I run Fedora and whenever the new version comes out, I backup my data, > nuke and reinstall. Good heavens. FWIW my oldest running Ubuntu installation is now on its 3rd laptop host and it's 11 years old. It started out as Ubuntu 13.10. Still 100% working, as are all apps. -- Liam Proven ~ Profile: https://about.me/liamproven Email: lpro...@cix.co.uk ~ gMail/gTalk/FB: lpro...@gmail.com Twitter/LinkedIn: lproven ~ Skype: liamproven IoM: (+44) 7624 277612: UK: (+44) 7939-087884 Czech [+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal]: (+420) 702-829-053 ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] QEMU - Max size of Linux access folder
Hi Jerome My original question was about the maximum size of access directory. It appears to be about 512Mb. FreeDos will not run under QEMU if this size is exceeded. My image file was 200Mb. I have removed KVM and QEMU and had planned to reinstall with a 2G image as you suggest. This being the size of the partition for my C: drive on my 22 year old XP laptop. The Linux laptop being slightly younger :-). John On 2024/03/12 03:19, Jerome Shidel via Freedos-user wrote: Hi, Since you said, the source code is about 640MB and is on an old XP machine…. Why not just boot the FreeDOS Live CD, enable LFN support by installing the driver to the Live Environment and running it. Then install the compiler to the Live Environment. Then just compile the source directly from the hard disk drive. Or, just create a 2GB hard drive for QEMU and put the OS, sources and any needed software on that drive. Then compile it in the VM. I don’t understand why those are not viable options. I must be missing something. 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
Re: [Freedos-user] QEMU - Max size of Linux access folder
Hi, Since you said, the source code is about 640MB and is on an old XP machine…. Why not just boot the FreeDOS Live CD, enable LFN support by installing the driver to the Live Environment and running it. Then install the compiler to the Live Environment. Then just compile the source directly from the hard disk drive. Or, just create a 2GB hard drive for QEMU and put the OS, sources and any needed software on that drive. Then compile it in the VM. I don’t understand why those are not viable options. I must be missing something. Jerome ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] QEMU - Max size of Linux access folder
Hi Jim, while this is a bit off-topic: Turning a 32-bit Ubuntu into a 64-bit one is tedious, so the recommended way is to just install the new over the old and keep your home directory. A few commands in the shell can help you to, more or less, clone your old package selection into the new system, but there is no wizard to help you with that at all, which I found very disappointing given how smoothly their upgrade wizards usually lift you from one version of their whole distro to the next if you stay within the same bit-ness. So people just decide that 32-bit is dead and you end up with no longer getting updates from your distro, being forced to re-install more or less from scratch. In my case, I could not have stuck to the outdated packages, because the new graphics card only had 64-bit drivers. Nevertheless, I liked the time when dosemu could just use hardware vm86 for fast CPU access on 32-bit Linux. Now you always get emulated CPU, which of course does have advantages in some cases - such as running on ARM or emulating more aspects of real and protected mode. Also, dosemu2 gets FAR more frequent updates than dosemu. Regards, Eric PS: It also frustrates me that 4 GB are not enough for a few dozen browser tabs in 2024, neither with 32- nor with 64-bit Linux under the hood. I want efficient apps instead of repeatedly having to add more RAM or SSD swap. ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] QEMU - Max size of Linux access folder
Jim Hall wrote: [..] > > If there's a config issue on your Lubuntu, you might > > consider updating to 23.10 or 24.04 LTS Liam Proven wrote: > Whoah. Not correct. Not possible. > > LTS releases can be upgraded directly to the next LTS release (and > nothing else.) > > Interim releases only to the next interim release. If that is then an > LTS, then you can go LTS->LTS. > > So, the only choices for 18.04 are to 18.10 (now long dead) or to 20.04. > > Then, from 20.04 the OP could go to 22.04... and for now, that's it. > 24.04 isn't out yet. Well, whatever the process is to move from "old Lubuntu" to "new Lubuntu." I run Fedora and whenever the new version comes out, I backup my data, nuke and reinstall. But then again, I tend to install packages here and there to experiment with over time - I'm not interested in carrying forward some tool or program I installed 4 months ago and used for a week. So completely reinstalling works well for me (even though they have an "upgrade" process). ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] QEMU - Max size of Linux access folder
How about using Dosemu2? When you add their PPA, you get frequent updates. Unfortunately focused on 64-bit distros, but performance is quite okay and it can map any Linux directory to a DOS drive letter, so size is "unlimited". Eric Hi Jim Thanks again. My problem is that I have assembler source code from 40 years that occupies about 680Mb that needs to reside on one drive in order to assemble. Then there are the application programs. All this currently resides on an ancient XP machine. I have stayed with Lubuntu 18.04 as the later versions use SNAP and no longer support old hardware. Newer versions are very slow. I have removed snap and tried all the tips to improve speed and responsiveness without success. The current system error appears to have no obvious impact. I have located the logs and nothing jumps out at me. QEMU has improved. I tried QEMU over 2 years ago and gave up. It fell over every time while trying to run Borland's Sprint word processor. It now works correctly. John ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] QEMU - Max size of Linux access folder
On Mon, 11 Mar 2024 at 17:52, hms--- via Freedos-user wrote: > > I have stayed with Lubuntu > 18.04 as the later versions use SNAP and no longer support old hardware. That is a fair point. 20.x and onwards no longer support x86-32 hardware. Debian still does, although support is being removed from the next release, Debian 13 "Trixie", expected in 2025. Fewer and fewer distros still support x86-32. > Newer versions are very slow. I have removed snap and tried all the tips > to improve speed and responsiveness without success. I do not find it _that_ much worse myself and I run 10-12YO hardware as daily drivers here. I am considering migrating to MX Linux, though, which is faster, lighter, and does not include Snap, systemd, and several other bits of modern bloat. It defaults to the Xfce desktop, which is nearly as light as LXDE but much more customisable. LXDE is also at end of life, incidentally, and Lubuntu now uses its replacement, LXQt, which I personally like less. The lightest-weight mainstream desktop distro I know is the Raspberry Pi Desktop, the X86 edition of the miniature-computer OS. It runs usefully in 1GB of RAM and quite well in 2GB and it still supports x86-32... for now. It's based on Debian, it uses a mere 200MB of RAM at idle, it's based on LXDE, and it's free, of course. https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/raspberry-pi-desktop/ It does not have Snap or Flatpak but it does use systemd. -- Liam Proven ~ Profile: https://about.me/liamproven Email: lpro...@cix.co.uk ~ gMail/gTalk/FB: lpro...@gmail.com Twitter/LinkedIn: lproven ~ Skype: liamproven IoM: (+44) 7624 277612: UK: (+44) 7939-087884 Czech [+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal]: (+420) 702-829-053 ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] QEMU - Max size of Linux access folder
On Mon, 11 Mar 2024 at 15:31, Jim Hall via Freedos-user wrote: > For what it's worth: Lubuntu 18.04 LTS is quite old. True. > I understand the > release "number" is actually a date, so 18.04 was released in April > 2018. Cirrect. > Wikipedia says this was supported for 3 years Yes. This is an important and much missed point: only the official Ubuntu desktop gets the full 5 years of LTS support. Flavours and remixes get less. > The current Lubuntu is 23.10 (released October > 2023) Correct. > If there's a config issue on your Lubuntu, you might > consider updating to 23.10 or 24.04 LTS Whoah. Not correct. Not possible. LTS releases can be upgraded directly to the next LTS release (and nothing else.) Interim releases only to the next interim release. If that is then an LTS, then you can go LTS->LTS. So, the only choices for 18.04 are to 18.10 (now long dead) or to 20.04. Then, from 20.04 the OP could go to 22.04... and for now, that's it. 24.04 isn't out yet. -- Liam Proven ~ Profile: https://about.me/liamproven Email: lpro...@cix.co.uk ~ gMail/gTalk/FB: lpro...@gmail.com Twitter/LinkedIn: lproven ~ Skype: liamproven IoM: (+44) 7624 277612: UK: (+44) 7939-087884 Czech [+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal]: (+420) 702-829-053 ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] QEMU - Max size of Linux access folder
Hi Jim Thanks again. My problem is that I have assembler source code from 40 years that occupies about 680Mb that needs to reside on one drive in order to assemble. Then there are the application programs. All this currently resides on an ancient XP machine. I have stayed with Lubuntu 18.04 as the later versions use SNAP and no longer support old hardware. Newer versions are very slow. I have removed snap and tried all the tips to improve speed and responsiveness without success. The current system error appears to have no obvious impact. I have located the logs and nothing jumps out at me. QEMU has improved. I tried QEMU over 2 years ago and gave up. It fell over every time while trying to run Borland's Sprint word processor. It now works correctly. John On 2024/03/11 17:29, Jim Hall via Freedos-user wrote: On Mon, Mar 11, 2024 at 3:34 AM h...@iafrica.com wrote: Hi Jim Thank you. I have few questions. What is the maximum size allowed for the FreeDos image file? Can I resize my image file, currently 200Mb? Can I create an additional virtual drive "D:" and mount it in the same way? I wouldn't approach this as "what's the biggest disk I can use" but "how much disk do I need?" DOS is pretty small. It's really only the things you add on to it (applications and data) that takes up large amounts of space. My C: drive is 500MB, and that's pretty big. My D: drive (where I store all my data and source files) is 220MB. I have mine set up that way because I start over with a new C: drive every time we have a new monthly test release, but all my stuff stays safe on the D: drive. (When I install the new test release, I don't boot QEMU with the D: drive image.) My D: used to be 100MB, but then I added a lot of games and stuff to it. There wasn't any point in going through gymnastics to resize D: dynamically .. I just made a new 220MB D: drive, partitioned & formatted it, mounted both under Linux (guestfsfools) then copied everything over. That takes very little time to do, but trying to find a way to resize the D: disk image and extending the filesystem on it to fill the new size would have taken more steps - and I'm a lazy guy, so I took the easy route. Making a new drive image, partitioning & formatting it, and copying files took a few minutes. Re. Use of "sudo" When I tried to run QEMU with with the "-enable-kvm" option, I received an error message of permission denied. I have since tried without "sudo" and it now works? My Linux installation (Lubuntu 18.04) has also sustained damage since playing with QEMU. I receive an error message window on the desktop after boot-up which simply says " System Error" and provides two buttons of "Report" and "Cancel". No other info. I'm guessing there is a log entry hiding somewhere? I don't know how or why QEMU would have caused any damage to the Linux operating system, even when running it as root (sudo). QEMU is providing a virtual machine environment to the guest operating system .. and that shouldn't cause a problem in the host operating system. Since the error comes up "on the desktop" (when you login) I suspect the "system error" you're seeing is an unrelated user profile issue. Unfortunately, I don't run Lubuntu (I run Fedora) so I'm not confident I can help you track down the error. My first suggestion would be to create a "dummy" account on Lubuntu and login to that. If you don't see the error when you login there, then the "system error" is something going on with your account .. probably a user profile issue in LXDE (Wikipedia says Lubuntu 18.04 LTS uses LXDE). For what it's worth: Lubuntu 18.04 LTS is quite old. I understand the release "number" is actually a date, so 18.04 was released in April 2018. Wikipedia says this was supported for 3 years, and support ended in late April 2021. The current Lubuntu is 23.10 (released October 2023) and the next release is supposed to be 24.04 LTS (planned for late April 2024). If there's a config issue on your Lubuntu, you might consider updating to 23.10 or 24.04 LTS, which will give you a fresh start anyway - and get you up to date. ___ 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
Re: [Freedos-user] QEMU - Max size of Linux access folder
On Mon, Mar 11, 2024 at 3:34 AM h...@iafrica.com wrote: > > Hi Jim > Thank you. I have few questions. What is the maximum size allowed for > the FreeDos image file? Can I resize my image file, currently 200Mb? Can > I create an additional virtual drive "D:" and mount it in the same way? I wouldn't approach this as "what's the biggest disk I can use" but "how much disk do I need?" DOS is pretty small. It's really only the things you add on to it (applications and data) that takes up large amounts of space. My C: drive is 500MB, and that's pretty big. My D: drive (where I store all my data and source files) is 220MB. I have mine set up that way because I start over with a new C: drive every time we have a new monthly test release, but all my stuff stays safe on the D: drive. (When I install the new test release, I don't boot QEMU with the D: drive image.) My D: used to be 100MB, but then I added a lot of games and stuff to it. There wasn't any point in going through gymnastics to resize D: dynamically .. I just made a new 220MB D: drive, partitioned & formatted it, mounted both under Linux (guestfsfools) then copied everything over. That takes very little time to do, but trying to find a way to resize the D: disk image and extending the filesystem on it to fill the new size would have taken more steps - and I'm a lazy guy, so I took the easy route. Making a new drive image, partitioning & formatting it, and copying files took a few minutes. > Re. Use of "sudo" When I tried to run QEMU with with the "-enable-kvm" > option, I received an error message of permission denied. I have since > tried without "sudo" and it now works? My Linux installation (Lubuntu > 18.04) has also sustained damage since playing with QEMU. I receive an > error message window on the desktop after boot-up which simply says " > System Error" and provides two buttons of "Report" and "Cancel". No > other info. I'm guessing there is a log entry hiding somewhere? I don't know how or why QEMU would have caused any damage to the Linux operating system, even when running it as root (sudo). QEMU is providing a virtual machine environment to the guest operating system .. and that shouldn't cause a problem in the host operating system. Since the error comes up "on the desktop" (when you login) I suspect the "system error" you're seeing is an unrelated user profile issue. Unfortunately, I don't run Lubuntu (I run Fedora) so I'm not confident I can help you track down the error. My first suggestion would be to create a "dummy" account on Lubuntu and login to that. If you don't see the error when you login there, then the "system error" is something going on with your account .. probably a user profile issue in LXDE (Wikipedia says Lubuntu 18.04 LTS uses LXDE). For what it's worth: Lubuntu 18.04 LTS is quite old. I understand the release "number" is actually a date, so 18.04 was released in April 2018. Wikipedia says this was supported for 3 years, and support ended in late April 2021. The current Lubuntu is 23.10 (released October 2023) and the next release is supposed to be 24.04 LTS (planned for late April 2024). If there's a config issue on your Lubuntu, you might consider updating to 23.10 or 24.04 LTS, which will give you a fresh start anyway - and get you up to date. ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] QEMU - Max size of Linux access folder
Hi Jim Thank you. I have few questions. What is the maximum size allowed for the FreeDos image file? Can I resize my image file, currently 200Mb? Can I create an additional virtual drive "D:" and mount it in the same way? Re. Use of "sudo" When I tried to run QEMU with with the "-enable-kvm" option, I received an error message of permission denied. I have since tried without "sudo" and it now works? My Linux installation (Lubuntu 18.04) has also sustained damage since playing with QEMU. I receive an error message window on the desktop after boot-up which simply says " System Error" and provides two buttons of "Report" and "Cancel". No other info. I'm guessing there is a log entry hiding somewhere? John On 2024/03/11 00:25, Jim Hall wrote: I wrote the article, but I haven't used this QEMU feature for a long time. I found that the "live" access to the folder could be problematic (sometimes no problem .. typically slow .. crashed QEMU a few times) but that was several years ago and the QEMU folks may have fixed that issue by now. Now, I use a virtual disk image for QEMU. After I shut down the FreeDOS guest, I can "mount" the virtual disk as a non-privileged Linux user with guestfstools, and manage files like I normally would. If the image file is "$img" and the mount point is "$mnt" (such as /tmp/freedos) then run this: guestmount -a $img -m /dev/sda1 $mnt And when you're done, you can unmount it with this: guestunmount $mnt Also: You don't have to run QEMU as root (with sudo). I never do. Jim On Sun, Mar 10, 2024 at 12:53 PM hms--- via Freedos-user wrote: Hi there I need some help please. Does any one know how to get around the size limitation of the access Linux folder when running FreeDos under QEMU? The access folder is named "dosfiles" as in Jim Hall's article on Opensource. Running the command:- sudo qemu-system-i386 -m 32 -rtc base=localtime -drive file=dos.img,index=0,media=disk,format=raw -drive file=fat:rw:dosfiles/,format=raw -boot order=c -display sdl -enable-kvm Gives status message of:- vvfat dosfiles/ chs 1024,16,63 And an error message is issued:- qemu-system-i386: -drive file=fat:rw:dosfiles/,format=raw: Directory does not fit in FAT16 (capacity 516.06 MB) Removing files from the "dosfiles" directory allows FreeDos to run. ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] QEMU - Max size of Linux access folder
I wrote the article, but I haven't used this QEMU feature for a long time. I found that the "live" access to the folder could be problematic (sometimes no problem .. typically slow .. crashed QEMU a few times) but that was several years ago and the QEMU folks may have fixed that issue by now. Now, I use a virtual disk image for QEMU. After I shut down the FreeDOS guest, I can "mount" the virtual disk as a non-privileged Linux user with guestfstools, and manage files like I normally would. If the image file is "$img" and the mount point is "$mnt" (such as /tmp/freedos) then run this: guestmount -a $img -m /dev/sda1 $mnt And when you're done, you can unmount it with this: guestunmount $mnt Also: You don't have to run QEMU as root (with sudo). I never do. Jim On Sun, Mar 10, 2024 at 12:53 PM hms--- via Freedos-user wrote: > > Hi there > I need some help please. Does any one know how to get around the size > limitation of the access Linux folder when running FreeDos under QEMU? > The access folder is named "dosfiles" as in Jim Hall's article on > Opensource. > Running the command:- > sudo qemu-system-i386 -m 32 -rtc base=localtime -drive > file=dos.img,index=0,media=disk,format=raw -drive > file=fat:rw:dosfiles/,format=raw -boot order=c -display sdl -enable-kvm > > Gives status message of:- > vvfat dosfiles/ chs 1024,16,63 > > And an error message is issued:- > qemu-system-i386: -drive file=fat:rw:dosfiles/,format=raw: Directory > does not fit in FAT16 (capacity 516.06 MB) > > Removing files from the "dosfiles" directory allows FreeDos to run. ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
[Freedos-user] QEMU - Max size of Linux access folder
Hi there I need some help please. Does any one know how to get around the size limitation of the access Linux folder when running FreeDos under QEMU? The access folder is named "dosfiles" as in Jim Hall's article on Opensource. Running the command:- sudo qemu-system-i386 -m 32 -rtc base=localtime -drive file=dos.img,index=0,media=disk,format=raw -drive file=fat:rw:dosfiles/,format=raw -boot order=c -display sdl -enable-kvm Gives status message of:- vvfat dosfiles/ chs 1024,16,63 And an error message is issued:- qemu-system-i386: -drive file=fat:rw:dosfiles/,format=raw: Directory does not fit in FAT16 (capacity 516.06 MB) Removing files from the "dosfiles" directory allows FreeDos to run. Regards John ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
