[Freedos-user] FreeDOS 1.2 Preview 11

[Jerome E. Shidel Jr.]

I just released the FreeDOS 1.2 Installer Preview 11. 

If you wish to participate in the general pre-beta testing
of the hopefully soon to arrive FreeDOS 1.2 release, 
you can find it’s floppy image and a link to the required 
package repository CD image at:

http://up.load.bz/FDI/latest 

Also, there is a USB Stick Installer image available 
that includes the packages. There is a link to it on the
FDI Installer Prototype download page. Or, just use the 
direct link  http://dnld.lod.bz/FDI-USB.zip 

What’s in Preview 11.

Improved BOOT from any USB stick at any drive letter (A, B, C, D, E….)

Improved Installation Target Detection. (C or D)

Extra (not BASE or ALL), uninstalled packages on USB image. (about 50 
extra)

Welcome to FreeDOS message, converted to a installed package with NLS.
(removed language specific messages from autoexec.bat)

V8Power Tools, converted to package like any other that gets installed 
with ALL.

Additional, BOOT menu item installed (DOS low - SAFE MODE)

Moved CD driver from Installed FDCONFIG.SYS to AUTOEXEC.BAT

Other minor improvements.

What is NOT in Preview 11. (Maybe 12, beta or not at all)

Boot sector is not overwritten with boot code if it happens to be 
missing.
( If you boot sector needs replaced, see 
https://sites.google.com/site/lpsantil/fdi12-msi-wind 
 )

Sufficient free space is not verified prior to installation.

Language specific COMMAND.COM  is installed. But, 
it is not configured as default.

Language specific FDCONFIG.SYS menu items.

Thanks, Jerome

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Re: [Freedos-user] Easy GUI desktop enviroment install

[Rugxulo]

Hi,

On Mon, Feb 1, 2016 at 5:15 AM, lee jones  wrote:
>
> Firstly ages ago there was an emulator called tosbox which is an atari
> ST emulator.

I was never familiar with Atari computers, so my dabbling in emulators
was very limited.

> It runs in dos but has two intresting features - firstly
> from what I remember it can access dos files directly (so they show
> up) but it also ran quickly on old hardware -- even an old pentium 75
> could run it quickly.

Supposedly Gemulator could run full speed on a 486 in 1992! Darek
Mihocka released the sources for GEMCE900.ZIP a few years ago, and
while I'm not 100% sure, I think? it still has the DOS bits (Classic
version). This might also have his (DOS-hosted) PC Xformer (Atari
8-bit emulator) sources. (An old message of mine on BTTR says it needs
MASM and MS VC v6, not that I have those or ever tried rebuilding.)

http://www.emulators.com/download.htm

> Though it does need an atari st rom file

Again, I'm not that familiar with all the Atari machines, but I think
there are various free (even libre) replacements out there. Perhaps
Aranym has links to the proper ones (AFROS?):

http://aranym.sourceforge.net/

> Development has long since stopped but I found a copy of the emulator
> here --

Yeah, Zophar's Domain had a lot of good stuff in years past (although
emulation has gotten more mainstream since then).

> Last one while I think of it and I guess it really isn't quite the
> right thing but there used to be an emulator (which again ran fairly
> quickly) called "executor" which could run old 68k mac apps. Though
> strangely it did not require the mac system disks, and neither did it
> need a mac rom image -!

Right, it was DJGPP-built and just emulated some partial bits of Mac
OS, not requiring the (unavailable, proprietary) ROM at all. IIRC, I
only used it a few times (years and years ago), and the demo was
limited to like ten minutes. All I weakly remember is some solitaire
card game.

> apparently executor development (according to wikipedia) ended in
> 2005, and in 2008 became open source. Still have a few linux sources
> as well;

I vaguely remember seeing this on Github or wherever. Here's a result
from a quick search (EDIT: Wikipedia links to Github and more):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executor_%28software%29

> (I did once try to compile these but with no luck).

The DOS version is probably not preferred anymore, in lieu of newer
OSes. Besides, the Github page implies that some crucial (DOS) libs
needed aren't open source. I don't think there's much motivation to
(re)port to DOS.

> Thats all I can think of!

Thanks for the tips.

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Re: [Freedos-user] Easy GUI desktop enviroment install

[Jim Hall]

On Mon, Feb 1, 2016 at 5:15 AM, lee jones  wrote:

> On the subject of freedos and dos-bases gui's in general did a bit of
> thinking here. Managed to come up with 3 ideas though I am not sure
> how useful they might be as I guess they aren't really "dos shells" to
> be precise. But anway;
>
> Firstly ages ago there was an emulator called tosbox which is an atari
> ST emulator. It runs in dos but has two intresting features - firstly
> from what I remember it can access dos files directly (so they show
> up) but it also ran quickly on old hardware -- even an old pentium 75
> could run it quickly. Though it does need an atari st rom file.
> Development has long since stopped but I found a copy of the emulator
> here --



I didn't know about TOSBOX, it's an interesting idea. The original poster
asked about OpenGEM, but wasn't able to run it. GEM is the GUI for the
original TOS, so maybe this will be interesting to him.

For other GUIs, also try oZone or Qube or Seal. However, I don't know that
any of these are still under active development.

I remember graphical program managers with some fondness. The MS-DOS 5 DOS
Shell was actually quite nice and had some neat features (task swapping). I
don't know of any free software programs that do quite the same thing, but
I did like DESKTOP2. It was a graphical file manager and program manager.
Might be suitable for the original poster.


Last one while I think of it and I guess it really isn't quite the
> right thing but there used to be an emulator (which again ran fairly
> quickly) called "executor" which could run old 68k mac apps. Though
> strangely it did not require the mac system disks, and neither did it
> need a mac rom image -!
>
> Unfortunatly executor has long since dropped off the internet as has
> the company ardi which created it (and I think the company is possibly
> defunct nowadays, not sure). Though I managed to dig up a dos version
> of executor and uploaded it here:
> 
>

I'd completely forgotten about Executor. As you say, it was an older Mac
emulator, providing a virtual m68k CPU. The Executor package included its
own MacOS 6 virtual floppy (project's own development) so that was why it
didn't need separate Mac system image. It's described on Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executor_(software)


Jim
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Re: [Freedos-user] FreeDOS in VirtualBox: Bad or missing command interpreter

[Ulrich Hansen]

I experimented with JEMMEX settings, but unfortunately even 

DEVICE=C:\FDOS\BIN\JEMMEX.EXE X=A000- NOHI NOVME NOINVLPG

in FDCONFIG.SYS leads to a crash of the FreeDOS 1.1 guest in a Windows 8 host. 
On my Mac there’s no such problem.

The JEMMEX documentation says about the settings above:

"This is the safest combination. If this doesn't work, Jemm most likely isn't 
compatible with the current DOS/BIOS.“

VirtualBox is the newest version 5.0.14.

For my VirtualBox image with network ("FreeDOS 1.1net") I created a new 
version, which uses the old HIMEM.EXE and EMM386.EXE couple from FreeDOS 1.0. 
They seem to work fine. If anyone wants to try it out:

https://www.lazybrowndog.net/freedos/virtualbox/downloads/vdi/FreeDOS1.1net-test.zip
 


Installation is explained here: 
https://www.lazybrowndog.net/freedos/virtualbox/ 


Not using UMBs at all isn’t such a good idea. With HIMEM.EXE and EMM386.EXE I 
get 509K free conventional memory after loading all the drivers for MS Client 
and TCP/IP. Without UMBs I loose another 59K so I think some programs wouldn’t 
even start.

Thanks!
Ulrich



> Am 13.01.2016 um 00:49 schrieb Ulrich Hansen :
> 
> I have heard about this problem from some users of the FreeDOS VirtualBox 
> images at 
> https://www.lazybrowndog.net/freedos/virtualbox/ 
>  
> 
> As far as I found out, "Bad or missing command interpreter" doesn’t 
> necessarily mean COMMAND.COM  doesn’t exist. It can also 
> mean it can’t be loaded. This seems to be an issue of JEMMEX on some machines.
> 
> You could experiment with JEMMEX settings. Others here know a lot more about 
> that and perhaps have the time to help you. 
> 
> Another possibility: If you use FreeDOS for non-commercial purposes, it would 
> be legal to use the memory manager of Calderas DR-DOS instead. The full 
> DR-DOS can be found here ftp://ftp.uni-bayreuth.de/pub/pc/caldera 
>  with all the necessary notes and 
> licensing information. Please read it. For your convenience the driver alone 
> can be downloaded here: https://www.lazybrowndog.net/freedos/dremm386.zip 
> . 
> 
> Unzip it to a folder like C:\UTIL\DRDOS.
> 
> Look for a line similar to this one in C:\FDCONFIG.SYS:
> 
> 15678?DEVICE=C:\FDOS\BIN\JEMMEX.EXE NOEMS X=TEST I=TEST NOVME NOINVLPG
> 
> and replace it by this one
> 
> 15678?DEVICE=C:\UTIL\DRDOS\DREMM386.EXE NOEMS EXCLUDE=D000-D7FF
> 
> And in C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT after the following line
> 
> IF „%config%“==„4“ goto end
> 
> add this line:
> 
> C:\UTIL\DRDOS\DREMM386.EXE PIC=ON
> 
> Please give some feedback if this works for you.
> 
> Note: DR-DOS EMM386 doesn’t have all the features of JEMMEX so you need to 
> test if your programs work with this driver. Try also different settings to 
> get more free memory. I know that this is not a perfect solution.
> 
> Ulrich
> 
> 
> 
>> Am 07.01.2016 um 00:15 schrieb caswellrie...@gmail.com 
>> :
>> 
>> Hello! Basically, my issue is summarized in the title.
>> 
>> I have installed a FreeDOS 1.1 install as a VirtualBox guest, but when I 
>> boot I get the error “Bad or missing command interpreter” and then a prompt 
>> to enter the path to COMMAND.COM .  However, when this 
>> prompt is issued, the system stops accepting keyboard input.  The keyboard 
>> works before this prompt.  Possibly related, but I had to try to install 
>> from the CD image twice, because the first time the installer froze after I 
>> selected my language/keyboard layout.
>> 
>> Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.
>> 
>> Thanks, Matt
>> 
>> Sent from Windows Mail
>> 
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>> 
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>> 
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Re: [Freedos-user] Easy GUI desktop enviroment install

[lee jones]

On the subject of freedos and dos-bases gui's in general did a bit of
thinking here. Managed to come up with 3 ideas though I am not sure
how useful they might be as I guess they aren't really "dos shells" to
be precise. But anway;

Firstly ages ago there was an emulator called tosbox which is an atari
ST emulator. It runs in dos but has two intresting features - firstly
from what I remember it can access dos files directly (so they show
up) but it also ran quickly on old hardware -- even an old pentium 75
could run it quickly. Though it does need an atari st rom file.
Development has long since stopped but I found a copy of the emulator
here --

http://www.zophar.net/atarist/tosbox.html

Next one is a website I found which contains a "free" version of
windows. But by "free" I am meaning that it is a demo version. It is
also a very old version of windows, 3.0 . Other programs can run on it
apparently but only by modifiying a programs' exe header/descriptor
file (not sure how to do this) and inserting "DEMOAPP" in it
someplace.

Last one while I think of it and I guess it really isn't quite the
right thing but there used to be an emulator (which again ran fairly
quickly) called "executor" which could run old 68k mac apps. Though
strangely it did not require the mac system disks, and neither did it
need a mac rom image -!

Unfortunatly executor has long since dropped off the internet as has
the company ardi which created it (and I think the company is possibly
defunct nowadays, not sure). Though I managed to dig up a dos version
of executor and uploaded it here:

http://slothpuck.no-ip.org/executor/dos/execdos.zip

it will ask for a authentication key and serial number once run but
looking through the wayback engine/internet archive I found a
non-expiring key/ser. number here:

https://web.archive.org/web/20120723153826/http://www.ardi.com/win_download.php

apparently executor development (according to wikipedia) ended in
2005, and in 2008 became open source. Still have a few linux sources
as well;

http://slothpuck.no-ip.org/executor/linux/

(I did once try to compile these but with no luck).

Thats all I can think of!

ljones

On 1/30/16, dmccunney  wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 29, 2016 at 7:04 PM, Rugxulo  wrote:
>
>> BTW, didn't Google Code kick the bucket? So it's no surprise you can't
>> reach it. It's dead, Jim.
>>
>> http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2015/03/farewell-to-google-code.html
>>
>> "We will be shutting down the service about 10 months from now on
>> January 25th, 2016."
>>
>> P.S. But maybe they are still archiving some of it ("read-only"??) for
>> the near future:
>>
>> https://code.google.com/archive/p/nanox-microwindows-nxlib-fltk-for-dos/
>
> That's essentially what happened.  The download link posted in Don
> Flowers' last message is still valid, and you can access the files.
>
> The Sourceforge site in G. Potthast's message appears to be the
> current repository for source, and seems to have copies of the
> binaries as well.
> __
> Dennis
>
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>


-- 
:)

SP

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Re: [Freedos-user] Cobalt - my FreeDOS distribution

[Steffen Grunewald]

On Mon, Feb 01, 2016 at 11:11:22PM -0500, Corbin Davenport wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> I wanted to share a FreeDOS distribution I released today, called Cobalt.
> Cobalt is a free operating system heavily based on FreeDOS, that aims to
> make using DOS much easier. This is mostly done by having over a dozen DOS
> utilities and drivers pre-installed, making it a much more complete
> operating system out of the box.
> 
> Some of the programs included are 4DOS, CuteMouse, DOSLFN, DOSIDLE, HIMEM,
> and more. It also has it's own installer, and can optionally add the
> FreeDOS Shell at installation.
> 
> I've been testing it in VirtualBox and it works pretty well, but I would be
> interested in hearing feedback from others. You can get Cobalt as a
> bootable CD image here  
> and
> more information is available here
> .
> 
> Corbin

Does Cobalt come with network support? Would make it very interesting...
How large would its disk footprint be? I'm looking for something that could
be PXE'd...

Thanks,
 Steffen

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[Freedos-user] Cobalt - my FreeDOS distribution

[Corbin Davenport]

Hello all,

I wanted to share a FreeDOS distribution I released today, called Cobalt.
Cobalt is a free operating system heavily based on FreeDOS, that aims to
make using DOS much easier. This is mostly done by having over a dozen DOS
utilities and drivers pre-installed, making it a much more complete
operating system out of the box.

Some of the programs included are 4DOS, CuteMouse, DOSLFN, DOSIDLE, HIMEM,
and more. It also has it's own installer, and can optionally add the
FreeDOS Shell at installation.

I've been testing it in VirtualBox and it works pretty well, but I would be
interested in hearing feedback from others. You can get Cobalt as a
bootable CD image here  and
more information is available here
.

Corbin
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