Re: [Freedos-user] Which freedos on 486

[Mateusz Viste]

I might be missing the boat here, but what you describe vaguely look 
like a problem I had in some distant past, when I misconfigured my HDD 
in the BIOS.

Perhaps you could check whether your drive's geometry is 100% correct in 
your BIOS?

Mateusz




On 19/07/2016 07:12, Dimitris Zilaskos wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I was able to reinstall and boot successfully by performing an fdisk
> without FAT32 support, and creating a FAT16 2GB partition. At least with
> JEMM386, that is. So FAT32 support being the issue may be the case.
>
> Let me know if I can try anything else to confirm that.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Dimitris
>
> On Tue, Jul 19, 2016 at 6:03 AM, Dimitris Zilaskos  > wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> On Tue, Jul 19, 2016 at 1:58 AM, Rugxulo  > wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 7:21 PM, Dimitris Zilaskos
> > wrote:
> >
> > Thank you for following up. fdisk reports that C: drive is already 
> active. I
> > did run mbrzap it completed successfully but there has been no 
> change,
> > system gets stuck right after BIOS summary table.
>
> What filesystem(s) are you using? FAT32, presumably. You said
> you had
> 4 GB and 6 GB HDDs, right?
>
> Sometimes it has been noticed that a FAT32 partition is created with
> plain type 0xB instead of 0xC (LBA), so you may have to change that.
>
> http://help.fdos.org/en/hhstndrd/base/fdisk.htm
>
> I'm not entirely sure what is most informative or useful here:
> "/STATUS"? "/XO"? "/SPEC"?
>
> Honestly, I think I just used BootMgr to change it:
>
> http://www.freedos.org/software/?prog=bootmgr
>
> (This may not be your problem, I'm just grasping at straws.)
>
>
>
> Indeed the partition type is 11. I have used fdisk to change that to
> 12 but there was no change. I did a re-installation after the change
> too.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Dimitris
>
>
>



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Re: [Freedos-user] Which freedos on 486

[Dimitris Zilaskos]

Hi,

I was able to reinstall and boot successfully by performing an fdisk
without FAT32 support, and creating a FAT16 2GB partition. At least with
JEMM386, that is. So FAT32 support being the issue may be the case.

Let me know if I can try anything else to confirm that.

Cheers,

Dimitris

On Tue, Jul 19, 2016 at 6:03 AM, Dimitris Zilaskos 
wrote:

> Hi,
>
> On Tue, Jul 19, 2016 at 1:58 AM, Rugxulo  wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 7:21 PM, Dimitris Zilaskos 
>> wrote:
>> >
>> > Thank you for following up. fdisk reports that C: drive is already
>> active. I
>> > did run mbrzap it completed successfully but there has been no change,
>> > system gets stuck right after BIOS summary table.
>>
>> What filesystem(s) are you using? FAT32, presumably. You said you had
>> 4 GB and 6 GB HDDs, right?
>>
>> Sometimes it has been noticed that a FAT32 partition is created with
>> plain type 0xB instead of 0xC (LBA), so you may have to change that.
>>
>> http://help.fdos.org/en/hhstndrd/base/fdisk.htm
>>
>> I'm not entirely sure what is most informative or useful here:
>> "/STATUS"? "/XO"? "/SPEC"?
>>
>> Honestly, I think I just used BootMgr to change it:
>>
>> http://www.freedos.org/software/?prog=bootmgr
>>
>> (This may not be your problem, I'm just grasping at straws.)
>>
>>
>>
> Indeed the partition type is 11. I have used fdisk to change that to 12
> but there was no change. I did a re-installation after the change too.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Dimitris
>
>
--
What NetFlow Analyzer can do for you? Monitors network bandwidth and traffic
patterns at an interface-level. Reveals which users, apps, and protocols are 
consuming the most bandwidth. Provides multi-vendor support for NetFlow, 
J-Flow, sFlow and other flows. Make informed decisions using capacity planning
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Re: [Freedos-user] Which freedos on 486

[Dimitris Zilaskos]

Hi,

On Tue, Jul 19, 2016 at 1:58 AM, Rugxulo  wrote:

> Hi,
>
> On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 7:21 PM, Dimitris Zilaskos 
> wrote:
> >
> > Thank you for following up. fdisk reports that C: drive is already
> active. I
> > did run mbrzap it completed successfully but there has been no change,
> > system gets stuck right after BIOS summary table.
>
> What filesystem(s) are you using? FAT32, presumably. You said you had
> 4 GB and 6 GB HDDs, right?
>
> Sometimes it has been noticed that a FAT32 partition is created with
> plain type 0xB instead of 0xC (LBA), so you may have to change that.
>
> http://help.fdos.org/en/hhstndrd/base/fdisk.htm
>
> I'm not entirely sure what is most informative or useful here:
> "/STATUS"? "/XO"? "/SPEC"?
>
> Honestly, I think I just used BootMgr to change it:
>
> http://www.freedos.org/software/?prog=bootmgr
>
> (This may not be your problem, I'm just grasping at straws.)
>
>
>
Indeed the partition type is 11. I have used fdisk to change that to 12 but
there was no change. I did a re-installation after the change too.

Cheers,

Dimitris
--
What NetFlow Analyzer can do for you? Monitors network bandwidth and traffic
patterns at an interface-level. Reveals which users, apps, and protocols are 
consuming the most bandwidth. Provides multi-vendor support for NetFlow, 
J-Flow, sFlow and other flows. Make informed decisions using capacity planning
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Re: [Freedos-user] Which freedos on 486

[Rugxulo]

Hi,

On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 7:21 PM, Dimitris Zilaskos  wrote:
>
> Thank you for following up. fdisk reports that C: drive is already active. I
> did run mbrzap it completed successfully but there has been no change,
> system gets stuck right after BIOS summary table.

What filesystem(s) are you using? FAT32, presumably. You said you had
4 GB and 6 GB HDDs, right?

Sometimes it has been noticed that a FAT32 partition is created with
plain type 0xB instead of 0xC (LBA), so you may have to change that.

http://help.fdos.org/en/hhstndrd/base/fdisk.htm

I'm not entirely sure what is most informative or useful here:
"/STATUS"? "/XO"? "/SPEC"?

Honestly, I think I just used BootMgr to change it:

http://www.freedos.org/software/?prog=bootmgr

(This may not be your problem, I'm just grasping at straws.)

--
What NetFlow Analyzer can do for you? Monitors network bandwidth and traffic
patterns at an interface-level. Reveals which users, apps, and protocols are 
consuming the most bandwidth. Provides multi-vendor support for NetFlow, 
J-Flow, sFlow and other flows. Make informed decisions using capacity planning
reports.http://sdm.link/zohodev2dev
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Re: [Freedos-user] Which freedos on 486

[Dimitris Zilaskos]

Hi,

Thank you for following up. fdisk reports that C: drive is already active.
I did run mbrzap it completed successfully but there has been no change,
system gets stuck right after BIOS summary table.

Cheers,

Dimitris

On Tue, Jul 19, 2016 at 12:29 AM, Jerome Shidel  wrote:

>
>
> On Jul 18, 2016, at 6:52 PM, Dimitris Zilaskos 
> wrote:
>
> Dear Jerome,
>
> From what I can tell I never get past the boot loader to be struck by
> himemx.
>
>
> Ok try this:
>
> Boot your modified FDI floppy.
> It should detect FreeDOS has been already installed and go straight to the
> command prompt.
>
> Run "MBRZAP"
> This will launch a special part of FDI in advanced mode to force update
> your MBR with the FreeDOS boot loader.
>
> ---
> During investigations of systems that had boot loader issues not being
> updated, I discovered that there is no way to force the sys command to
> updated the MBR. Sometimes, it just won't do it regardless of what you tell
> it to do. It can be forced using fdisk.
>
> There is another possible issue. Your MBR may be fine. However, FDI may
> have not been able to identify the drive or partition that FreeDOS was
> installed onto. You should run fdisk and verify that the FreeDOS partition
> is set as ACTIVE.
>
> Jerome
>
> Sent from my iPhone, ignore bad sentence structures, grammatical errors
> and incorrect spell-corrected words.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Dimitris
>
> On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 10:49 PM, Jerome Shidel  wrote:
>
>> Did you change the installed config?
>>
>> It uses himemx as well.
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone, ignore bad sentence structures, grammatical errors
>> and incorrect spell-corrected words.
>>
>> On Jul 18, 2016, at 3:46 PM, Dimitris Zilaskos 
>> wrote:
>>
>> Thank you all for your suggestions. What I have tried so far:
>>
>>* Getting rid of himemx: this works - the boot process continues and
>> the installer tries to start. However the floppy drive works continuously
>> like mad, screen updates are slow, and I the installation appears to be
>> stuck in the 'Gathering information..' stage forever
>>* Replacing himemx with XMGR.SYS /T0 (kudos to Jack): Boot process
>> continues, everything is light speed fast compared to just getting rid of
>> himemx.
>>* Although installation of 1.2 finishes successfully, system fails to
>> boot, hangs right after BIOS system summary is displayed.
>>* sys c: does not help
>>* UDVD2 is able to detect the CDROM connected to the SB16 IDE
>> interface. Unfortunately only the CDROM drive that was supplied with sound
>> card appears to work there (MATSHITA CR-581-M), connecting other CDROMs
>> that can actually read modern CD-R causes the system to get stuck after
>> memory test. So I have to use a 1998 HITACHI CDR-8435 attached to the
>> secondary VESA Local Bus IDE for the installation. UDVD2 reports the SB16
>> CDROM drive in IDE1 - I would expect that to be IDE2 for tertiary IDE so I
>> may need to play with jumpers.
>>
>> I will try to sort out why the boot loader fails.
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>> Dimitris
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 5:04 PM, Don Flowers  wrote:
>>
>>> Your driver is the problem this might be a case for the XCDROM.SYS
>>> driver combined with SHCDX86.COM - A quick way to find out download
>>> this file
>>>
>>> https://sourceforge.net/projects/xosl-ow/files/xosl-ow116/BootMedia/BootFloppy/
>>> and see if you have clean drive access.
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 9:02 AM, Dimitris Zilaskos 
>>> wrote:
>>>
 Hi,

 Thanks for the followup. Hitting F8 reveals HIMEMX triggering this
 problem: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2zW1ur6Z_WeSWtGNXN0NmxxaU0

 ​​I have observed that the gibberish stops given sufficient time:
 https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2zW1ur6Z_WeVjVMalF6M2YtMTA

 Let me know what else I can try - I will recheck the floppies for
 starters in case they went bad and check the rest of your suggestions.

 Best regards,

 Dimitris


 On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 1:02 PM, Jerome E. Shidel Jr. <
 jer...@shidel.net> wrote:

>
> On Jul 18, 2016, at 7:51 AM, Dimitris Zilaskos 
> wrote:
>
> I have tried it please see the output attached. This is endlessly
> scrolling after drives are detected.
>
>
> https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2zW1ur6Z_WeY2tOSXpNT2g3NUJWMWx6bFZlSFBjamE3VEFr
>
> Unfortunately, that isn’t very helpful.
>
> When you boot the floppy, can you press F8 to walk through the
> startup?  What item in the configuration
> causes it to crash?
>
> Jerome
>
>
> --
> What NetFlow Analyzer can do for you? Monitors network bandwidth and
> traffic
> patterns at an interface-level. Reveals which users, apps, and
> 

Re: [Freedos-user] Which freedos on 486

[Dimitris Zilaskos]

Hi,

fdisk /mbr:80 did not change anything. Here some BIOS screens:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2zW1ur6Z_Wed09TVi1YY3VNR2s
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2zW1ur6Z_WeWDdxWXRrY2NpWEU
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2zW1ur6Z_WeQ3ctSS14Z1RINlk

Here is a video of the system booting from FreeDOS 1.2 floppy:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2zW1ur6Z_WeTEtKU1kyNGp3SWc

Cheers,

Dimitris




On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 9:53 PM, Louis Santillan  wrote:

> Dimitris,
>
> For giggles, could you do two things?  First, capture the BIOS screens
> for booting and IDE/HD parameters.  Second, after installing FreeDOS
> to C: drive, run the command `fdisk /MBR:80`.
>
> On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 12:46 PM, Dimitris Zilaskos 
> wrote:
> > Thank you all for your suggestions. What I have tried so far:
> >
> >* Getting rid of himemx: this works - the boot process continues and
> the
> > installer tries to start. However the floppy drive works continuously
> like
> > mad, screen updates are slow, and I the installation appears to be stuck
> in
> > the 'Gathering information..' stage forever
> >* Replacing himemx with XMGR.SYS /T0 (kudos to Jack): Boot process
> > continues, everything is light speed fast compared to just getting rid of
> > himemx.
> >* Although installation of 1.2 finishes successfully, system fails to
> > boot, hangs right after BIOS system summary is displayed.
> >* sys c: does not help
> >* UDVD2 is able to detect the CDROM connected to the SB16 IDE
> interface.
> > Unfortunately only the CDROM drive that was supplied with sound card
> appears
> > to work there (MATSHITA CR-581-M), connecting other CDROMs that can
> actually
> > read modern CD-R causes the system to get stuck after memory test. So I
> have
> > to use a 1998 HITACHI CDR-8435 attached to the secondary VESA Local Bus
> IDE
> > for the installation. UDVD2 reports the SB16 CDROM drive in IDE1 - I
> would
> > expect that to be IDE2 for tertiary IDE so I may need to play with
> jumpers.
> >
> > I will try to sort out why the boot loader fails.
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> > Dimitris
> >
> >
> > On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 5:04 PM, Don Flowers  wrote:
> >>
> >> Your driver is the problem this might be a case for the XCDROM.SYS
> driver
> >> combined with SHCDX86.COM - A quick way to find out download this file
> >>
> >>
> https://sourceforge.net/projects/xosl-ow/files/xosl-ow116/BootMedia/BootFloppy/
> >> and see if you have clean drive access.
> >>
> >>
> >> On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 9:02 AM, Dimitris Zilaskos  >
> >> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> Hi,
> >>>
> >>> Thanks for the followup. Hitting F8 reveals HIMEMX triggering this
> >>> problem: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2zW1ur6Z_WeSWtGNXN0NmxxaU0
> >>>
> >>> I have observed that the gibberish stops given sufficient time:
> >>> https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2zW1ur6Z_WeVjVMalF6M2YtMTA
> >>>
> >>> Let me know what else I can try - I will recheck the floppies for
> >>> starters in case they went bad and check the rest of your suggestions.
> >>>
> >>> Best regards,
> >>>
> >>> Dimitris
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 1:02 PM, Jerome E. Shidel Jr. <
> jer...@shidel.net>
> >>> wrote:
> 
> 
>  On Jul 18, 2016, at 7:51 AM, Dimitris Zilaskos 
>  wrote:
> 
>  I have tried it please see the output attached. This is endlessly
>  scrolling after drives are detected.
> 
> 
> 
> https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2zW1ur6Z_WeY2tOSXpNT2g3NUJWMWx6bFZlSFBjamE3VEFr
> 
>  Unfortunately, that isn’t very helpful.
> 
>  When you boot the floppy, can you press F8 to walk through the
> startup?
>  What item in the configuration
>  causes it to crash?
> 
>  Jerome
> 
> 
> 
> --
>  What NetFlow Analyzer can do for you? Monitors network bandwidth and
>  traffic
>  patterns at an interface-level. Reveals which users, apps, and
> protocols
>  are
>  consuming the most bandwidth. Provides multi-vendor support for
> NetFlow,
>  J-Flow, sFlow and other flows. Make informed decisions using capacity
>  planning
>  reports.http://sdm.link/zohodev2dev
>  ___
>  Freedos-user mailing list
>  Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net
>  https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
> 
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> --
> >>> What NetFlow Analyzer can do for you? Monitors network bandwidth and
> >>> traffic
> >>> patterns at an interface-level. Reveals which users, apps, and
> protocols
> >>> are
> >>> consuming the most bandwidth. Provides multi-vendor support for
> NetFlow,
> >>> J-Flow, sFlow and other flows. Make informed decisions using capacity
> >>> planning
> >>> 

Re: [Freedos-user] Which freedos on 486

[Dimitris Zilaskos]

Hi,

On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 10:48 PM, Eric Auer  wrote:

>
> Hi Dimitris,
>
> > * Getting rid of himemx: this works ...
>
> But very slow and lots of floppy access: I assume you booted from
> floppy because the BIOS does not support CD boot and the CD also
> needs to be some ancient model connected to the sound card? Then
> I wonder if a newer model would work if connected to the normal
> IDE controller which your 486 must already have. Because then it
> may be possible to boot with a Smart Boot Manager floppy to CD...
> If you have questions about SBM, Rugxulo could probably help ;-)
>

Indeed! Your assumptions are correct. Getting SBM installed to a floppy was
tricky but I got it. However it does not detect any CDROM drives, no matter
if they are connected on the SB16 IDE or the VL Bus Secondary IDE. I
tried 1E0-1EFh I/O port range per
http://support.creative.com/kb/ShowArticle.aspx?sid=3039 and looking at the
SB16 jumpers but no luck.

>
> > * Replacing himemx with XMGR.SYS /T0 (kudos to Jack)
>
> Cool to know that XMGR works, but what does /T0 mean? Maybe there
> is some option for HIMEMX which makes a similar selection, which
> could make HIMEMX work as well? :-)
>

Jack told me /T0 helps with systems with less than 64MB RAM such as mine,

>
> > * Although installation of 1.2 finishes successfully, system fails
> > to boot, hangs right after BIOS system summary is displayed.
>
> I agree that FDISK /MBR may help. It would replace existing boot
> code in the MBR with a "normal" version. Note that if you have to
> use something like OnTrack "drivers" hidden in the MBR to use the
> full capacity of the harddisk (due to too old BIOS), then this can
> overwrite the driver: You might have to install DOS and/or driver
> again.
>

I tried it but nothing changed. I am not using any drives with OnTrack
connected atm - I do have some that I may use later.


>
> > * UDVD2 is able to detect the CDROM connected to the SB16 IDE interface.
>
> > Unfortunately only the CDROM drive that was supplied with sound
> > card appears to work there (MATSHITA CR-581-M)...
>
> See above :-)
>
> Cheers, Eric
>

This turned out to be a red herring, I was able to get all the CDROMS
detected by UDVD2 while both of them sitting on the SB16 IDE in
master/slave configuration. I suspect I did a mistake during my previous
test.

>
> PS: You may also have a way to change A20 style in BIOS setup,
> which can help HIMEMX and XMGR to work without magic options.
>

BIOS has a Fast and Normal setting for A20, it is currently set to Fast.
Will try Normal later.


Cheers,

Dimitris
--
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patterns at an interface-level. Reveals which users, apps, and protocols are 
consuming the most bandwidth. Provides multi-vendor support for NetFlow, 
J-Flow, sFlow and other flows. Make informed decisions using capacity planning
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Re: [Freedos-user] Which freedos on 486

[Dimitris Zilaskos]

Dear Jerome,

>From what I can tell I never get past the boot loader to be struck by
himemx.

Cheers,

Dimitris

On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 10:49 PM, Jerome Shidel  wrote:

> Did you change the installed config?
>
> It uses himemx as well.
>
> Sent from my iPhone, ignore bad sentence structures, grammatical errors
> and incorrect spell-corrected words.
>
> On Jul 18, 2016, at 3:46 PM, Dimitris Zilaskos 
> wrote:
>
> Thank you all for your suggestions. What I have tried so far:
>
>* Getting rid of himemx: this works - the boot process continues and
> the installer tries to start. However the floppy drive works continuously
> like mad, screen updates are slow, and I the installation appears to be
> stuck in the 'Gathering information..' stage forever
>* Replacing himemx with XMGR.SYS /T0 (kudos to Jack): Boot process
> continues, everything is light speed fast compared to just getting rid of
> himemx.
>* Although installation of 1.2 finishes successfully, system fails to
> boot, hangs right after BIOS system summary is displayed.
>* sys c: does not help
>* UDVD2 is able to detect the CDROM connected to the SB16 IDE
> interface. Unfortunately only the CDROM drive that was supplied with sound
> card appears to work there (MATSHITA CR-581-M), connecting other CDROMs
> that can actually read modern CD-R causes the system to get stuck after
> memory test. So I have to use a 1998 HITACHI CDR-8435 attached to the
> secondary VESA Local Bus IDE for the installation. UDVD2 reports the SB16
> CDROM drive in IDE1 - I would expect that to be IDE2 for tertiary IDE so I
> may need to play with jumpers.
>
> I will try to sort out why the boot loader fails.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Dimitris
>
>
> On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 5:04 PM, Don Flowers  wrote:
>
>> Your driver is the problem this might be a case for the XCDROM.SYS driver
>> combined with SHCDX86.COM - A quick way to find out download this file
>>
>> https://sourceforge.net/projects/xosl-ow/files/xosl-ow116/BootMedia/BootFloppy/
>> and see if you have clean drive access.
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 9:02 AM, Dimitris Zilaskos 
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> Thanks for the followup. Hitting F8 reveals HIMEMX triggering this
>>> problem: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2zW1ur6Z_WeSWtGNXN0NmxxaU0
>>>
>>> ​​I have observed that the gibberish stops given sufficient time:
>>> https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2zW1ur6Z_WeVjVMalF6M2YtMTA
>>>
>>> Let me know what else I can try - I will recheck the floppies for
>>> starters in case they went bad and check the rest of your suggestions.
>>>
>>> Best regards,
>>>
>>> Dimitris
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 1:02 PM, Jerome E. Shidel Jr. >> > wrote:
>>>

 On Jul 18, 2016, at 7:51 AM, Dimitris Zilaskos 
 wrote:

 I have tried it please see the output attached. This is endlessly
 scrolling after drives are detected.


 https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2zW1ur6Z_WeY2tOSXpNT2g3NUJWMWx6bFZlSFBjamE3VEFr

 Unfortunately, that isn’t very helpful.

 When you boot the floppy, can you press F8 to walk through the
 startup?  What item in the configuration
 causes it to crash?

 Jerome


 --
 What NetFlow Analyzer can do for you? Monitors network bandwidth and
 traffic
 patterns at an interface-level. Reveals which users, apps, and
 protocols are
 consuming the most bandwidth. Provides multi-vendor support for NetFlow,
 J-Flow, sFlow and other flows. Make informed decisions using capacity
 planning
 reports.http://sdm.link/zohodev2dev
 ___
 Freedos-user mailing list
 Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net
 https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user


>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> What NetFlow Analyzer can do for you? Monitors network bandwidth and
>>> traffic
>>> patterns at an interface-level. Reveals which users, apps, and protocols
>>> are
>>> consuming the most bandwidth. Provides multi-vendor support for NetFlow,
>>> J-Flow, sFlow and other flows. Make informed decisions using capacity
>>> planning
>>> reports.http://sdm.link/zohodev2dev
>>> ___
>>> Freedos-user mailing list
>>> Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net
>>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> What NetFlow Analyzer can do for you? Monitors network bandwidth and
>> traffic
>> patterns at an interface-level. Reveals which users, apps, and protocols
>> are
>> consuming the most bandwidth. Provides multi-vendor support for NetFlow,
>> J-Flow, sFlow and other 

Re: [Freedos-user] Which freedos on 486

[Jerome Shidel]

Did you change the installed config?

It uses himemx as well.

Sent from my iPhone, ignore bad sentence structures, grammatical errors and 
incorrect spell-corrected words. 

> On Jul 18, 2016, at 3:46 PM, Dimitris Zilaskos  wrote:
> 
> Thank you all for your suggestions. What I have tried so far:
> 
>* Getting rid of himemx: this works - the boot process continues and the 
> installer tries to start. However the floppy drive works continuously like 
> mad, screen updates are slow, and I the installation appears to be stuck in 
> the 'Gathering information..' stage forever
>* Replacing himemx with XMGR.SYS /T0 (kudos to Jack): Boot process 
> continues, everything is light speed fast compared to just getting rid of 
> himemx.
>* Although installation of 1.2 finishes successfully, system fails to 
> boot, hangs right after BIOS system summary is displayed.
>* sys c: does not help
>* UDVD2 is able to detect the CDROM connected to the SB16 IDE interface. 
> Unfortunately only the CDROM drive that was supplied with sound card appears 
> to work there (MATSHITA CR-581-M), connecting other CDROMs that can actually 
> read modern CD-R causes the system to get stuck after memory test. So I have 
> to use a 1998 HITACHI CDR-8435 attached to the secondary VESA Local Bus IDE 
> for the installation. UDVD2 reports the SB16 CDROM drive in IDE1 - I would 
> expect that to be IDE2 for tertiary IDE so I may need to play with jumpers.
> 
> I will try to sort out why the boot loader fails.
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Dimitris
> 
> 
>> On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 5:04 PM, Don Flowers  wrote:
>> Your driver is the problem this might be a case for the XCDROM.SYS driver 
>> combined with SHCDX86.COM - A quick way to find out download this file 
>> https://sourceforge.net/projects/xosl-ow/files/xosl-ow116/BootMedia/BootFloppy/
>> and see if you have clean drive access.
>> 
>> 
>>> On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 9:02 AM, Dimitris Zilaskos  
>>> wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>> 
>>> Thanks for the followup. Hitting F8 reveals HIMEMX triggering this problem: 
>>> https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2zW1ur6Z_WeSWtGNXN0NmxxaU0
>>> 
>>> ​​I have observed that the gibberish stops given sufficient time: 
>>> https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2zW1ur6Z_WeVjVMalF6M2YtMTA
>>> 
>>> Let me know what else I can try - I will recheck the floppies for starters 
>>> in case they went bad and check the rest of your suggestions.
>>> 
>>> Best regards,
>>> 
>>> Dimitris
>>> 
>>> 
 On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 1:02 PM, Jerome E. Shidel Jr.  
 wrote:
 
> On Jul 18, 2016, at 7:51 AM, Dimitris Zilaskos  
> wrote:
> I have tried it please see the output attached. This is endlessly 
> scrolling after drives are detected. 
> 
> https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2zW1ur6Z_WeY2tOSXpNT2g3NUJWMWx6bFZlSFBjamE3VEFr
 Unfortunately, that isn’t very helpful.
 
 When you boot the floppy, can you press F8 to walk through the startup?  
 What item in the configuration
 causes it to crash?
 
 Jerome
 
 --
 What NetFlow Analyzer can do for you? Monitors network bandwidth and 
 traffic
 patterns at an interface-level. Reveals which users, apps, and protocols 
 are
 consuming the most bandwidth. Provides multi-vendor support for NetFlow,
 J-Flow, sFlow and other flows. Make informed decisions using capacity 
 planning
 reports.http://sdm.link/zohodev2dev
 ___
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 Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net
 https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
>>> 
>>> 
>>> --
>>> What NetFlow Analyzer can do for you? Monitors network bandwidth and traffic
>>> patterns at an interface-level. Reveals which users, apps, and protocols are
>>> consuming the most bandwidth. Provides multi-vendor support for NetFlow,
>>> J-Flow, sFlow and other flows. Make informed decisions using capacity 
>>> planning
>>> reports.http://sdm.link/zohodev2dev
>>> ___
>>> Freedos-user mailing list
>>> Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net
>>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
>> 
>> 
>> --
>> What NetFlow Analyzer can do for you? Monitors network bandwidth and traffic
>> patterns at an interface-level. Reveals which users, apps, and protocols are
>> consuming the most bandwidth. Provides multi-vendor support for NetFlow,
>> J-Flow, sFlow and other flows. Make informed decisions using capacity 
>> planning
>> reports.http://sdm.link/zohodev2dev
>> ___
>> Freedos-user mailing list
>> 

Re: [Freedos-user] Which freedos on 486

[Eric Auer]

Hi Dimitris,

> * Getting rid of himemx: this works ...

But very slow and lots of floppy access: I assume you booted from
floppy because the BIOS does not support CD boot and the CD also
needs to be some ancient model connected to the sound card? Then
I wonder if a newer model would work if connected to the normal
IDE controller which your 486 must already have. Because then it
may be possible to boot with a Smart Boot Manager floppy to CD...
If you have questions about SBM, Rugxulo could probably help ;-)

> * Replacing himemx with XMGR.SYS /T0 (kudos to Jack)

Cool to know that XMGR works, but what does /T0 mean? Maybe there
is some option for HIMEMX which makes a similar selection, which
could make HIMEMX work as well? :-)

> * Although installation of 1.2 finishes successfully, system fails
> to boot, hangs right after BIOS system summary is displayed.

I agree that FDISK /MBR may help. It would replace existing boot
code in the MBR with a "normal" version. Note that if you have to
use something like OnTrack "drivers" hidden in the MBR to use the
full capacity of the harddisk (due to too old BIOS), then this can
overwrite the driver: You might have to install DOS and/or driver
again.

> * UDVD2 is able to detect the CDROM connected to the SB16 IDE interface.

> Unfortunately only the CDROM drive that was supplied with sound
> card appears to work there (MATSHITA CR-581-M)...

See above :-)

Cheers, Eric

PS: You may also have a way to change A20 style in BIOS setup,
which can help HIMEMX and XMGR to work without magic options.



--
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patterns at an interface-level. Reveals which users, apps, and protocols are 
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Re: [Freedos-user] Which freedos on 486

[Louis Santillan]

Dimitris,

For giggles, could you do two things?  First, capture the BIOS screens
for booting and IDE/HD parameters.  Second, after installing FreeDOS
to C: drive, run the command `fdisk /MBR:80`.

On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 12:46 PM, Dimitris Zilaskos  wrote:
> Thank you all for your suggestions. What I have tried so far:
>
>* Getting rid of himemx: this works - the boot process continues and the
> installer tries to start. However the floppy drive works continuously like
> mad, screen updates are slow, and I the installation appears to be stuck in
> the 'Gathering information..' stage forever
>* Replacing himemx with XMGR.SYS /T0 (kudos to Jack): Boot process
> continues, everything is light speed fast compared to just getting rid of
> himemx.
>* Although installation of 1.2 finishes successfully, system fails to
> boot, hangs right after BIOS system summary is displayed.
>* sys c: does not help
>* UDVD2 is able to detect the CDROM connected to the SB16 IDE interface.
> Unfortunately only the CDROM drive that was supplied with sound card appears
> to work there (MATSHITA CR-581-M), connecting other CDROMs that can actually
> read modern CD-R causes the system to get stuck after memory test. So I have
> to use a 1998 HITACHI CDR-8435 attached to the secondary VESA Local Bus IDE
> for the installation. UDVD2 reports the SB16 CDROM drive in IDE1 - I would
> expect that to be IDE2 for tertiary IDE so I may need to play with jumpers.
>
> I will try to sort out why the boot loader fails.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Dimitris
>
>
> On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 5:04 PM, Don Flowers  wrote:
>>
>> Your driver is the problem this might be a case for the XCDROM.SYS driver
>> combined with SHCDX86.COM - A quick way to find out download this file
>>
>> https://sourceforge.net/projects/xosl-ow/files/xosl-ow116/BootMedia/BootFloppy/
>> and see if you have clean drive access.
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 9:02 AM, Dimitris Zilaskos 
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> Thanks for the followup. Hitting F8 reveals HIMEMX triggering this
>>> problem: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2zW1ur6Z_WeSWtGNXN0NmxxaU0
>>>
>>> I have observed that the gibberish stops given sufficient time:
>>> https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2zW1ur6Z_WeVjVMalF6M2YtMTA
>>>
>>> Let me know what else I can try - I will recheck the floppies for
>>> starters in case they went bad and check the rest of your suggestions.
>>>
>>> Best regards,
>>>
>>> Dimitris
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 1:02 PM, Jerome E. Shidel Jr. 
>>> wrote:


 On Jul 18, 2016, at 7:51 AM, Dimitris Zilaskos 
 wrote:

 I have tried it please see the output attached. This is endlessly
 scrolling after drives are detected.


 https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2zW1ur6Z_WeY2tOSXpNT2g3NUJWMWx6bFZlSFBjamE3VEFr

 Unfortunately, that isn’t very helpful.

 When you boot the floppy, can you press F8 to walk through the startup?
 What item in the configuration
 causes it to crash?

 Jerome


 --
 What NetFlow Analyzer can do for you? Monitors network bandwidth and
 traffic
 patterns at an interface-level. Reveals which users, apps, and protocols
 are
 consuming the most bandwidth. Provides multi-vendor support for NetFlow,
 J-Flow, sFlow and other flows. Make informed decisions using capacity
 planning
 reports.http://sdm.link/zohodev2dev
 ___
 Freedos-user mailing list
 Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net
 https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user

>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> What NetFlow Analyzer can do for you? Monitors network bandwidth and
>>> traffic
>>> patterns at an interface-level. Reveals which users, apps, and protocols
>>> are
>>> consuming the most bandwidth. Provides multi-vendor support for NetFlow,
>>> J-Flow, sFlow and other flows. Make informed decisions using capacity
>>> planning
>>> reports.http://sdm.link/zohodev2dev
>>> ___
>>> Freedos-user mailing list
>>> Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net
>>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> What NetFlow Analyzer can do for you? Monitors network bandwidth and
>> traffic
>> patterns at an interface-level. Reveals which users, apps, and protocols
>> are
>> consuming the most bandwidth. Provides multi-vendor support for NetFlow,
>> J-Flow, sFlow and other flows. Make informed decisions using capacity
>> planning
>> reports.http://sdm.link/zohodev2dev
>> ___
>> Freedos-user mailing list
>> 

Re: [Freedos-user] Which freedos on 486

[Dimitris Zilaskos]

Thank you all for your suggestions. What I have tried so far:

   * Getting rid of himemx: this works - the boot process continues and the
installer tries to start. However the floppy drive works continuously like
mad, screen updates are slow, and I the installation appears to be stuck in
the 'Gathering information..' stage forever
   * Replacing himemx with XMGR.SYS /T0 (kudos to Jack): Boot process
continues, everything is light speed fast compared to just getting rid of
himemx.
   * Although installation of 1.2 finishes successfully, system fails to
boot, hangs right after BIOS system summary is displayed.
   * sys c: does not help
   * UDVD2 is able to detect the CDROM connected to the SB16 IDE interface.
Unfortunately only the CDROM drive that was supplied with sound card
appears to work there (MATSHITA CR-581-M), connecting other CDROMs that can
actually read modern CD-R causes the system to get stuck after memory test.
So I have to use a 1998 HITACHI CDR-8435 attached to the secondary VESA
Local Bus IDE for the installation. UDVD2 reports the SB16 CDROM drive in
IDE1 - I would expect that to be IDE2 for tertiary IDE so I may need to
play with jumpers.

I will try to sort out why the boot loader fails.

Thanks!

Dimitris


On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 5:04 PM, Don Flowers  wrote:

> Your driver is the problem this might be a case for the XCDROM.SYS driver
> combined with SHCDX86.COM - A quick way to find out download this file
>
> https://sourceforge.net/projects/xosl-ow/files/xosl-ow116/BootMedia/BootFloppy/
> and see if you have clean drive access.
>
>
> On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 9:02 AM, Dimitris Zilaskos 
> wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> Thanks for the followup. Hitting F8 reveals HIMEMX triggering this
>> problem: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2zW1ur6Z_WeSWtGNXN0NmxxaU0
>>
>> ​​I have observed that the gibberish stops given sufficient time:
>> https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2zW1ur6Z_WeVjVMalF6M2YtMTA
>>
>> Let me know what else I can try - I will recheck the floppies for
>> starters in case they went bad and check the rest of your suggestions.
>>
>> Best regards,
>>
>> Dimitris
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 1:02 PM, Jerome E. Shidel Jr. 
>> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> On Jul 18, 2016, at 7:51 AM, Dimitris Zilaskos 
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>> I have tried it please see the output attached. This is endlessly
>>> scrolling after drives are detected.
>>>
>>>
>>> https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2zW1ur6Z_WeY2tOSXpNT2g3NUJWMWx6bFZlSFBjamE3VEFr
>>>
>>> Unfortunately, that isn’t very helpful.
>>>
>>> When you boot the floppy, can you press F8 to walk through the startup?
>>> What item in the configuration
>>> causes it to crash?
>>>
>>> Jerome
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> What NetFlow Analyzer can do for you? Monitors network bandwidth and
>>> traffic
>>> patterns at an interface-level. Reveals which users, apps, and protocols
>>> are
>>> consuming the most bandwidth. Provides multi-vendor support for NetFlow,
>>> J-Flow, sFlow and other flows. Make informed decisions using capacity
>>> planning
>>> reports.http://sdm.link/zohodev2dev
>>> ___
>>> Freedos-user mailing list
>>> Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net
>>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> What NetFlow Analyzer can do for you? Monitors network bandwidth and
>> traffic
>> patterns at an interface-level. Reveals which users, apps, and protocols
>> are
>> consuming the most bandwidth. Provides multi-vendor support for NetFlow,
>> J-Flow, sFlow and other flows. Make informed decisions using capacity
>> planning
>> reports.http://sdm.link/zohodev2dev
>> ___
>> Freedos-user mailing list
>> Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net
>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> What NetFlow Analyzer can do for you? Monitors network bandwidth and
> traffic
> patterns at an interface-level. Reveals which users, apps, and protocols
> are
> consuming the most bandwidth. Provides multi-vendor support for NetFlow,
> J-Flow, sFlow and other flows. Make informed decisions using capacity
> planning
> reports.http://sdm.link/zohodev2dev
> ___
> Freedos-user mailing list
> Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
>
>
--
What NetFlow Analyzer can do for you? Monitors network bandwidth and traffic
patterns at an interface-level. Reveals which users, apps, and protocols are 
consuming the most bandwidth. Provides multi-vendor support for NetFlow, 
J-Flow, sFlow and 

Re: [Freedos-user] Which freedos on 486

[Don Flowers]

Your driver is the problem this might be a case for the XCDROM.SYS driver
combined with SHCDX86.COM - A quick way to find out download this file
https://sourceforge.net/projects/xosl-ow/files/xosl-ow116/BootMedia/BootFloppy/
and see if you have clean drive access.


On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 9:02 AM, Dimitris Zilaskos 
wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Thanks for the followup. Hitting F8 reveals HIMEMX triggering this
> problem: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2zW1ur6Z_WeSWtGNXN0NmxxaU0
>
> ​​I have observed that the gibberish stops given sufficient time:
> https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2zW1ur6Z_WeVjVMalF6M2YtMTA
>
> Let me know what else I can try - I will recheck the floppies for starters
> in case they went bad and check the rest of your suggestions.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Dimitris
>
>
> On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 1:02 PM, Jerome E. Shidel Jr. 
> wrote:
>
>>
>> On Jul 18, 2016, at 7:51 AM, Dimitris Zilaskos 
>> wrote:
>>
>> I have tried it please see the output attached. This is endlessly
>> scrolling after drives are detected.
>>
>>
>> https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2zW1ur6Z_WeY2tOSXpNT2g3NUJWMWx6bFZlSFBjamE3VEFr
>>
>> Unfortunately, that isn’t very helpful.
>>
>> When you boot the floppy, can you press F8 to walk through the startup?
>> What item in the configuration
>> causes it to crash?
>>
>> Jerome
>>
>>
>> --
>> What NetFlow Analyzer can do for you? Monitors network bandwidth and
>> traffic
>> patterns at an interface-level. Reveals which users, apps, and protocols
>> are
>> consuming the most bandwidth. Provides multi-vendor support for NetFlow,
>> J-Flow, sFlow and other flows. Make informed decisions using capacity
>> planning
>> reports.http://sdm.link/zohodev2dev
>> ___
>> Freedos-user mailing list
>> Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net
>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> What NetFlow Analyzer can do for you? Monitors network bandwidth and
> traffic
> patterns at an interface-level. Reveals which users, apps, and protocols
> are
> consuming the most bandwidth. Provides multi-vendor support for NetFlow,
> J-Flow, sFlow and other flows. Make informed decisions using capacity
> planning
> reports.http://sdm.link/zohodev2dev
> ___
> Freedos-user mailing list
> Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
>
>
--
What NetFlow Analyzer can do for you? Monitors network bandwidth and traffic
patterns at an interface-level. Reveals which users, apps, and protocols are 
consuming the most bandwidth. Provides multi-vendor support for NetFlow, 
J-Flow, sFlow and other flows. Make informed decisions using capacity planning
reports.http://sdm.link/zohodev2dev___
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Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user

Re: [Freedos-user] Which freedos on 486

[Jerome E. Shidel Jr.]

> On Jul 18, 2016, at 9:02 AM, Dimitris Zilaskos  > wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> Thanks for the followup. Hitting F8 reveals HIMEMX triggering this problem: 
> https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2zW1ur6Z_WeSWtGNXN0NmxxaU0 
> 
> 
> ​​I have observed that the gibberish stops given sufficient time: 
> https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2zW1ur6Z_WeVjVMalF6M2YtMTA 
> 
> 
> Let me know what else I can try - I will recheck the floppies for starters in 
> case they went bad and check the rest of your suggestions.
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Dimitris
> 

You could just try removing HIMEMX.SYS from the FDCONFIG.SYS file.

Also, remove the DOS=HIGH, DOS=UMB, DOSDATA=UMB.

Change SHELLHIGH to SHELL.

After doing all of that, see what happens. 

FDI needs very little memory to run. It only loads stuff HIGH so the boot media
could be used to run other (not included) diagnostic programs and recovery 
tools.

Jerome--
What NetFlow Analyzer can do for you? Monitors network bandwidth and traffic
patterns at an interface-level. Reveals which users, apps, and protocols are 
consuming the most bandwidth. Provides multi-vendor support for NetFlow, 
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Re: [Freedos-user] Which freedos on 486

[Rugxulo]

Hi again,

On Sun, Jul 17, 2016 at 7:21 PM, Dimitris Zilaskos  wrote:
>
> I am trying to install FreeDOS on my old 486.
>
> Versions 1.1 and 1.2 floppy bootdisks either hang on boot printing odd
> characters or will not detect the CDROM.

As mentioned, CD-ROM may not be well-supported by default. You may
have to find your own (legacy, proprietary, hardware-specific) DOS
driver elsewhere (on random third-party site). Unavoidable.

> System is a 486DX4-100, 32 MB RAM. VESA Local Bus controller with primary IDE
> loaded with 2 HDD - 6 GB and 4 GB, secondary IDE the CDROM. BIOS supports
> boot only from floppy and hdd.

Have you not tried Smart Boot Manager? It may let you boot from CD:

http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/about.html

> Is there a recommended strategy to get FreeDOS installed on such an ancient
> system? Did some research and tried several bootdisks that float around,
> nothing worked quite like FreeDOS 1.0.

Just FYI, there's nothing hugely special about FD 1.0, it's roughly
the same. If you want to swap out shell (FreeCOM 0.84-pre2 XMS_Swap)
or kernel (2036) for different versions, it might help (but might
not).

https://sourceforge.net/projects/freedos/files/

http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/dos/kernel/
http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/dos/command/

Not sure why HIMEMX would be failing. Also not sure how to isolate
what is going on there. Well, I'm not maintainer anyways (not sure
there is one, actively anyways).

So here's an old floppy of mine, for comparison, yet another to try,
if you really want a different alternative:

https://sites.google.com/site/rugxulo/BARE_DOS.ZIP?attredirects=0
https://sites.google.com/site/rugxulo/bare_dos.txt?attredirects=0

To be honest, floppy doesn't get a lot of attention anymore, even from
me. I would also (maybe?) point you to others of mine, but they use
HIMEMX, and you'd have to manually modify it to avoid that, so that's
probably not a good suggestion right now.

BTW, do you know exactly which version of HimemX you're using here?
3.32, perhaps??? Latest is probably here, so it might be worth trying
instead (rare chance, but anyways):

https://sourceforge.net/projects/himemx/files/v3.34/himemx.zip/download

--
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patterns at an interface-level. Reveals which users, apps, and protocols are 
consuming the most bandwidth. Provides multi-vendor support for NetFlow, 
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Re: [Freedos-user] Which freedos on 486

[Rugxulo]

Hi,

On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 8:02 AM, Dimitris Zilaskos  wrote:
>
> Thanks for the followup. Hitting F8 reveals HIMEMX triggering this problem:
>
> Let me know what else I can try - I will recheck the floppies for starters
> in case they went bad and check the rest of your suggestions.

Unless I'm reading it incorrectly, your picture indicates that your
machine has 32 MB of RAM. Is that correct?

In that case, since (strangely) HIMEMX doesn't appear to work on your
machine, you could use a different alternative (e.g. FDXMS or even
probably FDXMS286).

1). https://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/dos/xms/fdxms/
2). https://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/dos/xms/fdxms286/

--
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patterns at an interface-level. Reveals which users, apps, and protocols are 
consuming the most bandwidth. Provides multi-vendor support for NetFlow, 
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Re: [Freedos-user] Which freedos on 486

[Dimitris Zilaskos]

Hi,

Thanks for the followup. Hitting F8 reveals HIMEMX triggering this problem:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2zW1ur6Z_WeSWtGNXN0NmxxaU0

​​I have observed that the gibberish stops given sufficient time:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2zW1ur6Z_WeVjVMalF6M2YtMTA

Let me know what else I can try - I will recheck the floppies for starters
in case they went bad and check the rest of your suggestions.

Best regards,

Dimitris


On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 1:02 PM, Jerome E. Shidel Jr. 
wrote:

>
> On Jul 18, 2016, at 7:51 AM, Dimitris Zilaskos 
> wrote:
>
> I have tried it please see the output attached. This is endlessly
> scrolling after drives are detected.
>
>
> https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2zW1ur6Z_WeY2tOSXpNT2g3NUJWMWx6bFZlSFBjamE3VEFr
>
> Unfortunately, that isn’t very helpful.
>
> When you boot the floppy, can you press F8 to walk through the startup?
> What item in the configuration
> causes it to crash?
>
> Jerome
>
>
> --
> What NetFlow Analyzer can do for you? Monitors network bandwidth and
> traffic
> patterns at an interface-level. Reveals which users, apps, and protocols
> are
> consuming the most bandwidth. Provides multi-vendor support for NetFlow,
> J-Flow, sFlow and other flows. Make informed decisions using capacity
> planning
> reports.http://sdm.link/zohodev2dev
> ___
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> Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
>
>
--
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Re: [Freedos-user] Which freedos on 486

[Jerome E. Shidel Jr.]

> On Jul 18, 2016, at 7:51 AM, Dimitris Zilaskos  > wrote:
> I have tried it please see the output attached. This is endlessly scrolling 
> after drives are detected. 
> 
> https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2zW1ur6Z_WeY2tOSXpNT2g3NUJWMWx6bFZlSFBjamE3VEFr
>  
> 
Unfortunately, that isn’t very helpful.

When you boot the floppy, can you press F8 to walk through the startup?  What 
item in the configuration
causes it to crash?

Jerome--
What NetFlow Analyzer can do for you? Monitors network bandwidth and traffic
patterns at an interface-level. Reveals which users, apps, and protocols are 
consuming the most bandwidth. Provides multi-vendor support for NetFlow, 
J-Flow, sFlow and other flows. Make informed decisions using capacity planning
reports.http://sdm.link/zohodev2dev___
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Re: [Freedos-user] Which freedos on 486

[Jerome E. Shidel Jr.]

One more thing,

> On Jul 18, 2016, at 2:34 AM, Louis Santillan  wrote:
> [...]
> Install FD 1.2 beta.  `sys c:` at the end of your install.

I don’t think you need to do the ‘sys c:’ at the end of the install anymore.
It shouldn’t hurt anything if you do run it.

Now, on the other hand. If the installed system does not boot after 
installation, there is simple batch file included that will run FDI with
a special option. This will tell FDI that you have already installed
FreeDOS and it wouldn’t boot. FDI will then offer some advanced
mode options to FORCE new boot sector code. This will wipe out
any multi-boot boot loader (like GRUB) and install the FreeDOS
boot sector.

You can try this utility by booting one of the FDI install media images.
Then run MBRZAP.BAT from the command line.

Jerome
--
What NetFlow Analyzer can do for you? Monitors network bandwidth and traffic
patterns at an interface-level. Reveals which users, apps, and protocols are 
consuming the most bandwidth. Provides multi-vendor support for NetFlow, 
J-Flow, sFlow and other flows. Make informed decisions using capacity planning
reports.http://sdm.link/zohodev2dev
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[Freedos-user] Fwd: Which freedos on 486

[Dimitris Zilaskos]

Re-sending this as the attachment is caught up in moderation.

-- Forwarded message --
From: Dimitris Zilaskos 
Date: Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 11:36 AM
Subject: Re: [Freedos-user] Which freedos on 486
To: "Discussion and general questions about FreeDOS." <
freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net>


Thank you for your reply. Please see answers inline.

On Jul 18, 2016 9:34 AM, "Louis Santillan"  wrote:
>
> On Sun, Jul 17, 2016 at 5:21 PM, Dimitris Zilaskos 
wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I am trying to install FreeDOS on my old 486. Version 1.0 will boot from
> > floppy (only with himem, emm3886 with crash), detect CDROM drive (only
if
> > connected on Vesa Local bus controller, not on SB16 IDE - tertiary ide
IDE
>
> It is likely that you'll require you sound card manufacturer's CDROM
> driver to have it recognize the IDE channel there.  The VLB card is
> likely recognized natively by the BIOS and/or registering itself in
> such a way that its channels are "natively" available to the BIOS.
>
> > channel) , and install happily. However upon reboot it just hangs ,
without
> > printing anything.
>
> Are you sys'ing the C: drive after install?  Run `sys c:` after the
> install program.

I tried it, it completed successfully but there was no change.
>
> >
> >
> > Versions 1.1 and 1.2 floppy bootdisks either hang on boot printing odd
> > characters or will not detect the CDROM.
>
> Which specific bootdisks do what?

I have done a poor job recording that, sorry.
>
> >
> > System is a 486DX4-100, 32 MB RAM.VESA Local Bus controller with
primary IDE
> > loaded with 2 HDD - 6 GB and 4 GB, secondary IDE the CDROM. BIOS
supports
> > boot only from floppy and hdd. SB16 CT2290 used to handle the CDROM
drive
> > via its IDE interface - now I moved the CDROM drive to the VESA card.
> > Windows 98SE happily gets installed and works on this system.
> >
>
> Win98SE has much more capable HW detection & driver routines.  FreeDOS
> (like all DOSes) depends on the BIOS and whatevers you supply it.
>
> > Is there a recommended strategy to get FreeDOS installed on such an
ancient
> > system? Did some research and tried several bootdisks that float around,
> > nothing worked quite like FreeDOS 1.0.
>
> If you're willing to test FDI 1.2, download the beta boot floppy [0],
> and the cdrom iso [1].  Make sure the boot floppy can recognize your
> two hard drives and your CD-ROM.  Add drivers and edit
> autoexec.bat/fdconfig.sys as necessary (especially wrt to ensuring
> CD-ROM access).  Install FD 1.2 beta.  `sys c:` at the end of your
> install.
>
> [0] http://dnld.lod.bz/FDI-2016-07-17-0.pre.zip
> [1]
http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/distributions/1.2/repos/cdrom
.

I have tried it please see the output attached. This is endlessly scrolling
after drives are detected.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2zW1ur6Z_WeY2tOSXpNT2g3NUJWMWx6bFZlSFBjamE3VEFr

Cheers,

Dimitris
--
What NetFlow Analyzer can do for you? Monitors network bandwidth and traffic
patterns at an interface-level. Reveals which users, apps, and protocols are 
consuming the most bandwidth. Provides multi-vendor support for NetFlow, 
J-Flow, sFlow and other flows. Make informed decisions using capacity planning
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Re: [Freedos-user] Which freedos on 486

[Jerome E. Shidel Jr.]

> On Jul 18, 2016, at 2:34 AM, Louis Santillan  wrote:
> 
> On Sun, Jul 17, 2016 at 5:21 PM, Dimitris Zilaskos  
> wrote:
> 
> […]
> 
>> Is there a recommended strategy to get FreeDOS installed on such an ancient
>> system? Did some research and tried several bootdisks that float around,
>> nothing worked quite like FreeDOS 1.0.
> 
> If you're willing to test FDI 1.2, download the beta boot floppy [0],
> and the cdrom iso [1].  Make sure the boot floppy can recognize your
> two hard drives and your CD-ROM.  Add drivers and edit
> autoexec.bat/fdconfig.sys as necessary (especially wrt to ensuring
> CD-ROM access).  Install FD 1.2 beta.  `sys c:` at the end of your
> install.
> 
> [0] http://dnld.lod.bz/FDI-2016-07-17-0.pre.zip 
> [1] 
> http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/distributions/1.2/repos/cdrom.iso
>  
> 

Louis is correct. Once you get the FDI 1.2 Preview floppy to boot and access 
your CD-ROM,
you should be able to run the installer. If the included driver (UDVD2) does 
not work with your
drive, you to hunt down an alternate driver or even vendor specific driver for 
your hardware.
There are a couple of other drivers in the old FreeDOS 1.1 Repository. These 
have been
removed from version 1.2 for various reasons. But, you could try UIDE [2], 
XCDROM [3] or
GCDROM [4]. 

If you have a functioning non-FreeDOS boot disk (like MS-DOS 5) that can access 
your
CD-ROM, you could try booting it and then sticking in the FDI floppy and CD. 
Then manually
run the SETUP.BAT. Assuming that works, you would have problems when you reboot 
the
installed system. 

If everything else fails, you could try the the spare disk install method. It 
is mentioned in the
FDI Readme [5]. More or less, you copy everything from one of the USB images to 
a spare
hard drive root directory using another computer. The put that drive in the 
computer where you
want to install FreeDOS and run the SETUP.BAT. The spare drive should NOT be 
the drive
where you want to install FreeDOS. Normally, FDI will not permit you to install 
from and to 
the same drive. Trying to override this behavior using FDI in advanced mode is 
NOT 
recommended and can cause very unpredictable results.

Just a note on the 1.2 Repository CD-ROM [1]. Building the CD can place a heavy 
load on 
the server for several minutes. So, when packages in the 1.2 repo are updated, 
building
of this image is postponed until the end of the day. This process is completely 
automated
and is self maintaining. When packages have changed, a new repo CD will be 
automatically
created and be posted at approximately 0300-0315 EST the next morning. 
Generally, this
image is not updated at release time. But, it takes care of itself within 24 
hours.

There are static CD [6], SLIM [7], USB [8]  and Latest Floppy [9] that are 
created at release time.
these are also available on ibiblio [10]. The packages on these images are not 
updated
once a Preview or Release is issued. 

All released versions use the same version of FDI. However, the booted system 
configuration 
can vary slightly. The biggest difference is the Floppy image. Unlike the 
others, it loads
disk caching software at startup to increase the performance when running FDI 
from a 
real floppy drive. FDI itself is unchanged from one format to another. 

So, for instance, you could pull the BOOT.IMG from RepoCD [1]. Write it to a 
real floppy disk.
Grab the SLIM USB [7] image and write it to a USB stick. Then boot the floppy 
and either
just let FDI run. Or, exit FDI. Switch to the USB stick. Remove the Floppy, 
Then run 
SETUP.BAT. The result should be the same. (Although, FDI does a couple things 
differently when you run it manually.)

[2] 
http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/distributions/1.1/repos/util/uide.zip
 

[3] 
http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/distributions/1.1/repos/util/xcdrom.zip
 

[4] 
http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/distributions/1.1/repos/util/gcdrom.zip
 

[5] https://github.com/shidel/FDI/blob/master/README.md 
 or 
http://dnld.lod.bz/FDI-README.md 
[6] http://dnld.lod.bz/FDI-CD.iso  
[7] http://dnld.lod.bz/FDI-SLIM.zip  
[8] http://dnld.lod.bz/FDI-USB.zip  
[9] http://up.lod.bz/FDI/latest  
[10] 

Re: [Freedos-user] Which freedos on 486

[Louis Santillan]

On Sun, Jul 17, 2016 at 5:21 PM, Dimitris Zilaskos  wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am trying to install FreeDOS on my old 486. Version 1.0 will boot from
> floppy (only with himem, emm3886 with crash), detect CDROM drive (only if
> connected on Vesa Local bus controller, not on SB16 IDE - tertiary ide IDE

It is likely that you'll require you sound card manufacturer's CDROM
driver to have it recognize the IDE channel there.  The VLB card is
likely recognized natively by the BIOS and/or registering itself in
such a way that its channels are "natively" available to the BIOS.

> channel) , and install happily. However upon reboot it just hangs , without
> printing anything.

Are you sys'ing the C: drive after install?  Run `sys c:` after the
install program.

>
>
> Versions 1.1 and 1.2 floppy bootdisks either hang on boot printing odd
> characters or will not detect the CDROM.

Which specific bootdisks do what?

>
> System is a 486DX4-100, 32 MB RAM.VESA Local Bus controller with primary IDE
> loaded with 2 HDD - 6 GB and 4 GB, secondary IDE the CDROM. BIOS supports
> boot only from floppy and hdd. SB16 CT2290 used to handle the CDROM drive
> via its IDE interface - now I moved the CDROM drive to the VESA card.
> Windows 98SE happily gets installed and works on this system.
>

Win98SE has much more capable HW detection & driver routines.  FreeDOS
(like all DOSes) depends on the BIOS and whatevers you supply it.

> Is there a recommended strategy to get FreeDOS installed on such an ancient
> system? Did some research and tried several bootdisks that float around,
> nothing worked quite like FreeDOS 1.0.

If you're willing to test FDI 1.2, download the beta boot floppy [0],
and the cdrom iso [1].  Make sure the boot floppy can recognize your
two hard drives and your CD-ROM.  Add drivers and edit
autoexec.bat/fdconfig.sys as necessary (especially wrt to ensuring
CD-ROM access).  Install FD 1.2 beta.  `sys c:` at the end of your
install.

[0] http://dnld.lod.bz/FDI-2016-07-17-0.pre.zip
[1] 
http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/distributions/1.2/repos/cdrom.iso

--
What NetFlow Analyzer can do for you? Monitors network bandwidth and traffic
patterns at an interface-level. Reveals which users, apps, and protocols are 
consuming the most bandwidth. Provides multi-vendor support for NetFlow, 
J-Flow, sFlow and other flows. Make informed decisions using capacity planning
reports.http://sdm.link/zohodev2dev
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