Re: [Freedos-user] cannot boot installation media

[Bob Pryor via Freedos-user]

Post ls -l of your usb drive.
As Jim mentioned, you can not just copy the .img file to a formatted usb.
You have to burn the image to the drive to make it bootable.
JP


On Sat, Apr 27, 2024 at 11:27 PM Jim Hall via Freedos-user <
freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net> wrote:

> To confirm, you're trying to boot the USB installer:
>
>
> https://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/distributions/1.3/official/FD13-FullUSB.zip
>
>
>  I assume you unzipped this and wrote the image to the USB flash drive
> using the right tool, and didn't just use Copy to get the file to the
> drive? (I'm asking because that's a common mistake.)
>
> You will definitely need to use Legacy mode to boot FreeDOS. Legacy
> provides a BIOS which FreeDOS needs to run.
>
> When you booted, did you have the USB flash drive already plugged into the
> computer? Remember that DOS doesn't understand USB per se, so you can't
> plug/unplug the USB flash drive after FreeDOS has booted.
>
>
>
> On Sat, Apr 27, 2024, 10:29 PM Davi Ramos via Freedos-user <
> freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net> wrote:
>
>> So, as I said in another message, I have a computer where I wish to
>> install FreeDOS. It is a *Compaq Presario 427, Intel Pentium N3700, 4GB
>> RAM, SSD 240GB, and a 14" screen.*
>>
>> Unfortunately, I cannot get it to boot the installation media
>> .
>> I have tried numerous USB flash drives as well as an SD card. Forcing it to
>> boot takes me back to the bios screen after a few seconds. When I change
>> the boot mode to "Legacy", than the flash drive simply disappear. To the
>> bios, it's like it doesn't exist.
>>
>> I'm not sure what the etiquette of sending files to a mailing list is, so
>> I uploaded the images with all the settings available on my computer's
>> bios. Maybe that will help. I've tried a bunch of combinations but nothing
>> seems to work. I was capable of booting into antiX Linux, so it is not as
>> if the bios won't boot anything.
>>
>> These are the images of the bios: https://imgur.com/a/pw8xJBS
>>
>> Thanks!
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Re: [Freedos-user] Creating a minimal freeDOS bootable image that runs a single application

[Bob Pryor]

Hi Nico,
Are you interested in access to system hardware and files?
Or simply your editor and the files you are using on the usb drive?
And UEFI could be a problem if you are thinking of hardware not in your
control.
FreeDOS _might_ boot anywhere with a keyboard and compatible video, with
your usb as C: or A:.
Bob


On Sun, Jul 10, 2022 at 5:05 PM Nico via Freedos-user <
freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net> wrote:

> hi,
> I would like to create a minimal bootable image for a USB drive (or
> other formats, maybe even floppies, but USB is the focus) that boots
> into a single application (in my case, a custom minimal word processor,
> although freeDOS EDIT is a decent start for what I want) to create a
> kind of "typewriter on a USB drive", that will work on any hardware you
> throw it at and provide an environment for writing in. (I understand
> that this is very niche)
>
> freeDOS seemed like an ideal platform for this to me, as it seems small,
> boots very fast, runs on all kinds of PC hardware, lets me develop my
> application in C without having to go bare-metal, etc.
>
> I understand that freeDOS can be installed from a booted USB drive, but
> could I create a custom USB image that, instead of containing the
> installer, contains my small word processor which starts at boot? Or is
> freeDOS not a good base for this utility?
>
> Thanks,
> nico
>
>
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Re: [Freedos-user] ECHO vs @ECHO

[Bob Pryor]

Once you have debugged ALL your batch files you can place `CTTY NUL' before
the command(s) and `CTTY CON' after to avoid output to screen.

See below to find how to chain/call another batch file.

Place the 'CTTY CON' first so you don't forget!

You need to be sure there are no interactive commands and no errors
stopping processing between them.

I used this in the 1980's-1990's to keep my kids from messing with the
text-based menues I setup for them.

[Lost the citation for this one]
(Note that these two commands must be used in a batch file because typing
`CTTY NUL' would transfer control away from your keyboard and monitor, thus
no input from the user would be recognised when typing `CTTY CON'
afterwards.)

https://everything2.com/title/CTTY

Another difference between using CTTY and conventional redirection is that
CTTY will redirect stderr as well as stdout.

If there is an error in the batch file that prevents the whole file from
being processed, then the CTTY CON may never be executed, rendering the
system unusable.

https://web.archive.org/web/20070503163833/http://www.chips.navy.mil/archives/96_oct/file14.htm

The usual CTTY NUL command won't work since it's only good in AUTOEXEC.BAT
files, and that's too late in the process. We needed an equivalent command
in the CONFIG.SYS file.

The syntax for our CONFIG.SYS file is: SHELL C:\COMMAND.COM NUL /E:1536 /P.

The first command in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file is: 'echo off'.

We placed CTTY CON as the second command in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file which
sets the I/O back to the keyboard and monitor.

CONFIG.SYS
REM  Set environment to 1536 and direct console I/O to NUL.
SHELL=C:\COMMAND.COM NUL /E:1536 /P

AUTOEXEC.BAT
echo off
REM  Re-establish normal console I/O (i.e. change NUL to CON)
CTTY CON

This is documented back to PC-DOS 2.0. Type COMMAND /? to see that the
second optional parameter to it is a device name, used for input and output.

https://www.robvanderwoude.com/command.php

COMMAND NUL /C some.bat
[??? COMMAND NUL /C call some.bat]
[It should stay NUL until the chain/call ends, then return to CON.]

COMMAND NUL /C 
gives the same results as
CTTY NUL

CTTY CON

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/First_steps_towards_system_programming_under_MS-DOS_7/Internal_commands#3.07_CTTY_–_redirection_of_I/O_links

CTTY command affects only implicit I/O settings, but it doesn't affect
redirections, which are specified in command lines explicitly.

For example, let's consider the following piece of a batch file:

@ctty nul
copy /B Trial.dat Suit.dat
echo Press any key to exit > con
pause < con
ctty con

Here a message from the COPY command will not reach the screen, even if it
will be an error message. But the message "Press any key to exit" will be
shown, because it is directed to the CON device explicitly. The next PAUSE
command will work properly too, because its input is explicitly linked with
keyboard. This form of CTTY usage needs some caution, but opens attractive
opportunities to affect interaction with the user.

Note: Having been banned by CTTY NUL command, the STDERR messages can't be
redirected explicitly and are lost.


On Sat, Feb 26, 2022 at 10:10 AM  wrote:

> On 26 Feb 2022, 02:54, Bret Johnson wrote:
> > I've tried creating an ECHO environment variable.  With older versions
> of DOS:
> >
> >SET ECHO=ECHO OFF
> >
> > and with newer versions of DOS:
> >
> >SET ECHO=@ECHO OFF
> >
> > then at the beginning of all batch files I put a:
> >
> >%ECHO%
> >
> > That works with older versions of DOS but not newer versions.  With
> newer versions, it sees the "%" at the beginning of the line instead of the
> "@" and looks for an executable file called "@ECHO" instead of seeing the
> "@" as the "hide this line" character.
>
> > Anyway, any other ideas on how to resolve the ECHO/@ECHO issue?
>
> I don't think that this can be solved -- because there are so many
> different command interpreters out there, and every one acts at least a
> tiny little bit differently...
>
> I just tried "SET ECHO=@ECHO OFF" and "%ECHO%" in a batch file with 4DOS
> (a replacement for the COMMAND.COM command interpreter of any given DOS)
> and it worked.
>
> How about using 4DOS as a default SHELL, i.e. set SHELL= in CONFIG.SYS
> (you already rely on SET ECHO for your batch files...) and this will
> solve your issue on every DOS, regardless of the exact version.
>
> A.
>
>
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[Freedos-user] FreeDOS 1.3 qemu boot from USB

[Bob Pryor]

Hi All

A few weeks ago I used qemu and FreeDOS 1.3rc5 to fdisk and format 2
partitions on a USB3 mounted 128GB ssd.

sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdc
Disk /dev/sdc: 111.79 GiB, 120034121728 bytes, 234441644 sectors
Disk model:  SV300S37A12
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 33553920 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xa641679a

Device Boot   Start   End   Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sdc1  * 63   2104514   2104452 1G  6 FAT16
/dev/sdc2   2120580 234436544 232315965 110.8G  c W95 FAT32 (LBA)

blkid
/dev/sdc1: SEC_TYPE="msdos" LABEL_FATBOOT="FREEDOS" LABEL="FREEDOS"
UUID="2F1C-12E7" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="a641679a-01"
/dev/sdc2: LABEL_FATBOOT="FREEDOSDATA" LABEL="FREEDOSDATA" UUID="3764-12E8"
BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="a641679a-02"

It booted fine after installing rc5.

I didn't really test anything other than confirming rw access to C: and D:
and ro the cdrom after booting.

My concerns then were mounting both partitions rw in linux and booting
FreeDOS 1.3rc5 in qemu with a graphics screen.

When I saw that FreeDOS 1.3 final was available I immediately installed it
from the live cd.

First install completed but was unusable, second install was fine.

Before each install, format C: /U /Q /S from FD13LIVE.iso

FDinstall.sh
#cd /home/bob/FreeDOS/QEMU_FreeDOS
sudo qemu-system-i386 -name FreeDOS -boot d -drive
file=/dev/disk/by-id/wwn-0x504b454e574f4f44,format=raw,index=0,media=disk
-cdrom FD13LIVE.iso -display curses

FD.sh
#cd /home/bob/FreeDOS/QEMU_FreeDOS
sudo qemu-system-x86_64 -name FreeDOS -boot c \
-drive
file=/dev/disk/by-id/wwn-0x504b454e574f4f44,format=raw,index=0,media=disk \
-drive
file=/dev/disk/by-id/wwn-0x504b454e574f4f44-part2,format=raw,index=1,media=disk
\
-usb -device usb-tablet \
-display curses
#SUCCESS all 5 modes boot FreeDOS 1.3 final

So far, I have succeeded with graphics, but not with mounting C: rw in
linux.

FDSU.sh
#su -
#cd /home/bob/FreeDOS/QEMU_FreeDOS
qemu-system-x86_64 -name FreeDOS -boot c \
-drive
file=/dev/disk/by-id/wwn-0x504b454e574f4f44,format=raw,index=0,media=disk \
-drive
file=/dev/disk/by-id/wwn-0x504b454e574f4f44-part2,format=raw,index=1,media=disk
\
-usb -device usb-tablet \
-device VGA,edid=on,xres=1280,yres=1024
#SUCCESS all 5 modes boot FreeDOS 1.3 final

Note: /dev/disk/by-id/wwn* is the same, regardless of bus or port.

I'm on a 4K tv, so I have to stretch the qemu window and View|Fit to use it.

I realise it is not recommended to run qemu as root, but it was necessary
in order to use physical partitions.

The nice thing is that I can move the USB3 ssd to other computers.

One more thing, openSUSE requires the drive to be hotplugged for qemu to
find it.
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Re: [Freedos-user] Problems with FDISK?

[Bob Pryor]

Greg
Did the gparted computer partition the CF card as GPT? I believe FreeDOS
only recognizes MBR partitions.


On Mon, Jan 4, 2021 at 7:30 AM Greg Gerke via Freedos-user <
freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net> wrote:

> I was having a similar problem during an install that I think might stem
> from fdisk. I'm new to the mailing list so apologies in advance if this is
> old news.
>
> I'd purchased an IDE2CF (from startech.com) and a 16GB CF card. The CF
> card does show in the POST. I'm able to boot using the full CD install
> image and when it gets to the part about partitioning the disk it says it's
> not partitioned and asks to go ahead with it. I let it go, it asks for a
> reboot, I answer "yes".
>
> But after the reboot it comes back and asks again about partitioning.
> Granted, I'm guessing that FreeDOS and/or fdisk wasn't expecting this sort
> of hardware so maybe this is yet another wrinkle?
>
> I did take the CF card and put it on another machine and (via gparted)
> made four 2GB partitions and formatted them as FAT32. When I tried the
> reinstall again it still comes up saying that the "disk" needs to be
> partition though.
>
> I didn't try dropping to DOS and using the fdisk131 though to see if that
> makes a difference; I'll give that a shot later.
>
> Thanks,
> Greg
>
>
> ‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐
>
> On Monday, January 4th, 2021 at 6:30 AM, Eric Auer 
> wrote:
>
> > Hi Jim,
> >
> > as I am referring to the BTTR thread, "both" versions means:
> >
> > > There are currently 2 binaries delivered in the fdisk package:
> > >
> > > -   FDISK.EXE, version 1.2.1, dated 4/2003
> > > -   FDISK131.EXE, version 1.3.1, dated 11/2008
> >
> > See:
> >
> > https://www.bttr-software.de/forum/forum_entry.php?id=17440
> >
> > Recent updates in the thread says that the error probably
> >
> > got triggered by FDISK rounding (instead of rounding up)
> >
> > partition starts to the nearest (instead of next) start of
> >
> > a cylinder. So if you have partitions made with other tools
> >
> > which do not end on a cylinder boundary, our FDISK can make
> >
> > the next partition at an OVERLAPPING position.
> >
> > This also seems to depend on fdisk config file contents and
> >
> > on whether the fdisk config file exists at all. One version
> >
> > (1.3.1) just utterly fails to work on Japheth's computer.
> >
> > Regards, Eric
> >
> > Freedos-user mailing list
> >
> > Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net
> >
> > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
>
>
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Re: [Freedos-user] IDE <-> CF adapters

[Bob Pryor]

Remember FAT16 partitions are limited to 2GiB in MS/PC-DOS.
So, drives are limited to 8GiB.

Check out industrial Flash modules or DiskOnModule.
Read a little about them here: http://www.glitchwrks.com/2010/12/16/xtide

Note: Expensive compared to more modern SATA devices.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=IDE+DOM=nb_sb_noss_2
Even some IDE SSD's.



On Mon, Dec 21, 2020 at 4:48 PM Jon Brase  wrote:

> IDE <-> Compact Flash adapters seem to be popular for extending the life
> of old computing hardware, and I'm looking at replacing the magnetic
> disks on my old machines with CF.
>
> However, there seem to be issues with ensuring that the motherboard <->
> adapter <-> CF card chain is all compatible. I presume that there are
> likely a fair number of people on this list that have already done this.
> Can anyone provide recommendations as far as manufacturers/devices to
> seek or avoid?
>
> Furthermore, I use Linux to administer my DOS machines (stuff like file
> transfers to the rest of the network), and on the older of the two, the
> Linux installation is quite swap-dependent. Obviously, the
> write-lifetime limitations of flash memory are a concern here. Would it
> be best to just buy a bunch of small CF cards and replace them as they
> die, or to get a few over-large CF cards and rely on the card firmware
> to do write levelling, or to just hold on to magnetic storage until I
> can't find any more drives?
>
> Lastly, are there any good solutions for mounting multiple CF adapters
> at the front of a 5.25" drive bay? Most of the adapters I've found that
> seem to be meant for external mounting seem to either be meant to fit in
> a rear PCI slot or to fit a single adapter at the front of a 3.5" bay,
> but it seems like the dimensions are such that most adapters could fit 2
> wide x 2 high in a 5.25" bay if there were any way to mount them.
>
> Jon Brase
>
>
>
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Re: [Freedos-user] Difficulty with serial communications

[Bob Pryor]

Hi, lurking here

[When I use a CMD window on the windows 10 disk, I “>echo hello > com1”
worked fine.  However, I will try different ports on FreeDOS (My DOS
application only supports com1 & com2).]

Don't have W10 handy, so I tried Vista64 Administrative Command Prompt.

>echo hello > com1

The system can not find the file specified.

It's not finding the object of the last redirection.(com1)

>echo hello

"hello" is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable
program or batch file.

You seem to be directing the output of hello to echo, then to com1.

Unless the first ">" is part of your prompt I think you may have a syntax
error.

Just tested W7-64 and got the same responses.

Bob


On Thu, Jun 21, 2018 at 7:52 PM, Ralf Quint  wrote:

> On 6/21/2018 5:36 PM, Schoenfelder, Tim M wrote:
>
>
> I am currently away from my FreeDOS programming stuff, I could send you
> some diagnostic tool either tomorrow or over the weekend...
> Is it a known tool?
>
> To me, yes ;-) I have written it, but haven't used it in years, the last
> time to track down some issues with (PCI) add-on RS-232 cards in computers
> that came without any serial port (USB only)...
> You are very accomplished!
>
>
> Well,... I am programming and in general "playing" with computers for 42
> years this month. And almost 37 years of that with DOS, in various forms...
> ;-)
>
> And all you need to configure any serial port,if it would be in any form,
> shape or color DOS (not only FreeDOS!) compatible in the first place would
> be the MODE command.
> But it seems kind of odd to have an UEFI based PC that still has true
> RS-232 serial ports... :?
> The preferred PCs were ordered with these com ports.
>
> Are they on-board or are those ports on any kind of add-on cards? In case
> of the later, they might use most certainly non-(DOS/IBM-PC)-standard
> ports... (none of 2E8h, 3E8h, 2F8h, 3F8h)
>
> I added a PCI card to only one of the handful of PCs that I’ve tested.
> The rest (as old of PCs as I could find) already had a RS232 port built
> into the motherboard.  About half of the PCs were HP and about half were
> Dell.  The two newest PCs use a motherboard header to drive what appears to
> be a small PC board based RS232 connector (These were put on by the
> manufacturer and one of the two ports tested to work with FreeDOS at the
> manufacturer’s site).
>
> Ouch! That sounds as if you might not actually have a proper DOS
> compatible RS-232 port, with a (to DOS/DOS programs) known UART, but some
> USB-to-RS232 converter, which "kind of" usually work in Windows. Ran into
> such things when active in an Arduino user group here in town
> What kind of proof/log that those ports "work in FreeDOS" did they
> provide?
>
>
>
> I’ve installed FreeDOS and tested DOS serial communications on a number of
> different modern PCs at my company to date in relation to this project.
> Additionally, the manufacturer tested serial communication on one of the
> ports of these preferred PCs under FreeDOS.  The person who did that
> testing left the company before I got back to their support personnel about
> it though.
>
>
>
> The PCs were instead ordered with Windows 10 though.  I just checked two
> different makes/models of the UEFI PCs.  They both have standard interrupts
> assigned to serial ports.  The HP machine allows me to change the
> interrupts though.  I’ve also tried using  the mode command to configure
> the serial port.  Attempting to send ‘hello’ still errors as described in
> my initial email though.
>
> Well, that would be my next question, in regards to find out what ports
> they are using, as to what they are showing in the Windows 10 device
> manager as the port address. That would be more important than the
> interrupt.
>
>
>
> When I use a CMD window on the windows 10 disk, I “>echo hello > com1”
> worked fine.  However, I will try different ports on FreeDOS (My DOS
> application only supports com1 & com2).
>
> Again, what is important would be to find that port address in the device
> manager. COM1 in that case should show up under "Ports (COM & LPT)", the
> the properties for COM1. Unfortunately, I do not have any Windows 10
> computer around that has any serial (or parallel) ports anymore here where
> I could post some sample info as to how this could look right now...
>
> Ralf
>
>
> 
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