Re: [Freedos-user] Newbie Q - How do I get a USB flash drive operating please?
Be sure to check drive letters by actually accessing the files that you know are on them. If your system has an NTFS partition -- or ext2 or any other file system that FreeDOS can't read -- the drive letters will be off. For example, my drive C: is NTFS and D: is FAT32 (both on a hard drive). When I boot FreeDOS with a FAT 32 thumbdrive in the slot, the NTFS partition doesn't show up, the hard drive FAT partition is now C:, and the thumb drive shows up as D:. Bruce On Sun, Feb 3, 2013 at 5:48 PM, Andrew Robins arob...@fastmail.fm wrote: Thanks cordata2 and Mark - no I've tried repeated reboots while ironing out the kinks in my re-install, chiefly to get my autoexec.bat working nicely, and while the BIOS detects the USB flash drive on bootup, no letter is automatically assigned to it (although I must test the ports at the rear). USB mouse loads automatically from the same front panel, however. I've used a FAT32 format with my FreeDOS1.1 install on the internal SD card - it seemed to be something the automatic install insisted on as I had problems with an earlier FAT16 attempt - and the USB flash is 4GB, formatted to FAT32 on my Linux system (I have no Windoze to speak of now in my home, and even rawrite alternatives can be an issue). Thanks for the tip on 'rufus', but the drive is only for shuttling data files between systems. I guess I will try rewritable CD's for such a role if pain persists, though I seem to recall that older hardware don't always read the CDs so reliably. Good grief - all my fallback floppies seem to be disintegrating too - trouble at mill, Cheers -- Everyone hates slow websites. So do we. Make your web apps faster with AppDynamics Download AppDynamics Lite for free today: http://p.sf.net/sfu/appdyn_d2d_jan ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user -- Sent from my meager, humble desktop computer. -- Everyone hates slow websites. So do we. Make your web apps faster with AppDynamics Download AppDynamics Lite for free today: http://p.sf.net/sfu/appdyn_d2d_jan ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] New standard FreeDOS text editor - what it should be (voting)?
Any improvements to the current editors would be nice, but the following things don't strike me as particularly important: -- external fonts -- what language it was written in -- built-in BASIC interpreter -- calendar My biggest complaint about currently available editors are their restrictions on file size. A new editor should page the file in from disk as needed so as to avoid this restriction. It also seems like overkill for a text editor to operate in a graphics mode. Bruce On Tue, Jan 29, 2013 at 10:02 AM, Евгений Нежданов copperm...@gmail.com wrote: Hi all, dear FreeDOS community members! I please answer all to my questions: 1. You want to have in the FreeDOS distribute more powerful text editor as standard text editor? 2. These editor must be only 8086 or can be 80386 (8086 machines used only by nostalgy value by museum staffs)? 3. Editor must be written on the Pascal or BASIC language? I convinced that the C language is does not work properly with the strings. 4. Editor must be have: 4.1. Calculator; 4.2. ASCII table; 4.3. Inbuild cyrillic font; 4.4. Support to external fonts; 4.5. Support the copy/paste; 4.6. Support the block selection; 4.7. Support the line selection; 4.8. Support the paragraph formatting; 4.9. Support the change case of the selected text; 4.10. Have a inbuild BASIC language interpretter; 4.11. Calendar. 5. Editor must be work in the graphics or text mode? 6. Editor in what license type: 6.1. GNU GPL v2; 6.2. GNU GPL v3; 6.3. Apache license; 6.4. BSD license; 6.5. EULA. Please all vote of this. Previously thank for voting! -- Master Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL, ASP.NET, C# 2012, HTML5, CSS, MVC, Windows 8 Apps, JavaScript and much more. Keep your skills current with LearnDevNow - 3,200 step-by-step video tutorials by Microsoft MVPs and experts. ON SALE this month only -- learn more at: http://p.sf.net/sfu/learnnow-d2d ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user -- Sent from my meager, humble desktop computer. -- Master Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL, ASP.NET, C# 2012, HTML5, CSS, MVC, Windows 8 Apps, JavaScript and much more. Keep your skills current with LearnDevNow - 3,200 step-by-step video tutorials by Microsoft MVPs and experts. ON SALE this month only -- learn more at: http://p.sf.net/sfu/learnnow-d2d ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] New standard FreeDOS text editor - what it should be (voting)?
The usual limitation is a 64K file size. How often must you *edit* (as opposed to view) a larger file? Often enough that I want it. Bruce -- Master Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL, ASP.NET, C# 2012, HTML5, CSS, MVC, Windows 8 Apps, JavaScript and much more. Keep your skills current with LearnDevNow - 3,200 step-by-step video tutorials by Microsoft MVPs and experts. ON SALE this month only -- learn more at: http://p.sf.net/sfu/learnnow-d2d ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] Hex editor for DOS
These builds are very nice, but if it doesn't compile in Turbo C++ then it does have much use for me. Looking for a DOS binary. On Tue, Jan 15, 2013 at 2:13 PM, Rugxulo rugx...@gmail.com wrote: Hi, 2013/1/15 bloger blo...@ngs.ru: В ответ на сообщение товарища bruce.bowman tds.net, датированное 2013-01-15 02:30: Can anyone advise on one? Looking for something that can do insertions Try QuickView ver 2.90.01 Oops, forgot that one, and since you didn't mention a URL, here's one I know of: ftp://ftp.sac.sk/pub/sac/utilprog/qv291src.zip -- Master SQL Server Development, Administration, T-SQL, SSAS, SSIS, SSRS and more. Get SQL Server skills now (including 2012) with LearnDevNow - 200+ hours of step-by-step video tutorials by Microsoft MVPs and experts. SALE $99.99 this month only - learn more at: http://p.sf.net/sfu/learnmore_122512 ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user -- Sent from my meager, humble desktop computer. -- Master Java SE, Java EE, Eclipse, Spring, Hibernate, JavaScript, jQuery and much more. Keep your Java skills current with LearnJavaNow - 200+ hours of step-by-step video tutorials by Java experts. SALE $49.99 this month only -- learn more at: http://p.sf.net/sfu/learnmore_122612 ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] Hex editor for DOS
I take back what I just said. There is a binary and it seems to work fairly well. I haven't tried the block functions but if they work then this appears to be just what I need. Thank you! Bruce On Tue, Jan 15, 2013 at 8:11 PM, bruce.bowman tds.net bruce.bow...@tds.net wrote: These builds are very nice, but if it doesn't compile in Turbo C++ then it does have much use for me. Looking for a DOS binary. On Tue, Jan 15, 2013 at 2:13 PM, Rugxulo rugx...@gmail.com wrote: Hi, 2013/1/15 bloger blo...@ngs.ru: В ответ на сообщение товарища bruce.bowman tds.net, датированное 2013-01-15 02:30: Can anyone advise on one? Looking for something that can do insertions Try QuickView ver 2.90.01 Oops, forgot that one, and since you didn't mention a URL, here's one I know of: ftp://ftp.sac.sk/pub/sac/utilprog/qv291src.zip -- Master SQL Server Development, Administration, T-SQL, SSAS, SSIS, SSRS and more. Get SQL Server skills now (including 2012) with LearnDevNow - 200+ hours of step-by-step video tutorials by Microsoft MVPs and experts. SALE $99.99 this month only - learn more at: http://p.sf.net/sfu/learnmore_122512 ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user -- Sent from my meager, humble desktop computer. -- Sent from my meager, humble desktop computer. -- Master Java SE, Java EE, Eclipse, Spring, Hibernate, JavaScript, jQuery and much more. Keep your Java skills current with LearnJavaNow - 200+ hours of step-by-step video tutorials by Java experts. SALE $49.99 this month only -- learn more at: http://p.sf.net/sfu/learnmore_122612 ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
[Freedos-user] Hex editor for DOS
Can anyone advise on one? Looking for something that can do insertions of several-byte strings, not just byte replacement. Must run in FreeDOS. I already use XVI for Windoze. Bruce -- Sent from my meager, humble desktop computer. -- Master SQL Server Development, Administration, T-SQL, SSAS, SSIS, SSRS and more. Get SQL Server skills now (including 2012) with LearnDevNow - 200+ hours of step-by-step video tutorials by Microsoft MVPs and experts. SALE $99.99 this month only - learn more at: http://p.sf.net/sfu/learnmore_122512 ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] Freedos V2.0 - when will it be available?
DEBUG scripts? Wow. I miss those. The poor man's assembler. I dropped my PC Magazine subscription when it went all Windows, back in the late 90s. This *is* the FreeDOS list, right? Haven't seen a post about that in awhile. Bruce On Thu, Jan 10, 2013 at 1:03 AM, Louis Santillan lpsan...@gmail.com wrote: There's always DEBUG QBASIC. :D Remember when magazines used to actually post DEBUG QBASIC scripts. -L On Wed, Jan 9, 2013 at 9:54 PM, dmccunney dennis.mccun...@gmail.com wrote: On Thu, Jan 10, 2013 at 12:45 AM, Rugxulo rugx...@gmail.com wrote: On Wed, Jan 9, 2013 at 8:06 PM, dmccunney dennis.mccun...@gmail.com wrote: On Wed, Jan 9, 2013 at 8:35 PM, Ralf A. Quint free...@gmx.net wrote: At 05:12 PM 1/9/2013, Louis Santillan wrote: An interesting historical note, early versions of the FreeDOS kernel (DOS-C kernel) were portable to the 68k architecture. See (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Villanihttp://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Villani). Well, you noticed that in that reference, it also clearly states: This move to a completely different target platform, while losing binary compatibility with existing applications,... Which is your fundamental problem. Even if you move DOS to a new architecture, what do you run under it on that platform? There isn't anything, and there isn't a lot you can do with DOS all by itself. You'd have to port stuff to it. The easiest would be strictly conformant ANSI C stuff (or similar), just a recompile away. If you add a POSIX layer (like many do, and even PatV briefly considered for future endeavors), you get that too. So you could recompile things like gcc, vi, sed, awk, etc. Other older legacy stuff would have to run under an emulator (a la AROS). It's not as useless or impossible as it seems, but then again, I don't expect this to happen (any time soon or if ever ...). Just use Li^H^H ... POSIX (sigh). Neither useless nor impossible, but who will bother? There are simply too few folks with a need for it. It might happen a bit like Unix did, where some of the commands were programmers at Bell Labs scratching personal itches because *they* wanted a tool that did that and could create one. But while you can arguably do useful work (if you're a programmer, at least) on a bare bones Unix system with the standard utilities but *no* third party apps, DOS isn't in the same league. What can you do with *only* DOS and *no* apps? Not enough. __ Dennis https://plus.google.com/u/0/105128793974319004519 -- Master Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL, ASP.NET, C# 2012, HTML5, CSS, MVC, Windows 8 Apps, JavaScript and much more. Keep your skills current with LearnDevNow - 3,200 step-by-step video tutorials by Microsoft MVPs and experts. ON SALE this month only -- learn more at: http://p.sf.net/sfu/learnmore_122712 ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user -- Master Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL, ASP.NET, C# 2012, HTML5, CSS, MVC, Windows 8 Apps, JavaScript and much more. Keep your skills current with LearnDevNow - 3,200 step-by-step video tutorials by Microsoft MVPs and experts. ON SALE this month only -- learn more at: http://p.sf.net/sfu/learnmore_122712 ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user -- Sent from my meager, humble desktop computer. -- Master Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL, ASP.NET, C# 2012, HTML5, CSS, MVC, Windows 8 Apps, JavaScript and much more. Keep your skills current with LearnDevNow - 3,200 step-by-step video tutorials by Microsoft MVPs and experts. ON SALE this month only -- learn more at: http://p.sf.net/sfu/learnmore_122712 ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] How create a booting freddos cd live
What I sent you is not a CD image. You have to build the image first using mkBootableCD.bat, then burn the resulting file myCD.iso. It seems unlikely that this will work on a Linux machine. If you can't find a Windows machine then someone else will have to help you. Sorry, Bruce On Wed, Jan 2, 2013 at 3:56 AM, iw2evk marinellucc...@tiscali.it wrote: Hi Bruce, i've download your package, but i've a problem. I running Pupy linux lucid, so the package don't start (also if i use WINE). I've download and extract files on root, then ,with my cd editor i've burned the contents of folder Images with subfolder, but when i boot from cd nothing appear.The notebook seem dead (search on cd and hang up, no isolinux start). I suppose i due setting some command for make the cd bootable, but PBurn don't display this command. Can you create for me a zip file with right iso image (in dos add FDAPM and last DEVLOAD version) , so i can burn directly the cd? P.s. i suppose can be intersting also for others users ,and can be place in Fd distro page under description FD 1.1. LIVE CD ONLY. Thanks Roberto -- View this message in context: http://old.nabble.com/How-create-a-booting-freddos-cd-live-tp34846636p34850612.html Sent from the FreeDOS - User mailing list archive at Nabble.com. -- Master Java SE, Java EE, Eclipse, Spring, Hibernate, JavaScript, jQuery and much more. Keep your Java skills current with LearnJavaNow - 200+ hours of step-by-step video tutorials by Java experts. SALE $49.99 this month only -- learn more at: http://p.sf.net/sfu/learnmore_122612 ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user -- Sent from my meager, humble desktop computer. -- Master Java SE, Java EE, Eclipse, Spring, Hibernate, JavaScript, jQuery and much more. Keep your Java skills current with LearnJavaNow - 200+ hours of step-by-step video tutorials by Java experts. SALE $49.99 this month only -- learn more at: http://p.sf.net/sfu/learnmore_122612 ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] How create a booting freddos cd live
At its most basic, FreeDOS requires only kernel.sys and command.com. I have some utilities, but I don't have all of them, and won't attempt to guess at what you want (you can get them yourself at http://www.freedos.org/software/?cat=util). However, I have put something online for you at http://personalpages.tds.net/~ikc/dirtcheap/Roberto.zip Unzip this file to your desktop. The images folder will later become the root directory of your CD. Put whatever files you want in this folder, but don't mess with the other stuff that's already in there. Double-click on mkBootableCD.bat. It will create a CD image called myCD.iso. Burn that to a disk and you'll have a functional FreeDOS live CD. The utilities already on the floppy drive image are located in the bootdisk folder, just for safekeeping. The actual floppy drive image (which becomes drive A: on bootup) is boot.img in the ISOLINUX folder. This image can be edited using the Virtual Floppy Drive software that I've supplied (look in the VFD2.1 folder). Obviously this floppy image cannot hold more than 1.44 MB, so be judicious with what you put in there. The CD itself will show up as the Y: drive after bootup. For convenience I've also loaded a 5-MB RAMdrive as drive Z: and copied the command interpreter in there so it will run faster. The path is currently set to search drives A:, Y: and Z:. FreeDOS should also find any other physical partitions on your computer that are in a FAT format, but I'm not guaranteeing it. If you want to put other files on the RAMdrive or launch extra TSRs or generally have something else happen at bootup just edit the file WRAPPER.BAT. Loading additional device drivers, however, will require editing CONFIG.SYS then copying that (and the driver) to boot.img using VFD. For your convenience I've also placed a file in there called Making_A_Bootable_CD_V15.pdf. This pdf was captured from the web page that I told you about earlier and should provide some additional guidance if you want to do further modifications. Happy New Year, Bruce On Tue, Jan 1, 2013 at 2:39 AM, iw2evk marinellucc...@tiscali.it wrote: Hi and happy 2013. My simple request it : A cd with latest freedos 1.1. full (no source)and utily files like doslfn etc. I boot the freedos from cd , then i can load usb utility from Breth and manage programs located in USB key. Only request it's XMS and EMS . I use this configuration for programming via rs232 many kinds of transceivers (Motorola, icom etc). Thath's all.. Roberto bruce.bowman wrote: Just booting a CD and getting to a FreeDOS prompt is something I can provide without difficulty. If you want to build a custom CD of some sort using FreeDOS as the OS you can use the instructions at http://www.k1ea.com/hints/Creating_a_Bootable_DOS_CD_V%201.5.pdf Depending on what drivers etc you want to load you will have to build your own floppy disk image using Virtual Floppy Drive (VFD). Bruce On Mon, Dec 31, 2012 at 7:32 AM, iw2evk marinellucc...@tiscali.it wrote: Hi at all, whath is the right and shorth procedure for create a freedos 1.1 booting live cd? Thanks iw2evk Roberto P.s have a good 2013!! -- View this message in context: http://old.nabble.com/How-create-a-booting-freddos-cd-live-tp34846636p34846636.html Sent from the FreeDOS - User mailing list archive at Nabble.com. -- Master Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL, ASP.NET, C# 2012, HTML5, CSS, MVC, Windows 8 Apps, JavaScript and much more. Keep your skills current with LearnDevNow - 3,200 step-by-step video tutorials by Microsoft MVPs and experts. SALE $99.99 this month only -- learn more at: http://p.sf.net/sfu/learnmore_122412 ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user -- Sent from my meager, humble desktop computer. -- Master SQL Server Development, Administration, T-SQL, SSAS, SSIS, SSRS and more. Get SQL Server skills now (including 2012) with LearnDevNow - 200+ hours of step-by-step video tutorials by Microsoft MVPs and experts. SALE $99.99 this month only - learn more at: http://p.sf.net/sfu/learnmore_122512 ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user -- View this message in context: http://old.nabble.com/How-create-a-booting-freddos-cd-live-tp34846636p34848383.html Sent from the FreeDOS - User mailing list archive at Nabble.com. -- Master SQL Server Development, Administration, T-SQL, SSAS, SSIS, SSRS and more. Get SQL Server skills now
Re: [Freedos-user] How create a booting freddos cd live
I can readily make you one. I'm not going to do it tonight, though. It is new year's eve, after all. Give me 24 hours and I'll provide a link to an ISO that you can download. If you can give me some idea of what you plan to do with it I can better accommodate you. Be advised that FreeDOS will not be able to find any non-FAT partition on your computer. Bruce On Mon, Dec 31, 2012 at 7:32 AM, iw2evk marinellucc...@tiscali.it wrote: Hi at all, whath is the right and shorth procedure for create a freedos 1.1 booting live cd? Thanks iw2evk Roberto P.s have a good 2013!! -- View this message in context: http://old.nabble.com/How-create-a-booting-freddos-cd-live-tp34846636p34846636.html Sent from the FreeDOS - User mailing list archive at Nabble.com. -- Master Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL, ASP.NET, C# 2012, HTML5, CSS, MVC, Windows 8 Apps, JavaScript and much more. Keep your skills current with LearnDevNow - 3,200 step-by-step video tutorials by Microsoft MVPs and experts. SALE $99.99 this month only -- learn more at: http://p.sf.net/sfu/learnmore_122412 ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user -- Sent from my meager, humble desktop computer. -- Master SQL Server Development, Administration, T-SQL, SSAS, SSIS, SSRS and more. Get SQL Server skills now (including 2012) with LearnDevNow - 200+ hours of step-by-step video tutorials by Microsoft MVPs and experts. SALE $99.99 this month only - learn more at: http://p.sf.net/sfu/learnmore_122512___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] How create a booting freddos cd live
Just booting a CD and getting to a FreeDOS prompt is something I can provide without difficulty. If you want to build a custom CD of some sort using FreeDOS as the OS you can use the instructions at http://www.k1ea.com/hints/Creating_a_Bootable_DOS_CD_V%201.5.pdf Depending on what drivers etc you want to load you will have to build your own floppy disk image using Virtual Floppy Drive (VFD). Bruce On Mon, Dec 31, 2012 at 7:32 AM, iw2evk marinellucc...@tiscali.it wrote: Hi at all, whath is the right and shorth procedure for create a freedos 1.1 booting live cd? Thanks iw2evk Roberto P.s have a good 2013!! -- View this message in context: http://old.nabble.com/How-create-a-booting-freddos-cd-live-tp34846636p34846636.html Sent from the FreeDOS - User mailing list archive at Nabble.com. -- Master Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL, ASP.NET, C# 2012, HTML5, CSS, MVC, Windows 8 Apps, JavaScript and much more. Keep your skills current with LearnDevNow - 3,200 step-by-step video tutorials by Microsoft MVPs and experts. SALE $99.99 this month only -- learn more at: http://p.sf.net/sfu/learnmore_122412 ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user -- Sent from my meager, humble desktop computer. -- Master SQL Server Development, Administration, T-SQL, SSAS, SSIS, SSRS and more. Get SQL Server skills now (including 2012) with LearnDevNow - 200+ hours of step-by-step video tutorials by Microsoft MVPs and experts. SALE $99.99 this month only - learn more at: http://p.sf.net/sfu/learnmore_122512___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
[Freedos-user] Stack overflow
Static/global variables are allocated from the heap. Dynamic variables (like the b array in your code) are pushed on the stack. Either use compiler directives to increase stack space or make both arrays static. This is not a FreeDOS problem and should not have been posted to this list. Bruce -- Sent from my meager, humble desktop computer. -- LogMeIn Rescue: Anywhere, Anytime Remote support for IT. Free Trial Remotely access PCs and mobile devices and provide instant support Improve your efficiency, and focus on delivering more value-add services Discover what IT Professionals Know. Rescue delivers http://p.sf.net/sfu/logmein_12329d2d___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] Bruce3
I have it working very well on one machine now, using 4 separate batch files and the FREETEST utility to ensure there's adequate space to do an installation. Next step is to test the CD on some of the other machines around here to probe for hardware and/or firmware dependencies before I start sharing it with friends. 4DOS sounds like something to check into later but for now I already have the work-around in place. In fact I used to carry the 4DOS FidoNet echo on the H.O.M.E. BBS, node 1:231/710, many years ago.* Everyone on this list has been remarkably helpful and responsive. It is much appreciated on this end!! Bruce *Anyone who is interested in how I feel about the demise of FidoNet can find it at http://fidonews.ca/issues/FIDO1937.NWS On Wed, Nov 28, 2012 at 3:19 PM, Marcos Favero Florence de Barros fav...@mpcnet.com.br wrote: Bernd wrote: Maybe easiest even to use 4DOS as shell as that allows more complex scripts. Agreed. As far as I can tell, the 4DOS structures IFF / ELSEIFF / ELSE / ENDIFF and SWITCH / CASE / DEFAULT / ENDSWITCH work perfectly -- and they can be nested to many levels. I have many 4DOS BAT files with plenty of those, which I have been running every day for years without problems. In addition, the 4DOS documentation is among the best I've ever seen. Marcos -- Marcos Fávero Florence de Barros Campinas, Brazil -- Keep yourself connected to Go Parallel: INSIGHTS What's next for parallel hardware, programming and related areas? Interviews and blogs by thought leaders keep you ahead of the curve. http://goparallel.sourceforge.net ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user -- Sent from my meager, humble desktop computer. -- Keep yourself connected to Go Parallel: INSIGHTS What's next for parallel hardware, programming and related areas? Interviews and blogs by thought leaders keep you ahead of the curve. http://goparallel.sourceforge.net___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
[Freedos-user] Errorlevels
Is there a comprehensive manual or wiki available for FreeDOS commands other than what's available at http://help.fdos.org/en/index.htm ? In particular I'm interested in the return codes. Thanks, Bruce -- Keep yourself connected to Go Parallel: VERIFY Test and improve your parallel project with help from experts and peers. http://goparallel.sourceforge.net___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] Bruce3
Right now I have something like this going on. A: is the floppy bootup image. B: could be a floppy so I don't want that to be probed Y: is the drive letter assigned to the CD that I booted from. Z: is a ramdrive. for %%d in (c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x) do ( if exist %%d:\mygame\ ( cls echo. echo. echo. echo A previous installation of MYGAME was found on drive %%d: choice /B /N /C:YN /T:Y,10 Should I run the game from this location [recommended] if not errorlevel 2 ( swsubst %progdisk% %%d:\mygame\ goto finish ) ) ) REM either didn't find an installation, or didn't want to use it set progdisk = z: copy Y:\mygame\*.* %progdisk% nul :finish %progdisk% rungame FreeDOS doesn't seem to like the compound IF very much. Thoughts appreciated. Bruce On Tue, Nov 27, 2012 at 1:49 PM, Bernd Blaauw bbla...@home.nl wrote: Op 27-11-2012 6:45, bruce.bowman tds.net schreef: In fact I am essentially done with my project but still want something I can throw in a batch file to probe for writeable drive letters so I can give the user an opportunity to save a game and resume later (like they used to). DOS kernels only assign driveletters to FAT filesystems. For (emulated?) floppy drives A: and B: get assigned, thus C: till Z: get assigned to everything else. A FAT filesystem contains the NUL blockdevice, making it easy to test: @echo off IF EXIST C:\NUL echo Driveletter C: points to a FAT filesystem. Testing if you can store files on the drive is a different issue altogether, as it involves: * checking if the drive isn't full yet * checking if the drive isn't write-protected (read-only) * checking if there's enough free diskspace Bernd -- Monitor your physical, virtual and cloud infrastructure from a single web console. Get in-depth insight into apps, servers, databases, vmware, SAP, cloud infrastructure, etc. Download 30-day Free Trial. Pricing starts from $795 for 25 servers or applications! http://p.sf.net/sfu/zoho_dev2dev_nov ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user -- Sent from my meager, humble desktop computer. -- Keep yourself connected to Go Parallel: DESIGN Expert tips on starting your parallel project right. http://goparallel.sourceforge.net___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] FreeDOS bootable CD image sought
Just a few replies... I think it was written in Turbo C++ 3.0. It's been awhile. I've uninstalled it because I thought I had a backup around here. If not, I'm sure I can find images of the install disks on the web somewhere. I probably have it on floppies (ha ha). Back in the early 90s I had a shareware door business that was active in FidoNet and DoorNet before the web took over and the dialup BBS became passe'. It was called Dirt Cheap Software, and fully lived up to its name -- I didn't make any money, but it kept me out of trouble. Palletized 640x480x256 colors requires VBE 3.0. I reserved certain entries in the palette because those colors were used to draw other things on the screen. Otherwise the status bar, text, etc would be constantly changing colors as new images are put up. Total storage is about 23 MB and growing, mainly because of the number of images, and the fact that they use only RLE compression to help them display quickly. The program itself is pretty small. I have an account on the Vogons site, in hopes they would help me get my application running in DosBox. But the responses to the inquiries that I've posted there have been universally abrupt. If people persist in helping by talking over my head and acting intellectually superior then I prefer not to play in their sandbox. Back to the coal mine... Bruce On Mon, Nov 26, 2012 at 7:47 PM, Rugxulo rugx...@gmail.com wrote: Hi, Just a few answers: On Mon, Nov 26, 2012 at 4:51 PM, bruce.bowman tds.net bruce.bow...@tds.net wrote: (part one) My program is a fairly simple role-playing game. It was originally written in Turbo C for DOS, and reads/writes to disk using DOS (not BIOS) calls. (BTW, which Turbo C version? Some here still use it.) So it's not NTFS that is bothering you, nor 32-bit NTVDM, just the lack of VESA support? It runs in 256 palletized colors on a 640x480 console. I don't know jack about graphics, honestly. But IIRC the normal BIOS only supports 640x480x16 (16 colors?) or some such. It couldn't be too too hard to adjust to running in fewer colors (although not ideal) e.g. under WinXP. And/or you could just resize your .PCX image files, etc. While running, it frequently reads image files off disk, and for that reason won't fit on (or reliably run from) a floppy. I want to share it with friends such that all they have to do is insert a CD and boot up. But how much total storage do you need? More than 1.4 MB? You could uncompress it from physical floppy to RAM disk if speed is an issue. It's not that floppies are so great, but they've been around forever and have fairly good support and are fairly simple to use, modify, emulate, etc. Having said that, I've tried DosBox, just for my own purposes. My program runs very slowly in it, no matter what settings I use; notepad dosbox-0.74.conf (change memsize=16 to memsize=32 if desired) (change core=auto to core=dynamic) (try again) (revert changes or use a separate .conf for certain projects) I'll admit it can be fairly slow, but it's mostly for popular games. In fact, it's only for games, as the devs often admit. But Doom and Quake (mostly) run perfectly fine under it, etc. etc. Since your game is an actual game, you could always post on the DOSBox forum (Vogons / ZetaFleet or whatever) and bug the devs to fix it for you. Assuming you're willing to share with them also. I know you don't like emulators (who does?), but when they work, they work well. And DOSBox is small and easy to use (and GPL). and for some reason the graphics palette does not get reset properly. I've downloaded VM too, but haven't tried that yet, and for reasons already mentioned I probably won't. Well, the point is that DOSBox is a natural solution for DOS gaming. Of course, it's not a real DOS, per se, but it works pretty well. However, if you're unwilling to hack at it some more in cooperation with DOSBox devs, then you'll have to find another way. It's not that booting a CD is bad, but sometimes people like not having to reboot (and lose network access, background processes, etc.) just to play a game. The DFSee CD image that someone else recommended looks like something I can modify for my purposes. I've already booted off of that and confirmed that the game runs well...here at home, anyway. And it seems to detect and do i/o on my FAT32 partition just fine. NTFS? I'll worry about that later. The problem with NTFS is moreso in the overhead, both memory and storage, not to mention its inherent security that is underdocumented on purpose (and of course several internal revisions). XP is the last Windows to boot natively off of a FAT file system. Newer ones only boot off of NTFS, but at least those newer ones have built-in capabilities to resize the main NTFS partition, if desired (which XP lacks, sadly, hence the need for GParted). Floppy disks? I realizing I'm backtracking by using DOS instead
Re: [Freedos-user] FreeDOS bootable CD image sought
It's true that a lot of developers just quit supporting their products. I once figured out how much I was making for all the time I was spending on Dirt Cheap Software. It came to about 15 cents per hour. But I wasn't doing it for the money -- it was more of a hobby than a business. I still have a file in my desk of the registration forms that some BBS sysops sent in, and it remains gratifying to know that somebody found my efforts to be worthwhile. Bruce On Tue, Nov 27, 2012 at 3:09 PM, Chris Evans aaxiomfin...@gmail.com wrote: The possible reason you didn't make any money off our shareware biz is that people back then were Not sure if they would receive the full version for the money sent, scams -- Keep yourself connected to Go Parallel: DESIGN Expert tips on starting your parallel project right. http://goparallel.sourceforge.net___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] Bruce3
My batch file seems to have two problems, one of which is that FreeDOS does not allow compound IFs and/or FOR nesting of any kind. I can work around that, but the second problem is the one that I'm really struggling with. Some background: When I boot up using my new CD, the floppy drive image is assigned drive A:. The CD itself is assigned drive Y:. My computer has one physical hard drive with two partitions, the first being NTFS and the second FAT32. The FAT32 partition gets assigned drive letter C: while NTFS does not get a drive letter (of course). I also load a USB driver which assigns my thumb drive with the letter E: So far, so good. So I'm trying to use some of the code below in a batch file to see which drives are present. Things go well until we try the following: IF EXIST D:\NUL ECHO Y Error reading from Drive D: DOS area: unknown command given to driver The same thing happens when I use WHICHFAT D:. I've read about similar problems happening using FreeDOS within DOSEMU in Linux. All versions of MS-DOS and the command line interpreter within Windows fail gracefully (i.e.: they don't report a drive), even for DOS 6.22. Any installation program really needs to know three things: -- Does a drive exist -- Is it writeable -- How much free space is present. If I can't meet these objectives then I'm pretty much at an impasse. If anyone can offer an alternative please advise. Thanks, Bruce On Tue, Nov 27, 2012 at 2:30 PM, bruce.bowman tds.net bruce.bow...@tds.netwrote: Right now I have something like this going on. A: is the floppy bootup image. B: could be a floppy so I don't want that to be probed Y: is the drive letter assigned to the CD that I booted from. Z: is a ramdrive. for %%d in (c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x) do ( if exist %%d:\mygame\ ( cls echo. echo. echo. echo A previous installation of MYGAME was found on drive %%d: choice /B /N /C:YN /T:Y,10 Should I run the game from this location [recommended] if not errorlevel 2 ( swsubst %progdisk% %%d:\mygame\ goto finish ) ) ) REM either didn't find an installation, or didn't want to use it set progdisk = z: copy Y:\mygame\*.* %progdisk% nul :finish %progdisk% rungame FreeDOS doesn't seem to like the compound IF very much. Thoughts appreciated. Bruce On Tue, Nov 27, 2012 at 1:49 PM, Bernd Blaauw bbla...@home.nl wrote: Op 27-11-2012 6:45, bruce.bowman tds.net schreef: In fact I am essentially done with my project but still want something I can throw in a batch file to probe for writeable drive letters so I can give the user an opportunity to save a game and resume later (like they used to). DOS kernels only assign driveletters to FAT filesystems. For (emulated?) floppy drives A: and B: get assigned, thus C: till Z: get assigned to everything else. A FAT filesystem contains the NUL blockdevice, making it easy to test: @echo off IF EXIST C:\NUL echo Driveletter C: points to a FAT filesystem. Testing if you can store files on the drive is a different issue altogether, as it involves: * checking if the drive isn't full yet * checking if the drive isn't write-protected (read-only) * checking if there's enough free diskspace Bernd -- Monitor your physical, virtual and cloud infrastructure from a single web console. Get in-depth insight into apps, servers, databases, vmware, SAP, cloud infrastructure, etc. Download 30-day Free Trial. Pricing starts from $795 for 25 servers or applications! http://p.sf.net/sfu/zoho_dev2dev_nov ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user -- Sent from my meager, humble desktop computer. -- Sent from my meager, humble desktop computer. -- Keep yourself connected to Go Parallel: INSIGHTS What's next for parallel hardware, programming and related areas? Interviews and blogs by thought leaders keep you ahead of the curve. http://goparallel.sourceforge.net___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] Bruce3
One correction: on my XP machine using the CMD command interpreter, whichfat reports every existing drive as FAT16. I guess that kinda makes sense as it's the native format for DOS and I guess Windows converts file formats before doing disk i/o. Booting under DOS 6.22, whichfat reports FAT drive formats correctly and reports NTFS drives as missing. I haven't tried 7.1 yet. Bruce On Tue, Nov 27, 2012 at 7:43 PM, bruce.bowman tds.net bruce.bow...@tds.netwrote: My batch file seems to have two problems, one of which is that FreeDOS does not allow compound IFs and/or FOR nesting of any kind. I can work around that, but the second problem is the one that I'm really struggling with. Some background: When I boot up using my new CD, the floppy drive image is assigned drive A:. The CD itself is assigned drive Y:. My computer has one physical hard drive with two partitions, the first being NTFS and the second FAT32. The FAT32 partition gets assigned drive letter C: while NTFS does not get a drive letter (of course). I also load a USB driver which assigns my thumb drive with the letter E: So far, so good. So I'm trying to use some of the code below in a batch file to see which drives are present. Things go well until we try the following: IF EXIST D:\NUL ECHO Y Error reading from Drive D: DOS area: unknown command given to driver The same thing happens when I use WHICHFAT D:. I've read about similar problems happening using FreeDOS within DOSEMU in Linux. All versions of MS-DOS and the command line interpreter within Windows fail gracefully (i.e.: they don't report a drive), even for DOS 6.22. Any installation program really needs to know three things: -- Does a drive exist -- Is it writeable -- How much free space is present. If I can't meet these objectives then I'm pretty much at an impasse. If anyone can offer an alternative please advise. Thanks, Bruce On Tue, Nov 27, 2012 at 2:30 PM, bruce.bowman tds.net bruce.bow...@tds.net wrote: Right now I have something like this going on. A: is the floppy bootup image. B: could be a floppy so I don't want that to be probed Y: is the drive letter assigned to the CD that I booted from. Z: is a ramdrive. for %%d in (c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x) do ( if exist %%d:\mygame\ ( cls echo. echo. echo. echo A previous installation of MYGAME was found on drive %%d: choice /B /N /C:YN /T:Y,10 Should I run the game from this location [recommended] if not errorlevel 2 ( swsubst %progdisk% %%d:\mygame\ goto finish ) ) ) REM either didn't find an installation, or didn't want to use it set progdisk = z: copy Y:\mygame\*.* %progdisk% nul :finish %progdisk% rungame FreeDOS doesn't seem to like the compound IF very much. Thoughts appreciated. Bruce On Tue, Nov 27, 2012 at 1:49 PM, Bernd Blaauw bbla...@home.nl wrote: Op 27-11-2012 6:45, bruce.bowman tds.net schreef: In fact I am essentially done with my project but still want something I can throw in a batch file to probe for writeable drive letters so I can give the user an opportunity to save a game and resume later (like they used to). DOS kernels only assign driveletters to FAT filesystems. For (emulated?) floppy drives A: and B: get assigned, thus C: till Z: get assigned to everything else. A FAT filesystem contains the NUL blockdevice, making it easy to test: @echo off IF EXIST C:\NUL echo Driveletter C: points to a FAT filesystem. Testing if you can store files on the drive is a different issue altogether, as it involves: * checking if the drive isn't full yet * checking if the drive isn't write-protected (read-only) * checking if there's enough free diskspace Bernd -- Monitor your physical, virtual and cloud infrastructure from a single web console. Get in-depth insight into apps, servers, databases, vmware, SAP, cloud infrastructure, etc. Download 30-day Free Trial. Pricing starts from $795 for 25 servers or applications! http://p.sf.net/sfu/zoho_dev2dev_nov ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user -- Sent from my meager, humble desktop computer. -- Sent from my meager, humble desktop computer. -- Sent from my meager, humble desktop computer. -- Keep yourself connected to Go Parallel: INSIGHTS What's next for parallel hardware, programming and related areas? Interviews and blogs by thought leaders keep you ahead of the curve. http://goparallel.sourceforge.net___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] Bruce3
And clarification: I get the dreaded (A)bort (I)gnore (R)etry (F)ail options along with the error message. Bruce On Tue, Nov 27, 2012 at 7:50 PM, bruce.bowman tds.net bruce.bow...@tds.netwrote: One correction: on my XP machine using the CMD command interpreter, whichfat reports every existing drive as FAT16. I guess that kinda makes sense as it's the native format for DOS and I guess Windows converts file formats before doing disk i/o. Booting under DOS 6.22, whichfat reports FAT drive formats correctly and reports NTFS drives as missing. I haven't tried 7.1 yet. Bruce On Tue, Nov 27, 2012 at 7:43 PM, bruce.bowman tds.net bruce.bow...@tds.net wrote: My batch file seems to have two problems, one of which is that FreeDOS does not allow compound IFs and/or FOR nesting of any kind. I can work around that, but the second problem is the one that I'm really struggling with. Some background: When I boot up using my new CD, the floppy drive image is assigned drive A:. The CD itself is assigned drive Y:. My computer has one physical hard drive with two partitions, the first being NTFS and the second FAT32. The FAT32 partition gets assigned drive letter C: while NTFS does not get a drive letter (of course). I also load a USB driver which assigns my thumb drive with the letter E: So far, so good. So I'm trying to use some of the code below in a batch file to see which drives are present. Things go well until we try the following: IF EXIST D:\NUL ECHO Y Error reading from Drive D: DOS area: unknown command given to driver The same thing happens when I use WHICHFAT D:. I've read about similar problems happening using FreeDOS within DOSEMU in Linux. All versions of MS-DOS and the command line interpreter within Windows fail gracefully (i.e.: they don't report a drive), even for DOS 6.22. Any installation program really needs to know three things: -- Does a drive exist -- Is it writeable -- How much free space is present. If I can't meet these objectives then I'm pretty much at an impasse. If anyone can offer an alternative please advise. Thanks, Bruce On Tue, Nov 27, 2012 at 2:30 PM, bruce.bowman tds.net bruce.bow...@tds.net wrote: Right now I have something like this going on. A: is the floppy bootup image. B: could be a floppy so I don't want that to be probed Y: is the drive letter assigned to the CD that I booted from. Z: is a ramdrive. for %%d in (c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x) do ( if exist %%d:\mygame\ ( cls echo. echo. echo. echo A previous installation of MYGAME was found on drive %%d: choice /B /N /C:YN /T:Y,10 Should I run the game from this location [recommended] if not errorlevel 2 ( swsubst %progdisk% %%d:\mygame\ goto finish ) ) ) REM either didn't find an installation, or didn't want to use it set progdisk = z: copy Y:\mygame\*.* %progdisk% nul :finish %progdisk% rungame FreeDOS doesn't seem to like the compound IF very much. Thoughts appreciated. Bruce On Tue, Nov 27, 2012 at 1:49 PM, Bernd Blaauw bbla...@home.nl wrote: Op 27-11-2012 6:45, bruce.bowman tds.net schreef: In fact I am essentially done with my project but still want something I can throw in a batch file to probe for writeable drive letters so I can give the user an opportunity to save a game and resume later (like they used to). DOS kernels only assign driveletters to FAT filesystems. For (emulated?) floppy drives A: and B: get assigned, thus C: till Z: get assigned to everything else. A FAT filesystem contains the NUL blockdevice, making it easy to test: @echo off IF EXIST C:\NUL echo Driveletter C: points to a FAT filesystem. Testing if you can store files on the drive is a different issue altogether, as it involves: * checking if the drive isn't full yet * checking if the drive isn't write-protected (read-only) * checking if there's enough free diskspace Bernd -- Monitor your physical, virtual and cloud infrastructure from a single web console. Get in-depth insight into apps, servers, databases, vmware, SAP, cloud infrastructure, etc. Download 30-day Free Trial. Pricing starts from $795 for 25 servers or applications! http://p.sf.net/sfu/zoho_dev2dev_nov ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user -- Sent from my meager, humble desktop computer. -- Sent from my meager, humble desktop computer. -- Sent from my meager, humble desktop computer. -- Sent from my meager, humble desktop computer. -- Keep yourself connected to Go Parallel: INSIGHTS What's next for parallel hardware, programming and related areas? Interviews and blogs
Re: [Freedos-user] Bruce3
for %%d in (c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x) do ( for %%d in (c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x) do call blah1.bat if exist %%d:\mygame\ ( if exist %%d:\mygame\ call blah2.bat Yeah, that's pretty much where I was headed. Perhaps you could run a subshell (%comspec% /f /c blah.bat) for that. /f should auto-fail. That could work. But usually you should (mostly) be able to know in advance what drive letters you are choosing, and save that info for later. Having booted from a CD with an OS that probably can't read all his partitions, we can't assume the user knows what the new drive letters are going to be ahead of time. Wanting this process to be as transparent as possible, while probing for a writeable partition I'll have to store whatever information I can collect in the environment. Any installation program really needs to know three things: -- Does a drive exist If all your active drives have known volume labels, you can use Eric's FINDDISK. -- Is it writeable Dunno REM c:\filename was a way to probe this in MS-DOS, nbt sure about FreeDOS. -- How much free space is present. Eric's FREETEST. Who is Eric and where can these utilities be obtained? Thanks, Bruce -- Keep yourself connected to Go Parallel: INSIGHTS What's next for parallel hardware, programming and related areas? Interviews and blogs by thought leaders keep you ahead of the curve. http://goparallel.sourceforge.net___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] Bruce3
I've not written or edited a lot of files using the command line in XP but it seems to be able to read and write to any supported file system without problems. Hard to say exactly what is handling that but I seriously doubt I'll be calling any interrupts in my batch program. :^) Thanks again for your thoughtful replies and responsiveness. Bruce On Tue, Nov 27, 2012 at 8:05 PM, Rugxulo rugx...@gmail.com wrote: Hi, On Tue, Nov 27, 2012 at 6:50 PM, bruce.bowman tds.net bruce.bow...@tds.net wrote: One correction: on my XP machine using the CMD command interpreter, whichfat reports every existing drive as FAT16. I guess that kinda makes sense as it's the native format for DOS and I guess Windows converts file formats before doing disk i/o. No. I forgot that XP is fairly braindead. It's not a real DOS, it's just a buggy VM (NTVDM). It's not totally reliable, sadly. DOS is dead to them, so they don't fix bugs or even maintain the code. XP fails on a lot of FAT32 stuff, but I don't honestly know offhand what WHICHFAT tries to do. Presumably you can read the FAT partition directly (but maybe? Windows forbids it?). Or maybe it's checking the volume type, but I forget which int 21h call that is. (I guess I should look, but the point is that XP is unreliable for some DOS things, though admittedly nice when it does work.) P.S. Not 100% what I was thinking of, but check this: http://www.delorie.com/djgpp/doc/rbinter/id/23/32.html -- Keep yourself connected to Go Parallel: INSIGHTS What's next for parallel hardware, programming and related areas? Interviews and blogs by thought leaders keep you ahead of the curve. http://goparallel.sourceforge.net ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user -- Sent from my meager, humble desktop computer. -- Keep yourself connected to Go Parallel: INSIGHTS What's next for parallel hardware, programming and related areas? Interviews and blogs by thought leaders keep you ahead of the curve. http://goparallel.sourceforge.net___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] Bruce3
I'm not inclined to bash XP too much. Windoze ME was the Vista of its time. You know what I'm talking about. If Linux had someone doing marketing -- and bundling it with new PCs -- that's what everyone would be running today. Don't get me started. :^) Bruce On Tue, Nov 27, 2012 at 8:29 PM, Rugxulo rugx...@gmail.com wrote: Hi, On Tue, Nov 27, 2012 at 7:25 PM, bruce.bowman tds.net bruce.bow...@tds.net wrote: I've not written or edited a lot of files using the command line in XP but it seems to be able to read and write to any supported file system without problems. Hard to say exactly what is handling that but I seriously doubt I'll be calling any interrupts in my batch program. :^) I know, but it's important to know (barely). Win2000 was the first NT-based OS to support FAT32 and the Win9x LFN API (int 21h, 71xxh). NT 4.0 (1996) didn't. So my point is that XP (based upon 2000 but for now also for home users) was hacked together somewhat roughly to replace WinME, and after a while, MS stopped caring about fixing bugs. So we're left with buggy and incomplete DOS emulation in some ways. :-/ -- Keep yourself connected to Go Parallel: INSIGHTS What's next for parallel hardware, programming and related areas? Interviews and blogs by thought leaders keep you ahead of the curve. http://goparallel.sourceforge.net ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user -- Sent from my meager, humble desktop computer. -- Keep yourself connected to Go Parallel: INSIGHTS What's next for parallel hardware, programming and related areas? Interviews and blogs by thought leaders keep you ahead of the curve. http://goparallel.sourceforge.net___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] Bruce3
I'll give it a try later, thanks. It's important to understand that once I boot into FreeDOS there is no physical disk partition corresponding to drive D:. My FAT32 partition (which is drive D: under XP) gets mapped to drive C: in FreeDOS. However, I do have a drive E:, which is the USB thumbdrive. Could it be that the FreeDOS kernel sees a drive E: and therefore expects a drive D: to exist too? Beats me... What I mainly need things to do in this situation is to fail gracefully. Thanks again for the utility and I'll let you know what happens. Bruce On Tue, Nov 27, 2012 at 8:35 PM, Bret Johnson bretj...@juno.com wrote: You can look at the output of my DRIVES program for the D: drive when using FreeDOS. It will probably indicate that something is wrong in one or more of DOS's internal tables. DRIVES is not intended to be used in batch files, but simply displays some information about all of the drive letters from DOS's perspective. It's usually a pretty good troubleshooting tool for situations like this. DRIVES is one of the programs included in my USB driver package available here: http://bretjohnson.us -- Keep yourself connected to Go Parallel: INSIGHTS What's next for parallel hardware, programming and related areas? Interviews and blogs by thought leaders keep you ahead of the curve. http://goparallel.sourceforge.net ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user -- Sent from my meager, humble desktop computer. -- Keep yourself connected to Go Parallel: INSIGHTS What's next for parallel hardware, programming and related areas? Interviews and blogs by thought leaders keep you ahead of the curve. http://goparallel.sourceforge.net___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] FreeDOS bootable CD image sought
Yeah, I still have the source. I get an itch to work on it every few years. DosBox ain't gonna happen. If I decide to go the emulator route it will be VM. Bruce On Tue, Nov 27, 2012 at 8:39 PM, Rugxulo rugx...@gmail.com wrote: Hi, On Tue, Nov 27, 2012 at 2:01 PM, bruce.bowman tds.net bruce.bow...@tds.net wrote: I think it was written in Turbo C++ 3.0. It's been awhile. I've uninstalled it because I thought I had a backup around here. If not, I'm sure I can find images of the install disks on the web somewhere. I probably have it on floppies (ha ha). Embarcadero has Turbo C++ 1.01, but it's only freeware to registered users of their other (newer) products, oddly enough. And you can't redistribute it. And you've gotta give them lots of personal info for free registration. Long story short: OpenWatcom is open source and supports 16-bit DOS targets and C++, so that's a better bet. http://www.openwatcom.org/index.php/Main_Page http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/devel/c/openwatcom/1.9/ Back in the early 90s I had a shareware door business that was active in FidoNet and DoorNet before the web took over and the dialup BBS became passe'. It was called Dirt Cheap Software, and fully lived up to its name -- I didn't make any money, but it kept me out of trouble. I was pretty young in those days, so I only used BBSes for about two years or so before the Internet became ubiquitous. They were cool, though, definitely. Palletized 640x480x256 colors requires VBE 3.0. I reserved certain entries in the palette because those colors were used to draw other things on the screen. Otherwise the status bar, text, etc would be constantly changing colors as new images are put up. I don't know, I'm no graphics guru. Do you still have sources? If so, at least in theory you could fix it. (Or binary patch, heheh.) Total storage is about 23 MB and growing, mainly because of the number of images, and the fact that they use only RLE compression to help them display quickly. The program itself is pretty small. Yikes. I have an account on the Vogons site, in hopes they would help me get my application running in DosBox. But the responses to the inquiries that I've posted there have been universally abrupt. If people persist in helping by talking over my head and acting intellectually superior then I prefer not to play in their sandbox. I found the thread. It's not that abrupt. I think they might help more if you give them more details. http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewtopic.php?t=33987 1). Try changing the video card setting in the dosbox-0.74.conf file (or similar copy). Mix and match, play with it a bit. Describe to them exactly what it's doing and what it should be doing. Take a screenshot (esp. since DOSBox supports this natively, Ctrl-F5, unless I'm remembering incorrectly, then check your Program Files\dosbox\captures subdir or whatever). Extra credit for screenshots of physical hardware running the game correctly. 2). Upload your game somewhere so they can test or debug it. (I know it's big, but ... if at all possible ) 3). Ask them what specific files are needed (and where to get) S3 + BIOS add-ons and how to test it. -- Keep yourself connected to Go Parallel: INSIGHTS What's next for parallel hardware, programming and related areas? Interviews and blogs by thought leaders keep you ahead of the curve. http://goparallel.sourceforge.net ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user -- Sent from my meager, humble desktop computer. -- Keep yourself connected to Go Parallel: INSIGHTS What's next for parallel hardware, programming and related areas? Interviews and blogs by thought leaders keep you ahead of the curve. http://goparallel.sourceforge.net___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] Bruce3
Bret -- I booted up my CD and ran your DRIVES program. Here's the output in a small monospaced font, I hope you can read it: DRIVES 0.01, (C) 2007-2009, Bret E. Johnson. Shows details about all available disk drives in DOS. ATTRIBS Í A D N N S C PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES r e e P J U DRIVE C i t t h O B DEVICE DRVR PARAMETER E NUM BYTES v H w y I S Í BLOCK S FAT ROOT PER NUM APPROX e d k s N T ADDRESS UNT ADDRESS d TYPE ENTRY SECT SECTORS CAPACITY Í Í Í ÍÍÍ Í Í Í Í Í Í A . . Y . . 0070:060E 0 00D9:19FA Y FAT12 224 512 0B21h 1458 kB B . . Y . . 0070:060E 1 00D9:1A37 . ? 0 0 Unknown Unknown C . . Y . . 0070:060E 2 00D9:1A74 Y FAT32 0 512 090A8A62h75 GB D . . Y . . 0070:060E 3 00D9:1AB1 . ? 0 0 Unknown Unknown E . . Y . . 08E5: 0 0A3F: Y FAT32 0 512 00EFFFE0h 8051 MB F . . . . . . ... : . . . . . G . . . . . . ... : . . . . . etc... X . . . . . . ... : . . . . . Y Y Y Y . . . ... : . . . . . Z . . Y . . 1A88: 0 1A88:012C Y FAT16 512 512 00019004h 52430 kB Something is definitely wrong with nonexistent drive D:, and I suspected the source to be one or both of the USB device drivers usbaspi.sys or di1000dd.sys. These drivers were the ones recommended by the DFSee live CD that I've been hacking for this project. Just for kicks, I disabled BOTH of the drivers. Not only did that take care of the original problem, but FreeDOS still found the thumbdrive -- this time at drive D: DRIVES 0.01, (C) 2007-2009, Bret E. Johnson. Shows details about all available disk drives in DOS. ATTRIBS Í A D N N S C PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES r e e P J U DRIVE C i t t h O B DEVICE DRVR PARAMETER E NUM BYTES v H w y I S Í BLOCK S FAT ROOT PER NUM APPROX e d k s N T ADDRESS UNT ADDRESS d TYPE ENTRY SECT SECTORS CAPACITY Í Í Í ÍÍÍ Í Í Í Í Í Í A . . Y . . 0070:060E 0 00D9:19FA Y FAT12 224 512 0B21h 1458 kB B . . Y . . 0070:060E 1 00D9:1A37 . ? 0 0 Unknown Unknown C . . Y . . 0070:060E 2 00D9:1A74 Y FAT32 0 512 090A8A62h75 GB D . . Y . . 0070:060E 3 00D9:1AB1 Y FAT32 0 512 00EFFFE0h 8051 MB E . . . . . . ... : . . . . . F . . . . . . ... : . . . . . etc... X . . . . . . ... : . . . . . Y Y Y Y . . . ... : . . . . . Z . . Y . . 163A: 0 163A:012C Y FAT16 512 512 00019004h 52430 kB As an added benefit I'm also getting better mouse behavior. :^/ As the author of this program you apparently have some expertise regarding USB drives and FreeDOS. If you could advise me as to whether loading either of these drivers (or some other driver) would provide the most stable configuration it would be appreciated on this end. For now, I'm leaving both of them disabled. Thanks for your help! Bruce On Tue, Nov 27, 2012 at 10:56 PM, bruce.bowman tds.net bruce.bow...@tds.net wrote: I'll give it a try later, thanks. It's important to understand that once I boot into FreeDOS there is no physical disk partition corresponding to drive D:. My FAT32 partition (which is drive D: under XP) gets mapped to drive C: in FreeDOS. However, I do have a drive E:, which is the USB thumbdrive. Could it be that the FreeDOS kernel sees a drive E: and therefore expects a drive D: to exist too? Beats me... What I mainly need things to do in this situation is to fail gracefully. Thanks again for the utility and I'll let you know what happens. Bruce On Tue, Nov 27, 2012 at 8:35 PM, Bret Johnson bretj...@juno.com wrote: You can look at the output of my DRIVES program for the D: drive when using FreeDOS. It will probably indicate that something is wrong in one or more of DOS's internal tables. DRIVES is not intended to be used in batch files, but simply displays some information about all of the drive letters from DOS's perspective. It's usually a pretty good troubleshooting tool for situations like this. DRIVES is one of the programs included in my USB driver package available here: http://bretjohnson.us -- Keep yourself connected to Go Parallel: INSIGHTS What's next for parallel hardware, programming and related areas? Interviews and blogs
Re: [Freedos-user] FreeDOS bootable CD image sought
Well, I've been working on this awhile and have learned a lot. And most of what I've learned is what others have been trying to tell me. All the bootable CDs that I've seen have contained a floppy disk image. This is what actually boots. During the boot process the embedded AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS reload the drive and assigns it a DOS drive letter. Only after that's done does the full content of the CD become accessible to the OS. MagicISO seems to do well with editing the CD image but not the FD image. To get this to autorun, I have to be able to edit AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS. So MagicISO is not the answer. I've done a full scan and detected no sign of the trojan that someone warned me about. Nonetheless, I have removed this software from my computer. I did a full backup and saved my system state last weekend, so I'm not too worried about it. I'm now starting all over using the instructions found here: http://www.k1ea.com/hints/Creating_a_Bootable_DOS_CD_V%201.5.pdf I would like to do this using FreeDOS instead of DOS 7.1, though. The more I play with FreeDOS the more I like its features. What actually happens if I install FreeDOS on my Windows computer? I don't want to do that and end up with a machine that won't boot XP. Thanks, Bruce On Mon, Nov 26, 2012 at 1:35 AM, bruce.bowman tds.net bruce.bow...@tds.netwrote: I'll try to answer some of the questions here. My program is a fairly simple role-playing game. It was originally written in Turbo C for DOS, and reads/writes to disk using DOS (not BIOS) calls. It runs in 256 palletized colors on a 640x480 console. While running, it frequently reads image files off disk, and for that reason won't fit on (or reliably run from) a floppy. I want to share it with friends such that all they have to do is insert a CD and boot up. Asking them to load emulators, other shells or OSs, or otherwise follow intimidating instructions won't meet my objectives. Having said that, I've tried DosBox, just for my own purposes. My program runs very slowly in it, no matter what settings I use; and for some reason the graphics palette does not get reset properly. I've downloaded VM too, but haven't tried that yet, and for reasons already mentioned I probably won't. The DFSee CD image that someone else recommended looks like something I can modify for my purposes. I've already booted off of that and confirmed that the game runs well...here at home, anyway. And it seems to detect and do i/o on my FAT32 partition just fine. NTFS? I'll worry about that later. Floppy disks? I realizing I'm backtracking by using DOS instead of a GUI, but am loath to go all the way to 80s technology. A bootable thumb drive, though, intrigues me -- because I can write to it. But how do you make it show up? If I stick one in a USB port and restart, my BIOS menu doesn't show it as a drive. A boot image that requires a loader before it's seen by the BIOS sounds like a real chicken-or-egg problem. Thanks to everyone for your suggestions. If I go silent and unresponsive for a day or two it's because I'm either modifying that CD image...or maybe even doing something in real life. Regards, Bruce On Sun, Nov 25, 2012 at 2:29 PM, Rugxulo rugx...@gmail.com wrote: Hi, Just for clarity, since I am not exactly sure what you meant, On Sat, Nov 24, 2012 at 9:28 PM, bruce.bowman tds.net bruce.bow...@tds.net wrote: I have an old DOS program that I wrote and still want to run, but it uses VESA 3.0 SVGA graphics, which are not [fully] supported by later versions of Windoze.* To make matters worse, the program writes to disk during operation, and no modern computer has FAT16 partitions anymore. Who is the target of this program? You? Other? WinXP only? Native DOS? Or just anybody with a PC? IIRC, VESA 3 didn't add much to the standard (refresh rates?). Is that what you meant? Or did you really mean LFB (VESA 2)? Does your program *have* to run atop FAT? Does it write to the hard disk directly? Or just it just use normal DOS (file) calls? Regarding porting to DirectX (or SDL) or whatever, what was the app written in? You could probably switch pretty easily if you used Turbo Pascal or Turbo C. Heck, even Allegro would probably simplify things (if you still wanted partial DOS support). I'm not exactly sure why you seem to want to run natively instead of emulated. DOSBox supports VESA, and VirtualBox can (sometimes) work (VT-X!). DOSEMU ain't too shabby either for gfx. But if you're trying to run under WinXP explicitly (or worse, anything newer, sigh), you're probably barking up the wrong tree. :-( -- Monitor your physical, virtual and cloud infrastructure from a single web console. Get in-depth insight into apps, servers, databases, vmware, SAP, cloud infrastructure, etc. Download 30-day Free Trial. Pricing starts from $795 for 25 servers
Re: [Freedos-user] FreeDOS bootable CD image sought
Okay, I have the CD working now, just need to fine-tune it. Is anyone aware of an FDOS utility that can probe for available drives, preferably writable ones? On my machine it finds my FAT32 partition (D: in XP) and assigns it to the C: drive. Can I count on that behavior to continue on other machines? What's the best way to install FreeDOS on my D: drive (XP is on C:)? For further game development that might come in handy. Bruce On Mon, Nov 26, 2012 at 2:47 PM, bruce.bowman tds.net bruce.bow...@tds.netwrote: Well, I've been working on this awhile and have learned a lot. And most of what I've learned is what others have been trying to tell me. All the bootable CDs that I've seen have contained a floppy disk image. This is what actually boots. During the boot process the embedded AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS reload the drive and assigns it a DOS drive letter. Only after that's done does the full content of the CD become accessible to the OS. MagicISO seems to do well with editing the CD image but not the FD image. To get this to autorun, I have to be able to edit AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS. So MagicISO is not the answer. I've done a full scan and detected no sign of the trojan that someone warned me about. Nonetheless, I have removed this software from my computer. I did a full backup and saved my system state last weekend, so I'm not too worried about it. I'm now starting all over using the instructions found here: http://www.k1ea.com/hints/Creating_a_Bootable_DOS_CD_V%201.5.pdf I would like to do this using FreeDOS instead of DOS 7.1, though. The more I play with FreeDOS the more I like its features. What actually happens if I install FreeDOS on my Windows computer? I don't want to do that and end up with a machine that won't boot XP. Thanks, Bruce On Mon, Nov 26, 2012 at 1:35 AM, bruce.bowman tds.net bruce.bow...@tds.net wrote: I'll try to answer some of the questions here. My program is a fairly simple role-playing game. It was originally written in Turbo C for DOS, and reads/writes to disk using DOS (not BIOS) calls. It runs in 256 palletized colors on a 640x480 console. While running, it frequently reads image files off disk, and for that reason won't fit on (or reliably run from) a floppy. I want to share it with friends such that all they have to do is insert a CD and boot up. Asking them to load emulators, other shells or OSs, or otherwise follow intimidating instructions won't meet my objectives. Having said that, I've tried DosBox, just for my own purposes. My program runs very slowly in it, no matter what settings I use; and for some reason the graphics palette does not get reset properly. I've downloaded VM too, but haven't tried that yet, and for reasons already mentioned I probably won't. The DFSee CD image that someone else recommended looks like something I can modify for my purposes. I've already booted off of that and confirmed that the game runs well...here at home, anyway. And it seems to detect and do i/o on my FAT32 partition just fine. NTFS? I'll worry about that later. Floppy disks? I realizing I'm backtracking by using DOS instead of a GUI, but am loath to go all the way to 80s technology. A bootable thumb drive, though, intrigues me -- because I can write to it. But how do you make it show up? If I stick one in a USB port and restart, my BIOS menu doesn't show it as a drive. A boot image that requires a loader before it's seen by the BIOS sounds like a real chicken-or-egg problem. Thanks to everyone for your suggestions. If I go silent and unresponsive for a day or two it's because I'm either modifying that CD image...or maybe even doing something in real life. Regards, Bruce On Sun, Nov 25, 2012 at 2:29 PM, Rugxulo rugx...@gmail.com wrote: Hi, Just for clarity, since I am not exactly sure what you meant, On Sat, Nov 24, 2012 at 9:28 PM, bruce.bowman tds.net bruce.bow...@tds.net wrote: I have an old DOS program that I wrote and still want to run, but it uses VESA 3.0 SVGA graphics, which are not [fully] supported by later versions of Windoze.* To make matters worse, the program writes to disk during operation, and no modern computer has FAT16 partitions anymore. Who is the target of this program? You? Other? WinXP only? Native DOS? Or just anybody with a PC? IIRC, VESA 3 didn't add much to the standard (refresh rates?). Is that what you meant? Or did you really mean LFB (VESA 2)? Does your program *have* to run atop FAT? Does it write to the hard disk directly? Or just it just use normal DOS (file) calls? Regarding porting to DirectX (or SDL) or whatever, what was the app written in? You could probably switch pretty easily if you used Turbo Pascal or Turbo C. Heck, even Allegro would probably simplify things (if you still wanted partial DOS support). I'm not exactly sure why you seem to want to run natively instead of emulated. DOSBox supports VESA, and VirtualBox can
Re: [Freedos-user] Bruce3
Freeware program VFD (virtual floppy drive) seems to be doing quite well for me at the moment for editing floppy images. The program will not fit on a floppy but this appears to be a prerequisite. In fact I am essentially done with my project but still want something I can throw in a batch file to probe for writeable drive letters so I can give the user an opportunity to save a game and resume later (like they used to). Bruce On Sun, Nov 25, 2012 at 2:20 PM, Rugxulo rugx...@gmail.com wrote: Hi, If you just want to make a bootable .ISO from floppy image, you can use MKBISO. http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/downloads-free-software.htm You can edit and modify the floppy image file from QEMU (etc). Reading and writing to floppy can be done with dd and/or Raread and Rawrite (etc). On Sun, Nov 25, 2012 at 12:56 PM, kurt godel wb2...@gmail.com wrote: So, I suppose you are stuck with the old tedious schemes, though I vaguely recall another way to edit an img, but the option to reinsert a modified file might have required the non-freeware option; -- Monitor your physical, virtual and cloud infrastructure from a single web console. Get in-depth insight into apps, servers, databases, vmware, SAP, cloud infrastructure, etc. Download 30-day Free Trial. Pricing starts from $795 for 25 servers or applications! http://p.sf.net/sfu/zoho_dev2dev_nov ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user -- Sent from my meager, humble desktop computer. -- Monitor your physical, virtual and cloud infrastructure from a single web console. Get in-depth insight into apps, servers, databases, vmware, SAP, cloud infrastructure, etc. Download 30-day Free Trial. Pricing starts from $795 for 25 servers or applications! http://p.sf.net/sfu/zoho_dev2dev_nov___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] Bruce
Has anyone tried NTFS4DOS? I had it on a boot CD once that I occasionally used for data recovery, but in that context it was all menu-driven and seemed to function a lot like 4DOS (anyone remember that? a poor man's Windows Explorer). I don't know what its capabilities would be on the command line or in a batch file. Bruce On Sun, Nov 25, 2012 at 11:47 AM, kurt godel wb2...@gmail.com wrote: Bruce, et al, I have reinstalled XP hundreds of times, and I always preformat the XP's partition(usually c) with fat32; this forces the XP install to give the option to install XP on fat32, which I always choose. it may be that some windows apps *must* run in ntfs, but I've never used one. As for editing img files, I know it can be done, because ive done it. The simplest way is to use a late model ubuntu or mint linux to open the img. First change the extension from ing to iso; then right click on that and choose 'extract here'. Edit the resultant folder as required, but you need a machine with real floppy drive capabiliy: write the edited files to the floppy, make the floppy bootable, then make an img from the floppy using a utility for that purpose. There are ways to edit the img directly, and if you no longer have a machine with true(non-usb) floppy, you *might* be able to perform the above using a virtual floppy disk. -- Monitor your physical, virtual and cloud infrastructure from a single web console. Get in-depth insight into apps, servers, databases, vmware, SAP, cloud infrastructure, etc. Download 30-day Free Trial. Pricing starts from $795 for 25 servers or applications! http://p.sf.net/sfu/zoho_dev2dev_nov ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user -- Sent from my meager, humble desktop computer. -- Monitor your physical, virtual and cloud infrastructure from a single web console. Get in-depth insight into apps, servers, databases, vmware, SAP, cloud infrastructure, etc. Download 30-day Free Trial. Pricing starts from $795 for 25 servers or applications! http://p.sf.net/sfu/zoho_dev2dev_nov___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] Bruce2
I have MagicISO Maker. It seems to function pretty well. I do appreciate everyone's comments. Keep them coming, but please don't expect a response to each one. I need to try to digest them and try a few things before I get back with you. Very pleased with the responsiveness of the folks in this group! Bruce On Sun, Nov 25, 2012 at 1:03 PM, kurt godel wb2...@gmail.com wrote: I just found that ImgBurn 2.4.2.0 can create/ burn img's, after you've edited the files by the aforementioned method; and MagicDisk 2.7.106 is said to do the same. They are both windows setups. I will try them. -- Monitor your physical, virtual and cloud infrastructure from a single web console. Get in-depth insight into apps, servers, databases, vmware, SAP, cloud infrastructure, etc. Download 30-day Free Trial. Pricing starts from $795 for 25 servers or applications! http://p.sf.net/sfu/zoho_dev2dev_nov ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user -- Sent from my meager, humble desktop computer. -- Monitor your physical, virtual and cloud infrastructure from a single web console. Get in-depth insight into apps, servers, databases, vmware, SAP, cloud infrastructure, etc. Download 30-day Free Trial. Pricing starts from $795 for 25 servers or applications! http://p.sf.net/sfu/zoho_dev2dev_nov___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
[Freedos-user] FreeDOS bootable CD image sought
This may be a FAQ. I have an old DOS program that I wrote and still want to run, but it uses VESA 3.0 SVGA graphics, which are not [fully] supported by later versions of Windoze.* To make matters worse, the program writes to disk during operation, and no modern computer has FAT16 partitions anymore. So I'm looking to package the program on a CD with FreeDOS, DOS 7.1 or something that can provide DOS functionality and write to a FAT32 partition. And preferably, the program should autorun upon bootup. The bootable CD images that I've been seeing for FreeDOS and DOS 7.1 are all *installation* disks that first fake a floppy drive and then load a bootable floppy disk image that cannot be edited. I don't want to actually install DOS and overwrite Windoze. I do want something that will boot directly to the command line, allow me to add my own files and directories and...preferably...allow me to put DOS commands in an AUTOEXEC file. Any thoughts and/or advice are appreciated. Bruce *In XP, I can hit F8, boot to safe mode, and get SVGA graphics with VBE that way. But it messes up my desktop and takes a long time to boot. -- Sent from my meager, humble desktop computer. -- Monitor your physical, virtual and cloud infrastructure from a single web console. Get in-depth insight into apps, servers, databases, vmware, SAP, cloud infrastructure, etc. Download 30-day Free Trial. Pricing starts from $795 for 25 servers or applications! http://p.sf.net/sfu/zoho_dev2dev_nov___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] FreeDOS bootable CD image sought
Thanks for your reply, Ralf. I have a FAT32 partition (D drive). At home, it might be simpler to just install FreeDOS as the OS on that partition and set up a dual-boot system (XP on C:, FreeDOS on D:). In fact I'm considering doing just that, and frankly wouldn't mind recommendations on how to bring that about, either. But it doesn't fix my problem of trying to find some way to distribute the program on CD media to my friends. Ultimately I may rewrite it to use DirectX with a native 32-bit compiler but I've also been saying that for the last 5 years. Bruce On Sat, Nov 24, 2012 at 11:47 PM, Ralf A. Quint free...@gmx.net wrote: At 07:28 PM 11/24/2012, bruce.bowman tds.net wrote: This may be a FAQ. I have an old DOS program that I wrote and still want to run, but it uses VESA 3.0 SVGA graphics, which are not [fully] supported by later versions of Windoze.* To make matters worse, the program writes to disk during operation, and no modern computer has FAT16 partitions anymore. So I'm looking to package the program on a CD with FreeDOS, DOS 7.1 or something that can provide DOS functionality and write to a FAT32 partition. And preferably, the program should autorun upon bootup. Well, your main problem here is that in case of an machine running Windows XP, you are likely using a hard drive formatted with NTFS and not FAT32, which means you would be at the mercy of a working NTFS file system driver as well, and that is at least in terms of write access a bit of a gamble IMPE... Ralf -- Monitor your physical, virtual and cloud infrastructure from a single web console. Get in-depth insight into apps, servers, databases, vmware, SAP, cloud infrastructure, etc. Download 30-day Free Trial. Pricing starts from $795 for 25 servers or applications! http://p.sf.net/sfu/zoho_dev2dev_nov ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user -- Sent from my meager, humble desktop computer. -- Monitor your physical, virtual and cloud infrastructure from a single web console. Get in-depth insight into apps, servers, databases, vmware, SAP, cloud infrastructure, etc. Download 30-day Free Trial. Pricing starts from $795 for 25 servers or applications! http://p.sf.net/sfu/zoho_dev2dev_nov___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] FreeDOS bootable CD image sought
Michael -- Thanks much for your reply. Perhaps my reply to Ralf answers many of your questions. The program itself is not particularly large and would probably run in 300-400k of RAM. But when running it sequentially loads a lot of PCX images off disk. The program could be run from a ramdrive to overcome some of the i/o issues. I have an old Knoppix CD and have occasionally booted to that for troubleshooting purposes (lost passwords, etc). Back in the 90s I had a dual-boot Linux/W95 system. All the FreeDOS boot ISOs that I've seen are just for OS installation and do not appear to have LiveCD capability. If someone can point me to one that does I'd definitely appreciate that...I have MagicISO on my computer and that has proven somewhat helpful in this context. I don't own a floppy drive anymore and generally speaking do not plan to buy any new hardware. Regards, Bruce On Sun, Nov 25, 2012 at 12:11 AM, Michael Robinson plu...@robinson-west.com wrote: On Sat, 2012-11-24 at 20:47 -0800, Ralf A. Quint wrote: At 07:28 PM 11/24/2012, bruce.bowman tds.net wrote: This may be a FAQ. I have an old DOS program that I wrote and still want to run, but it uses VESA 3.0 SVGA graphics, which are not [fully] supported by later versions of Windoze.* To make matters worse, the program writes to disk during operation, and no modern computer has FAT16 partitions anymore. So I'm looking to package the program on a CD with FreeDOS, DOS 7.1 or something that can provide DOS functionality and write to a FAT32 partition. And preferably, the program should autorun upon bootup. Well, your main problem here is that in case of an machine running Windows XP, you are likely using a hard drive formatted with NTFS and not FAT32, which means you would be at the mercy of a working NTFS file system driver as well, and that is at least in terms of write access a bit of a gamble IMPE... Ralf Can you perhaps create a freedos boot disk? Should be an option if you have an install CD. What is the size of this program that needs a fat16 file system specifically? I think you can have up to a 504 meg partition and still use FAT16. Any chance you can shrink that NTFS partition by 500 megs and install Freedos to a second primary partition using ntfsresize or partition magic? Another approach is to use Linux via a live CD to back up Windows XP to an external hard drive. Set that back up aside, make the NTFS partition the first primary partition making freedos install on a second primary partition. Any decent live Linux CD can resize NTFS partitions to open up 500 megs of space. An easier approach is to add another hard drive and install freedos onto that. How old is your computer? Good luck. -- Monitor your physical, virtual and cloud infrastructure from a single web console. Get in-depth insight into apps, servers, databases, vmware, SAP, cloud infrastructure, etc. Download 30-day Free Trial. Pricing starts from $795 for 25 servers or applications! http://p.sf.net/sfu/zoho_dev2dev_nov ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user -- Sent from my meager, humble desktop computer. -- Monitor your physical, virtual and cloud infrastructure from a single web console. Get in-depth insight into apps, servers, databases, vmware, SAP, cloud infrastructure, etc. Download 30-day Free Trial. Pricing starts from $795 for 25 servers or applications! http://p.sf.net/sfu/zoho_dev2dev_nov___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] FreeDOS bootable CD image sought
winxpfix.zip and videoprt.zip have both been tried and neither of them work. They might provide VESA 1.2 or 2.0 capability but not 3.0. Between my wife and I, we own six computers. None of them have a floppy drive. Thanks, Bruce On Sun, Nov 25, 2012 at 12:47 AM, TJ Edmister damag...@hyakushiki.netwrote: Hi, have a couple ideas for you below... On Sat, 24 Nov 2012 22:28:39 -0500, bruce.bowman tds.net bruce.bow...@tds.net wrote: This may be a FAQ. I have an old DOS program that I wrote and still want to run, but it uses VESA 3.0 SVGA graphics, which are not [fully] supported by later versions of Windoze.* There are a couple fixes out there to make VESA modes work for DOS programs running within Windows (though I haven`t tried them myself). Search for winxpfix.zip or videoprt.zip The bootable CD images that I've been seeing for FreeDOS and DOS 7.1 are all *installation* disks that first fake a floppy drive and then load a bootable floppy disk image that cannot be edited. If your program can run from a floppy, perhaps you could add it to the bootable image. Use a program like winimage, or write the image to a diskette, copy your program to it, then create a new image from there. -- Sent from my meager, humble desktop computer. -- Monitor your physical, virtual and cloud infrastructure from a single web console. Get in-depth insight into apps, servers, databases, vmware, SAP, cloud infrastructure, etc. Download 30-day Free Trial. Pricing starts from $795 for 25 servers or applications! http://p.sf.net/sfu/zoho_dev2dev_nov___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
