Re: [Freedos-user] Newbie Q - How do I get a USB flash drive operating please?
whups sorry Dennis - my bad sentence structure. I never feel the need to defrag with Puppy, I use ext4 and ext3 formatted partitions with ext3 fs myself... I meant that when in Windoze - defrag, defrag, defrag... a habit I mistakenly transferred to my FreeDos install - and perhaps running DOSFSCK on my FAT32 sd-card will might make a difference. I was getting unusual behaviours that was otherwise not detected in tests I used from UBCD. Sorry to read of your browser woes - when my Firefox gets sluggish I switch to qupzilla (webkit Qt-based) in my Puppy installs - puts the fun right back into surfing. Cheers On Mon, Feb 11, 2013, at 04:47 PM, dmccunney wrote: On Mon, Feb 11, 2013 at 12:49 AM, Andrew Robins arob...@fastmail.fm wrote: Egads - you are very right to remind me there Dennis and Rugxulo - defragging is a bit of a reflex habit from my time as a disgruntled MS user, I never consider it in my (user-level) Puppy Linux. I'll give DOSFSCK a run, as I still query the format process on the SD-card. I don't believe you *can* do it in Puppy, though a variable will be the file system you install on. I have Puppy here on an old notebook along with Ubuntu. I installed both on Ext4 filesystems, which add the ability to use extents, and in my rough tests offered about a 25%-33% I/O boost. The notebook does UDMA 4 at best (BIOS limitation), and the main constraint is slow disk I/O. Puppy and bundled apps, chosen for small size, run well enough. Larger apps are problems. I don't even try to run a current Firefox on it. It takes 45 seconds just to load, and is perceptibly sluggish when up. To the extent that I browse from it (seldom), I use Opera or Midori. Puppy and Ubuntu mount each other's slices on boot, and I did some fiddling to share apps between them, with one copy of large things living on one side or the other but accessable from both. While Ext file systems are fairly fragmentation resistant, they *do* become fragmented, and being able to defrag is a design goal of Ext4. __ Dennis https://plus.google.com/u/0/105128793974319004519 -- Free Next-Gen Firewall Hardware Offer Buy your Sophos next-gen firewall before the end March 2013 and get the hardware for free! Learn more. http://p.sf.net/sfu/sophos-d2d-feb ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user -- Free Next-Gen Firewall Hardware Offer Buy your Sophos next-gen firewall before the end March 2013 and get the hardware for free! Learn more. http://p.sf.net/sfu/sophos-d2d-feb ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] Newbie Q - How do I get a USB flash drive operating please?
Hi! If you are interested in Go, you may want to try AuGoS, of which also a native DOS version exists. The webpage: http://www.augos.com/go/augos.html Thanks too for the Chess links - my son and daughter are both just getting interested (though they prefer Go), and I'm afraid 'Battle Chess', with its animated combat scenes and relatively simple AI, is the big hit at the moment. Actually, I'm trying to be a bit of a connoisseur with the game choices - only picking the very best/highly regarded in various Dos Game forums and repository sites, and Rebel Chess you mentioned rates pretty highly in the Chess forums - I'll give your other suggestions a go too. -- Free Next-Gen Firewall Hardware Offer Buy your Sophos next-gen firewall before the end March 2013 and get the hardware for free! Learn more. http://p.sf.net/sfu/sophos-d2d-feb ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] Newbie Q - How do I get a USB flash drive operating please?
Egads - you are very right to remind me there Dennis and Rugxulo - defragging is a bit of a reflex habit from my time as a disgruntled MS user, I never consider it in my (user-level) Puppy Linux. I'll give DOSFSCK a run, as I still query the format process on the SD-card. Thanks too for the Chess links - my son and daughter are both just getting interested (though they prefer Go), and I'm afraid 'Battle Chess', with its animated combat scenes and relatively simple AI, is the big hit at the moment. Actually, I'm trying to be a bit of a connoisseur with the game choices - only picking the very best/highly regarded in various Dos Game forums and repository sites, and Rebel Chess you mentioned rates pretty highly in the Chess forums - I'll give your other suggestions a go too. Cheers. -- Free Next-Gen Firewall Hardware Offer Buy your Sophos next-gen firewall before the end March 2013 and get the hardware for free! Learn more. http://p.sf.net/sfu/sophos-d2d-feb ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] Newbie Q - How do I get a USB flash drive operating please?
On Mon, Feb 11, 2013 at 12:49 AM, Andrew Robins arob...@fastmail.fm wrote: Egads - you are very right to remind me there Dennis and Rugxulo - defragging is a bit of a reflex habit from my time as a disgruntled MS user, I never consider it in my (user-level) Puppy Linux. I'll give DOSFSCK a run, as I still query the format process on the SD-card. I don't believe you *can* do it in Puppy, though a variable will be the file system you install on. I have Puppy here on an old notebook along with Ubuntu. I installed both on Ext4 filesystems, which add the ability to use extents, and in my rough tests offered about a 25%-33% I/O boost. The notebook does UDMA 4 at best (BIOS limitation), and the main constraint is slow disk I/O. Puppy and bundled apps, chosen for small size, run well enough. Larger apps are problems. I don't even try to run a current Firefox on it. It takes 45 seconds just to load, and is perceptibly sluggish when up. To the extent that I browse from it (seldom), I use Opera or Midori. Puppy and Ubuntu mount each other's slices on boot, and I did some fiddling to share apps between them, with one copy of large things living on one side or the other but accessable from both. While Ext file systems are fairly fragmentation resistant, they *do* become fragmented, and being able to defrag is a design goal of Ext4. __ Dennis https://plus.google.com/u/0/105128793974319004519 -- Free Next-Gen Firewall Hardware Offer Buy your Sophos next-gen firewall before the end March 2013 and get the hardware for free! Learn more. http://p.sf.net/sfu/sophos-d2d-feb ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] Newbie Q - How do I get a USB flash drive operating please?
Firstly - many thanks to all those offering help in this thread. It has digressed somewhat from the OP but I hope the suggested tips will help other 'newbs', I will certainly revisit here to refresh my memory (no pun intended), follow links when I have more time etc. Thanks Robert Riebisch for your link to your pause program - so heartening to see so many other DOS applications you have on offer, and the same goes for other programmers all lending a shoulder to keep improving the quality of the user's DOS experience. I hope to test it out soon, thank you. Rugxulo I'm going to again try to condense my general responses to you without specific re-quoting - but if I miss a point of reply feel free to remind me. Given that I am using a non-standard system for games testing I'll try to answer to my best knowledge - I haven't been trying to iron out the kinks definitively, and will have to return to the intended domain for these software - the Toshiba Satellite Pro 430CDS with Soundblaster Pro emulation, 48MB RAM max etc. Already I have found that GrandMaster Chess, found to be a tall order on the newer machine (2GB RAM, etc), works straight off the bat in ye olde Toshie. So, as I think you were getting at - it isn't the availability of RAM and its memory allocations- conventional, UMA, EMS etc - but what the old software thinks it is looking for and if it doesn't find, it borks in a huff. I still get strange JEMMEX memory allocation errors on occasion - even when I've gone with the EMM386 + Share option, but I gather JEMMEX is being used pretty much like Memmaker might have been, in earlier DOS incarnations. National Lampoon's Chess Maniac gives XMS errors, so I'll be looking up on that one with the strategies you've outlined. Worth a separate thread on its own, so I'll divert other memory management questions thataway... You also described the best way to use 'unzipping' within DosZip - I just assumed that the decompress function served as a bonafide unzip function, but it didn't - highlighting my inability to use manuals and try to work things out intuitively. I found that DosZip's View function is much better for reading game documentation that the memory-intensive edit - my mistake of old habit. So, to return to the OP, I thought after weeding out multiple zip copies, junk games etc I'd clean up the USB (allocated as Drive B) with a defrag. Started well, but froze completely in mid-process and needed a hard reset. On rebooting, attempted defrag met with Error, Disk checking failed and no go - but so did attempts to defrag C (sd-card, also FAT32). Is FAT32 support still to come for FreeDOS defrag, as I see it is still lacking for ChkDsk? I used MHDD32 from UBCD and no problems were found in either drive, so I guess I'm wondering that for *pure* DOS-game roles, the respective drives are best formatted as FAT16? Might well be the source of the hiccup I'm having with Access icon libraries, but I'm only guessing. Thanks PS your notes on conflict issues is well made, but I'm more inclined to resume my experiments testing my download packages, older hardware environs etc - and finding also that many of the games I've sourced as DOS are intended for Win95 settings, and those are the first flies in the ointment I'm prepared to tackle at present, given my sledgehammer methods... -- Free Next-Gen Firewall Hardware Offer Buy your Sophos next-gen firewall before the end March 2013 and get the hardware for free! Learn more. http://p.sf.net/sfu/sophos-d2d-feb ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] Newbie Q - How do I get a USB flash drive operating please?
Hi, On Sat, Feb 9, 2013 at 3:11 AM, Andrew Robins arob...@fastmail.fm wrote: Already I have found that GrandMaster Chess, found to be a tall order on the newer machine (2GB RAM, etc), works straight off the bat in ye olde Toshie. So, as I think you were getting at - it isn't the availability of RAM and its memory allocations- conventional, UMA, EMS etc - but what the old software thinks it is looking for and if it doesn't find, it borks in a huff. The main issue is trying to understand which type of memory each specific app is looking for. Then there are various things to try. One silly example would be Chasm: The Rift and Borland's 16-bit extender. http://www.bttr-software.de/forum/board_entry.php?id=10202#p10340 BTW, as far as chess goes, I'm a noob. But I know there are various other chess programs for DOS out there. I know some may be more aesthetically pleasing than others, better difficulty, better tutorials, etc., but if you just want chess in some form, surely there are other alternatives. ftp://ftp.sac.sk/pub/sac/educult/doschen.zip ftp://ftp.sac.sk/pub/sac/educult/kchess22.zip ftp://ftp.sac.sk/pub/sac/educult/rchess10.zip ftp://ftp.sac.sk/pub/sac/educult/rival15f.zip http://www.rebel.nl/decrel.htm http://ftp6.fr.freebsd.org/pub/freedos/gnuish/dos_only/ches460x.zip http://chess.eusa.ed.ac.uk/Chess/Links/Pittsburgh/prg.html (It's been a while since I tested such things, so the only vaguely memorable ones are Rose [rchess], GNU, and Rebel, esp. for a noob like me.) I still get strange JEMMEX memory allocation errors on occasion - even when I've gone with the EMM386 + Share option, but I gather JEMMEX is being used pretty much like Memmaker might have been, in earlier DOS incarnations. National Lampoon's Chess Maniac gives XMS errors, so I'll be looking up on that one with the strategies you've outlined. Worth a separate thread on its own, so I'll divert other memory management questions thataway... We probably need a decent FDCONFIG.SYS / FDAUTO.BAT layout that offers various memory manager setups for easy testing. Though, honestly, it's maybe easier to just manually write down what you've tried and what goes wrong. Then you'll know what NOT to do again and what else needs testing. ;-) P.S. If any of these problematic games are freely available, feel free to post to the mailing list(s) in a separate thread about each of them. Maybe some people will help test for you under different environments and report their results. So, to return to the OP, I thought after weeding out multiple zip copies, junk games etc I'd clean up the USB (allocated as Drive B) with a defrag. Started well, but froze completely in mid-process and needed a hard reset. On rebooting, attempted defrag met with Error, Disk checking failed and no go - but so did attempts to defrag C (sd-card, also FAT32). Is FAT32 support still to come for FreeDOS defrag, as I see it is still lacking for ChkDsk? I used MHDD32 from UBCD and no problems were found in either drive, so I guess I'm wondering that for *pure* DOS-game roles, the respective drives are best formatted as FAT16? Might well be the source of the hiccup I'm having with Access icon libraries, but I'm only guessing. Most apps don't read the FAT directly, so file system type shouldn't affect them. But yeah, I guess there are still some that could have various minor conflicts. CHKDSK is the 16-bit tool for older computers. For newer 386+ ones, DOSFSCK (DJGPP) is recommended. There is no (working) FreeDOS Scandisk, IIRC. And FD Defrag does support FAT32 but tries to be ultra compatible, running in real mode, so for bigger FATs and HDs, it may run out of memory. As for SD cards, USB, SSD, etc., I'm not sure how well (if at all) they would respond to traditional defragging. They aren't like traditional hard drives, so it may be best (or at least easier) to defrag them under Windows or similar OS where such things are more prevalent. -- Free Next-Gen Firewall Hardware Offer Buy your Sophos next-gen firewall before the end March 2013 and get the hardware for free! Learn more. http://p.sf.net/sfu/sophos-d2d-feb ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] Newbie Q - How do I get a USB flash drive operating please?
Hi Rugxulo, many thanks for your detailed reply. As it turns out, I have been plugging along sporadically with the SD-card FreeDOS OS integrating with USB flash drive (games repository). I've slowly been weeding out various games that I've downloaded holus-bolus from various abandonware sites, grappling with conventional memory allocation issues along the way. Booting up with JEMMEX (no EMS) results in practically all the games borking, but 'EMM386 + Share' gets pretty close to the sweet spot for just about all game requirements, I've found. XMGR? Forgeddaboutit :( Thanks for the tips on USB drivers for DOS - I did look at Georg Potthast's offering and I can't justify the 65 euro for it - but good luck to him, I'm sure it is great value for his expertise. But as mentioned in a previous post, FreeDOS had it running with Bret Johnson's driver - I just had to realise it was there waiting for me :) I was incorrect about the package I thought Eric had compiled - he'd pointed out a brief window I think when Georg's driver might have been freeware, but Jack Ellis had done the package I was thinking of. I didn't need to go further with either options however. I've incidentally been using DosZip pretty exclusively in this setup - I'm very happy with it, got a pretty decent editor I use for various game Read.me 's (though JEMMEX mode gives the best results for most doc sizes - I don't actually use 'edit' for anything else other than reading txt), and the click'n'drag of files between panels for USB, CD-ROM and C-Drive (SD-card) files. The ability to open zip files is also very handy, though the Decompress option doesn't seem to work as it might the additional command line is there too so I just use mkdir and unzip commands in FreeDOS, and the DosZip file manager panels are populated with the extracted files immediately. From there, I can begin playing games from the DosZip panels almost immediately by selecting the appropriate exe or bat file. Haven't bothered with using install or configuration files in this getup - no soundblaster audio card in this modern box though I note that some games like Eric the Unready, ChessMaster 2100, Loom etc do a great job with the PC audio. The only drawback I've noted with DosZip file management is with moving 2 GB of files between drives - naturally it does so within DOS limitations (took a few hours) so in future I'll just flip out the drive to a card reader and do larger-scale file management in my Linux box. One of the quirks I found with the IDE/SD-card setup was that it took numerous formats with Gparted and FreeDOS install disk to get the card fully recognised in successive attempts - something about an erroneous FAT, but eventually it settled down. Strangely, I can't get the Access GUI to upload my collection of game icons - simply doesn't appear to load any icons whatsoever, even though I followed the same steps used satisfactorily on an ATA drive. I'll see what happens when I move this card into the old 430CDS laptop with Soundblaster Pro audio etc, and properly configure the software to the hardware it was otherwise aimed at. Might be just a peculiarity with the SD-card... For the record, I have this configured to boot straight into Access from where I can run DosZip and hunt around in that file manager testing games... Games like The Sentinel, GrandMaster Chess and National Lampoon's ChessManiac 5001 are problematic* with both Access and DosZip in the background (TSR as I understand it), but it has been useful to discard those that won't safely drop back to DOS/Access GUI for the kids (using ESC, Ctrl-Q or Ctrl-C), and instead need either the three-fingered salute or the manual reset button to get into something else. Access has been really easy for the kids to construct their own menu systems to run their preferred games, so I can leave them to pretty it up. * These illustrate I guess the optimum position memory tightrope I'm learning to walk - can't tell you how much I appreciate those who re-package game zips with batch files and DOS4GW functionality - if I could understand how to do that myself, well... I'm still wrestling with a freeze-frame function for long / instantaneously erased error messages, but am learning how to burn the gist of them on my retina in repeat attempts, when I can't be bothered to film it on my smartphone. They happen infrequently now, and generally I can get around the problem by booting alternative memory configurations. I'll have to leave further memory tweaks for now, however - work is catching up with me! A Memmaker clone sounds interesting - another tutorial project for the DOS gurus I'm afraid :) Cheers! -- Free Next-Gen Firewall Hardware Offer Buy your Sophos next-gen firewall before the end March 2013 and get the hardware for free! Learn more. http://p.sf.net/sfu/sophos-d2d-feb ___ Freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] Newbie Q - How do I get a USB flash drive operating please?
Rugxulo wrote: I guess you could just quickly press the Pause key when/if needed (to pause the BIOS), but that may not be quite good enough. EDIT: You could try the following (untested by me) quick hack if desperate: http://www.angelfire.com/electronic/tristar/debug/debug/InsertPausesInConfigSys.html Another one: http://www.bttr-software.de/products/pause/ Robert Riebisch -- +++ BTTR Software +++ Home page: http://www.bttr-software.de/ Blog (German): http://notepad.bttr-software.de/ DOS ain't dead: http://www.bttr-software.de/forum/ -- Free Next-Gen Firewall Hardware Offer Buy your Sophos next-gen firewall before the end March 2013 and get the hardware for free! Learn more. http://p.sf.net/sfu/sophos-d2d-feb ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] Newbie Q - How do I get a USB flash drive operating please?
Hi, On Fri, Feb 8, 2013 at 2:23 AM, Andrew Robins arob...@fastmail.fm wrote: grappling with conventional memory allocation issues along the way. How much do you need? Most games don't need 600,000 bytes. In fact, I know this is pure hyperbole, but I don't think almost anything needs quite that much (outside of very rare stuff, e.g. some old demo called Submerge or similar). IIRC, on my other machine, even though I didn't really need it, I ended up loading SHCDX33F, CTMOUSE, and FDAPM last so that I could (potentially) unload them later to get over 600,000 free. (Note that I'm trying to be careful and not say 600 kb since that is much higher, i.e. KiB.) Booting up with JEMMEX (no EMS) results in practically all the games borking, but 'EMM386 + Share' gets pretty close to the sweet spot for just about all game requirements, I've found. XMGR? Forgeddaboutit :( Do a lot of the games use EMS? I'm not that surprised, it was used even when not really a good idea. Or perhaps they really were trying to be 8086 compatible, but I doubt it. I've noticed that some rare cases cause problems with EMM386 NOEMS, so I don't personally recommend that. If you can live without UMBs, just don't load EMM386 at all (except when specifically needed, e.g. JEMM386 LOAD then UNLOAD later). EMS was standardized before XMS, hence why Borland Turbo C uses it by default (if found) while you have to manually use a switch for XMS. So I guess lots of people preferred EMS back then. I know Scream Tracker does for its sound samples (and, IIRC, it's for 386+). Thanks for the tips on USB drivers for DOS - I did look at Georg Potthast's offering and I can't justify the 65 euro for it - but good luck to him, I'm sure it is great value for his expertise. I don't know, I've not tried it, but Georg has done a lot for DOS (see Dillo and others). But as mentioned in a previous post, FreeDOS had it running with Bret Johnson's driver - I just had to realise it was there waiting for me :) Good to know, and yes, Bret has done good work as well. I was incorrect about the package I thought Eric had compiled - he'd pointed out a brief window I think when Georg's driver might have been freeware, but Jack Ellis had done the package I was thinking of. I didn't need to go further with either options however. Yes, older versions were free for non-commercial use, but this was apparently misused. Oh well. I've incidentally been using DosZip pretty exclusively in this setup - I'm very happy with it, got a pretty decent editor I use for various game Read.me 's (though JEMMEX mode gives the best results for most doc sizes - I don't actually use 'edit' for anything else other than reading txt), and the click'n'drag of files between panels for USB, CD-ROM and C-Drive (SD-card) files. The ability to open zip files is also very handy, though the Decompress option doesn't seem to work as it might How so? Admittedly, I often miss my shell aliases when in a file manager, hence a lot of times I don't bother firing up the sucker. So I don't use Doszip (or NDN) as much as I should except when copying / renaming lots of files. But IIRC, the unzipping worked fine: copy from inside the .ZIP to an external subdir outside. the additional command line is there too so I just use mkdir and unzip commands in FreeDOS, and the DosZip file manager panels are populated with the extracted files immediately. Seems a bit, erm, redundant to use Unzip with Doszip, but whatever floats your boat. ;-) From there, I can begin playing games from the DosZip panels almost immediately by selecting the appropriate exe or bat file. Haven't bothered with using install or configuration files in this getup - no soundblaster audio card in this modern box though I note that some games like Eric the Unready, ChessMaster 2100, Loom etc do a great job with the PC audio. PC speaker, you mean? Yeah, better than nothing (sometimes). Some made better use of it than others (even using digital samples). I never did understand why Wolfenstein 3D didn't have that optional available by default (only undocumented). Maybe it slowed everything down on old PCs or maybe it was just too loud. Oh well, still vaguely interesting, though I guess other options exist too (at least for new stuff, e.g. Judas, WSS, Allegro, Mpxplay). The only drawback I've noted with DosZip file management is with moving 2+ GB of files between drives - naturally it does so within DOS limitations (took a few hours) so in future I'll just flip out the drive to a card reader and do larger-scale file management in my Linux box. Dunno. There are other copying programs, but I don't know which is fastest. Depends on many factors. (IIRC, Doszip did have optional patch at one time to support Eric Auer's speed optimization to prevent too many slow FAT seeks, but I don't know if that's default or not these days.) One of the quirks I found with the IDE/SD-card setup was that it took numerous formats with
Re: [Freedos-user] Newbie Q - How do I get a USB flash drive operating please?
Hi, I'm late to replying, but I've read the entire thread, thus you seem to have mostly ironed everything out. Anyways, here's a few extra comments, just for completeness. On Sun, Feb 3, 2013 at 2:18 AM, Andrew Robins arob...@fastmail.fm wrote: So this little excursion has taken me quite a bit longer to get around than I hoped. I have a couple of questions from a noobs perspective - 1) I seem to recall (?) 'type' and 'write' commands in previous DOS versions that could be used with a given switch to print to screen a large document page-by-page. What is the trick to do this in commandline FreeDOS? I find I have to use EDIT to read text over a page long - and EDIT won't let me read large files like USBINTRO.DOC. I think you mean type and more here, but that is fairly primitive. Yes, sadly, FD EDIT is limited to 64k per buffer (though I think you can load multiple files), which is by design (and more or less due to difficulty in handling segments). It's not impossible to edit larger files in pure 640k conv. memory, but most 16-bit editors don't handle it well. If the default editor isn't enough, you have many options, but it depends on what exactly you want it to do. E.g., I'm not sure mg2a or Stevie or EZEDIT would fit the bill for you. Though the lazy way out would be to just use 386+ software. 2) How do I see error messages that flip off-screen during bootup? I had a few memory allocation error messages when trying to get USBUHCI.com and USBDRIVE.com loaded in FDCONFIG.SYS using either install c:\fdos\bin... or device=c:\fdos\bin... approaches. Had to film the bootup with my smartphone and take a snapshot to read the apparent memory conflict (? red herring- no uhci) with JEMMX, EMM386 and XMGR bootup options. Is there a log file generated somewhere for such error messages? Don't know. I'll bet some of the bigger gurus know of a clever hack, but offhand I'm not sure. Nothing in the document below showed anything obvious. I'm almost surprised it doesn't already support a pause command internally. http://www.freedos.org/kernel/config.txt I guess you could just quickly press the Pause key when/if needed (to pause the BIOS), but that may not be quite good enough. EDIT: You could try the following (untested by me) quick hack if desperate: http://www.angelfire.com/electronic/tristar/debug/debug/InsertPausesInConfigSys.html 3) rather than muddle from a commandline level, is there a file manager that could be recommended to new users to DOS, for retrieving background docs etc? I've tried DOSSTART and even Arachne seemed to have that feature... what are the possible alternatives? retrieving background docs sounds like something more complicated, TSR-based?? Not sure, lemme check something ... try this: TFB8k TSR File Browser http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/dos/tfb.zip Otherwise, if you just want a generic file manager without any weird hacks, try NDN or Doszip. Both have editors these days (though the latter is slightly more experimental). http://ndn.muxe.com/ http://sf.net/projects/doszip 3) Are there any intentions to automate fdconfig and autoexec file updates? When installing different modules from the options menu on the FreeDOS CD, it would be nice to have the respective devices implanted at the optimum position in the fdconfig.sys file... that is probably an insurmountable wish, however.. Optimum position for what, memory? So you want a MEMMAKER clone? No, FreeDOS doesn't have one yet. But it shouldn't be too hard to arrange manually. Any TSRs that can be cleanly unloaded via cmdline switch should be installed last, hence giving you the possibility to free up the most amount of space without hard rebooting. (Anyways, a nicely crafted multi-option CONFIG.SYS menu works wonders.) Seems like I'll have to go with a 3rd-party option like USBASPI.SYS from Panasonic (http://www.computing.net/answers/dos/usb-driver-for-dos-usbaspisys/15568.html) or DUSE 4.4 (http://www.tecumsehconsulting.com/usb.htm). Or maybe Georg's, as mentioned (N.B. shareware, untested by me): http://www.dosusb.net/ I seem to recall that Eric Auer had packaged some likely prospects for USB in DOS together somewheres, will have to back-track. Any suggestions on the matter would be gratefully accepted - including perhaps some example fdconfig.sys and/if autoexec.bat line inclusions that work for others in the OHCI boat. I don't recall Eric doing anything, but who knows. Maybe you meant some wget scripts (for legal reasons)?? Dunno. His page has been (mostly?) mirrored below. http://ericauer.cosmodata.virtuaserver.com.br/soft/ http://www.auersoft.eu/soft/ -- Free Next-Gen Firewall Hardware Offer Buy your Sophos next-gen firewall before the end March 2013 and get the hardware for free! Learn more. http://p.sf.net/sfu/sophos-d2d-feb ___ Freedos-user
[Freedos-user] Newbie Q - How do I get a USB flash drive operating please?
I'm stumped I'm afraid - how do include the requisite instructions in fdconfig.sys (and? autoexec.bat) to have USBUHCI and USBDRIVE resident and functional in a fresh Freedos 1.1 install? I'm in the process of constructing small DOS games environment on a 2Gb sd-card drive (IDE adapter). The eventual 'home' for the card is in an old 430CDS Satellite Pro laptop (48 MB RAM), but I've housed it in a desktop with an Asrock K7S41GX mbo and 2GB RAM, for testing of game installs. The card is re-formatted with the freedos1.1 iso CD to FAT32, and I performed a basic install of the OS without GUI and networking extras. For installing games it occurred to me that I could test the games that I downloaded on to my main Linux box straight to a flash drive. But what I thought should be really straightforward, I'm finding isn't. I see that Bret Johnson's USB drivers are included in the install, but I can't seem to get it working... UPDATE: OK I'm running in FreeDOS commandline and typing usbhosts gives me 3 OHCI ports. Going to C:\FDOS\DOC\DOSUSB and editing* (see below) READ.ME I see that I have backed the wrong horse and only UHCI ports are currently viable. Seems like I might have to go with a 3rd party like DUSE 4.4, if nobody would like to give me an alternative approach? So this little excursion has taken me quite a bit longer to get around than I hoped. I have a couple of questions from a noobs perspective - 1) I seem to recall (?) 'type' and 'write' commands in previous DOS versions that could be used with a given switch to print to screen a large document page-by-page. What is the trick to do this in commandline FreeDOS? I find I have to use EDIT to read text over a page long - and EDIT won't let me read large files like USBINTRO.DOC. 2) How do I see error messages that flip off-screen during bootup? I had a few memory allocation error messages when trying to get USBUHCI.com and USBDRIVE.com loaded in FDCONFIG.SYS using either install c:\fdos\bin... or device=c:\fdos\bin... approaches. Had to film the bootup with my smartphone and take a snapshot to read the apparent memory conflict (? red herring- no uhci) with JEMMX, EMM386 and XMGR bootup options. Is there a log file generated somewhere for such error messages? 3) rather than muddle from a commandline level, is there a file manager that could be recommended to new users to DOS, for retrieving background docs etc? I've tried DOSSTART and even Arachne seemed to have that feature... what are the possible alternatives? 3) Are there any intentions to automate fdconfig and autoexec file updates? When installing different modules from the options menu on the FreeDOS CD, it would be nice to have the respective devices implanted at the optimum position in the fdconfig.sys file... that is probably an insurmountable wish, however.. Seems like I'll have to go with a 3rd-party option like USBASPI.SYS from Panasonic (http://www.computing.net/answers/dos/usb-driver-for-dos-usbaspisys/15568.html) or DUSE 4.4 (http://www.tecumsehconsulting.com/usb.htm). I seem to recall that Eric Auer had packaged some likely prospects for USB in DOS together somewheres, will have to back-track. Any suggestions on the matter would be gratefully accepted - including perhaps some example fdconfig.sys and/if autoexec.bat line inclusions that work for others in the OHCI boat. Thanks. -- 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] Newbie Q - How do I get a USB flash drive operating please?
PS. Begging pardon - the zip file I mentioned earlier was USB19.zip from Jack Ellis and, I see from Bret Johnson's USB support forum, a colourful debate there on UIDE/USB extensionality I am too dense to fathom. Also - usbhosts showing 2 OHCI and 1 EHCI (2.0) usb ports, matching the BIOS. I'm testing the DUSE.zip I found at www.hiren.info - perhaps I'll get somewhere with that. -- 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] Newbie Q - How do I get a USB flash drive operating please?
My advice to anyone trying to use a USB storage device on FreeDOS is to first try using the BIOS. First realize that USB drives will be FAT 16 for smaller devices (1G or less) and FAT32 for larger devices. So find a device which is small or make sure you are using the FAT32 enabled FreeDOS kernel. (You can check whether the device is FAT16 or FAT32 in Windows easily) Second make sure the BIOS on your computer is up to date - if possible get the newest version and flash it. Third, just insert the USB stick into the computer and boot FreeDOS. See what happens, try to access drive D: ... you may be pleasantly surprised. The stories that you must boot from the USB drive in order for the BIOS to see it are not true in my experience. If this works, you are done, just realize you must boot the computer every time you insert the USB device. If it doesn't work, you are going down the path of exploration that you're doing now. There are some folks on this list that know quite a lot, you might try either Bret Johnson's drivers or Georg Potthast's. Dave -Original Message- From: Andrew Robins arob...@fastmail.fm To: Freedos-user Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net Sent: Sun, Feb 3, 2013 2:20 am Subject: [Freedos-user] Newbie Q - How do I get a USB flash drive operating please? I'm stumped I'm afraid - how do include the requisite instructions in fdconfig.sys (and? autoexec.bat) to have USBUHCI and USBDRIVE resident and functional in a fresh Freedos 1.1 install? I'm in the process of constructing small DOS games environment on a 2Gb sd-card drive (IDE adapter). The eventual 'home' for the card is in an old 430CDS Satellite Pro laptop (48 MB RAM), but I've housed it in a desktop with an Asrock K7S41GX mbo and 2GB RAM, for testing of game installs. The card is re-formatted with the freedos1.1 iso CD to FAT32, and I performed a basic install of the OS without GUI and networking extras. For installing games it occurred to me that I could test the games that I downloaded on to my main Linux box straight to a flash drive. But what I thought should be really straightforward, I'm finding isn't. I see that Bret Johnson's USB drivers are included in the install, but I can't seem to get it working... UPDATE: OK I'm running in FreeDOS commandline and typing usbhosts gives me 3 OHCI ports. Going to C:\FDOS\DOC\DOSUSB and editing* (see below) READ.ME I see that I have backed the wrong horse and only UHCI ports are currently viable. Seems like I might have to go with a 3rd party like DUSE 4.4, if nobody would like to give me an alternative approach? So this little excursion has taken me quite a bit longer to get around than I hoped. I have a couple of questions from a noobs perspective - 1) I seem to recall (?) 'type' and 'write' commands in previous DOS versions that could be used with a given switch to print to screen a large document page-by-page. What is the trick to do this in commandline FreeDOS? I find I have to use EDIT to read text over a page long - and EDIT won't let me read large files like USBINTRO.DOC. 2) How do I see error messages that flip off-screen during bootup? I had a few memory allocation error messages when trying to get USBUHCI.com and USBDRIVE.com loaded in FDCONFIG.SYS using either install c:\fdos\bin... or device=c:\fdos\bin... approaches. Had to film the bootup with my smartphone and take a snapshot to read the apparent memory conflict (? red herring- no uhci) with JEMMX, EMM386 and XMGR bootup options. Is there a log file generated somewhere for such error messages? 3) rather than muddle from a commandline level, is there a file manager that could be recommended to new users to DOS, for retrieving background docs etc? I've tried DOSSTART and even Arachne seemed to have that feature... what are the possible alternatives? 3) Are there any intentions to automate fdconfig and autoexec file updates? When installing different modules from the options menu on the FreeDOS CD, it would be nice to have the respective devices implanted at the optimum position in the fdconfig.sys file... that is probably an insurmountable wish, however.. Seems like I'll have to go with a 3rd-party option like USBASPI.SYS from Panasonic (http://www.computing.net/answers/dos/usb-driver-for-dos-usbaspisys/15568.html) or DUSE 4.4 (http://www.tecumsehconsulting.com/usb.htm). I seem to recall that Eric Auer had packaged some likely prospects for USB in DOS together somewheres, will have to back-track. Any suggestions on the matter would be gratefully accepted - including perhaps some example fdconfig.sys and/if autoexec.bat line inclusions that work for others in the OHCI boat. Thanks. -- 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
Re: [Freedos-user] Newbie Q - How do I get a USB flash drive operating please?
the program rufus (from rufus.akeo.ie) is an excellent way to get a usb stick bootable... eufdp...@yahoo.com eufdp...@yahoo.com eufdp...@yahoo.com eufdp...@yahoo.com eufdp...@yahoo.com -- 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] Newbie Q - How do I get a USB flash drive operating please?
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
Re: [Freedos-user] Newbie Q - How do I get a USB flash drive operating please?
cordata2 - I stand corrected, and absolutely flabbergasted. Pleasantly surprised indeed - troubles with a dying floppy drive had me flip a spare usb-floppy over to the test rig, and on reboot I tried B: and bang - there was my usb-floppy! (Not asking me to swap the floppy in the infernal A drive, as I had supposed) On reboot, also worked from the USB panel at the rear of the rig. Then I tried the vfat-formatted 2GB flash on reboot, and B: shows it up in all ports tested, in successive reboots :) Of course, isn't hot swappable and if I pull out and re-insert while the machine is awaiting a command, I have to reboot to access the USBflash again. No problem. Can't get both the usb-floppy and usb-flash loaded simultaneously, but I guess that is what software like Duse is for. I'm happy to post any diagnostic messages if anyone is interested. I've only tried it with the EMM386 load option so far, not with JEMMEX. Great Job, Bret Johnson and the ISO convenors :) Another noob question - I thought I had this working in my last install on the card, but doesn't gel here: How do I correctly 'set path' in autoexec to enable additional commands (like edit, format etc) in FDOS\BIN resident from any command line? Default %dosdir% doesn't seem to keep residency, even when I've changed it to my install of C:FDOS\BIN where applicable. My last 3 added lines are: PATH C:\FDOS\BIN PATH C:\XX XX ...the latter 2 lines to run Blakendaahl's Access GUI from startup. I couldn't recall the operative to have several PATHs read out on a single line, I guess that is where I've tripped up. Access starts immediately though, Thanks. -- 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] Newbie Q - How do I get a USB flash drive operating please?
On Sun, Feb 3, 2013 at 8:13 PM, Andrew Robins arob...@fastmail.fm wrote: Another noob question - I thought I had this working in my last install on the card, but doesn't gel here: How do I correctly 'set path' in autoexec to enable additional commands (like edit, format etc) in FDOS\BIN resident from any command line? Default %dosdir% doesn't seem to keep residency, even when I've changed it to my install of C:FDOS\BIN where applicable. My last 3 added lines are: PATH C:\FDOS\BIN PATH C:\XX XX ...the latter 2 lines to run Blakendaahl's Access GUI from startup. I couldn't recall the operative to have several PATHs read out on a single line, I guess that is where I've tripped up. Access starts immediately though, The second PATH statement above will override the first, so Access will work, but stuff in FDOS\BIN won't. To have more than one directory in the PATH, use ; as the separator between directory names: PATH C:\XX;C:\FDOS\BIN __ Dennis https://plus.google.com/u/0/105128793974319004519 -- 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] Newbie Q - How do I get a USB flash drive operating please?
Aha - thanks Dennis for the rescue (on yet another OS thread) - I must have included an extra space after my semi-colon in previous experiments. Cheers and kuDOS The second PATH statement above will override the first, so Access will work, but stuff in FDOS\BIN won't. To have more than one directory in the PATH, use ; as the separator between directory names: PATH C:\XX;C:\FDOS\BIN __ Dennis https://plus.google.com/u/0/105128793974319004519 -- 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] Newbie Q - How do I get a USB flash drive operating please?
On Sun, Feb 3, 2013 at 9:45 PM, Andrew Robins arob...@fastmail.fm wrote: The second PATH statement above will override the first, so Access will work, but stuff in FDOS\BIN won't. To have more than one directory in the PATH, use ; as the separator between directory names: PATH C:\XX;C:\FDOS\BIN Aha - thanks Dennis for the rescue (on yet another OS thread) - I must have included an extra space after my semi-colon in previous experiments. Cheers and kuDOS Unix/Linux works the same way, save that the separator is a colon, and /, not \, is the directory char. In older version of DOS (2.X?) you could specify the option delimiter character in CONFIG.SYS. If you set the option delimiter to something other than /, you could use \ or / in pathnames. Under MS-DOS, I ran a package called the MKS Toolkit. The Toolkit was a commercial package that included DOS versions of all the Unix utilities that made sense in the single-user. single tasking environment. It included a complete implementation of the Korn shell, with everything save asynchronous sub-processes (because DOS couldn't *do* that.) The Toolkit included a utility called switchar which would let you reset the option delimiter to - and use Unix style path names in the Korn shell. Installed in fullest Unix compatibility mode, the Toolkit replaced COMMAND.COM with MKS INIT.EXE as the boot shell. Drivers (like EMS, ramdisk, cache, and mouse drivers) were loaded in CONFIG.SYS, then INIT ran. It printed Login: on screen and waited for a userid. When I entered one (with optional password), it called /bin/login.Login looked in a *nix compatible /etc/passwd file, and if it found the ID, it changed to whatever was listed as that ID's home directory and ran whatever was listed as that ID's shell. Exit the shell, and INIT was reloaded. This made things convenient, as I could switch environments without rebooting. I had IDs that ran the Korn shell, 4DOS, vanilla COMMAND.COM, and DesqView. Unfortunately, some DOS apps were hard-coded to expect / as the option delimiter and \ as the directory char, so I had to play with aliases and scripts to run them successfully in the MKS environment. (Run switchar to set the option delimiter to /, run the DOS app, run switchar again set the the delimiter back to =.) MS-DOS 3.3 had system calls to query what the option delimiter char was and to set it to something else. MS-DOS 5.0 removed the call to set it, but kept the one to query what it was. (Don't ask *me* why...) Fortunately, the MKS Toolkit still ran, or I would have gone back to 3.3. I kept the Toolkit in place for Win 3.1- Win 3.X defaulted to using Program Manager as the shell, but could be told to use something else in the SYSTEM.INI file. I played wit an assortment of replacements, and used MKS IDs that would alter SYSTEM.INI to use the one I preferred, then run Windows. (I also still had the other IDs, and could choose not to run Windows.) I had to give it up when Win9X arrived, but it was fun while it lasted. __ Dennis https://plus.google.com/u/0/105128793974319004519 -- 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] 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
