[GEM Development] Liam Proven! DOS in VirtualPC

[Liam Proven]

On 8 December 2017 at 21:06, Thomas F Clayton <tfclayton at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> What, of course, we'd like to know Is:
>
> HOW DID you GET IT working???
> ;-)   ;-)   ;-)
>
> (Did you hear my frustration?)  :-D


VMs are easy. On the metal is harder, as my USB FDD is in storage in
another city, so I can't get to it.

> I've set aside a /whole/ 255MBs near the beginning (sda2) of this PCLinuxOS
> HDD (just after sda1 /boot);
> in order to install DR-DOS for /REAL/. I've got 160GB (sda3) for "Virtual
> Worlds" (/vw) with 64bit Win7Pro taking about 120GBs. That still leaves
> plenty (in my estimation) for OS/3 Warp3, or 4; Win95C; and other pre-linux
> faves and 'nix?es?!
>
> X200 laptop (2.53GHz Dual-core 8GB RAM 500GB HDD) separate dock w/ RW-DVDD
> and more ports.


Actually my testbed machine is an X200 as well. Its 8GB of RAM was
donated to my newer X220, so it only has 4GB.

Currently, it is running:

[primary #1] PC-DOS 7.01, with DOSShell, MS Word 6 and WordPerfect 6.2
[primary #2] Haiku
[primary #3] A2 with Bluebottle
[[extended...
[logical, #5] -- set aside for OS/2 (I have eComStation)
[logical, #6] Devuan root
[logical, #7] Devuan /home
[logical, #8] 86GB FAT32, shared data volume
[logical, #9] Failed installation of Icaros Desktop -- need to fix this

I needed PC-DOS to run DFSee, an OS/2-aware disk partitioning tool.
https://www.dfsee.com/

(It's fairly horrid.) It emerges that neither OS/2 nor DFSee can
understand a partitioning scheme as complex as this, even though it is
carefully DOS-legal. So I've more or less given up on getting OS/2
working, sadly. If I can find some way round this, I might, but I'm
not confident -- OS/2 is very fussy and very fragile.

As I said, I don't currently have a USB floppy drive, so all this was
achieved with VMs and USB sticks.

I do not currently have a reliable, working method to create a
bootable DOS USB key. I have yet to isolate why it doesn't work most
times.

Methods that have worked for me:

-- download a FreeDOS USB key image, write it
-- format that, use Norton Utilities inside a VM to make it bootable
with PC-DOS 7
-- link the key to a VM, partition and format with DOS, SYS it, use
GParted to make the partition active (as DOS FDISK won't make a
partition on a secondary or subsequent drive bootable.)

This last one has only worked once, though. Other tries have failed. I
still don't know why.

> Got my 1.44MB USB IBM FDD out (from storage) last weekend and have the e-Bay
> bought DR-DOS 6 (2x1.44) + ?source (1.44).

I have an original CD form Caldera/Lineo. I had a good relationship
with pre-SCO Caldera: they even offered me a job, but I would have had
to move to Utah and I didn't fancy that.

It is downloadable, though, you know! Legality questionable, but
they're all out there. Virus scans recommended, obvs.

-- 
Liam Proven • Profile: https://about.me/liamproven
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