I'll just add that I think it's not due to my custom disk as I've just tried many downloaded boot disks - ranging from MS-DOS 3 to Windows ME bootdisk - and all behaved the same!

Actually, the only one that worked was Freedos'. However, its bootdisk only serves as an installer and doesn't behave as an OS of its own (and it can't install inside DOSBox due to low memory...).

FAT12 is the proper format for floppy disks and ancient copies of MSDOS on hard drives.

What program did you use to create the image? Last time I mounted a bootable floppy with dosbox I used winimage.

The original one with a program called "img" from Sourceforge.

But again, I don't think it's its fault since the ones I talked about in the second post were all from this page and they say they used Disk Copy Pro 2.6 and made sure the files were compatible with WinImage.

Anyway, here are more results from my testings in that page.
Won't work in DOSBox:
1) Microsoft's Ms-Dos/Windows series.
2) IBM's PC-DOS series.
3) Digital Research's DR-OS 5/6.
4) Novell's NovellDos 7.

But...yes, finally...one thing that does work:
Caldera's Open/DR-OS 7.01-7.03 series!!!

So what makes the latter series the only working one?
(well, that and a bootable installation only Freedos floppy, I guess).

DR-OS = DR-DOS, of course...

I am pretty sure I used bootdisc with MS DOS 5.0 without any problems.

In fact this is my preferred DOS version: I had problems with formatting (using FORMAT command on hd. images in DOSBOX) in other DOS versions.

BTW: Do you know that making boot disc is not only about copying COMMAND.COM? There are two invisible files (IO.SYS, MSDOS.SYS - they can have different names in some variants of DOS) and they MUST be on specific position (I think at the beginning). Use FORMAT x: /s or SYS command to make a boot disc, do not just copy files to a disc image ...

Mirek

The program I used, "img", and that page's "Disk Copy" - both do a complete disk copy.

And it's a fact that the latter DR-DOS series worked while the nothing else did (and again, all were made in the same program).

And of course I used "img" on a real bootdisk (one that loads up if I boot my computer and have it inside the floppy drive).

Alright, I've also tested some old bootable games from the flopper's site (e.g. Castle Wolfenstein) and they all work!

So I'm starting to think DOSBox has a problem with DOS (unless it's a DR).

Once more: MS DOS 5 works ok.

I have just tested it using the current CVS (there were not any image/booting changes recently).

Mirek

The one from that page (as well as other pages) didn't work. Do you have another link for a supposedly working MS-DOS 5 image?

Well, the MS-DOS series in this page seems to work, but the Windows ones still don't!

I think the difference is that they were made directly by WinImage.

But be it as it may, all of them think I have no C drive ("fdisk" says I don't have fixed disks), so what's the use then?

Just for reference: My drdos 6 install disks seem to work (spanish version).

Anonymous wrote:

But be it as it may, all of them think I have no C drive ("fdisk" says I don't have fixed disks), so what's the use then?

You can use harddisk images. There is no access to mounted drives. Make a HD image with the utility used in the Bochs emulator (bximage.exe (?)). Then use FDISK and FORMAT as normally in DOS. I warn you, that I had problems with using FORMAT in some DOS versions, but MS DOS 5 worked fine.
Both on Bochs web and here in some threads there is also information about one japanese program which enables to edit hard disc images (I do not remember its name now). This is very usefull when working with HD images.

Theoretically it is also possible to copy to hard disc images from mounted drives when mounting a HD image using IMGMOUNT in the DOSBOX shell, but I have bad experience with this (it corrupts HD images!). I informed CANADACOW about this on beta board, so I hope it will be fixed in time (unfortunately he had impression that nobody uses booting and images, so he has not done any work on it recently).

Mirek

Yea, but the whole point is that I want to boot from real DOS while inside Windows (using DOSBox). With no CD-ROM or fixed disks, all I can do is work on that little floppy disk itself.

If I use a HD image, I can might as well use that HD directly from DOSBox (unless I want to keep the entire HD on one file for some reason).

As for using imgmount to change files, when using floppy images, it worked perfectly for me - but...if that floppy disk was also a boot disk, it was no longer a boot disk after that. In other words, I could still access it from imgmount, but never boot from it again (I guess it DOSBox doesn't know how to reflect changes in the disk's contents on its boot sectors).

I forgot to mention that Win9x boot disks sometimes give a reason for their failure: they can't find command.com .

As for Win ME/XP, now that's 0.63 is out, it changed things a bit.
Now, instead of just halting, it gives the following message:

1ERROR: No available extended memory was found.
2XMS Driver not installed. Serious hardware problems, halting boot.

> ERROR: No available extended memory was found.

Set xms=false and ems=false.

wd

Hmm, guess what? I disabled both XMS and EMS and now ME and XP give me the Win9x error - they can't find command.com!

BTW, the exact message is:

1Type the name of the Command Interpreter (e.g., C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM)
2A>

And no, neither typing "a:\command.com" nor just "command.com" works...

> Hmm, guess what?

Well the message you get now is further down in the
booting process, so it's an improvement. I didn't
say it will solve all your problems.

Could be io.sys-command.com mismatch, broken disk/image,
virus on the bootsector, something completely different etc.

wd

Don't go there...I downloaded boot disks from many unrelated sites.
MS-DOS<=6.22 boot disks almost always work. It's just Win9x-XP (the latter thanks to your suggestion) boot disks that have this command.com problem.