Update.
I edited msdos.ini file, and change bootgui to 0. Now I have MS-DOS right after win98 loading screen.
My Soundcard is visible and recognized by programs, but does not play. (In music programs like xtcplayer, Cubic Player patterns are standing still).
What else I should do?

Did you start The ESS AudioDrive DOS drivers?

I did. I put
DEVICEHIGH=C:\AECU.SYS
in config
and

LH C:\MAESTRO.COM
SET BLASTER=A220 D1 I5 T4
in Autoexec.

The card seems to work fine in windows, in DOS/windows mode.
However booted into DOS, it shows IRQ and DMA, but does not play.

Why are you starting another new thread?
ESS1978 driver installation

Do the ESS DOS drivers come with any kind of mixer? It's possible that the volume is turned all the way down.

EDIT: http://www.it-he.org/sound.htm suggests you need a file named C:\MSTRINF.INI. Do you have a file with that name?

Here's a really old webpage that I think needs to be archived before it goes away.

http://www.ctyme.com/msdos7.htm

It basically tells you how to boot directly into DOS 7 when you have Windows 95/98 installed. It wouldn't be difficult to create a standalone installation with that knowledge and delete Windows altogether once you have the DOS portion installed.

All that info is also found here. I find the BOOTCONFIG command even more useful, as it allows me to set up an oldschool MS-DOS startup menu and have a fully fledged Windows 9x system, with startup logos and everything.

alexanrs wrote:

All that info is also found here. I find the BOOTCONFIG command even more useful, as it allows me to set up an oldschool MS-DOS startup menu and have a fully fledged Windows 9x system, with startup logos and everything.

Gee, I'd conmpletely forgotten about that one.

Anyway, this thread seems to actually be able getting an ESS1978 card working in DOS rather than something about installing DOS with Windows. Someone should either merge it with that other thread or change the subject line.

According to that thread there is dos driver for ess1978.
DOS only drivers for esstech pci soundcards
Problem is that it os not working for me. Shows irq, dma - no sound. Anybody has it working on pure dos machine?