Not sure what's happening with the floppy you made. Can you boot into the FreeDOS live system from your CD? If so, you can try doing an FDISK /MBR from there.

Also, if you like you can try OpenDOS 7.01, optionally with the WIP patches installed. It's the evolution of DR-DOS which Caldera released for free quite some years ago and it's been improved by the community since then. I generally just use the image files and apply them using my hard drive in an eSATA caddy and passed through to VirtualBox.

I just did as you said and it worked !!!
But now I get a bunch of options: Load with JEMMEX, load with EMM386, load including XMGR XMS-mem driver and load without drivers.
What's the best ?

Horses for courses. I tend to use HIMEMX and JEMM386, sometimes I use a more classic version of EMM386 if compatibility is a concern. UMBPCI/JEMMEX is really efficient, too.

I'd definitely give that OpenDos a try but I can't find any download on Google.... I only found one, but it's an FTP link and I can't download from ftp servers from my ps3 (don't ask... my current only option to browse is from this laggy ps3...)

I'm having a bunch of issues with this darn FreeDOS already:

- I installed Windows 3.11 as I usually do in my DOS computers (it's standalone and lets me use DOS along with it, in difference of Win9x) and now I can't run Windows 3.11 because of this error:
"Impossible to find a device file that could be necessary in order to run Windows. Make sure that the directory that contains the file is present in the PATH of AUTOEXEC.BAT and on the hard drive. If the file doesn't exist, reinstall Windows or delete any reference of the file from SYSTEM.INI

C:\FDOS\BIN\LFNXLAT.386"

EDIT: I Just downloaded this file, but Windows still doesn't start "Impossible to run both Windows and protected mode software" while I have NOTHING else but dos running right after a reboot...

This file DOESN'T EXIST and there is NO REFERENCE OF IT in the System.ini file... What the heck ?!
I even reinstalled Windows 3.11 but the same error appears... I have no idea.

Another issue is with my AWE32 sound card... while it works PERFECTLY with most games, in some games such as Rise of the Triad, Monter Bash and games with Adlib music like Dizzy Yolkfolk, I have problems:

on ROTT, if I choose AWE32 from music device I get an error "MPU-401 can't be found on AWE32" or something like that, while AWE32 as music device works PERFECTLY with Duke Nukem 3D, Redneck Rampage and Blood (the only AWE32 games I could try so far)
on Monster Bash I get either only music or only sound effects, randomly... I mean, one time I get only music, then I reboot for example, and get only sound effects without music... and I can't enable both due to Bash's FAMOUS "EMM386 RAM issue".

Finally, on games that use Adlib music... well.. randomly some times it plays, some times I don't hear a single thing... but it ain't my audio card being faulty, it works perfectly, I even cleaned its contacts with an eraser and alcohol.

Last issue I'm having with FreeDOS being it doesn't always copy files from disks....
I tried to install CyberMage and instead of copying the files, it made some random files with random dates and with ASCII gibberish as name files... I can't even deltree that folder because it can't "find the file"...

hmmmm.... weird, FreeDOS looks so sweet on DOSBox, why would it suck on a real Celeron ?

Elia1995 wrote:

I'd definitely give that OpenDos a try but I can't find any download on Google.... I only found one, but it's an FTP link and I can't download from ftp servers from my ps3 (don't ask... my current only option to browse is from this laggy ps3...)

Pm sent.

- I installed Windows 3.11 as I usually do in my DOS computers (it's standalone and lets me use DOS along with it, in difference […]
Show full quote

- I installed Windows 3.11 as I usually do in my DOS computers (it's standalone and lets me use DOS along with it, in difference of Win9x) and now I can't run Windows 3.11 because of this error:
"Impossible to find a device file that could be necessary in order to run Windows. Make sure that the directory that contains the file is present in the PATH of AUTOEXEC.BAT and on the hard drive. If the file doesn't exist, reinstall Windows or delete any reference of the file from SYSTEM.INI

C:\FDOS\BIN\LFNXLAT.386"

EDIT: I Just downloaded this file, but Windows still doesn't start "Impossible to run both Windows and protected mode software" while I have NOTHING else but dos running right after a reboot...

This file DOESN'T EXIST and there is NO REFERENCE OF IT in the System.ini file... What the heck ?!
I even reinstalled Windows 3.11 but the same error appears... I have no idea.

I'm not surprised. Windows on anything other than MS-DOS <=6.22 is not an easy fit. The FreeDOS devs would perhaps be able to assist with this, although I'm not sure if it's on their radar.

Elia1995 wrote:

Another issue is with my AWE32 sound card... while it works PERFECTLY with most games, in some games such as Rise of the Triad, Monter Bash and games with Adlib music like Dizzy Yolkfolk, I have problems:

on ROTT, if I choose AWE32 from music device I get an error "MPU-401 can't be found on AWE32" or something like that, while AWE32 as music device works PERFECTLY with Duke Nukem 3D, Redneck Rampage and Blood (the only AWE32 games I could try so far)
on Monster Bash I get either only music or only sound effects, randomly... I mean, one time I get only music, then I reboot for example, and get only sound effects without music... and I can't enable both due to Bash's FAMOUS "EMM386 RAM issue".

Not sure on this, although some titles support the EMU8k natively where others require MPU-401 emulation. Maybe it has to do with this.

Elia1995 wrote:

Finally, on games that use Adlib music... well.. randomly some times it plays, some times I don't hear a single thing... but it ain't my audio card being faulty, it works perfectly, I even cleaned its contacts with an eraser and alcohol.

Might be a speed issue. With MPS titles for instance, Adlib auto detect doesn't usually work with my K6-2 machine at full clock.

Elia1995 wrote:

Last issue I'm having with FreeDOS being it doesn't always copy files from disks....
I tried to install CyberMage and instead of copying the files, it made some random files with random dates and with ASCII gibberish as name files... I can't even deltree that folder because it can't "find the file"...

hmmmm.... weird, FreeDOS looks so sweet on DOSBox, why would it suck on a real Celeron ?

Running FreeDOS 1.0 or 1.1?

It's 1.1
and thanks for the pm, but I didn't receive it yet ?

Should be there RSN.

The Enhanced DR-DOS website is down at the moment. DR-DOS enhanced can still be accessed through Wayback.
https://web.archive.org/web/20160425031024/ht … gi/download.htm

ah yeah I saw that page too earlier, but it has the DL for the patch utilities only and not the actual bootable OS to install with the floppies.
I received the pm now 😉

on this archiveos site there are three download, must I get only "enhanced dr-dos patch utilities" ?

You want the binary package. It contains the three patched and rebuilt system files.

Updated the previous post with the Wayback machine link.

For now, until I won't get OpenDOS 7.01, I installed the good ol' trustworthy MS-DOS 6.22...

Excellent choice. If you have a network card, you can install the mTCP tools and DOSLynx so you don't have to rely on your PS3.

Well, that motherboard has a built-in ethernet, but I don't know if drivers for it exist for dos/windows 3.11 😒

it's a PC-Chips M754MLRTP (I HOPE I spelled it correctly... there's a HUGE thread about this motherboard here somewhere from which we found the model name) motherboard.

Try the SIS packet driver linked here.
http://www.georgpotthast.de/sioux/packet.htm

Otherwise, RTL8139 cards are cheap as chips and work very well.

Let me know if this service works from your PS3.
http://filebin.ca/30PA3auuQ7Oi

Yeah it worked, thanks for OpenDOS !!!

As for the SIS driver, it doesn't work, "EMM386 stops the computer to avoid damage" when I launch it.