VOGONS

Common searches


Reply 22 of 54, by treeman

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

it is trying to boot off the hard drive instead of the cdrom "dos6.iso"
you may have to delete the hard disk from your vm and re add it again, or create the vm from scratch again exactly like done before.
We need to be booting from the cdrom dos6.img as the primary system, the hard drive won't boot because it has not been formatted as a system drive yet (format d: /s)
and made a active drive through fdisk
don't really need this done in your case anyway

sometimes vm gets funny like that and tries to boot from a different drive then you want it to

Reply 23 of 54, by treeman

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
Rei0 wrote:

Not sure if this went through. My USB is 32 GB and FAT32.

yeah no chance dos will see that, from memory dos6 will see 2gb Max as a fat partition.
So it saw my 1gb usb stick ok, but my 128gb stick was too big, the fact that you see it in fdisk means its mounted correct through vm now its a matter of making dos see it

Reply 24 of 54, by treeman

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

I tried with my 128gb stick now and was successful this is the steps:
1. boot to dos with the previous setup vm
2. run fdisk
3. delete non dos partition through fdisk
4. create a primary dos partition (chose max size) a 2gb partition will be created
5. quit fdisk and will be prompted to reboot
6. reboot and boot to dos again successfully
7. in dos format the hard drive which is now drive c:
8. format c: /s
9. after format complete shut down vm and 2gb usb drive visible in Explorer

Reply 25 of 54, by Rei0

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Ok. I don’t want to overstate, but you are a total stud for getting me this far. Following your steps, i now have access to the Crystal files on drive C: of the VM.

The shocking part? I still get “this machine does not have enough memory” message.

Any additional suggestions?

Reply 26 of 54, by treeman

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

I had a feeling success was around the corner.
Now type in mem and see how much conventional memory you have, this dos image has a cdrom driver enabled by default that will be the first line to delete or comment out from config.sys and autoexec.bat to claim some conventional memory

There is plenty guides on squeezing out the most from conventional memory out you want as close to 640 as you can. Also experiment also with ems on and ems off

I hope you get it working from here as this VM is pretty much exactly the same as running pure dos. The next step would be to burn a image of dos6.iso on a cdr and make it bootable but I don't think it would differ in any way from the vm you got now.

Let us know if you do get it working, or how you go with conventional memory optimisation

Reply 27 of 54, by treeman

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

ok, correction it seems the iso image is read only.
Looks like have to things the hard way.

We now need to make your usb the primary bootable device.

Format c: /s (if you havent done so yet)
then run fdisk and make your partition active

When this is done delete the cdrom from your vm and it should be booting from your usb stick.

now that this is done download the full dos6 or dos6.22 (whichever iso you are using from the start).
Extract the full dos package to your usb stick in Windows 10 so you have access to mem.exe in your vm to check memory status.

you can now also start tweaking your config.sys.and autoexec.bat to increase conventional memory.

I can give you a copy of my config.sys and autoexec.bat which I get around 617 which usually anything over 600 is good enough for most games and apps

Reply 28 of 54, by treeman

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

hmm I jumped the gun posting this as logically it makes sense but looks like its a vm limitation not to boot from a usb disk only a iso. so we are stuck in a hard place where we can boot off a iso but can't edit to change config sys etc settings and we can edit the usb dos drive but can't boot off it.

Alot of bandaid fixes here and making the solution very complex. The only 2 other options I see is this.

Find a iso writer/editor and change the config.sys and autoexec.bat settings that way

option 2, make a bootable usb stick using something like rufus and freedos and simply boot to free dos using the stick, cross fingers freedos will run the app behaving like traditional dos for which freedos is designed

Reply 29 of 54, by Rei0

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Ok. I’d like to pursue option 1 to start. Would WinISO 5.3 do the trick in your opinion? If not, do you have a recommendation? Then, the changes to the auto exec.bat and config.sys files should be what? If you could send me the examples you mentioned, I would greatly appreciate it. How do I send you an email address?

Reply 30 of 54, by treeman

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

I checked the dos6 iso that we been using it only has 512kb free conventional memory so that's very low. I tried editing the image but it looks like its made like that because of the actual boot image.

What I will do is grab a actual image from my dos machine using a utility I just found called imgflpyd that will have 600+ free conventional memory. This is the only thing I can think of atm on a limited time supply. I will try to get a image for you within 24 hours

Reply 32 of 54, by treeman

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

all my floppy discs have errors looks like didn't stand the test of time but I was able to edit a freedos floppy image to gain 604kb conventional memory for you. here is a link
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id= … 913742945959035

The process is slightly different so here are the steps
1. create new vm (typical)
2. I will install operating system later > next
3. other > ms-dos > next
4. next
5. next
6. finish
7. click to edit vm settings
8. remove hard disk
9. click on floppy
10. chose use floppy image > browse and select floppy image from link above
11. select connect at power on (important)
12. select ok
13. go back to vm settings and add your usb stick as a hard drive just like have been doing it before

should be able to boot to freedos with 604 conventional memory

you can edit autoexec.bat and fdconfig.sys by using the edit command

Reply 33 of 54, by Rei0

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
Capture4.PNG
Filename
Capture4.PNG
File size
5.37 KiB
Views
848 views
File license
Fair use/fair dealing exception
Capture3.PNG
Filename
Capture3.PNG
File size
16.83 KiB
Views
848 views
File license
Fair use/fair dealing exception

I get an error message regardless of how I try to open the file. Perhaps I am doing something wrong? I tried to double click the file, open it in notepad and open it in WinISO5.3.

Here are the messages:

Reply 34 of 54, by Rei0

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Actually, when I open the file in notepad, it has a lot of gobbledygook and intelligible words mixed in. Here is a sample.

Capture5.PNG
Filename
Capture5.PNG
File size
81.28 KiB
Views
847 views
File license
Fair use/fair dealing exception

Reply 35 of 54, by treeman

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

I zipped it and re-uploaded, I downloaded it myself and verified working.
Try this one http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id= … 329962458769030

Reply 36 of 54, by Rei0

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

I tried downloading twice. Still getting error messages. I might be doing something wrong?

Capture6.PNG
Filename
Capture6.PNG
File size
98.53 KiB
Views
843 views
File license
Fair use/fair dealing exception
Capture7.PNG
Filename
Capture7.PNG
File size
107.47 KiB
Views
843 views
File license
Fair use/fair dealing exception

Reply 37 of 54, by treeman

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

this is a img not a iso, are you trying to mount it with something like winiso? that wont work.

its a floppy image you need to mount in vmware under the floppy step9 in the post I made today

Reply 38 of 54, by Rei0

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Ok. Thank you for you assistance and patience so far. I followed the instructions to the letter three times and received the following error message when powering on the VM.

Capture8.PNG
Filename
Capture8.PNG
File size
13.87 KiB
Views
839 views
File license
Fair use/fair dealing exception

Reply 39 of 54, by treeman

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

that error is about your usb drive not being able to mount, I suggest a reboot of the physical machine with the usb stick in the port, then possibly try recreate from beginning