I use PC-DOS 5.0 because:
- I have a 1GB SCSI Drive (Bustek BT542)
- the "kernel" is smaller so I get more free RAM
- I don't see any advantage from a higher Dos-Version
- EMM286 does run with PC-DOS 5.0 too
- You don't have to use "setver" for Old-Geos Versions
I probably would test other OS (Dualboot over xfdisk/bootmanager).
PTS-Dos perhaps ?
Doc
Retro-Gamer 😀 ...on different machines
I always preferred DOS 5.0 as well -- maybe for nothing other than "it seemed right". DOS 6.22 had lots of benefits and was certainly installed as an upgrade on many 286's, but mine always ran 5.0 back in the day with Quarterdeck QRAM/QEXT as the XMS manager.
why qram? is it better?
Retro-Gamer 😀 ...on different machines
wrote:why qram? is it better?
QRAM (at least v1.0) supports XMS and EMS4 on 8088/8086/80286 platforms. So if you had EMS board in an older (pre-386) machine, QRAM was the ticket. It uses the same "optimize" engine that QEMM does, except it works on these older platforms. It also comes with the "manifest" program that is a pretty nifty system information tool.
In the late 80's there was some software I had that I couldn't get to run on our 286 without QRAM. I wish I could recall what it was, but I can't.
What I DO remember is that I wouldn't see the pilot's hand on the flight stick in Wing Commander with HIMEM on our 286, but it would show up with QRAM/QEXT.
I did a quick test run of WC1 on my 20 Mhz Headland 286 rig (to see the pilot's hand disappear 😀
What I DO remember is that I wouldn't see the pilot's hand on the flight stick in Wing Commander with HIMEM on our 286, but it would show up with QRAM/QEXT.
:
It was not because QRAM managed to free up the last byte of conventional RAM. It was because it could utilize all other RAM in your system as EMS. The HT12MM memory manager can do the same in my system, but more than 2 MB RAM must be reserved for EMS.
This is NOT against QRAM. It is indeed THE best all-around 3rd party memory manager for these machines. (Has comparable speed and compatibility as The Last Byte, except for EMS emulation). I am just saying that similar results can be obtained with more system specific/restricted memory managers, too.
"Ita in vita ut in lusu alae pessima iactura arte corrigenda est."
There is some choice in the 21st century for the infamous 286.
My operating system of choice nowadays is Elks. 16 bit linux
If you know how to compile from source, you can compile in 286 support and also support for all types of ram boards.
only thing it is currently lacking is network device support. can only talk to the outside world via a slip connection!
There has been talks of using a wrapper to load dos network card drivers.
highly recommend anyone who is into these vintage computers take a look at this alternative OS.
very flexible!
on my system i use on a daily basis i have elks kernel bootstrapped via a option rom in the isa rom space. aka a eprom in the network card!
Two minutes ago i installed MS-Dos 5.0 on my 286-12Mhz machine.. Very happy with it, and a lot of conventional memory! At least 655KB.
~ At least it can do black and white~
wrote:Two minutes ago i installed MS-Dos 5.0 on my 286-12Mhz machine.. Very happy with it, and a lot of conventional memory! At least 655KB.
You must mean bytes... 640K = 655360 Bytes
wrote:highly recommend anyone who is into these vintage computers take a look at this alternative OS.!
While interesting it probably doesn't have the software library Dos has or support the same amount of hardware. There's also Xenix and Minix as mentioned earlier.
Currently my 286/12 is running MS Dos 5.0 at the moment, has network support, access to LS120 or cdrom as well as 8megs of ram for splitting between EMX/XMS (can be confirured in the bios)if and when needed. That's also useful for Win 3.x/PC Geos. Next hdd I load up for it I might toss DrDos 6 on it.
There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉
An 8MB-capable 286? Those are rare. Nice.
Win 3.1 on 12MHz 286? Sounds too slow for windows..
Works fine. The extra ram helps. I was running Win 3.1 on a 286/16 with 4megs back in the day and performance is about the same. Seems Zenith did some vodoo on the hardware side. i/o, video and IDE is integrated with 3 ISA slots on a riser. 2 having a nic and sound card.
My system was actually shipped with Windows 3.0 bundled btw. Indeed Zenith supported Windows from its' first incarnations. You can read about my trials and tribulations over at vcf http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showt … odel-ZCV-251-EC
There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉
wrote:Like the look of Geoworks but having a heck of a time finding it. There is a company called Breadbox that owns the code/copyright and distributes it, but I don't see anything for XT/286 on their site, only 386 and up.
Look for Evaluation versions of New Deal Office 3.2a. It works on 286s. Sites like Vetusware have GeoWorks 1.2, 2.0 and 3.x etc. It's not terribly hard to find.
I still have my GeoWorks Ensemble Pro 1.2 software I bought new as well as new Deal Office 3.2a.
There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉
wrote:You can't install Windows 3.11 on a 286. You can however install ver. 3.1
I think you're getting mixed up with Windows 3.11 and Windows for Workgroups 3.11. Windows 3.11 just had half a dozen or so core files updated, no native networking, which works on a 286 just fine.
wrote:Digital Research GEM, but good luck finding a copy.
FreeGem is readily available http://www.deltasoft.com/downloads.htm for those who want to give it a shot.
Some 286 appropriate Dos/Gui porn:
There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉
So snorg, what OS have you chosen for your 286 ? 😀
I think I've more or less settled on either DOS 5 or 6.22 with Geoworks on top. I might do OS/2 1.3 as an alternate boot option. I haven't made up my mind yet.
I have not had nearly the time for retrocomputing that I would like as I've been helping a friend rehab a house.
wrote:I think I've more or less settled on either DOS 5 or 6.22 with Geoworks on top.
A good combo. Back when I was using my original 286/16 initially it was set up to run DrDos 6 and GeoWorks Ensemble Pro 1.2. They seemed to compliment each other quite well at the time. Be aware that early Geoworks/PC Geos versions only had 16 colour support. There is a Vesa 256 colour driver/s for Geoworks 2.0 up though. I don't think any of the apps supported 256 colour until v3/NDO 98 iirc.
There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉
Me too I have a 8MB 286, this one is a 12.5MHz SBC based on NEAT chipset, from 1989.
POST lasts 30s due to unskippable memory test
BIOS reports itself as an IBM 7531 Industrial AT
I bought a bunch of EPROM off eBay, I need to upgrade the BIOS. Original one is so buggy. the most obvious is that it fails to report existence of 2nd DMA controller despite having a NIC thar use DMA6 fine.
For alternative OS, I prefer a FAT32 DOS clone to use a larger hdd with XT-IDE BIOS
There is FreeDOS and patches for DR-DOS 7.01.
With a large cache disk, it can fly, I set 4MB during network file transfer.
For Win3.1 you must use a 8bpp or 16bpp gfx card to circumvent 16 colors planar mode
Ensure that all your ISA can be accessed in 16bit, there is 8/16bit cohabitation problem in 128k segment for memory mapped ISA cards.
Type win to loose the power of your computer !
My old GEM 286 has been running 6.22 since the day I bought it off E-bay in mid 2005. I upgraded it to 6.22 from 5.00, but kept DOS Shell and the optional QBASIC games and stuff from 5. It's a 10MHz Intel 80286 SX-10 overclocked to 12MHz via BIOS glitch because I put in a ITT 802c87 Math Co-Processor in it out of a dead-as-a-doornail IBM PS/2 50Z that I cannibalized at the time, and the processor clock utility I have on it went up from 10.5 MHz to 12.7MHz avg clock speed. The Motherboard is a super-high revision Octek Fox II. It has a 540MB Seagate EIDE HDD with a DDO, which it had when I bought it. I'm also running 6144K RAM via 4 1MB 30 pin SIMMS (I yanked out the 1024K of DRAM DIP chips and changed to SIMMS on day one as well), and threw in 2 more MB via a 16-bit RAMpAT RAM expansion card. I also had a 12MB PAnda SIMM Memory card in it for awhile though it seemed to bottleneck memory speed somehow.
It runs 4 versions of Windows on top (1.01, 2.03, 3.0, and 3.1) - the first three are for shits and giggles, the fourth, 3.1 runs AMAZING on this computer, it runs Jezzball and various other lightweight Win16 games with full sound (from a SoundBlaster VIbra 16 using Pro 2.0 drivers) at 800X600 @256 Color without any issues.
It also has LAN via Microsoft LAN Manager 3.0 (TCP/IP with DHCP), and I have internet access using the most recent 16-bit DOS build of Arachne (0.98?) with the 8088/286 APM applied to lighten the weight a bit. Web surfing is a tad slow even on broadband, but it's definitely doable and graphics rendering is actually pretty darn good - but that's probably has a 1MB TSENG ET-4000 ISA video card driving the 800X600 @256 color graphics.
~The Creeping Network~
My Youtube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/creepingnet
Creepingnet's World - https://creepingnet.neocities.org/
The Creeping Network Repo - https://www.geocities.ws/creepingnet2019/
wrote:Me too I have a 8MB 286, this one is a 12.5MHz SBC based on NEAT chipset, from 1989. POST lasts 30s due to unskippable memory te […]
Me too I have a 8MB 286, this one is a 12.5MHz SBC based on NEAT chipset, from 1989.
POST lasts 30s due to unskippable memory test
BIOS reports itself as an IBM 7531 Industrial ATI bought a bunch of EPROM off eBay, I need to upgrade the BIOS. Original one is so buggy. the most obvious is that it fails to report existence of 2nd DMA controller despite having a NIC thar use DMA6 fine.
For alternative OS, I prefer a FAT32 DOS clone to use a larger hdd with XT-IDE BIOS
There is FreeDOS and patches for DR-DOS 7.01.
Isn't FAT32 on a 286 is irrelevent no matter what OS you are running?
Sounds like a nice setup creepingnet.
There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉
