By the way, here's some video that shows how even that CDU DOS outperforms FreeDOS in terms of modern hardware compatibility..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9si1le2EOGU&t=300

Gustl wrote on 2022-03-13, 08:49:

Must ask my question differently. Does it only work in a virtual machine, or also on a real device. And if on a real device, can it then participate in today's Internet?

At least as of FreeDOS 1.2 it only autoconfigures networking when installed in a virtual machine. If you look into the networking section inside the AUTOEXEC counterpart (FDAUTO I think), you'll notice it is detecting some VM-specific values and aborts if it found none (that means you're running it on a real machine).

I think older FreeDOS versions (1.0 I think) had a "crynwr" package which contained a lot of packet drivers and supported networking for a good amount of physical network adapters (onboard or discrete) out-of-box. Current FreeDOS versions don't appear to include any other packet driver than the ones emulated by popular VM software.

For real machine you need to configure networking by yourself. There's a shim allowing you to use NDIS2 driver as packet driver. Once you get a packet driver running it should work. Be noted that networking requires a good amount of conventional memory so it's better to put the networking support as a separate configuration.

BitWrangler wrote on 2022-03-10, 17:08:

Nah, I can see their point, they're writing an OS not an emulator, which is basically what the "shim" is gonna be. Pick an emulator, run FreeDOS on it.

It appears that Arca Noae is planning to use a bootloader capable of providing a complete and consistent BIOS emulation to get ArcaOS working in UEFI. On the other hand, looks like SeaBIOS had instructions on how to build it as UEFI CSM as well, but not sure if it's ever possible to install it to a stock UEFI firmware that doesn't already have a CSM.

The coreboot project will probable end up coming into it somewhere eventually I would think.

Thank you LSS10999 the information is rich and informative. If you know more about it please inform us. I'm sure other readers feel the same way I do.

Jo22 wrote on 2022-03-15, 12:05:

By the way, here's some video that shows how even that CDU DOS outperforms FreeDOS in terms of modern hardware compatibility..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9si1le2EOGU&t=300

I'll note that later on he reveals his USB pendrive was flaky.... which kinda explains why would FreeDOS (and WinME) hang during setup 😀

Anyway, what would be the point of a "UEFI-capable FreeDOS" ?
It would not be able to run anything other than other UEFI programs.

To run anything from DOS you'd need a BIOS , and if you have a BIOS you might as well just run FreeDOS under that BIOS and save yourself compatibility headaches...

Made a whole build to run Freedos on it, guess I'm becoming a fan.
It's not as compatible as DOS 6/7 (yet), but I really enjoy the fact it's open source software. DOS 6 only supports FAT16 and DOS 7 was really meant to be used with windows on top, which makes it kind of "weird" to be used in a standalone DOS machine. And of course there is all the legality crap thanks to Microsoft refusing to let go of their almost 30 year old OS.
Aside from the games already mentioned in Phil's channel, I had some issues with Alone in the Dark 1 and 2. For Alone 1 the floppy versions at least refuses to start with JEMM related error, if I don't load JEMM I get different errors (invalid opcode error) but the game won't start anyway, even loading HIMEM and EMM386 from actual DOS doesn't solve the issue, the CD version works ok without loading JEMM. In regular DOS, the game works fine on the same machine.
Alone 2 does work, but the small program that loads the Adlib driver freezes the whole computer (invalid opcode error as well), so the only way to play it is without music. Didn't test the CD version, but it's very likely it will work as the music is CD audio.

What build do you have and what gap does it fill for you except curiousity? I would like to try at some point but o need some motivation. 😀

Joakim wrote on 2022-08-16, 14:47:

What build do you have and what gap does it fill for you except curiousity? I would like to try at some point but o need some motivation. 😀

It's a Pentium MMX build:
-V72MA Motherboard (Ali M1542 chipset)
-Pentium MMX 200Mhz
-RAM 64MB PC 100
- VGA (offboard) Diamond Stealth 3D 2000 2Mb PCI
-VGA (onboard) ATI Rage PRO Turbo 8mb AGP
-Aztech 6800w ISA (This is a sound card + modem combo), uses the AZT 2320 chip for audio.
-20GB HDD

For this machine in particular, I wanted it to be pure DOS, yet It was kind of weird for me to install DOS 6 as it does not support FAT32 (I could either waste most of the 20GB hard drive, or have many 2GB partitions), but it was also weird to install DOS7 as it kind of forces me to install Windows as well (yes, one can create a stripped version of it, but for me this is even weirder than just installing Windows). So to build the true "windows free" PC I wanted to play DOS games, Freedos 1.3 was the best choice even considering it's compatibility issues.
For me, Freedos is ideal for those who have a very old system but don't want to resort to using pirated versions of MS-DOS/Win9x, buying second hand copies to stay legit, or simply don't like the fact that Microsoft refuses to let go of their long abandoned products. Aside from moral questions, Freedos is free and open source, meaning anyone can see what it does and fix potential issues, so in the long run compatibility will improve as it did between 1.2 and 1.3.
The installation CD also comes with very useful utilities like MTCP which allows you to create an FTP server using your old PC. With this I can easily download and upload files to it, from my modern PC or even my smartphone. I know all those utilities can be copied and run from regular DOS as well, but Freedos comes with all that included on its installation CD and you can easily install/uninstall them via its package manager (a bit Linuxsy, I know, but I like it).
Another gap I think is of retro developers, it's much better to develop any new DOS app or game using Freedos as its source code is available and you can see exactly how it works internally.