I just gave it a go on my 386 (DOS 6.22). If I tried to run the exe from the /FILES dir, I seemed to get a similar error (but in French). When I tried to run Setup, it wanted to read the disk drive (but I had the files on my HDD). So I threw it on a floppy and ran Setup from there. This time I got a (healthy looking) graphical install screen, selected English, and when it completed I was instructed to run LCSA1.exe from C:\LCSA1.

Running that, I got a text mode screen saying it was trying to connect, and then failed to connect. All said it seemed to be running correctly.

I don't know if that feedback is of any use! Shots in the dark here, but I wonder if you would have any luck with:

- Mounting your directory as an A drive in DOSBox and running Setup from there https://www.dosbox.com/wiki/MOUNT
- Trying a fork such as DOSBox-X

There is a known thing that newer graphics adapters have dropped support for older graphics modes. Perhaps an older graphics adapter in the machine you're trying to use FreeDOS on would work, possibly a 32bit PCI card. However, DOSbox should emulate them, but it may have skipped one or two that weren't in use for games, because it is a game focused emulator, not an app focused one.

BitWrangler wrote on 2021-07-21, 02:17:

There is a known thing that newer graphics adapters have dropped support for older graphics modes. Perhaps an older graphics adapter in the machine you're trying to use FreeDOS on would work, possibly a 32bit PCI card. However, DOSbox should emulate them, but it may have skipped one or two that weren't in use for games, because it is a game focused emulator, not an app focused one.

Good thought. In that case I wonder if DOSBox-X or even PCem might be a solution. I say that without knowing specifics of their video mode support, but knowing that they have a broader scope than vanilla DOSBox.

I think OP really should get a DOS-era laptop though. The perfect mobile service tool for that classic van 😁

BGI drivers (as EGAVGA.BGI) are/were for Borland products such as Turbo C/Pascal. EGAVGA.BGI only supported limited amount of graphics modes and none of them is exotic so I do not think EGA/VGA mode compatibility is the problem. These are the supported modes:

So the needed video mode is most likely 640x200, 640x350 or 640x480.
The problem is that SETUP.EXE can not find the graphics driver since it is in the FILE directory. After extracting the rar file you should copy the BGI driver and CHR files also to the directory where SETUP.EXE is. Then SETUP.EXE starts without problem.

Pierre32 wrote on 2021-07-21, 00:51:

I just gave it a go on my 386 (DOS 6.22).

Is that actual MSDOS?

When I tried to run Setup, it wanted to read the disk drive...

Ah yes, sorry I forgot to mention that. I worked around it using SUBST A: C:\<foldername>

This time I got a (healthy looking) graphical install screen, selected English, and when it completed I was instructed to run LCSA1.exe from C:\LCSA1.
Running that, I got a text mode screen saying it was trying to connect, and then failed to connect. All said it seemed to be running correctly.

I don't know if that feedback is of any use!

That is what I would expect it to do, and it is very helpful to know that setup can work properly with the right setup.

Shots in the dark here, but I wonder if you would have any luck with:
- Mounting your directory as an A drive in DOSBox and running Setup from there https://www.dosbox.com/wiki/MOUNT
- Trying a fork such as DOSBox-X

I am not convinced that putting it on floppy makes a significant difference to anything, but it won't be hard to check, so I'll try that later.
Don't really understand about forks, but maybe that'll become clear after I go look.

Hairyloon wrote on 2021-07-21, 09:14:

Is that actual MSDOS?

Yep!

Hairyloon wrote on 2021-07-21, 09:14:

Don't really understand about forks, but maybe that'll become clear after I go look.

Since DOSBox is open source, people are able to take the source code and develop their own version of it under a different name - modifying features as they see fit. That's called a fork, and DOSBox-X is one such fork of DOSBox. In their own words:

while the main focus of DOSBox is for running DOS games, DOSBox-X goes much further than this ... it is also a platform for running DOS applications

https://dosbox-x.com/

I have no idea if it's a useful suggestion, but you might as well have a go at it.

Falcosoft wrote on 2021-07-21, 08:25:

The problem is that SETUP.EXE can not find the graphics driver since it is in the FILE directory. After extracting the rar file you should copy the BGI driver and CHR files also to the directory where SETUP.EXE is. Then SETUP.EXE starts without problem.
lcsa1.png

Well that worked, insofar as setup programme ran, but the programme itself still gives a garbled output, and tends to crash.

It did seem marginally closer than before: the programme did something I'd not got it to do before, but perhaps today I just hit the right button at the right time, and nothing is actually different...

Pierre32 wrote on 2021-07-21, 09:26:

while the main focus of DOSBox is for running DOS games, DOSBox-X goes much further than this ... it is also a platform for running DOS applications

https://dosbox-x.com/

I have no idea if it's a useful suggestion, but you might as well have a go at it.

Thanks, but I fell at the first hurdle: how do you change to a UK keyboard layout? I can't find the "\"...

Hairyloon wrote on 2021-07-21, 19:38:

Well that worked, insofar as setup programme ran, but the programme itself still gives a garbled output, and tends to crash. […]
Show full quote

Falcosoft wrote on 2021-07-21, 08:25:

The problem is that SETUP.EXE can not find the graphics driver since it is in the FILE directory. After extracting the rar file you should copy the BGI driver and CHR files also to the directory where SETUP.EXE is. Then SETUP.EXE starts without problem.
lcsa1.png

Well that worked, insofar as setup programme ran, but the programme itself still gives a garbled output, and tends to crash.

It did seem marginally closer than before: the programme did something I'd not got it to do before, but perhaps today I just hit the right button at the right time, and nothing is actually different...

Progress is good, is it the serial data that's getting garbled? Rate mismatch? No flow control? Dodgy connections?

BitWrangler wrote on 2021-07-21, 20:05:

Progress is good, is it the serial data that's getting garbled?

See picture. It isn't completely garbled, but it clearly isn't displaying as it should. That page clearly ought to display information, and it doesn't display anything.

Try using the FIX8x14 VGA font utility, as it enables 8x16 text fonts, as almost all modern cards have thrown them away / castrated them. All 9th and 10th gen i core processor onboard graphics chips don't even support VGA-register graphics modes at all, so nothing under 640x480 will even work.

zyzzle wrote on 2021-07-23, 01:48:

Try using the FIX8x14 VGA font utility, as it enables 8x16 text fonts, as almost all modern cards have thrown them away / castrated them. All 9th and 10th gen i core processor onboard graphics chips don't even support VGA-register graphics modes at all, so nothing under 640x480 will even work.

Thanks, I'll give that a go.

zyzzle wrote on 2021-07-23, 01:48:

Try using the FIX8x14 VGA font utility, as it enables 8x16 text fonts, as almost all modern cards have thrown them away / castrated them. All 9th and 10th gen i core processor onboard graphics chips don't even support VGA-register graphics modes at all, so nothing under 640x480 will even work.

Doesn't appear to make any difference.

I've tried Virtualbox, and successfully installed MSDOS on it, but when I try to run the programme, it says "Error in EXE file".
I think maybe the next idea is to clone the virtualbox virtual drive onto a HDD and put it in the old PC...
Not worked out how to do that yet though.

Pierre32 wrote on 2021-07-21, 09:26:

Since DOSBox is open source, people are able to take the source code and develop their own version of it under a different name […]
Show full quote

Since DOSBox is open source, people are able to take the source code and develop their own version of it under a different name - modifying features as they see fit. That's called a fork, and DOSBox-X is one such fork of DOSBox. In their own words:

while the main focus of DOSBox is for running DOS games, DOSBox-X goes much further than this ... it is also a platform for running DOS applications

https://dosbox-x.com/

I have no idea if it's a useful suggestion, but you might as well have a go at it.

The problem that I had, was getting DOSBox-x to talk to the COM port....

This thread suggested:

1serial1=directserial realport:com1 startbps:9600 parity:n bytesize:8 stopbits:2

In the config, and that seems to be working...

Nice!

Thanks for the help.
I would be about to start wrangling with MS-DOS and an RS232 interface otherwise...
Am proper kicking myself for not trying harder with your suggestion in the first place... but I never did find out how to change the keyboard layout. 😉