I don't have Parallels anymore, but to debug this I tried to install FreeDOS 1.0 using VMWare. I hit the same problem you found: after using XFDisk to partition the drive, reboot, and then you see "invalid operating system".
The reason is that the BIOS presented by VMWare (or in your case, Parallels) tries to boot from the hard drive first, then CD-ROM. If the hard drive is uninitialized (i.e. no partitions, before you run XFDisk) then it boots correctly from the FreeDOS 1.0 install CD. Once you partition the drive, there is a C: drive there, so the virtual machine tries to boot from the C: drive. But there isn't an operating system there yet, so the virtual machine aborts with "invalid operating system". The solution is to edit the BIOS settings using the BIOS Setup program. You'll see this when you boot your virtual machine - under VMWare, you press F2 when you see the VMWare "BIOS" logo. Under the "Boot" menu, you'll be able to change the boot selection order. On VMWare, you move the cursor to "CD-ROM" then use "+" to move it up in the list (above "Hard Drive".) Once you've done that, the virtual machine should be able to boot the FreeDOS 1.0 install CD to do the actuall installation. On my VMWare instance, it took about 10 minutes. :-) -jh On 3/28/07, Bonnie Dalzell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > OK I took notes this time. > > Try to install real freedos (not run it inside linux inside parallels) > > Parallels has you pick options > > Picked DOS > and then under that Other DOS > > Gave it 192 MB of memory and a gig for its harddrive. > > All this is happening in the paralles window on the mac desktop. > Used the FreeDos 1.0 Full CD I downloaded and burned Feb 27 2007 > > Installed boot manager. > > Restart and get the startup screen with the boot manager and Freedos > as the choice in boot manager > > However when I try and boot freedos i get the following: > > freedos is booting please be patient > > Invalid Operating System > > > hmmmmmm..... ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys-and earn cash http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
