SUCCESS!!!! Thanks Jerome. I was able to get a working version of
FreeDOS installed an running. When building from the FloppyEdition, the
only file I needed to copy over was KERNEL.SYS and then the system
booted and ran properly. I'm still going to take your advice and look
into tailoring the FDCONFIG.SYS and FDAUTO.BAT files for 8086 environment.
For those who may stumble on this, The process I undertook was
* Wipe the SD Card clean using `sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/mmcblk0
bs=1M` under linux.
* Partition the SD Card on the 8086 machine. (Luckily I still had 1
working DOS floppy disk)
* Install FreeDOS running under QEMU directly to the SD card from the
Floppy Edition images (Learning how to change floppies under QEMU was a
novel experience)
* Copy the KERNEL.SYS from the floppy edition over the one installed
under QEMU.
For all those who helped along the way, many thanks. Trevor
On 7/8/24 17:22, Jerome Shidel via Freedos-user wrote:
On Aug 7, 2024, at 12:33 AM, Trevor Campbell via
Freedos-user<freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net> wrote:
I also tried using the Floppy edition but ended up just the same.
The problem is that you are installing into a 386+ machine expecting it to work
on an 8086.
The Floppy Edition can install to an 8086 with EGA or better graphics. And
through some command line options be forced to do that install regardless of
the hardware or virtual platform where it is being installed.
But, I’m going to tell you a different way to accomplish a usable install for
an 8086 using QEMU on a different machine.
Just go ahead and install in QEMU using whichever install media you feel like
using. Just be aware that many programs and drivers will require a 286 or 386.
Most of the programs in FreeDOS base will be fine under a 8086. But, there are
a couple drivers that need a 286 or better.
After you installed, you now have an installation for a 386 or better with a
configuration tailored towards QEMU. Obviously, this will be a problem on a
real 8086. So, we will fix some things.
First, just rename your boot configuration files. They are not going to work on
the 8086. Rename the FDCONFIG.SYS and FDAUTO.BAT files. This is easy to do with
the move and copy command like so:
move FDAUTO.BAT FDAUTO.TXT
copy FDCONFIG.SYS FDCONFIG.TXT
Now, EDIT the FDCONFIG.SYS file. You want to remove nearly everything. Keeping
only the FILES, BUFFERS, LASTDRIVE at the start of the file. You’ll want to
reduce there settings some to save a little precious memory. Like maybe
Files=20, Buffers=10 and lastdrive=g.
The only thing to keep is the shell= towards the end of the file. (Not the
shellhigh=). But it will need some changes as well. Remove the stuff up to and
including the ?. It’s something like 34?SHELL=. Those numbers and question mark
involve using a config menu at boot time. You won’t be using a boot menu. So
that part of the line needs removed.
Also, again memory is very precious. So, you will want to limit the amount
allocated to the environment variable table. There is a setting on the SHELL
line for something like “/E:2048”. That is reserving 2 kilobytes for the
environment table. You won’t need that much. Probably 1024 or 512 might be
enough. If you run out, you can always increase it later.
Ok, we are almost there. Just one more a couple more steps.
This step is very very important. Since you installed to QEMU, you got the 386
kernel installed. No way that’s going to work on an 8086. So, grab the Floppy
Edition boot diskette. Not any of the CD ISOs or the CD boot diskette images.
It needs to be the boot diskette from the floppy edition. The Floppy edition is
the only one that will boot on an 8086.
Simple copy the KERNEL.SYS and COMMAND.COM from that floppy overtop the ones
installed into QEMU.
Generally, that should do it. But, booting SD cards can be a little odd. You
may need to forcefully update the MBR using FDISK /MBR. Then of course, you
will need to copy the entire contents of the virtual drive back to the SD card
using a tool like DD. Both of those steps are easy to do incorrectly.
:-)
Jerome
On 7/8/24 13:26, Trevor Campbell wrote:
Hi
I am trying to resurrect an old Amstrad PC-1512, which is an 8086 machine with
640K mem.
The hard drive is no good, but I have installed a XT-IDE SD card adapter which
seems to work.
I have used QEMU to install FreeDOS from FD13LGCY.iso but I can't seem to get a
8086 compatible install.
The build is always for 80386 or higher. I can see there should be a way to run
setup with parameters to make this happen, but can't find what the right
combination might be.
Trevor
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