[Freedos-devel] Porting FreeDOS to OLPC XO Laptops?
Hello I plan to buy OLPC XO laptops from One Laptop Per Child project. I plan to run old DOS education program on the laptop. Unfortunately 1. There is no standard BIOS on the laptop. 2. There is no VGA/EGA/CGA display mode on the built-in display controller on the laptop. Is it possible to port FreeDOS to this new AMD Geode laptop? Who can do this project? Thank you. - This SF.net email is sponsored by: Microsoft Defy all challenges. Microsoft(R) Visual Studio 2005. http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/vse012070mrt/direct/01/___ Freedos-devel mailing list Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
Re: [Freedos-devel] Porting FreeDOS to OLPC XO Laptops?
Hi XO, I plan to buy OLPC XO laptops from One Laptop Per Child project. 1. There is no standard BIOS on the laptop. 2. There is no VGA/EGA/CGA display mode on the built-in display Is it possible to port FreeDOS to this new AMD Geode laptop? I think the OLPC will run on Linux. And on Linux, you have a very good virtual PC called DOSEMU. Because DOSEMU lets DOS use the real CPU of the computer, it is faster than a real virtual PC. But it emulates the BIOS and some hardware, for example a VGA display and SB16 sound. So DOSEMU is exactly what you need to run DOS software on OLPC laptops :-). Alternatively, you could write some sort of DOS loader to run DOS on the real OLPC hardware. Such a loader would be a DOS compatible BIOS which is loaded as if it would be an operating system. DOS itself does not need direct access to any VGA or similar hardware, but fullscreen DOS programs often do expect at least some text mode screen buffer at b800:0, so you may have to write something for your BIOS which collects text from that memory area and turns it into something for the OLPC display. Other DOS programs will leave all screen access to the BIOS (or to DOS, which in turn asks the BIOS to do the hardware access). So... Running DOS directly on OLPC hardware means that you will have to write a (minimal) BIOS, but I think it would be a lot easier and more convenient to use DOSEMU, which will let you run DOS in a window while running other Linux things in other windows at the same time :-). Eric PS: AMD Geode is, as far as I remember, x86 compatible, so your only problem is that you need a BIOS for I/O devices such as keyboard, mouse, display and disk access. And a good solution is DOSEMU with both a BIOS and even virtual devices which look like classic VGA etc hardware. - This SF.net email is sponsored by: Microsoft Defy all challenges. Microsoft(R) Visual Studio 2005. http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/vse012070mrt/direct/01/ ___ Freedos-devel mailing list Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
Re: [Freedos-devel] Porting FreeDOS to OLPC XO Laptops?
I remember that there was a project IIRC called L(i)DOS tha loaded a minimal Linux kernel, DOSEMU and one shell. IMHO this could be a way to go, but withou graphics, for graphics you would need X which would make things bigger. Alain xo user escreveu: Hello I plan to buy OLPC XO laptops from One Laptop Per Child project. I plan to run old DOS education program on the laptop. Unfortunately 1. There is no standard BIOS on the laptop. 2. There is no VGA/EGA/CGA display mode on the built-in display controller on the laptop. Is it possible to port FreeDOS to this new AMD Geode laptop? Who can do this project? Thank you. - This SF.net email is sponsored by: Microsoft Defy all challenges. Microsoft(R) Visual Studio 2005. http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/vse012070mrt/direct/01/ ___ Freedos-devel mailing list Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel - This SF.net email is sponsored by: Microsoft Defy all challenges. Microsoft(R) Visual Studio 2005. http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/vse012070mrt/direct/01/ ___ Freedos-devel mailing list Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
Re: [Freedos-devel] Porting FreeDOS to OLPC XO Laptops?
you are correctAMD Geode is indeed x86... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geode_(processor) on the subject of porting FreeDOS to XO, one would have to write some sort of graphical layer since there is no (S)VGA standard implementedin fact, the graphical controller is embedded in the Geode chip and i'm not sure if it implements some standard at allas you pointed, some BIOS layer for I/O stuff would have to be written too my humble opinion is that it is easier for one to port the old DOS educational software to linux and use it in XO than port FreeDOS to XO and use the appin fact the even easier alternative is to use DOSEMU but i'm not sure how will the performance bei don't use DOSEMU so i cannot tell much about it On 9/26/07, Eric Auer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Eric PS: AMD Geode is, as far as I remember, x86 compatible, so your only problem is that you need a BIOS for I/O devices such as keyboard, mouse, display and disk access. And a good solution is DOSEMU with both a BIOS and even virtual devices which look like classic VGA etc hardware. - This SF.net email is sponsored by: Microsoft Defy all challenges. Microsoft(R) Visual Studio 2005. http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/vse012070mrt/direct/01/ ___ Freedos-devel mailing list Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel -- Daniel Let us change our traditional attitude to the construction of programs. Instead of imagining that our main task is to instruct a computer what to do, let us concentrate rather on explaining to human beings what we want a computer to do. (Donald Knuth) Yes, technogeeks can be funny, even if only to each other. (http://www.boogieonline.com/revolution/science/humor/) Man is driven to create; I know I really love to create things. And while I'm not good at painting, drawing, or music, I can write software. (Yukihiro Matsumoto, a.k.a. ``Matz'') - This SF.net email is sponsored by: Microsoft Defy all challenges. Microsoft(R) Visual Studio 2005. http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/vse012070mrt/direct/01/ ___ Freedos-devel mailing list Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
Re: [Freedos-devel] Porting FreeDOS to OLPC XO Laptops?
Daniel Franzini wrote: on the subject of porting FreeDOS to XO, one would have to write some sort of graphical layer since there is no (S)VGA standard implementedin fact, the graphical controller is embedded in the Geode chip and i'm not sure if it implements some standard at allas you pointed, some BIOS layer for I/O stuff would have to be written too Why not read the Geode LX data book at http://www.amd.com/us-en/ConnectivitySolutions/ProductInformation/0,,50_2330_9863_13022%5E13073,00.html? :-) Robert Riebisch -- BTTR Software http://www.bttr-software.de/ - This SF.net email is sponsored by: Microsoft Defy all challenges. Microsoft(R) Visual Studio 2005. http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/vse012070mrt/direct/01/ ___ Freedos-devel mailing list Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
Re: [Freedos-devel] Porting FreeDOS to OLPC XO Laptops?
Daniel Franzini escreveu: and use the appin fact the even easier alternative is to use DOSEMU but i'm not sure how will the performance bei don't use DOSEMU so i cannot tell much about it DOSEMU's performance is very good. Graphic is faster than any other emu (qemu vmware M$...) and usualy compiling a big program is a little faster in DOSEMU then pure dos (thanks to Linux's cache) Alain - This SF.net email is sponsored by: Microsoft Defy all challenges. Microsoft(R) Visual Studio 2005. http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/vse012070mrt/direct/01/ ___ Freedos-devel mailing list Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
[Freedos-devel] Mirror freedos issue
Hi, I maintains a public mirror of freedos on http://distrib-coffee.ipsl.jussieu.fr/pub/mirrors/freedos/ (also ftp and rsync) but the rsync over ibiblio.org but I get the following issue: rsync: send_files failed to open /files/dos/nansi/nansi.lsm (in freedos): Permission denied (13) rsync: send_files failed to open /files/dos/xcopy/rxcopy/rxcopy14.lsm (in freedos): Permission denied (13) Can you please fix permission on these files. Regards. signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part. - This SF.net email is sponsored by: Microsoft Defy all challenges. Microsoft(R) Visual Studio 2005. http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/vse012070mrt/direct/01/___ Freedos-devel mailing list Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
Re: [Freedos-devel] Mirror freedos issue
Hi. I fixed the permissions on both these files. -jh On 9/26/07, Olivier Thauvin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi, I maintains a public mirror of freedos on http://distrib-coffee.ipsl.jussieu.fr/pub/mirrors/freedos/ (also ftp and rsync) but the rsync over ibiblio.org but I get the following issue: rsync: send_files failed to open /files/dos/nansi/nansi.lsm (in freedos): Permission denied (13) rsync: send_files failed to open /files/dos/xcopy/rxcopy/rxcopy14.lsm (in freedos): Permission denied (13) Can you please fix permission on these files. Regards. - This SF.net email is sponsored by: Microsoft Defy all challenges. Microsoft(R) Visual Studio 2005. http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/vse012070mrt/direct/01/ ___ Freedos-devel mailing list Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel - This SF.net email is sponsored by: Microsoft Defy all challenges. Microsoft(R) Visual Studio 2005. http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/vse012070mrt/direct/01/ ___ Freedos-devel mailing list Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
Re: [Freedos-devel] Porting FreeDOS to OLPC XO Laptops?
Hi Robert, XO user, others, sort of graphical layer since there is no (S)VGA standard implementedin fact, the graphical controller is embedded in the Geode chip and i'm not sure if it implements some standard at all Why not read the Geode LX data book at www.amd.com/us-en/ConnectivitySolutions/ProductInformation/0,,50_2330_9863_13022%5E13073,00.html Interesting. Actually the Geode LX and GX both do implement an almost complete VGA unit as a separate function block. You can use either that VGA block or the normal Geode graphics stuff at any time, and even activate traps to have hardware in Geode mode and still detect attempts of your software to use the VGA. Some more exotic VGA graphics modes are not implemented, and most text modes take more graphics computing power than some lower resolution graphics modes at same screen refresh rate / frames per second rate, but I would say that Geode is really VGA compatible enough for DOS. But you still need a VGA BIOS. You can probably use some open source VGA BIOS such as the one used in the BOCHS virtual PC, with some smaller changes. Another interesting question would be what sort of disk and keyboard controllers are used on the OLPC, to estimate how hard it would be to write a BIOS which supports them. Anyway: If you do already have access to an actual OLPC laptop, you should first try using Dosemu on it, and let us know how well or not well it runs :-). Of course FreeDOS is a nice DOS to install in Dosemu, and I assume that a default install of Dosemu includes some minimal classic version of FreeDOS anyway. Eric - This SF.net email is sponsored by: Microsoft Defy all challenges. Microsoft(R) Visual Studio 2005. http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/vse012070mrt/direct/01/ ___ Freedos-devel mailing list Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
