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We've got a bunch of utilities that MS-DOS did not have! For example, we added Unix-like utilities to make Linux users feel more comfortable.
Our complete software list is at https://www.freedos.org/software/
And of course - the most important improvement is FreeDOS is still developed and it's open source software!
FreeDOS is an open source DOS-compatible operating system that you can use to play classic DOS games, run legacy business software, or develop embedded systems. Any program that works on MS-DOS should also run on FreeDOS.
> [DOS] it was barely functional and quite slow
Boot it from a CD-ROM or use FreeDOS. I had similar issues with floppies on one machine. On another the CD installation would be slow as fuck too (taking hours to install). I'm not sure what the exact reason for this slow operation is. If I had to guess, either a sloppy implementation of legacy interrupts or a problem because it might use a traditional idle loop rather than the HLT instruction.
> this also means that modern Graphic cards still support the old standards. or the CPU does that by itself.
Traditional graphics is made via a mapped memory range. Iirc that range is static for each type of GPU (CGA, EGA, VGA, ...) and is partially responsible for the 640k limit.
Most motherboard bios can be updated using FreeDOS live USB.
https://www.freedos.org/download/
I use the fullUSB iso, once it's burned just copy your BIOS files over to a folder. Boot to the USB, exit the installer. It dumps you to a normal old DOS prompt. Run your .exe and the BIOS will update.
Actually, you know what? Install FreeDOS www.FreeDOS.org and then install '9x from DOS, that should work better I think. As FreeDOS should have SATA drivers for the DOS part of setup, then the SATA drivers I linked at first should take over after that.
Yep, DOS 6.2 should run ok on that but likely won't utilize all it's memory (which is fine). Otherwise FreeDos (https://www.freedos.org/) will run just fine on that and might be easier to access some of the more modern networking stuff.
If you're asking for the FreeDOS itself then a Google wouldn't hurt ya much: https://www.freedos.org/
I remember having got an old Dell Inspiron from my brother in late 2010s, it came with a FreeDOS CD but the retailer just install a (not activated) copy of Windows on it anyway lol. I tried booting up the CD some times ago and it's pretty much like DOS, sans the Microsoft branding stuff (like in ver command)
It looks like your disk is connected to the same IDE port as the CD-Rom drive but it doesn't looks like they're both detected in the POST screen. Make sure you've set the jumper configuration correctly on the drives (one is master and one is slave), or connect them to their individual IDE port instead. Maybe your bios has trouble booting in this disk configuration or the IDE emulation of your adapter is garbage. To quickly rule out disk conflicts, unplug the IDE cable from the CD-Rom drive and try to boot from the harddrive.
For simplicity, try to install a simpler operating system like Freedos and see if that will boot.
Take it to the next level: abandon the web and JavaScript entirely, and start writing apps for the FreeDOS platform in Visual C++ or Pascal! Distribute it it as VMWare or VirtualBox images!
An alternate suggestion to some of the ideas here is freedos. https://www.freedos.org/
I installed it on an XP era machine (Dell Dimension 4200) a while ago to program a ThrustMaster Flightstick. The video and CD worked out of the box. I didn't really mess around to try anything with sound though.
I've had success using a FreeDOS bootable image: https://www.freedos.org/download/
After building the bootable USB drive I just copy the BIOS exe to it before rebooting.
Might need to change your boot mode to legacy.
Looks like you have 1 more option. Make a freedos boot usb
Download the bios update extract it and rename the file to H61M-K.CAP and put it on the root of the USB drive you create with freedos
download that and also extract it to the root of the usb drive and then reboot and boot off the thumb drive to get into freedos and run bupdater /pc /g and follow the prompts.
A somewhat visual guide starts at section 2-2 https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1155/H61M-K/E8088-H61MK.pdf?_ga=2.239328448.2115997307.1592036624-934293657.1541404674
TL;DR - this probably won't help but it's all I've got for now.
Blind leading the blind here, but I found this way old thread with a FreeDOS initdisk error: https://www.ultimatebootcd.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1545
For them it was supposedly a memory management issue. They also had opcode errors displayed on screen... this is a total shot in the dark, but the FreeDOS download page has a note on getting past opcode errors in Virtual Box (I know you're on real hardware):
>If you get a scrolling list of “Invalid Opcode” errors when you boot the FreeDOS 1.2 installation CD-ROM on VirtualBox, this is a bug in VirtualBox since we released FreeDOS 1.2.
>To fix: When you boot the FreeDOS install CD-ROM, at the first “Welcome to FreeDOS 1.2” boot screen, press the Tab key to edit the boot options. Add raw to the end of the command line, then press the Enter key to boot.
Example: https://www.freedos.org/download/screenshot-raw.png
If I've got to just guess, perhaps the hardware (particularly RAM) is more advanced than FreeDOS can handle without extra configuration? Maybe see if you can limit how much RAM FreeDOS will use, try booting without extended memory?
Manjaro will work in just the same way as it did when you were dual-booting - Linux does not "borrow" any of the drivers from W10. If I recall correctly, the only BIOS setting you need to check for Manjaro is to turn secureboot off.
Most likely you will be fine with drivers, though Nvidia graphics cards are known for not always playing nice so be prepared for that. But try running Manjaro from a live USB stick first, and see if your hardware is supported. If you have any issues (e.g. with the GTX 1050) maybe try another distro - Pop_OS! is supposed to come with Nvidia drivers built in.
For BIOS updates - check your laptop's user manual, it should tell you if there are alternate ways to install BIOS upgrades. I haven't owned any HP laptops so I don't know, but on the Lenovo and Dell machines I've owned it has been possible to upgrade BIOS from a USB stick. And if that doesn't work, your final option would be to make a bootable FreeDOS USB stick, copy the BIOS update to that, and then boot the machine into FreeDOS and upgrade from there. Done that a few times too.
Using FreeDOS instead of MSDOS tends to make things like this much easier and I can really recommend it in general. Comes with so many useful tools and improvements out of the box. Might be some obscure software that does not run, but I used it for several years now without noticing anything not being 100% MSDOS compatible.
I would have just used FreeDOS (https://www.freedos.org/) and then go to my website's (https://theouterlinux.gitlab.io) Recommended DOS Software section on the home page, but it's still cool to have an original copy of MS-DOS.
If it makes you feel any better, I have been looking at creating a list of i486-compatible GNU/Linux distros and posting it to the "Mμse" section of TheOuterLinux website (https://theouterlinux.gitlab.io/Public/Articles/DescendingIndex.html) and keep it updated as more are successfully tested (using QEMU; I'm not destroying an old machine for this). I have also been thinking about releasing PsychOS 3.5.0 as PsychOS 3.5" (aka "PsyDOS" or "PsychDOS"; not sure yet) and have it based off of FreeDOS (https://www.freedos.org/), but no promises as this is just an idea and I'm still waiting on a stable version of FreeDOS 1.3 to be released with easy to follow documentation on how to do so, or hopefully. Plans for PsychOS 4 is to be ARM-based (Raspbian?) and while at it, I may try to do a PsychOS486 in the similar nature as the 3.x series but will hopefully not need 86 builds to get there.
Most operating systems are written in a combination of C and assembly.
That said, you seem to be conflating the operating system (the elements that interact with the hardware, schedule tasks, etc.) with the shell (the part the user interacts with).
If you're looking for something relatively simple as an example, check out the source for FreeDOS. Learn about OS design before jumping into the deep end...
it requires a driver for CGA
i486 running on 2AA batteries! 6MB RAM!](http://www.tankraider.com/DOSPALMTOP/necmcmk32.html) it is more powerful than my very first desktop PC in 1993 which only had an i386SX.
the goo is the rubber/plastic deteriorating ... some Japanese websites suggest dunking the case in alcohol and putting a coat of shelac on the case afterwards
Japan 2nd hand shop
FDOS (FreeDOS) is very much MS-DOS compatible
I've used 5.25 floppies on relativey recent Ubuntu releases (16.04, or maybe 14.04) so it might be a hardware issue. Try booting an older Live CD to see if it plays well with the hardware.
Another option is to make a Freedos cd or thumbdrive and boot that, and try to format the floppy.
Is your intent to change/improve the BASIC program, or to move it to different hardware?
If it is the latter, there are a few options that I can think of:
- run the program on new hardware using FreeBASIC
- run the program in a VM using FreeDOS
- use a BASIC compiler to create a executable that can be run on different hardware
For the former, a quick Google turned up VB2Py. Not sure how well this will work, but it might at least save you some typing.
That's due to the power of open source. Theoretically you could do the same with any open source operating system, even freedos if you wanted to put the work into it. With closed source Windows/Mac/Unix you are limited to what they decide to run their OS on.
Not much of one - but e.g. FreeDOS (as opposed to actual MS-DOS) is still maintained, and still potentially viable for some embedded project or something where you actually want barely-an-OS-at-all. I mean I'd personally probably still use something else (I didn't "grow up with" MS-DOS or early MS Windows, being a European using Amigas at the time), but DOS is probably going to be around for decades yet in old and embedded stuff.