This is a sample configuration for FreeDOS. You can find FreeDOS at http://www.freedos.org/ - it is open source and freeware. You should use the most recent FreeDOS beta 9 release candidate. If you need non-base packages, you can take them from the beta 8 (e.g. networking software, compilers, GUI, extra utilities, extra editors). Or download them package by package from the online FreeDOS software (link) list. If you only want kernel / shell, try http://freedos.sourceforge.net/ This uses abilities of beta 9rc5 CD-ROM distro, also available as ODIN 0.7 one-floppy distro. Last updated in May 2004. Current kernel version is 2034 and current shell version is 0.82pl3 with XMS swap (or try a CVS kernel / testing FreeCOM shell version if you want even newer but less tested versions!)... We call FreeDOS "beta" because we want to provide almost everything that MS DOS 5.0 has before calling FreeDOS "1.0"... However, we already do have LBA (for disk sizes of more than 8 GB, up to 2048 GB possible depending on your BIOS) and FAT32 support and other goodies which you might know from MS DOS 7.10 (of Win98). If you have questions about this sample configuration, mail me: eric foobar coli.uni lalala sb.de (replace " foobar " by @ and " lalala " by - to get my real adress) ******* fdconfig.sys or config.sys follows ******* rem FreeDOS opens fdconfig.sys if it exists. If not, it uses config.sys rem Useful if you have FreeDOS and another DOS on the same drive, using rem a boot menu system. rem You will probably NEED this for version 2032 / newer. It blocks rem the EBDA movement feature which is incompatible to several BIOSes. SWITCHES=/E FILES=50 BREAK=on rem this could cause problems but normally does not STACKS=0,0 rem needed for CD-ROM and RAMDISK - default is E: otherwise LASTDRIVE=Z rem buffers will be auto-tuned anyway. The second value is rem ignored, as there is no kernel read-ahead feature in FreeDOS yet. BUFFERS=20,0 rem will only trigger when UMB and/or HMA become active, so you can leave rem it there all the time: DOS=HIGH,UMB rem This new feature lets you use UMBs for FILES / LASTDRIVE DOSDATA=UMB rem internally, FreeDOS is most compatible to MS DOS 5.0 rem to override the DOS version for a single command invocation, rem you can use CALLVER. There is no memory-wasting SETVER TSR in FreeDOS. VERSION=6.20 rem First, try which of those XMS/HMA drivers works best. The "?" rem makes DOS ask you whether it should load the driver. ECHO Select Y if you want to use XMS or HMA rem FDXMS286 is for 286 (max 16 MB). The others require a 386. rem The FD*XMS* are not compatible to EMM386...! DEVICE?=C:\fdos\bin\HIMEM.EXE /VERBOSE rem Alternatives are FDXMS (max 64MB), FDXMS286, FDXXMS rem UMBPCI will probably not work for some very new chipsets. rem On other chipsets, DMA might not work inside UMBs, or you rem cannot cache UMBs (so they will be slow). On some chipsets, rem UMBPCI works just fine and faster than EMM386, because it uses rem hardware (not mapped) UMB. Homepage: http://www.uwe-sieber.de/ ECHO Say Y for UMBPCI *or* EMM386 now. Or say N for both. DEVICE?=C:\fdos\bin\UMBPCI.SYS DEVICE?=C:\fdos\bin\EMM386.EXE /VERBOSE X=TEST VDS rem FreeDOS EMM386 now (2004) supports VCPI, so even protected rem mode DOS programs should be happy with it. Still, the most rem impressive EMM386 is the DR-DOS one (free for private use!?), rem which uses a shared memory pool for EMS and XMS and is very fast. rem X=TEST auto-selects UMB ranges and VDS adds extra DMA-in-UMB support rem If you have a SOUNDBLASTER LIVE or similar SB PCI card, you should rem use the EMM386 SB option - the SBLIVE DOS drivers need that. rem If your CD-ROM drive did not come with a DOS driver, you have to rem use one of the free generic CD-ROM drivers out there or the rem experimental FreeDOS ATAPICDD.SYS ... When in doubt, do not load rem high - DMA problems could show up at least with UMBPCI. ECHO Select Y now if you want CD-ROM support DEVICE?=C:\drivers\vide-cdd.sys rem DEVICEHIGH?=C:\fdos\bin\ATAPICDD.SYS /D:CDROM001 rem this is a new invention - October 2003... the 12 means 12/4=3 MB ECHO Select Y now if you want a CD-ROM cache: DEVICEHIGH?=C:\fdos\bin\CDRcache.SYS CDROM001 CDRCACH$ 12 rem XMSDSK can be found online in SimTel FURD19_u.zip (with EMSDSK) rem and is freeware. TDSK versions: open source 2.3, freeware 2.4... ECHO Select which of the following two RAMDISKs you want - if any rem Some (protected mode) programs are incompatible to all ramdisks!? DEVICEHIGH?=C:\fdos\bin\XMSDSK.EXE 2048 DEVICEHIGH?=C:\fdos\bin\tdsk.exe 2048 512 144 1 rem give the FLOP option to LBAcache to enable floppy caching as well. rem If you get a syntax error, your LBAcache is older than 5/2004 rem and will probably use more DOS memory, too. The 5/2004 version rem will use 11k (5k+6k) DOS memory for 6 MB XMS cache size: rem Better load low if your UMBs are very slow. INSTALLHIGH=c:\fdos\bin\lbacache.COM 6144 FLOP rem NANSI even makes screen output faster and allows extra functions. rem the /S option disables potentially dangerous keyboard macros. rem NANSI should be loaded after the HMA driver - CON may not move. DEVICEHIGH?=c:\fdos\bin\NANSI.SYS /S rem EECHO replaces the $ sign by the ESCAPE char. rem See NANSI documentation for a list of possible ANSI escapes.. INSTALL=c:\fdos\bin\EECHO.com $[0;1;33;44m I hope this activated colors :-) rem This driver gives you a MORE$ device. Now you can use rem "tree > more$ " instead of "tree | more"... If Ctrl-Break or rem Ctrl-C crashes when using MORE$, update your kernel to 2032a. rem Load MORESYS after the HMA driver, or CON might move and crash. rem I wrote > for the "greater" sign. DEVICEHIGH=c:\fdos\bin\MORESYS.SYS rem make sure that this is indeed the path to command.com before running this! rem note how the special /p option syntax is used to select fdauto.bat rem instead of autoexec.bat - this is useful if you dual-boot FreeDOS and rem MS DOS / Windows and both share the C: drive (e.g. use MetaKern boot menu) SHELL=c:\fdos\bin\command.com c:\fdos\bin /e:512 /p=fdauto.bat ******* fdauto.bat (autoexec.bat) follows ******* @echo off prompt $p$g rem you can also have a path like: C:\FREEDOS\BIN;C:\BIN;C:\BAT;... path C:\FDOS\BIN;C:\BATCHES set HELPPATH=C:\FDOS\HELP rem Select your language here. For example EN (English) or DE (German) set LANG=DE rem Only programs which have files in the NLS directory support rem translated strings. You can create your own translation files! set NLSPATH=C:\FDOS\NLS rem To have the messages of the FreeCOM command.com in another rem language, you need the localize.zip download from rem http://freedos.sourceforge.net/freecom/packages/ (082pl3/) rem to create a command.com in your language. A few easy steps... rem if you want to use non-US keyboards (e.g. German keyboard layout), rem you can use MKEYB (small but flexible), KBD-EA2 (only for German) rem or KEYB (bigger but with macro functionality)... KBD-EA2 is better rem loaded as .sys (smaller). But MKEYB is less than 1kB in RAM, too. rem ... rem The following line asks whether you want German keyboard layout: echo Do you want German keyboard layout? ?c:\freedos\bin\MKEYB GR rem PERUSE is a TSR program to display files, so probably rem the term "scrolling driver" is a bit misleading. It is rem freeware, you can download a copy from my site. c:\fdos\bin\choice /c:yn Load PERUSE scrolling driver? rem FreeCOM command.com has a magic variable %errorlevel%. This lets rem you use ...==... instead of the tricky "if errorlevel ..." system. IF The%errorlevel%==The2 GOTO noperuse lh c:\bin\peruse.exe echo PERUSE loaded :noperuse c:\fdos\bin\choice /c:yn Load MOUSE driver? IF "%errorlevel%"=="2" GOTO nomouse c:\fdos\bin\ctmouse.exe /3 /V rem /3 for 3-button and /V for serial-before-ps2 search order rem CuteMouse loads itself into UMB. You can suppress this with rem a command line option. For some mice, 1.9 works better than 2.0! echo CuteMouse driver loaded rem CuteMouse includes the EGA.SYS functionality as a bonus... :nomouse rem this will fail automatically if no CDROM driver is loaded :-) if not exist CDRCACH$ goto normalcd echo Activating cached CD-ROM drive now. lh c:\fdos\bin\shsucdx.exe /D:CDRCACH$,N goto nomorecd :normalcd echo Trying uncached CD-ROM drive now. lh c:\fdos\bin\shsucdx.exe /D?:CDROM001,N rem Will automatically fail if no driver loaded (/D?:... syntax). :nomorecd c:\fdos\bin\choice /c:yn Load SHARE driver? IF x%errorlevel%==x2 GOTO noshare rem Note that this is a COM file now (5/2004). Less DOS RAM used. LH c:\fdos\bin\share.com /L:20 /F:2048 echo SHARE driver loaded - 20 locking areas, 2048/136 file handles. rem Yes, FreeDOS does have a SHARE driver. If you have problems with rem it, mail me. Not needed for DOSEMU redirector drives (really?). :noshare echo Welcome at FreeDOS. Press enter to go on and see environment: rem another pause-like command is set /p variable=prompt which sets rem an environment variable to a value provided by the user. pause set echo FreeDOS is now at your service :-) ******* THIS WAS THE MULTIPLE CHOICE VERSION ******* ******* AUTOMATIC TWO-CHOICE VERSION FOLLOWS ******* ******* fdconfig.sys or config.sys follows ******* rem You could use MENUCOLOR here for a full screen menu but rem I prefer a smaller menu. See kernel package config.txt... MENU 1 Load FreeDOS with UMBPCI, caches and CD-ROM support MENU 2 Load FreeDOS with EMM386, caches and CD-ROM support rem you could add more options here, or write free-form text. rem The MENU command just works like ECHO. rem Press F5 to skip all drivers and autoexec, or F8 to toggle rem per line confirmation (broken in initial revision of 2034). rem The ! means "do not ask for confirmation in F8 mode" rem The SWITCHES=/E line is important for 2032/newer compatibility. !switches=/e !files=50 !break=on rem If you (unlikely) have instabilities without extra STACKS, rem try STACKS=9,384 or probably STACKSHIGH(?). !stacks=0,0 lastdrive=Z buffers=20,0 DOS=HIGH,UMB DOSDATA=UMB VERSION=6.20 rem HIMEM loaded for options 1 and 2, UMBPCI only 1, EMM386 only 2. 12?DEVICE=C:\fdos\bin\HIMEM.EXE 1?DEVICE=C:\fdos\bin\UMBPCI.SYS 2?DEVICE=C:\fdos\bin\EMM386.EXE X=TEST VDS SB 1?DEVICE=C:\fdos\bin\ATAPICDD.SYS /D:CDROM001 2?DEVICEHIGH=C:\fdos\bin\ATAPICDD.SYS /D:CDROM001 12?DEVICEHIGH=C:\fdos\bin\CDRcache.SYS CDROM001 CDRCACH$ 12 rem 12?ECHO Enter Y to load an XMSDSK ramdisk: rem 12?DEVICEHIGH?=C:\fdos\bin\XMSDSK.EXE 2048 rem Floppy caching works fine for 1.44 MB but is suppressed while rem you are using bigger sizes. I hope smaller sizes work, too...! 1?DEVICEHIGH=C:\fdos\bin\LBAcache.sys 6144 FLOP 12?DEVICEHIGH=X:\fdos\bin\NANSI.SYS /S 12?DEVICEHIGH=X:\fdos\bin\MORESYS.SYS rem No need to use 1?shell=... 2?shell=... as fdauto.bat can rem know which menu option is selected by reading %config%. rem The ! means that even F5 does not skip it (I think...). !SHELL=C:\fdos\bin\command.com c:\fdos\bin /e:512 /p=fdauto.bat ******* fdauto.bat (autoexec.bat) follows ******* @echo off prompt $p$g path C:\FDOS\BIN;C:\BATCHES set HELPPATH=C:\FDOS\HELP set LANG=EN set NLSPATH=C:\FDOS\NLS c:\fdos\bin\ctmouse.exe /3 /V IF "%CONFIG%"=="1" goto notickle echo Loading TICKLE for faster floppy access (track read-ahead) rem Warning: Loading TICKLE without LBAcache FLOP will slow down rem floppy access instead of speeding it up. Do not load TICKLE into rem UMBs which support no DMA, or floppy reads will have errors...! LH c:\freedos\bin\tickle.com :notickle if not exist CDRCACH$ goto normalcd echo Activating cached CD-ROM drive now. lh c:\fdos\bin\shsucdx.exe /D:CDRCACH$,N goto nomorecd rem the above goto avoids double SHSUCDX loading. :normalcd if not exist CDROM001 goto nomorecd echo Activating uncached CD-ROM drive now. lh c:\fdos\bin\shsucdx.exe /D:CDROM001,N :nomorecd rem commented out: You probably do not need share unless rem you want to run Windows, and Windows does not run on rem FreeDOS yet! At least 386 mode does not. Let me know rem if there are other programs which require SHARE. rem LH c:\fdos\bin\share.com /L:20 /F:2048 rem This tells your programs that you have a SoundBlaster rem compatible soundcard at port 220, IRQ 5, DMA 1. Note rem that you do NOT have to load a driver for real SB. If your rem card is Plug and Play or otherwise not "hard jumpered", rem you often have to run some "diagnose" or "initialization" rem tool first. Sometimes "PnP OS installed = no" setting in rem the BIOS is enough. The T5 means "SoundBlaster 16". The rem T1/T3 would be SB1/SB2 (8bit mono), and T2/T4 are SBpro. set BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 T5 rem Use T6 for SB16asp or more modern cards. If sound does not rem work (compatibility problems) try T3 (SoundBlaster 2.0). rem If sound in protected mode games does not work, try to rem load as "DOS32A yourgame.exe" with http://dos32a.sf.net/ ... rem See http://www.freedos.org/news/games/ for more details rem on BLASTER. echo FreeDOS is now at your service :-) rem echo. displays an empty line. echo.