Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Hi Puppy users

Has anyone installed MS DOS after installing puppy and what is the best way to do this?

My setup is bionicpup32 8.0 booting from the HDD. I have no other OS although Grub4Dos has the 'empty' boot option to Windows. By empty I mean it doesnt boot to anything.

I have 2 partitions on my boot HDD:
70 GB primary partition, boot flagged, ext3 formatted (this was preceded by an approx 1 MB unallocated space);
5 GB primary partition, ext3 linux swap file. ext3 seemed to work for me.

This is my boot menu:

# menu.lst produced by grub4dosconfig-v1.9.3
color white/blue black/cyan white/black cyan/black
#splashimage=/splash.xpm
timeout 10
default 0

# Full installed Linux

title BionicPup32 19.03 (sda1/boot)
  root (hd0,0)
  kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda1 ro 
  initrd /boot/initrd.gz

title BionicPup32 19.03 (sda1/boot)
  root (hd0,0)
  kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda1 ro 
  initrd /boot/initrd.gz

# Windows
# this entry searches Windows on the HDD and boot it up
title Windows\nBoot up Windows if installed
  errorcheck off
  find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd  /bootmgr
  chainloader /bootmgr
  find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd  /ntldr
  chainloader /ntldr
  find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd   /io.sys
  chainloader /io.sys
  errorcheck on

# Advanced Menu
title Advanced menu
  configfile /menu-advanced.lst
  commandline

I want to install DOS 6.2 on a 100 MB FAT16 partition (is FAT16 possible now?).
Why DOS? because nostalgia has grabbed me.

What is the best way to do this to avoid any hiccups and given the above, and what modifications, if any, do I need to make to the 'Windows' boot loader?

I have been researching but all the info is about installing puppy AFTER you have DOS etc. I dont want to just go backwards as I suspect it might land me in trouble.

Many thanks!

Puppy Arcade has a dos emulator called dosbox.

Perhaps, FreeDOS can help you deal with the feeling of nostalgia?
https://www.freedos.org/

Best bet and works well is DOSBox. I've made PET files here:
http://rockedge.org/kernels/data/PET/Bi ... x86_64.pet
http://rockedge.org/kernels/data/PET/Bi ... 2-i686.pet

Then I've had good results running a VirtualBox machine formating a drive fat16 and installing DOS from virtual floppy drive images. Make sure to limit CPU cycles in the virtual machine's settings. I also got a network connection going and a ftp client to be able to load some software. There is a lot of DOS programs out there...most can be had for free.

Grub4dos bootloader config always makes an entry for Windows, even if Windows is not on the computer.
All the Windows stuff can be deleted from the menu.lst file by opening the file in a text editor and editing it.
Also when you run Grub4dos config and it gets to the window showing what it is going to make for a menu.
Just delete the entry for Windows.
When Grub4dos config completes, no Windows entry will be in the menu.

The biggest reason to first install DOS. It's installer program may try to totally takeover the partition and format layout of the drive.
If that happens, Puppy is going to get removed.

Thanks @rockedge
I downloaded the 32bit pet file and am now playing around with it. Works pretty nicely. Takes some getting used to as its working through a vm. I would like to get direct access to the floppy and CD drives however rather than copy images of them. This is a basic question but can puppy access files I create once I end a dosbox session?
Thanks!

@Grey I will also be checking out freedos too.

Thanks @bigpup on your insights into Grub4Dos and the headsup on how things can go south going the other way. I will be treading carefully!

sj60 wrote: Fri Jan 22, 2021 2:05 am

can puppy access files I create once I end a dosbox session?

Yes it is possible to access the files. I have all my DOS programs for example in /mnt/sda1/dos which I automatically mount as drive c:\ by adding the commands to the AUTOEXEC.BAT section at the bottom of the DOSBox.conf file.

I have also Norton's Commander start up in the AUTOEXEC.BAT

If you run DOS in a VirtualBox machine make sure to limit the CPU cycles in the VBox settings! DOS was designed to run the CPU full speed always. So limiting the CPU to 60% (test what works for you) will keep the host system happy.