I have a machine who’s mission is to run FreeDOS. It will do this most of the time, but sometimes it would be nice to be able to get it connected to a modern network to transfer DOS files out to my ‘production machine’ If DOS is like Windows the system clock ticks local time, but usually Linux likes UTC time - so this may be an issue that needs resolving too.

UPDATE - For now I have Debian in multi-user mode. I have set Grub to remember what I chose last so reboots from FreeDOS are hands free after ctrl-alt-del (Just like if FreeDOS were the only OS here) I have set the clock in Debian to run on the local timezone too, Thanks over_clox. Please continue to recommend your favorite distro.

  • @[email protected]English
    1•2 days ago

    Is it possible to put freedos in a VM and pass through whatever it needs to be connected to? I assume there’s some piece of equipment it runs.

    • WasPentaliveOPEnglish
      1•6 hours ago

      Oh, also this is not an industrial setting with a computer controlling some heavy equipment. This is a nostalgia lab. MSDOS was the thing when I was around 22 or so.

    • WasPentaliveOPEnglish
      1•2 days ago

      FreeDOS is running on a dedicated i5 desktop with 8gb ram. I wanted to get a period correct desktop machine to run MSDOS 6.22 but all the “Electronic Surplus” places have all dried up. So I built the least powered machine I could (Well I could have used an i3, but the difference in price was only $10.00. I only put in 1 of the smallest memory sticks they had …)

      I have a dos running in DOSBOX, but it’s not the same as real hardware, and it’s not easy to use a usb floppy drive with it. With my dedicated machine I can even boot from floppy if I want/need to.

      RIP Weird Stuff, Halted Specialties, The one that used to be near the Oakland Airport and others I remember but don’t remember their names. Not to mention the internet famous one in Texas - Computer Reset. Oh, now I am sad.

      • @[email protected]
        1•2 days ago

        Funny, I’m in the process of selling much of my Computer Reset pickings for cheap, including my 486DX4 100MHz that I ran Mario 64 compiled for DOS on. It ran at a blistering 3 frames per minute.

      • @over_clox
        0•2 days ago

        If it counts for anything, my old Dell B130 has absolutely no problems booting from a USB floppy drive (IBM model USB floppy drive), not even any issues swapping disks.

        • WasPentaliveOPEnglish
          2•2 days ago

          My dedicated machine ignores disk swap on 2 of the 3 USB drives I have. The third one seems to be ok though.

          • @over_clox
            1•2 days ago

            Huh, interesting. I only ever had the IBM drive that was given to me by an old friend, guess I lucked out on that.

            When I bust out the floppy drive, I’m usually tinkering with my custom MS-DOS/Micro Windows 3.11 dual floppy build I call WinFlop. The Windows disk is bootable by itself, but if booted from the MS-DOS Diagnostic disk first, that has all the fun storage drivers for CD-ROM, USB and even NTFS (yes, NTFS4DOS even works in Windows 3.11 haha!)

            WinFlop: https://youtube.com/watch?v=wv5ymx22wtM

            But the last disk image I wrote to floppy was for KolibriOS, and I gotta say, that’s an absolutely amazing project! If you get some free time, I think you’ll appreciate trying it out as well…

            KolibriOS: https://youtube.com/watch?v=YsYsW4sDpd8