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.
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why not use FreeDOS to connect to the network directly?
I am still figuring out DOS networking.
Ooh ooh! I know this! Alpine! I run this together with MS-DOS on my Pentium 3, but FreeDOS should be no problem too.
sudo timedatectl set-local-rtc 1https://www.baeldung.com/linux/real-time-clock-rtc-local-time
This is The Way.
unless i’m missing something, any distro will do. i’d personally go with debian, but that’s my choice. opensuse is also an excellent choice if you want easy to use config tools
If DOS is like Windows the system clock ticks local time, but usually Linux likes UTC time
that’s entirely configurable
My production laptop is Debian, as is my server so I guess that would be the way to go then.
Another vote for Debian here. Very low-maintenance distro and you can install it with as many or as few packages as you wish.
Gentoo! Lets you control what exactly gets in your packages.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
My dedicated machine ignores disk swap on 2 of the 3 USB drives I have. The third one seems to be ok though.
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
