Mail Archives: opendos/2002/05/31/10:50:12
On Fri, May 31, 2002 at 06:57:00PM +1000, da Silva, Joe wrote:
> Thanks for the great tips, I'm sure some day I'll be
> more familiar with all this stuff. I guess I take for
> granted the knowledge and familiarity with DOS,
It's also worth noting that DOS lacks the complexity of UNIX. Consider
file attributes, for example. In DOS you have A, H, R, S configurable
through attrib, and you have a file modified date stamp. UNIX has 2
forms of ownership (user and group) with read, write and execute
permissions set individually. There is a file creation time, modified
time, and last access time.
You can reach proficiency on a user level without knowing all the
intricate details of UNIX, of course, but it's not going to be as easy
to fully understand everything about UNIX.
> BTW, my Linux distribution is Mandrake 8.0,
That's a very popular choice with a large user community. They have
newsgroups and Web forums. Mandrake caters to the newbie above all, and
they work hard to smooth out the learning curve.
> although I understand this is based on Red Hat anyway.
Originally, yes, but they have long since been putting out their own
product. Early Mandrake (6.0?) was just a tweaked Red Hat, but now they
build the whole thing.
> > > Speaking of 'dosemu', I downloaded the "DR-DOS emulator" image
> > > file from "www.drdos.com" ... does anybody know what I'm supposed
> >
> > An "image file" is usually mountable via the loop driver. If you're
> > talking about the "DOSEMU HDIMAGE" on the download page, that's exactly
> > what it is. You can mount it, probably with commands like this:
> >
> OK, I'll try what you've suggested. I'm not sure why
But that wasn't really what I was suggesting. :) You *can* mount it but
that won't do anything. If you want to run DOS you have to use emulator
code (such as dosemu or Bochs).
> you say this is "the same as you probably already
> have", though. Isn't this stuff supposed to be Linux
> code that emulates DR-DOS?
No. This is DR-DOS 7.03. That's all it is. It won't do anything on Linux
without an emulator.
> What I already have is real DR-DOS (6.0:-), which I'm sure won't
> run under Linux, right?
It will run with dosemu or Bochs.
Here was my suggestion:
> > Your answer is in the dosemu documentation. You edit /etc/dosemu.conf
> > (IIRC) to tell dosemu to boot that image as "drive C:". There are
> > examples in that file which show you how to do it.
That's how to *use* an image for dosemu. The thing about "mount" only
lets you read and write that image. Note that in /etc/dosemu.conf you
can specify disk image files and even hard disk partitions as your DOS
drives. I think you can also access portions of your Linux filesystem
in DOS under dosemu, if you configure it that way.
BTW I am intentionally *not* consulting the dosemu docs for any of this.
I'm going only on my (often faulty) memory, because I think beginners
are best served by general pointers, and then by finding the specifics
through reading the documentation on their own.
> IIRC, I did install 'dosemu', but "haven't been game" to
> try it. I remember starting to read the documentation
> for this and deciding to postpone this experiment until
> I became more familiar with Linux.
That's up to you, of course, but I think having DOS available from Linux
might help ease your transition. I don't think there was much essential
information in the dosemu docs. The configuration file (above) is self-
documenting, with comments and examples. Read it, edit it, and type
"dos" at the bash prompt -- you're running DOS.
There is one little detail, though, and I don't know how the Mandrake
package chose to handle it: dosemu needs root privileges. The "dos"
binary may be "setuid" (set user ID) to take the privileges it needs; or
you may have to run it as root.
The simple way around this, without reading the docs, is to run it as
root. In general, running user software as root is a *** BAD IDEA ***
because any mistakes can crash, and possibly even destroy, your system.
So don't make a habit of this.
(Everything on DOS is "run as root" because there are no user accounts
nor varied permission levels.)
In all this talk about DOS and dosemu I've made an assumption that you
have some favourite DOS software upon which you rely. If that's not the
case, just disregard all of it. :) Almost anything you did in DOS can be
done under Linux with GNU and other software.
> > toss in a bit of spam. :) I do consulting on a rather low-cost basis,
> > even barter. If it's worth it for you to spend a little money or mail me
>
> Interesting idea (especially barter) ... although as you say,
> probably not so practical across the Pacific Ocean. <G>
As you can imagine, I haven't made much of an income in this profession.
;) But perhaps someday, I figure.
Good luck -- let me know how it goes.
Rob - /dev/rob0
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