QuickStart: Instructions on how to quickly get DOSEMU up and running. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Compile -------------------------------------------------------------------------- - ./configure - make - su - make install -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1a. Load modules -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The default behaviour when compiling dosemu is to require emumodule. To run dosemu, emumodule must be loaded. This has to be redone once after every boot of Linux. - ./load_module.sh (as root) in the dosemu subdir -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Configure -------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Copy etc/config.dist to /etc/dosemu.conf if you are installing for the first time. Modify it by using the info in the file. - Create a file /etc/dosemu.users which contains a list of users who are privileged to use dosemu. The user "all" will allow anyone to run dosemu. - Copy etc/hdimage.dist as /var/lib/dosemu/hdimage. The first disk statement in your /etc/dosemu.conf should point to this file. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Boot -------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you are new to DOSEMU: - Make _CERTAIN_ that your first disk statement in /etc/dosemu.conf IS pointing to your hdimage! - Reboot DOS (the real version, not DOSEMU.) Put a newly formatted diskette in your a: drive. Run "sys a:" to transfer the system files to the diskette. Copy FDISK.EXE and SYS.COM from your DOS directory (usually C:\DOS) to the diskette. - Reboot Linux. Run 'dos -A'. After a short pause, the system should come up. Try "dir c:" which should list the files on the harddrive distribution image. If that works, run: "fdisk /mbr" and "sys c:". Exit dos by running "c:\exitemu". If you have problems, hold down the and buttons simultaneously while pressing . ( will automatically exit dosemu.) If you already have a HDIMAGE file: - If you have a previous version of DOSEMU running, you should copy the .SYS, .COM, & .EXE files in the ./commands directory over to the hdimage drive that you boot from. Some of these files have changed. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Now that you've set up your HDIMAGE file -------------------------------------------------------------------------- - After setting up your HDIMAGE file and exiting DOSEMU, run 'dos'. This time DOSEMU should boot from your HDIMAGE. . If not make certain that the /etc/dosemu.conf specs bootc after any boota statements. - If hitting Alt-FunctionKey doesn't switch virtual consoles from DOSEMU, try using Ctrl-Alt-FunctionKey to switch from the virtual console running DOSEMU. - You can start setting up /etc/dosemu.conf more throughly. - You can set up DOSEMU to boot directly off your DOS hard disk partition. - If you want to use disk compression such as STACKER or DOUBLESPACE with DOSEMU, you will have to configure /etc/dosemu.conf for partition access. - From here you are on your own. Please read the documentation in the ./examples/config.dist file, the "DOSEMU-HOWTO" file, and the files in the ./doc subdirectory. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. Something's not right!!! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Read your /etc/dosemu.conf file carefully and make corrections. - Try disabling certain features. The video options and some of the rawkeyboard options sometimes cause problems. - If the video support does not work, ensure that the video BIOS address in the /etc/dosemu.conf file is correct. - Read all documentation files carefully, and try to get some help from others who have used DOSEMU. - Read the DOSEMU-HOWTO for Q&A's. - If no luck, please send a debug report by typing 'dos -D+a -o debug' and send the file 'debug' to linux-msdos@vger.rutgers.edu Also, send your /etc/dosemu.conf file and a description of the system you're running on. (Video card, linux version, CPU, memory) Please gzip and uuencode these files if they are large. - Please be patient with us. We get flooded with bug reports and do our best to respond in a timely fashion. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7. Available documentation -- mostly somewhat outdated :( -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ./doc/DOSEMU-HOWTO This is the F.A.Q. for DOSEMU. It is a little bit outdated, but still very helpful. (Read this file first, however.) ./ChangeLog This is a log file of progress that have been done on DOSEMU since previous versions. ./doc/DANG The Dosemu Alterning Novice's Guide, for interested hackers and programmers alike, if they want to look at the internals of DOSEMU and how it works. ./doc/DPR The Dosemu Project Registry, an outdated document keeping track of who's doing what kind of programming for DOSEMU. ./man/dos.1 This is the DOSEMU man page. It is now up to date with 0.53. This normally goes into the /usr/man/man1 directory. ./doc/dosemu.texinfo The full documentation for DOSEMU, in LaTeX format. This documentation is getting to be sorely outdated, however. ./doc/announce0.63 The announcement textfile for DOSEMU 0.60. ./doc/README.* Readme files for various applications and settings. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8. Changes from previous versions of DOSEMU -------------------------------------------------------------------------- >>>> Ignore this section if you have never used DOSEMU before. Changes from 0.52: - Debug information is redirected to the file specified by the -o option when DOSEMU is started. - You should replace all the *.sys, *.com, and *.exe files that came with DOSEMU (i.e. emufs.sys, lredir.exe, exitemu.com, etc.) Some of these files have changed. - There is a list of privileged users now located in /etc/dosemu.users Any user not listed will not be able to run dosemu. - You may now have simultaneous /etc/dosemu.conf and ~/.dosrc files. Note that some of the options are limited in the ~/.dosrc file (in an effort to ensure security.) - You may now specify a file to boot from instead of a raw boot sector. This is required if you have NT on the same parition as your DOS partition and you want to boot from the raw HD. Copy NT's bootsect.dos to a suitable file and make the required changes in dosemu.conf. See the config.dist file for details on the bootfile option. Changes from 0.40 through 0.52: - The directory /etc/dosemu becomes /var/lib/dosemu - The file /etc/dosemu/config now becomes /etc/dosemu.conf Its format has changed so you will need to reconfigure DOSEMU. - The DOSEMU run time library is now /usr/lib/libdosemu - The DOSEMU maintainence files are now in directory /usr/lib/dosemu (mkpartition, putrom, etc) - The format of the mkpartition datafiles have changed, and are in /var/lib/dosemu/partition.* (These are needed if you run STACKER or DOUBLESPACE using 'partition' access) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9. DOSEMU code browsers -------------------------------------------------------------------------- >>>> Skip this section if you don't know how to program. The ./doc/DPR and ./doc/DANG documents are great places to start looking if you are interested in looking inside DOSEMU code. The Linux MS-DOS Emulator is one of the best _FREE_ DOS emulator programs available in the world. The DOSEMU development team includes university students and young adults, so lack of time can be a problem when it comes to DOSEMU when it comes to jobs an exams! AAAAUUGGH! :-) However, don't let that stop getting into contact with us! DOSEMU is not as complicated to work with, as you may think, and we are happy to even receive a line or few, of code that fixes or improves DOSEMU in one way or the other! Come on aboard with the DOSEMU development team! All you need is your Linux system, your programming skills, and access to Internet Email. :-) On the other hand, if you're really brilliant, we would also love to hear from people who can help DOSEMU get to work with video games like DOOM to run, and stuff like Microsoft Windoze 3.1. Competition for WABI and WINE! ;-) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10. Other Notes -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Some notes from Tim Bird (Tim_R_Bird@Novell.COM) on lredir.exe included in the commands subdir: LREDIR allows you to redirect any drive, including one that is currently a physical drive, meaning that you can replace a drive with a redirected one. When you delete the redirection, the physical drive is again visible. I am currently using this so that the boot diskimage disappears, and is replaced by the mounted MSDOS file system in Linux, with the drive letter and root the same as when I just boot DOS. People who use LREDIR in this way should be careful when they use LREDIR in the autoexec, because COMMAND.COM will continue parsing the autoexec.bat from the redirected drive as the same file offset where it left off in the autoexec.bat on the physical drive. For this reason, it is safest to have the autoexec.bat on the redirected drive and the physical drive (diskimage) be the same. A suggestion from H. Peter Anvin (Peter.Anvin@linux.org): Note: One interesting thing to do is the following: Suppose that I mount my DOS c: drive on /mnt/c: and d: drive on /mnt/d: in CONFIG.SYS: lastdrive=i in AUTOEXEC.BAT: subst i: c:\ lredir e: linux\fs lredir d: linux\fs/mnt/d: lredir c: linux\fs/mnt/c: This redirects your HDIMAGE to i:\ so that you can continue to edit it and redirects your dos drives over the HDIMAGE. NOTE: (as above) COMMAND.COM will continue parsing the autoexec.bat from the redirected drive as the same file offset where it left off in the autoexec.bat on the physical drive. For this reason, it is safest to have the autoexec.bat on the redirected drive and the physical drive (diskimage) be the same. ---------- Many thanks to all involved, including all those who submitted debug output for our viewing pleasure, keep it coming. James B. MacLean Department of Education Student Assistance Division 2021 Brunswick Street Halifax, N.S., Canada B3M 4B2 Email: macleajb@ednet.ns.ca