QuickStart: Instructions on how to quickly get DOSEMU up and running. WARNING for old dosemu users: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The format of dosemu.conf and dosemu.users has changed !!! Please take over the new config files and read ./doc/README.txt chapter 2 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Compile -------------------------------------------------------------------------- - ./default-configure - make - su - make install -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1a. Want to use not standard configuration -------------------------------------------------------------------------- You can use the new menu driven configuration tool: - ./setup-dosemu then enter "Compile time (runs ./configure)", when you have finished toggling the configuration swicthes, go to < Exit >, and type ENTER, ... well it should be self descriptive. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1b. Use 'low feature dosemu' without vm86plus -------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you don't want to use vm86plus you need to configure dosemu either with - ./configure --enable-novm86plus or use setup-dosemu to toggle "disable VM86 enhancement" -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. First tiny test -------------------------------------------------------------------------- You may want to instantaneously start dosemu. We supply a ready to boot hdimage with a tiny FreeDos installation (just the kernel). This may be booted via - become root - ./first-test FreeDos kernel will show up, and you can leave it via - C:> exitemu or - C:> exit ... oh well, FreeDos also exits on top level command.com :-( -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Configure ... the _real_ stuff -------------------------------------------------------------------------- - 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 ./doc/README.txt chapter 2 - Copy ./etc/dosemu.users.easy to /etc/dosemu.users which contains a list of users who are privileged to use dosemu. The user "all" will allow anyone to run dosemu. example: root c_all all c_all Note that the above example is _insecure_, because it allows all to any user. If you want security, then copy ./etc/dosemu.users.secure to /etc/dosemu.users and have a look at an other example in ./doc/README.txt chapter 2. For a more detailed decription on 'running as user' have a look at ./doc/README.txt 'Running dosemu as a normal user' (chapter 7). -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 Boot ( 'comfortable' method ;-) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- There is a new tool to help you generating a bootable hdimage (the old method is described in ./doc/README-tech.txt, chapter 6). It doesn't require to boot native DOS, nor do you need to fiddle with a floppy any more: - You need to have mtools-3.6 for this to work - You need an already installed (native) bootable DOS in one of your partitions (maybe a floppy). If this is the case, you just need to type ./setup-hdimage in the dosemu directory. It will prompt for needed information and generate a bootable /var/lib/dosemu/hdimage.first - Make _CERTAIN_ that your first disk statement in /etc/dosemu.conf is pointing to /var/lib/dosemu/hdimage.first! - Run 'dos -C', ... and dosemu should boot your DOS... ... If not make certain that the /etc/dosemu.conf is setup correctly. You can't do much DOS stuff at this moment, though you may use the tiny ezedit.com editor to change the config.sys / autoexec.bat to your needs. - Exit dos by running "c:\exitemu". If you have problems, hold down the and buttons simultaneously while pressing . ( will automatically exit dosemu.) If you don't know how to copy files from/to the hdimage: ---------------------------- - Have a look at the recent mtools package (version 3.6 at time of writeing). If you have the following line in /etc/mtools.conf drive g: file="/var/lib/dosemu/hdimage.first" partition=1 offset=128 then you can use all mtool commands to access it, such as ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ # mcopy g:autoexec.bat - Copying autoexec.bat @echo off echo "Welcome to dosemu 0.66!" ... all clear ? ;-) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Some more hints after you've set up your HDIMAGE file -------------------------------------------------------------------------- - 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 ./doc/README.txt (chapter 2), the "DOSEMU-HOWTO" file, and the other files in the ./doc subdirectory. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. Something's not right!!! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Check your /etc/dosemu.users file (maybe insufficient privileges set) - 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 us a debug report by typing 'dos -D+a -o debug' and prepare this mail via the tool we supply: ./submit-bug-report The tool will either send directly or save the mail to a file. For more on this please read the file ./doc/bugreports.txt For general discussion on dosemu use the mailing list linux-msdos@vger.rutgers.edu - 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.txt 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 0.64. This normally goes into the /usr/man/man1 directory. ./doc/announce0.66 The announcement textfile for DOSEMU 0.66. ./doc/README.txt Readme file for various applications and general purpose settings. ./doc/README-tech.txt Readme file for various technical details and settings. ./doc/bugreports.txt How to report bug via gnats ./doc/configuration.txt How to use the menu driven configuration tools ./contrib/dosC/readme.dosemu Usage of FreeDos kernel within DOSEMU ./dexe/* Tools to make directly bootable DOS-apps and hdimages -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8. DOSEMU code browsers -------------------------------------------------------------------------- >>>> Skip this section if you don't know how to program. The ./doc/DPR and ./doc/DANG.txt 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 any new video games, stabilizing stuff like Microsoft Windoze 3.1, and get FreeDOS more enhanced. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10. Other Notes -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Some notes from Tim Bird 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. Hans Lermen SnailMail: Am Muehlenweg 38 D53424 REMAGEN-Unkelbach Germany Email: lermen@fgan.de