On 31 July 2016 at 18:23, Tomasz Rola <rto...@ceti.pl> wrote: > On Thu, Jul 28, 2016 at 08:57:08PM +0200, Liam Proven wrote: >> I'm experimenting with some old DOS versions, notably PC DOS, in VirtualBox. >> >> I have a PC-DOS 2000 system with DesqView and DesqView/X working >> fairly well -- no networking yet but I'm working on it. > > Out of curiosity, because I am from time to time wet dreaming about > having some kind of graphical frontend to the DOS, but with ability to > run multiple DOS programs in parallel. Like one could run them in > Windows 3.x (and this sucked a bit, but otherwise made it possible to > run editor and something else and switch between them without quitting > and starting like mad). > > So, could DesqView give me something like this? From all descriptions > I have read so far, it could not. But I am not sure. Yes, I should > have tried to check it by myself, but there is no time to follow every > dream.
DesqView: yes to multitasking, no to graphics. The only snag is that it is itself DOS based, so you don't get a lot of free RAM in your sessions. But it works, and it's much lighter and faster than even v3 of Windows. If you want an actual graphical GUI, DV/X can do that. > >> I am also trying to get a DR-DOS 8 VM up and running. DR-DOS 7.03 is >> no problem, but I've had no joy getting DR-DOS 8.1 to install to hard >> disk. It's reluctant to SYS a hard disk, and when it did, it >> mis-diagnosed it as FAT-12 and wouldn't boot. Using Norton DiskTools, >> I've managed to transfer the system files, but they display the >> message >> >> DR-DOS 8.1 >> >> ... and then it freezes. >> >> Can this late version, mainly used for utility floppies, actually boot >> from HD & be used like a normal DOS? > > I would not be surprised if they decided to cut every extra byte and > maximise space available on the floppy. Or, given it recognises HD in > some way, could you try with different HD size? Even very small one, > like 20-32MB? Perhaps they were ok with running it from a pendrive, > but decided it was not worth it to make it hd-installable, because > nobody would want it anyway? I suppose it's possible but it would be a bit odd. I'll try with PC-DOS and report back. > Other possibility is, can it work better in some other virtual > machine? Qemu/KVM, VMWare? I am running on OS X here, and I prefer VBox to VMware, but I could try... > Those are just my wild guesses. I answer mostly because nobody else > did. I do not really have that much to say about DOS, other than it > was not as bad as some of its graphical cousins. :-) Thank you! -- Liam Proven • Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile Email: lpro...@cix.co.uk • GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven MSN: lpro...@hotmail.com • Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven Cell/Mobiles: +44 7939-087884 (UK) • +420 702 829 053 (ČR)
