I think I found a solution. The problem was:
When I choose "NAT" as network type for a VirtualBox FreeDOS 1.1 guest, only mTCP DHCP.EXE is able to get the correct IP addresses from the DHCP server provided by VirtualBox. WATTCP applications fail to get their IPs from that DHCP server. The idea: Let mTCPs DHCP.EXE get the correct settings and write them to C:\FDOS\MTCP.CFG. Then extract them from MTCP.CFG and put them as fixed network settings into C:\FDOS\WATTCP.CFG. Dave pointed me to Minitrue and provided a batch file. So I experimented a bit and made some additions: - no lines from MTCP.CFG are leftover in WATTCP.CFG - all other settings in WATTCP.CFG stay intact and are not modified. Prerequisites Get Minitrue 2.02 which is free software under GNU GPL. http://www.pement.org/sed/minitrue.htm http://www.idiotsdelight.net/minitrue/ Copy the files into "C:\MTR202B". Add "C:\MTR202B" to the PATH statement in AUTOEXEC.BAT Make a batch file "C:\FDOS\M2WAT.BAT" with the following content: -------------------------------------------------------------------- @echo off rem This batch file extracts IP settings from MTCP.CFG and rem writes them into WATTCP.CFG. rem 1. Make a backup of WATTCP.CFG copy wattcp.cfg wattcp.bak rem 2. Preserve the settings in WATTCP.CFG copy wattcp.cfg wattcp.mtr rem 3. Delete the settings we need to get from MTCP.CFG mt -b- -c -n wattcp.mtr ^my_ip.*\n = mt -b- -c -n wattcp.mtr ^IP.*\n = mt -b- -c -n wattcp.mtr ^netmask.*\n = mt -b- -c -n wattcp.mtr ^gateway.*\n = mt -b- -c -n wattcp.mtr ^nameserver.*\n = mt -b- -c -n wattcp.mtr ^hostname.*\n = rem 4. Get the settings from MTCP.CFG copy mtcp.cfg wattcp.cfg rem 5. First comment out every line with a '#' mt -b- -c -n wattcp.cfg (^) = # rem 6. Now uncomment the ones we want, add equal sign and change if needed mt -b- -c -n wattcp.cfg #ipaddr = my_ip= mt -b- -c -n wattcp.cfg #netmask = netmask= mt -b- -c -n wattcp.cfg #gateway = gateway= mt -b- -c -n wattcp.cfg #nameserver = nameserver= mt -b- -c -n wattcp.cfg #hostname = hostname= rem 7. Remove all lines leftover from MTCP.CFG mt -b- -c -n wattcp.cfg #.*\n = mt -b- -c -n wattcp.cfg # = rem 8. Append all the other settings from the original WATTCP.CFG type wattcp.mtr >> wattcp.cfg rem 9. Clean up. del wattcp.mtr -------------------------------------------------------------------- Now you can insert a line C:\FDOS\M2WAT.BAT after the line DHCP in AUTOEXEC.BAT. Conclusion: I can now use FreeDOS 1.1 as a VirtualBox guest with NAT networking and DHCP. I can FTP from host to guest by using Port Forwarding in VirtualBox. I don't have to be connected to a network anymore to exchange files between host and guest with FTP (see previous mail). mTCP and WATTCP applications work fine. I know the above solution is a bit ugly and can be improved. For instance it is not as elegant as DHCP.COM by David Dunfield, which inserts the network settings exactly into the places they had in the original WATTCP.CFG. So if anyone has more ideas, please come forward. Thanks! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Slashdot TV. Video for Nerds. Stuff that matters. http://tv.slashdot.org/ _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
