Hello, I am currently considering the possibility of dualbooting my Windows computer with FreeDOS. I have the resources to do so (FreeDOS installation CD image which I can burn to a flashdrive, 512mb unallocated space on my main drive which I will make a FAT32 partition on, etc) but I’m only struggling with two problems. I haven’t found the answer to them online so I dedcided to post here. My first problem is that I need a serial port to use my computer in FreeDOS. The reason is that I am completely blind. As such, I use a program called a screen reader, which essentially does what it’s name suggests, read the screen. To read it, it uses a separate tool called a speech synthesizer. A speech synthesizer basically turns any text into speech (most of the time, anyway :D). On a modern system, such as Windows, there are dozens of software speech synthesizers out there (eSpeak, vocalizer, ETI-Eloquence) which I can use with my screenreader. DOS, though, had very few software synthesizers, and the ones which were available weren’t usable via an external screenreader. People used external speech synthesizers, attached to their computers via the serial port. I myself own a quite old notetaker for the blind, the “Braille ’n Speak 2000”, which has a built-in speech synthesizer. My problem is, though, that being a quite modern HP computer made and bought in 2014, it does not have a serial port. Under windows 8.1, I have used a Prolific PL-2303 adapter. It works flawlessly and I can use all of the serial features of the Braille ’n Speak with it. The thing is, I haven’t seen any mention to this working under FreeDOS. Could anyone here tell me if it is possible to use one of these adapters?
This brings me to my second question. The sound card. I am aware that windows pretty much blocks out the PC speaker, even though I think my computer has one. FreeDOS does allow it, I believe. What I don’t know is if I’ll be able to actually somehow emulate a sound card, possibly a Sound Blaster compatible one, with the integrated realtek one my PC has. This is also quite important for me since most of the games that I’ll run under FreeDOS need the sound card to emit sound. I hope someone here can point me in the right direction. I would really appreciate any help that you may be able to provide me with this. Thanks in advance. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dive into the World of Parallel Programming! The Go Parallel Website, sponsored by Intel and developed in partnership with Slashdot Media, is your hub for all things parallel software development, from weekly thought leadership blogs to news, videos, case studies, tutorials and more. Take a look and join the conversation now. http://goparallel.sourceforge.net _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
