Very good explanation, I'm hoping these findings make it to the release build of FreeDos as it will bring in more users if internet is available after all we all love tinkering with it and DOS does make it much easier 🙂
-Ed EdzUp On Mon, 3 Jun 2024, 01:36 Brandon Taylor via Freedos-user, < freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net> wrote: > I've been agonizing over the question of why I can't connect an 86Box > virtual machine powered by FreeDOS to the Internet. But now, it seems, I > have found a fix, or at least a preliminary one. > > Using a fine-toothed comb (as it were), I went over the FDAUTO.BAT file > and found that it referenced another batch file that handled all of the > networking stuff, namely, C:\FREEDOS\BIN\FDNET.BAT. So, going over THAT, I > arrived at what I figured was a critical line in the second batch file, > which was vinfo /m​. Typing this into the command line didn't seem to do > anything, but when I typed vinfo /m | echo %errorlevel%​, lo and behold, > FreeDOS returned the number 5. So, going back into FDNET.BAT, I eventually > arrived at this piece of code: > ​``` > :hw086 > :hw186 > :hw286 > :hw386 > :hw486 > :hw586 > :hw686 > :NoHardware > vecho /t %_FDNET.LANG% ERROR.HARDWARE > goto End > ``` > and that's why it told me that Physical hardware networking is not > supported at this time.​ > > Well... > > Not willing to admit defeat, I continued going through FDNET.BAT to find > out what it was about VirtualBox and VMware that made the network go... > > ...and both of them branched to :vmGeneric​. > > From THERE, I discovered that FreeDOS supports three network card > families: AMD PCnet, Realtek RTL8139, and NE2000-compatibles – the same > ones used by VirtualBox, VMware, and (though I haven't used FreeDOS on > this) QEMU! > > So, going back to the physical hardware section of the batch file, I > simply added a branching line after :hw686​, so that the code block now > reads: > ``` > :hw086 > :hw186 > :hw286 > :hw386 > :hw486 > :hw586 > :hw686 > goto vmGeneric > > :NoHardware > vecho /t %_FDNET.LANG% ERROR.HARDWARE > goto End > ``` > and opened the 86Box configuration to install an AMD PCnet-FAST III into > an emulated PCI slot, which triggered a hard reset. > > And wouldn't you know? The network worked! > > I was able to ping www.google.com​ and get a pong sent back to me. I'm > kinda having a little bit of difficulty with fdnpkg​ though, so maybe > there are still some kinks to work out. But for right now, I can declare at > least a preliminary victory! > > Brandon Taylor > _______________________________________________ > Freedos-user mailing list > Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user >
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