Here's the full QEMU command line that I use when I boot FreeDOS after I install it. This has a bunch of other options, such as to support sound and to use a second virtual disk as my D: drive.
qemu-system-i386 -enable-kvm -m 32 -rtc base=localtime -audiodev pa,id=snd -machine pcspk-audiodev=snd -device sb16,audiodev=snd -device adlib,audiodev=snd -hda /opt/freedos/FD14-rc3/freedos.qcow2 -hdb /home/jhall/virtualmachines/mystuff.qcow2 -cdrom /opt/freedos/FD14-rc3/FD14LIVE.iso -boot menu=on You can also see my paths. I keep my FreeDOS stuff under /opt/freedos on Linux so it doesn't get backed up when I backup my Linux home directory. I can just re-download the FreeDOS install CD; I don't need to back that up. I have all my personal files on the 'mystuff.qcow2' virtual disk so I don't have to backup/restore my data whenever I reinstall a fresh version of FreeDOS (like the next monthly test release). I keep the 'mystuff.qcow2' virtual disk under my home directory, because that's something I want to backup when I backup my Linux home directory. On Sun, Mar 9, 2025 at 9:41 AM Jim Hall <jh...@freedos.org> wrote: > > On Sun, Mar 9, 2025 at 7:50 AM hms--- via Freedos-user > <freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net> wrote: > > > > Hi there > [..] > > > > I have been using QEMU and FreeDos up to now. There are several > > drawbacks compared with dosemu2. Copying a large number of files to the > > image and retaining file timestamps is a problem. I achieve this by > > first copying to the access drive, then starting FreeDos in QEMU and > > then using XCOPY to transfer files to the C: Drive (image). This takes > > considerable time. I have had little to no success exporting files. > > Writing to the access drive usually crashes QEMU. And finally, FreeDos > > under QEMU is slightly slower than dosemu2. The stability of dosemu2 > > remains to be seen. > > > > I use QEMU to run FreeDOS on my Linux system, and it is admittedly a > bit difficult to get used to because you need to "configure" or > "build" the virtual machine using command line options. > > Here are the commands I use: > > (1) To create a new virtual disk, such as to install a fresh copy of > FreeDOS, I might type this: (I'll make it 20MB for this example > because I'm actually typing the commands while I install a new FreeDOS > instance .. but change that to 500MB if you want to use a bigger > virtual disk) > > $ qemu-img create -f qcow2 freedos.qcow2 20M > > You'll see output that looks like this: > Formatting 'freedos.qcow2', fmt=qcow2 cluster_size=65536 > extended_l2=off compression_type=zlib size=20971520 lazy_refcounts=off > refcount_bits=16 > > > (2) To install FreeDOS 1.4 rc3 with the LiveCD, you need to "build" a > virtual machine with some memory, and configured with at least the > LiveCD and the virtual disk. Don't forget to use KVM or it will be > REALLY SLOW: > > $ qemu-system-i386 -enable-kvm -m 32 -cdrom FD14LIVE.iso -hda > freedos.qcow2 -boot order=d > > This configures the virtual machine with 32MB memory, and uses the > FreeDOS 1.4 rc3 LiveCD and the virtual hard disk I just made in step > 1. The '-boot order=d' tells QEMU to boot only from the CD drive > (which is always referred to in the 'order=' option as 'd' .. the > first hard disk is always referred to as 'c' .. the first floppy is > always referred to as 'a' .. the network is always referred to as > 'n'). You can give '-cdrom' and '-hda' in either order. > > > (3) Go through the usual FreeDOS installation process. Because I'm > using a small (20MB) virtual disk, I just did the "plain DOS" > installation. > > (4) When the install is finished, use the "Return to DOS" option and > type 'shutdown' at the DOS prompt inside FreeDOS to stop the virtual > machine. > > (5) Now that you've installed FreeDOS, anytime you want to run > FreeDOS, you start QEMU by booting from the virtual disk. You can > optionally configure the machine to use the LiveCD or the BonusCD, so > you can use FDIMPLES to install other packages. Here's the command > line to use the LiveCD, but boot from the virtual disk: > > $ qemu-system-i386 -enable-kvm -m 32 -hda freedos.qcow2 -cdrom > FD14LIVE.iso -boot order=c > > > You can use other options too. For example, to use the Linux local > time as your virtual machine time, add the '-rtc' option like this: > > $ qemu-system-i386 -enable-kvm -m 32 -hda freedos.qcow2 -cdrom > FD14LIVE.iso -boot order=c -rtc base=localtime > > > You said you don't require sound, so I won't show the options to > configure that (it requires a few options to connect everything > together) but that's possible too. I emulate a PC speaker, > SoundBlaster16, and AdLib. > > > If you need to copy files to (or from) the FreeDOS virtual disk, you > should only do this WHEN THE VIRTUAL MACHINE IS NOT RUNNING. Otherwise > you will corrupt the virtual disk. I find the easiest way to do this > is with the 'guestmount' tool from libguestfs-tools. (If you don't > have this by default on your system, you can install it with your > Linux package manager.) > > The 'guestmount' command has a particular command line. First, you > "add" a virtual disk to work with, using the '-a' option. Then you > need to give a partition in the virtual disk that you want to mount, > using the '-m' option. Note that the '-m' option uses "/dev/sda1" > notation to mean the first partition in the virtual disk, even though > this isn't really your system's /dev/sda1. > > For a reasonably sized virtual disk like 20MB or 500MB, FreeDOS > configures the disk with just one partition. That means if I wanted to > exchange files with my freedos.qcow2 disk, I need to "mount" the > "/dev/sda1" partition on that virtual disk to a directory (which I'll > call 'freedos') like this: > > $ mkdir freedos > $ guestmount -a freedos.qcow2 -m /dev/sda1 freedos > > > This might take a second, so don't panic if it doesn't return right away. > > Now I can copy files to/from the FreeDOS virtual disk, using a Linux > file manager or from the command line. If you want to preserve file > timestamps, don't forget to use '-p' (preserve) with the 'cp' command > on Linux. I can even edit a new file on the virtual disk using Linux > 'ed', because it's just another Linux directory at this point: > > $ ed freedos/hello.bat > freedos/hello.bat: No such file or directory > i > @ECHO OFF > ECHO Hello World! > . > w > 28 > q > > > ..but I should probably use 'unix2dos' to convert that to DOS format, > because that's a text file that has Linux line endings: > > $ unix2dos freedos/hello.bat > unix2dos: converting file freedos/hello.bat to DOS format... > > > Then unmount the directory, and you can use the virtual disk in QEMU as > normal. > > $ guestunmount freedos > > > > And not that it matters, but my HELLO.BAT file works fine after I > created it on the FreeDOS virtual disk from Linux: > > C:\>type hello.bat > @ECHO OFF > ECHO Hello World! > > C:\>hello > Hello World! _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
