From: Jerome Shidel via Freedos-user <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2025 13:06:15 -0400
> First, never install an operating system without having a backup of
> any files you do not want to loose. Even with modern installers for
> Linux and Windows, things can a do go wrong. The FreeDOS Installer is
> far less sophisticated.
Part 2 is just an Oberon system installed in about ten minutes. If
clobbered, can recreate.
> Interesting that SDE shows up as fixed disk 1.
Qemu has access only to the installer image and the target drive.
freedosinstall () { qemu-system-i386 \
-cdrom /home/root/FreeDOS/FD14LIVE.iso \
-drive file=/dev/sdb,if=ide,format=raw \
-vga std -boot order=d ; }
WIthin Qemu, /dev/sdb is the only "hdd". Therefore FreeDOS identifies
it as C. Specifically it's a CF card connected through a USB adapter.
> Make sure you run the installer in advanced mode. Either by running â
> setup advâ or switching modes from within the installer. To switch
> modes, press CTRL+C on any page that is waiting for you to respond to
> a question. (Do not press it when it is doing things)
OK, thanks.
> Next, we want to format drive simply format drive C:. For that, we can
> run the command âformat C: /q /uâ. The /q is a âquickâ format
> and does not write or test every sector in the partition. The /u
> prevents format from using space to âun-formatâ the partition.
Ideally that means "make a FAT file system in C: (/dev/sdb1) and don't touch
/dev/sdb2 and /dev/sdb3".
> Make sure you verify that it wants to write the new MBR ...
Should only be creating the FAT file system. Not changing the
partition table.
So that might be the problem. "format" has trouble with the partition
table or wants to change it?
> ... to the correct drive and partition.
Established by giving the correct parameter to Qemu as in the bash
function above. Qemu won't allow tampering outside volumes identified
in its parameters.
> If you still seem to be having an issue getting the primary FreeDOS
> Installer to install to your hard drive. There are a couple different
> options to try.
Thanks.
For interest, I've installed ETH Oberon using Qemu more than twenty
times on a wide variety of hardware with no difficulty. Understanding
a problem can be a challenge.
Thx, ... P.
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