News and Comments

43 thoughts on “News and Comments”

  1. Despite what I said earlier about 1809, it seems Windows 10 accessing DOS shares was broken earlier than the November 2018 release of 1809. I thought this was caused by a minor Windows update in January 2019, but that proved not to be true. It happened before that, maybe much sooner.
    So if any chance of accessing DOS shares working, would have to be 1803 or before.
    I was never able to repeat accessing Windows 10 shares from DOS as I did in 2021 with a version later than 1809, so I may never figure out how that happened.
    The one thing I was never able to do was access DOS shares from Windows 10.
    I have to start from absolute scratch again…hahaha!!!
    If any of you still have 1803, 1709 or 1703 and can access DOS shares, please reply because one of those probably works.

    INCIDENTALLY you can get those older builds by using the Heidoc.net application which is the only way to get them from the Microsoft servers. There’s no other way to do that anymore.

  2. Thanks for your VMs; I learned a lot from using them, and now I tend to roll my own. Maybe you already know, but I just wanted to mention DOSVNC (https://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/nino/dosvnc.html). I have had great success with it, and if you’re interested in DOS networking, it is quite impressive. I can log into my Devuan box from FreeDOS and get a fully functional 1024×768 Linux desktop, making FreeDOS in 2022 a viable VNC client. Happy to provide some details if it is of interest.

  3. Regarding this post:

    https://www.lazybrowndog.net/freedos/virtualbox/?page_id=350

    I created a VM in VirtualBox with Novell DOS 7.

    Sharing works one direction only…I can access Windows 10 folders from the DOS VM so Windows 10’s built-in sharing is working. However, I cannot access the DOS VM from Windows 10 despite checking SMB1 settings in Windows 10, which is enabled.
    I also cannot ping (from inside the DOS VM) outside my home network but I can ping any machine inside my home network.

    What I resolved to do to hunt this problem down is to try your FreeDOS VMs that have networking enabled and try to spot differences in the MSCfN configuration *.INI files and also config.sys and autoexec.bat

    I did discover a problem when installing the MSCfN 3.0 files and that is one crucial file DOES NOT GET EXPANDED by the SETUP.EXE program (called WSAHDAPP.EX_). Once I got that expanded, I was able to use TCP/IP instead of IPX. So, I will check your C:\NET folder and try to spot differences there if any.
    I have already installed WG1049.EXE (replaces some key files in MSCfN 3.0) which is the sole reason that MSCfN 3.0 allows a DOS machine to act as a server because I found out from reading different sites about this subject that the server function was actually unintentional, and I also installed NetShare.exe

    I’m making a lot more effort than I did over a year ago when I gave up in frustration, because now I have some ideas if your VM works in those two areas where mine does not.

    1. Update: using the FreeDOS 1.2 NET VM I noticed Ping works on sites outside my network, however my Windows 10 20H2 is still not able to bring up the share.
      So besides what I did to enable SMB1, something else has to be done on my Windows machine to force it to see the DOS VM and I haven’t figured out what yet.
      It’s too bad I’m on 20H2 because despite my effort to stop updates using different methods, MS forced it on me against my will…which I truly hate MS for doing.

      1. Another teeny step closer and the closest I’ve come.
        I used instead the FreeDOS 1.2 MSC VM and copied the raw contents of C:\NET to my C:\NET after using Windows to mount that VM and mine…made immensely easier.
        I looked through the config.sys (FDconfig.sys) and autoexec.bat and duplicated what was loading and in the same order.
        I can ping outside my network plus do all the other things I was able to before, but Windows 10 still not seeing my machine.
        I’m willing to pay $100 to someone that can make that happen without having to use FTP.
        This is so I can say it’s possible and feel like I got to my goal.
        Anyone up for the challenge?

        1. I tried accessing the share from my Windows XP VM and also not working so I think something in the DOS VM still isn’t quite right. I should be able to access from XP at least.

          1. Hi Steve. Since yesterday I am also trying to get this to work. It was always a challenge. But it worked at the time I wrote these pages. I have switched completely to Mac, so I need some time to get used to my windows machine again. I will keep you updated.

    1. Thanks a lot for adding these here. The download buttons are a WordPress extension, that needed an update. Sorry. They should be visible again now.

      1. Hello Ulrich,
        If you can help me with accessing my DOS share from Windows 10, I would be eternally grateful.
        I could swear I used to be able to do this a couple years ago.
        I’ve been been doing all I can think of for weeks trying to succeed with firewall, policy, registry settings and SMB1 is enabled in Windows 10. I would be willing to pay someone to help me.
        I don’t want to use http://FTP…I want MSCfN to work like it used to. I can access Windows 10 from DOS no problem.
        Thank you,
        Steve Sybesma

      2. Ulrich,

        Please forgive me, I missed your reply above.
        Take all the time you need. If you have any questions about anything I might have learned doing this, please ask.

        My suspicion is something changed in Windows 10, maybe after version 1803, not sure.

        The biggest challenge is to figure out what MS did.

  4. Thanks so much for this excellent work.

    I am using your FDOS with MS CLIENT vhd successfully under Windows 7. I share out a folder in the FDOS world, and can net use it as a mapped drive in the outer Windows 7 world.

    However, this does NOT work under Windows 10. When I give the net use command, I get the message :
    – – – – – –
    System error 53 has occurred.

    The network path was not found.
    – – – – –

    Any ideas on what I might look at ? I’ve tested this on 4 different computers: two running win7, two running win10.

  5. I would like to SHARE AN FREEDOS DIRECTORY WITH UBUNTU, I am not able to mount the share directory from DOS computer to Linux. Please help me out.

  6. Hello,
    made someone these MS Client settings work with MS-DOS 6.22 / 7.1?
    I just copied C:\NET folder in my virtual machine and copied network starting code to Autoexec.bat and tried to make config.sys with same settings..
    But i have problems: with MS-DOS 6.22, net initialize command i get Protocol manager is not present – additional message to same message in Freedos, net start is fine. C:\NET is path.
    In MS-DOS 7.1 net initialize is fine, no additional message, but net start – give Error 1: An internal error occurred.
    I pretty sure that settings is fine, i tried lots of things, i would really appreciate info that these setting are working with MS-DOS with someone, i also tried it on physical machine with Broadcom 5721m NIC, same error with MS-DOS 7.1. I tried MS Client installed by myself and that some package its the same.
    Would like to use MS-DOS because of games compatibility.

    1. MSDOS – When, i change redictor to basic, im not getting that Error1 error. BTW i never full get, what is difference between full and basic.. Its something with domain and Windows NT..

      BTW i trying to create some MS-DOS networking guide with all info available, only for transferring data for gaming machines:
      https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=61&t=61823

      1. Ok i made MS-DOS 7.1 working, with MS-DOS 6.22 i still have that protman not present problem, i just copy pasted your NET folder and lines for autoexec, so probably MS-DOS 6.22 need some additional change.

        Back to MS-DOS 7.1:
        Problem was IFSHLP.SYS, i used some which i found in system (size 3 708) instead of that from network package(size 4644), with that from MS Client its network running fine, i hope that i will not cause some problems with system compatibility.

        I wonder there is some FCBS system variable, by default is i thing 4,4 is should be something for networking, tried someone mess with it?
        BTW in some tutorial (i thing that was from Jacco) i read that network block has to be started before MSCDEX, other there is some conflict too, i could help some people too, for now im not using cd rom.
        – I had that problem with internal error, with all memory mods and managers – EMS, NO EMS, Realmode, JEMM EMS, QEMM ems, JEMMEX so its not related, i can confirm the net is working with EMS too it, didnt tested other modes after fix yet.
        – Maybe someone could help, that package is working with VMware too, its using exactly same NIC to emulate, so no changes needed.

        1. Next step how to make package better, would be start whole Network stack from some batch command and unload it (or at least part which is possible) Because Rayer (http://rayer.g6.cz/programm/programe.htm) was able to to convert /start whole netbootdisk,com for HDD, its originally floppy MS Client full boot image, to make it startable after boot and its running fine. Same as ODI SHIMs.. and native packet drivers could be run from booted system too.
          Whole point is not have to reboot, after using network stack, because when i have to reboot, there is not big point of use DOS network stack, because on multiboot machine, you can reboot to modern OS to use full blown networking..

          Rebooting is simply waste of time.

          Its good that MS Client dont need any config.sys drivers, i was experimenting with MS Client minimal install too, what is simply MS LanMan and here are 3 drivers for config and only you them not working with devload loader that is protman.dos.. others can be loaded with devload. Full MS client is this protman loading by other way so this driver is not needed in config.sys

          1. I was further debugging MS-DOS 6.22 with package. I looked at the help of net initialize, there is info that it Loads protocol and network adapter driver without binding them to Protocol Manage, so that message that network manager is not present is not big deal from that point..
            So i tried to remote network share access from DOS machine to Win98,Win2K,WinXP and WIn7 and its working with all, even when ping to hostname is not working, probably MSclient ping.exe doesnt support some net networking stuff..
            What is not working is sharing from DOS machine to all OS above, i create the shares, but im unable to access them, ping to Dos machine is working fine.
            Hmm, i found out if i replace share.exe with that share.exe from DOS 7.1.. net initialize message is now without that Protocol manager is not present message.. i didnt expected that is connected, but it is. Net use is still working, sharing doesnt – i get The network path was not found message. With FreeDOS share.com its the same.

            I also dunno why ipconfig c:\Net shows domain name Home and not my domain name, defined in C:\Net *ini files..

          2. Ok, i made MS-DOS 7.1 share work too even with Win 10 (read only) on physical machine, settings is the same as within Virtual machines, where is not working.
            I only have problem to make to work password protected shared folder on DOS machine, when i use net share ShareName=C:\Temp /FULL i can write, but when i tried to net share ShareName=C:\Temp /FULL:password, im not able to connect to share from Win2k,WinXp,Win7 etc.. i always got that credential are incorect. I know that in tuporial is used hostname=username doe it help with this problem, or why it is used?

  7. Your work is great. For some reason, FreeDos 1.2, will not install on any of my three HP or Compaq PCs, but HP loves to tweak things for proprietary use. However, your VDH file worked!!! Now I have access to some nice old DOS programs that still have usefulness. Has anyone tried to install Windows 3.11, which is basically a DOS Shell, on FreeDos? I’m going to try it later, because I have a box of old stuff in storage but I’ll have to locate it some day. A few programs only had Windows 3 installers.
    Thanks for your work.

  8. Hello Ulrich, awesome work you have done! I had a question, is it possible to use TCP/IP and NetBEUI simultaneously? Meaning I would share a folder from FreeDOS so Windows can file share but then have another drive shared on FreeDOS which would use NetBEUI????

  9. Super project. My congratulations. I have a question whether it is possible to transfer the image to a real computer. I have very old software that I would like to have installed on a real computer. I was able to install FreeDos 1.2 but I have a problem with starting the network. I would like to try to move your image to disk.

    1. Hi Mariusz,

      Happy new year! And thank you very much for your feedback.

      Transferring the image to a real computer will not work out of the box. You can do it, but you will need drivers for your network card: A NDIS driver is needed for MS Client, a packet driver or a packet driver shim for mTCP. Then you would have to change AUTOEXEC.BAT, FDCONFIG.SYS, SYSTEM.INI and PROTOCOL.INI to point to these drivers.

      Unfortunately these days my time is occupied by other things (job, family) and I am not practicing DOS Networking everyday any more. So the best place to ask questions about this should be the FreeDOS user list at:
      https://sourceforge.net/projects/freedos/lists/freedos-user

      Thanks again!
      Ulrich

  10. Hello, good job. I’d like to know how to get bigger the virtual screen under freedos in Orcale Virtualbox and how to get the Orcale Virtualbox virtual audio driver up and running?

  11. Do you happen to know why Serial I/O in a VirtualBox Guest OS is so bad? There seems to be some mentions of this in various threads on the Internet, but no known solution. Inbound data is lost, or paused (until more data is received or sent). I realize this is not a FreeDOS question, but you seem to have a lot of experience with DOS under VirtualBox.

  12. Excellent site, with detailed and very informative things about connecting modern OSs and FreeDOS. I need to connect my old Clipper database program (which works fine, even 20 years after it has been made) on Windows 7 pro PC. Since it is x64 Windows, I can’t use CMD/COMMAND to start old DOS programs and Windows XP Mode is not working good (extremly slow) on that machine (I don’t know why, since it works fine on other, completely same PCs?!??!).

    So I have to go back to FreeDOS under VirtualBox. But I am worried about the free RAM that I get after loading all drivers. It’s pretty low, cca 434K of conventional and 79K of UMB. It’s probably not going to be enough, but I’ll try something.

    Anyway, thanks a lot and best regards for having this site!

  13. I have build new VirtualBox images with FreeDOS 1.2. The new FreeDOS version makes a lot of things easier. There is now a great app called FDIMPLES which you can use to install additional packages from the install CD. The package manager FDNPKG works now per default – so you can easily update your DOS system. Also installing networking is much simpler.

    Have fun!

  14. Hello Ulrich,

    Finding and following the instructions on this page was the very first time I got a DOS machine of any kind on my home network:

    https://www.lazybrowndog.net/freedos/virtualbox-old/

    This does work but it’s buggy and necessarily needs tweaking if you don’t strictly use DHCP. I found all the places where I have to change the IP address in the MSCLIENT folder .INI files and in a HOSTS file and a couple others where my machine’s IP needed to be corrected (I don’t use DHCP).

    Couple other settings in the .INI files as well.

    What doesn’t seem to work is copying files through the file system and I can only imagine why…FreeDOS crashes with long Opcode errors when trying to move files in an Explorer window.

    Suffice it to say however, this is the first time I ever got a DOS machine to connect on my home network and the internet. I missed out back in the day when I was using nothing but dial-up networking to get into BBSes and later on the local dial-in number for internet access. I never got familiar then with MNC30 and wish I did because this would have been a much easier learning curve.

    I will be learning a lot about how this works and how to make it work better now that I have a working example. I hope to get this working on DR DOS 6.0 and Novell DOS 7.0 which are two OSes that I loved using back in the early to mid-90s.

    Thank you so much for your fantastic effort in putting this together! I have turned a corner with some problems I was having trying to make my own VM from scratch and think I can figure this out now.

    1. Thanks for sharing your experiences! The old address https://www.lazybrowndog.net/freedos/virtualbox-old/
      is still there, but it I’d recommend to use these new
      https://www.lazybrowndog.net/freedos/virtualbox
      pages instead. I leave the old pages active because some other sites links to that, but a lot happened in the meantime.

      The crashes can be fixed with using a special line for JEMMEX in FDCONFIG.SYS – or using the old memory drivers from FreeDOS 1.0. I wrote about that in the official FreeDOS wiki at:
      http://wiki.freedos.org/wiki/index.php/VirtualBox_-_JEMMEX

    1. Sorry, I never used USB in FreeDOS. I will look into this, but it may take some days. Thanks!

  15. Ulrich Hansen, your work is fantastic!

    All I need is to run a program in clipper with the network database.
    The only network resource I use is a “net use r: \\servidor\tussor”, which works perfectly.

    But 540 of free memory is not enough for this program.

    It would be possible to improve it?
    Or it is already configured to get the largest amount of available base memory?

    Thanks!

    1. Just saw your comment. I am afraid I already tried to configure it to leave as much conventional memory free as possible. But of course check fdconfig.sys and autoexec.bat for drivers you don’t need. Or ask in the “freedos-user” forum – I am sure there are a lot of people with more experience in memory management. Thank you and good luck.

  16. Impressive project. Have d/loaded the FreeDos + Net image – works great with Virtual Box.
    This combination vastly outperforms Dos-In-A-Box which cannot handle record locking as it does not have share.exe.

  17. Bugfix.

    Some users reported problems when booting the FreeDOS1.1net image. Sometimes they received the message:

    Bad or missing Command Interpreter: C:\FDOS\BIN\COMMAND.COM c:\FDOS\BIN /E:1024 /p=C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT

    Sometimes it just crashed. This seems to be a problem of the Memory Manager JEMM in combination with VirtualBox. For now I have replaced it with an older version that should work.

    Please report, if you still see this error. Thank you!

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Ulrich Hansen