OS/2, eCS & ArcaOS - Technical > Applications

DOS version on ArcaOS

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Rick Smith:
Greetings,

Just curious if possible to install a different version of dos on arca?

Rick

Ibrahim Hakeem:
Not to my knowledge. If I'm not mistaken, the version of DOS on OS/2 (Including ArcaOS) is something from IBM's PCDOS which has been equated to MS DOS 5.0 in function - this is of course ignoring audio and some other outstanding issues. If you are after better DOS functionality, I'd strongly recommend you give DOSBOX a try. Also, from the demos I've seen, it would seem that ArcaOS 5.1 and 5.1.1 will be bringing about improved DOS functionality along with emulated SoundBlaster audio.

Doug Bissett:

--- Quote ---Just curious if possible to install a different version of dos on arca?
--- End quote ---

Yes. it is rather easy, as I remember. I don't remember the exact steps, and it was MANY years ago when I played with that. You do NOT replace what gets installed. You set up an image, and boot from that. It can be any DOS (possibly only MS or IBM versions, I never tried FreeDOS, or any others).

First you need to have DOS/WinOS2 installed, and working. Many newer machines don't have BIOS support for that.  ArcaOS 5.1, in UEFI mode, will have better support for DOS/WinOS2, when it becomes available.  Then find the help for how to boot DOS from a diskette drive. The image needs to be of a diskette boot, then you tell it to boot from the image file, rather than from a diskette.

IIRC, the DOS version installed with later versions of OS/2 (including eCS and AOS) is IBM DOS 5.0, with fixes. There is a newer IBM DOS 7.0, which has even more fixes. I have still got an image of DOS 7.0, but I haven't bothered with it for a lot of years. I seem to recall giving up on MS DOS, of any version, before machines eliminated the required BIOS support.

Then comes the question: Why do you want a different version of DOS, which you can set in the settings, if you have a program that doesn't like DOS 5.0? That makes DOS lie about what version it is.

Martin Iturbide:
Hi Rick

The question will be why do you want to replace the DOS version? because it will be interesting to know the need. Is it something that does not run on the DOS 5 level? Which app? Is there some good feature on better DOS that we are missing on OS/2 or ArcaOS?

Since today we live on the days of Virtual Machines and more easy to get storage resources, I will found it very educational to try to break an ArcaOS Virtual Machine and try to see how stable or crappy can it be to replace the DOS components on OS/2. Even the crazy idea to try to get FreeDOS components to run like an OS/2 VDM just with the goal to try to break the dependency of old close source code and document the results of the experiment. Of course, don't do it on a production OS/2 machine  ;D

Regards

Dave Yeo:
There are DOS 1 programs, DOS v1 was quite different, no directories, FSB's, making it more like CPM.
It is also possible to boot CPM86 on OS/2. Possibly other programs worked around DOS bugs that were then fixed breaking the programs.
Be interesting if FreeDOS could run in a VDM. Potential problems include that it wouldn't have full disk access for implementing long file name support (vfat) and perhaps mouse access.

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