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Re: DOS 6.22 VM

Posted: 28. Jul 2021, 16:32
by scottgus1
Burning ISOs to a CD is not necessary (don't think that was mentioned). The ISO itself can be put in the VM's Optical Drive (click [Optical Drive] see "Choose Disk Image...").

Whether the VM's CD drive is properly configured in the VM's OS is not something Virtualbox can fix. Web-search how to configure multiple CD drives in DOS, apply the solution to the DOS OS config files.

One other thing, just in case the questions arises, the VM OS's CD drive letter does not have to duplicate the host's CD drive letter. There is no correlation between host and VM hardware, except for the physical CPU.

Re: DOS 6.22 VM

Posted: 29. Jul 2021, 16:10
by Joe890
Thank's for the help! I start to undersand that propably it would have been easier to edit autoexec.bat and
config.sys before making the RAW-image of a the original DOS622-floppy :(


Is it possible to access the files in virtualc from within the HostOS?

Or would you suggest an other approach?


Thank's a lot!

Joe

Re: DOS 6.22 VM

Posted: 29. Jul 2021, 18:04
by scottgus1
A network would be good. Or another hard drive in the VM, with a drive file format on the host that the host can mount (like fixed-size VHD on a Windows host.) The "Other Guests" Tutorials may help with the network, see viewforum.php?f=30

Re: DOS 6.22 VM

Posted: 29. Jul 2021, 19:00
by mpack
A Virtual ISO will let you treat a host folder as an ISO. This is particularly convenient for copying files into a DOS VM, where almost every other option is excluded due to the age and limitations of DOS.

Re: DOS 6.22 VM

Posted: 10. Aug 2021, 16:47
by Joe890
Thank's for the help!

1.
Which of the following approaches is more promising (DOS 622 VM)


- Mount ISO to a virtual machine with VirtualBox Manager ?

or

- Mount ISO to a running virtual machine ?




2.
How do i find out which drive letter has been assigned to the DOS-VM in order to be able to access the Virtual ISO?


Thank's a lot!
Joe

Re: DOS 6.22 VM

Posted: 10. Aug 2021, 16:59
by scottgus1
Joe890 wrote:- Mount ISO to a virtual machine with VirtualBox Manager ?

or

- Mount ISO to a running virtual machine ?
Mounting an ISO is like putting a CD in a computer's CD drive. Virtualbox will allow you to do this whether the VM is on or off.
Joe890 wrote:How do i find out which drive letter has been assigned to the DOS-VM in order to be able to access the Virtual ISO?
The ISO will appear as a CD in the DOS CD drive. Web-search how to determine the drive letter of a real CD drive on a DOS PC and use the same method in your VM.

Re: DOS 6.22 VM

Posted: 10. Aug 2021, 17:21
by Joe890
Thank's for the promt feedback!

At the moment I am stuggling to craft a working config.sys and autoexec.bat with should load a generic CD/DVD-driver ......

Joe

Re: DOS 6.22 VM

Posted: 10. Aug 2021, 17:30
by scottgus1
If it will help, the DOS VM I have has this for Config.sys and Autoexec.bat:
config.sys wrote:DEVICE=C:\DOS\SETVER.EXE
DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
DOS=HIGH
FILES=30
BUFFERS=20
LASTDRIVE=Z
rem
rem Load CD-Rom Drivers
DEVICE=C:\DOS\cd1.SYS /D:banana
rem Other Configurations Possible
rem DEVICE=C:\DOS\cd1.SYS /D:banana /P:1f0,14
rem DEVICE=C:\DOS\cd1.SYS /D:banana /P:170,15
rem DEVICE=C:\DOS\cd1.SYS /D:banana /P:le8,12
rem DEVICE=C:\DOS\cd1.SYS /D:banana /P:le8,11
rem DEVICE=C:\DOS\cd1.SYS /D:banana /P:168,10
rem DEVICE=C:\DOS\cd1.SYS /D:banana /P:168,9
rem End CD-Rom Drivers
autoexec.bat wrote:@ECHO OFF
C:\DOS\SMARTDRV.EXE /X
PROMPT $p$g
PATH C:\DOS
SET TEMP=C:\TEMP\
rem Load CD-Rom Drivers
MSCDEX.EXE /D:banana /L:D
rem End CD-Rom Drivers
I put two CD drives on this VM once, it finds both if them on startup, the drive letters become D: and E:.

Re: DOS 6.22 VM

Posted: 10. Aug 2021, 17:41
by mpack
I might as well post mine too. They seem to be simpler, but contain some things that Scott's don't. These were actual files that I used back in the day.
config.sys wrote: device=c:\dos\himem.sys /TESTMEM:OFF
dos=high,umb
device=c:\dos\emm386.exe NOEMS
devicehigh=c:\cdrom\cdrom.sys /D:CD001
files=30
stacks=0,0
buffers=20
DOS does not have a fixed directory structure. In my case the DOS system utils were copied into a directory called C:\DOS, and the cdrom driver was copied into a directory called C:\CDROM.
autoexec.bat wrote: path=c:\dos
lh c:\dos\mscdex.exe /D:CD001
lh c:\dos\keybuk
lh dosedit
prompt $p$g
"keyuk" loads a UK 102-key keyboard layout, you'll need the equivalent for your own locale. "dosedit.com" is a third party (Jack Gersbach) tsr app that gives you the ability to recall previous command line strings using up arrow. I'm sure this will still be easily found online. If not then I'm told that DOS5 and later included an equivalent called DOSKEY, but I don't seem to have that in my own DOS VM.

Re: DOS 6.22 VM

Posted: 11. Aug 2021, 16:28
by Joe890
Wow... many thanks a lot to all of you! This is really a big help for me!
Joe

Re: DOS 6.22 VM

Posted: 15. Oct 2021, 16:42
by Joe890
Hello,

finally I have a properly running DOS622 VM with the required keyboard layout :-)

Unfortunately the old DOS App (IBM Writing Assistant) does not run under that VM :(
(it does crash without any message/warning, just a blank screen in the VM)

For your information: The app does run under the DOS-Box of NT4 on an old Intel PII.
(I was unable to test it on the DOS-Box of WXP and Win2000)

It certainly does NOT run under "DOS" of Windows 7 and "DOS" of Windows 10.

As well not under DOSPlus, DOSBox Megabuld6, DOSBox_v074 for Linuy and DOSBox-SVN-Daun (all under Win7)


Reagrds,
Joe

Re: DOS 6.22 VM

Posted: 15. Oct 2021, 17:39
by mpack
Joe890 wrote: It certainly does NOT run under "DOS" of Windows 7 and "DOS" of Windows 10.
There is no "DOS box" in the NT family of Windows - that only existed in Win9x, because that OS is itself built on DOS. Yes, the NT command console has a superficial similarity, but it's definitely not intended to run 16bit DOS apps. In fact 16bit apps can't run at all under Win64 (except in a VM of course).

If it craps out then the VM probably doesn't meet the hardware requirements, e.g. for expanded memory. If you have a manual for it then check what the requirements are.

It's also not impossible that it checks for an IBM BIOS. Did it ever work on IBM clones?

Re: DOS 6.22 VM

Posted: 19. Oct 2021, 16:59
by Joe890
Thank's mpack for the feedback!

I do still have an other old PC but without floppy drive. So I am going to try to make a bootable CD/DVD from the floppy disk :)

Re: DOS 6.22 VM

Posted: 25. Oct 2021, 15:56
by Joe890
mpack wrote:
Joe890 wrote: It's also not impossible that it checks for an IBM BIOS. Did it ever work on IBM clones?
You got it mpack! No, it only runs on that old IBM PC. If only I had known that before... but I did learn quite a lot about making
DOS-VM's under VBox :)


Thanks again to each one of you for your help!

Joe

Re: DOS 6.22 VM

Posted: 25. Oct 2021, 16:45
by mpack
Perhaps you should look into converting the IBM Writing Assistant files into a modern format. A possible starting point is http://fileformats.archiveteam.org/wiki ... _Assistant.