Installing MS-DOS on Qemu - Revision history

Neozeed: updated to qemu-system-i386 to reflect version 2 names

2015-05-03T03:16:09Z

updated to qemu-system-i386 to reflect version 2 names

Neozeed: Added in some sound stuff

2015-05-03T03:15:18Z

Added in some sound stuff

Tor: Minor: Consistent use of mb->MB etc.

2013-03-09T13:46:17Z

Minor: Consistent use of mb->MB etc.

Neozeed at 02:08, 26 October 2009

2009-10-26T02:08:47Z

Neozeed at 02:08, 26 October 2009

2009-10-26T02:08:01Z

Neozeed at 12:57, 11 August 2009

2009-08-11T12:57:18Z

Neozeed at 01:33, 30 July 2009

2009-07-30T01:33:58Z

Neozeed at 01:33, 30 July 2009

2009-07-30T01:33:02Z

Neozeed: save 1st pass quickly

2009-07-30T01:28:44Z

save 1st pass quickly

New page

MS-DOS is a great 'little' OS for bootstrapping other OS's. If you are going to install Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows Me, Novell Netware, Windows NT 3.1/3.5/3.51/4.0 or even setup a dual boot OS/2 VM it's best to start here.

First MS-DOS 5.0 & 6.0 (6.1/6.2/6.22) are the 'best' versions to load as they can support a hard disk up to 2GB in size. MS-DOS 4.0 can only use 32mb partitions, however it can use extended partitions.. So you can have LOTS of 32mb partitions. MS-DOS 3.x can only use a single 32MB partition.. I wouldn't waste time with MS-DOS 1, as it has no support for hard disks, and early 2.0 doesn't have support for directories.

In this example I'm going to install MS-DOS 6.22. It's very straight forward.

== Create a hard disk ==

The first step is to create a hard disk image. I'm going to create a 2GB one, so the syntax is:
<pre>
qemu-img create -f qcow msdos.disk 2G
</pre>

== Installing MS-DOS ==

MS-DOS uses the BIOS for all IO so the ISA/PCI thing doesn't matter. Also the installation, and all files will run on 8088/8086 or higher so you don't have to worry about any cpu flags. MS-DOS himem.sys will only see a maximum of 64MB of ram. So there is no point in letting qemu grab 128mb of ram.

<pre>
qemu -hda msdos.disk -m 64 -L . -fda dos622_1.img -boot a
</pre>

← Older revision		Revision as of 03:15, 3 May 2015
Line 32:		Line 32:

	And you are good to go.		And you are good to go.
		+
		+	== Sound ==
		+	Qemu has various sound options, but for MS-DOS the best is to enable the PC-speaker, Adlib and SoundBlaster cards.
		+
		+	<pre>
		+	-soundhw sb16,adlib,pcspk
		+	</pre>
		+
		+	For reference, the BLASTER environment variable should be set to the following:
		+
		+	<pre>
		+	BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 T5</pre>

	== Where to go from here ==		== Where to go from here ==

← Older revision		Revision as of 02:08, 26 October 2009
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	Well MS-DOS by itself isn't that useful, you may want to investigate network clients (ones that use TCP/IP are better!), sound settings and of course CD-ROM access. I'll update these topics in the future.		Well MS-DOS by itself isn't that useful, you may want to investigate network clients (ones that use TCP/IP are better!), sound settings and of course CD-ROM access. I'll update these topics in the future.

−	[[~~category~~:~~Qemu~~ Tutorials]] [[Category:Qemu]]	+	[[Category:QEMU Tutorials]] [[Category:Qemu]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 02:08, 26 October 2009
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	Well MS-DOS by itself isn't that useful, you may want to investigate network clients (ones that use TCP/IP are better!), sound settings and of course CD-ROM access. I'll update these topics in the future.		Well MS-DOS by itself isn't that useful, you may want to investigate network clients (ones that use TCP/IP are better!), sound settings and of course CD-ROM access. I'll update these topics in the future.

−	[[category:~~tutorials~~]] [[Category:Qemu]]	+	[[category:Qemu Tutorials]] [[Category:Qemu]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 12:57, 11 August 2009
Line 37:		Line 37:
	Well MS-DOS by itself isn't that useful, you may want to investigate network clients (ones that use TCP/IP are better!), sound settings and of course CD-ROM access. I'll update these topics in the future.		Well MS-DOS by itself isn't that useful, you may want to investigate network clients (ones that use TCP/IP are better!), sound settings and of course CD-ROM access. I'll update these topics in the future.

−	[[category:tutorials]]	+	[[category:tutorials]] [[Category:Qemu]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 01:33, 30 July 2009
Line 36:		Line 36:

	Well MS-DOS by itself isn't that useful, you may want to investigate network clients (ones that use TCP/IP are better!), sound settings and of course CD-ROM access. I'll update these topics in the future.		Well MS-DOS by itself isn't that useful, you may want to investigate network clients (ones that use TCP/IP are better!), sound settings and of course CD-ROM access. I'll update these topics in the future.
		+
		+	[[category:tutorials]]

@@ Line 17: / Line 17: @@
 <pre>
-qemu -hda msdos.disk -m 64 -L . -fda dos622_1.img -boot a
+qemu-system-i386 -hda msdos.disk -m 64 -L . -fda dos622_1.img -boot a
 </pre>
@@ Line 28: / Line 28: @@
 <pre>
-qemu -hda msdos.disk -m 64 -L .
+qemu-system-i386 -hda msdos.disk -m 64 -L .
 </pre>

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-MS-DOS is a great 'little' OS for bootstrapping other OS's.  If you are going to install Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows Me, Novell Netware, Windows NT 3.1/3.5/3.51/4.0 or even setup a dual boot OS/2 VM it's best to start here.
+MS-DOS is a great 'little' OS for bootstrapping other operating systems.  If you are going to install Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows Me, Novell Netware, Windows NT 3.1/3.5/3.51/4.0 or even setup a dual boot OS/2 VM it's best to start here.
-First MS-DOS 5.0 & 6.0 (6.1/6.2/6.22) are the 'best' versions to load as they can support a hard disk up to 2GB in size.  MS-DOS 4.0 can only use 32mb partitions, however it can use extended partitions.. So you can have LOTS of 32mb partitions. MS-DOS 3.x can only use a single 32MB partition..  I wouldn't waste time with MS-DOS 1, as it has no support for hard disks, and early 2.0 doesn't have support for directories.
+First MS-DOS 5.0 & 6.0 (6.1/6.2/6.22) are the 'best' versions to load as they can support a hard disk up to 2GB in size.  MS-DOS 4.0 can only use 32MB partitions, however it can use extended partitions.. So you can have LOTS of 32MB partitions. MS-DOS 3.x can only use a single 32MB partition..  I wouldn't waste time with MS-DOS 1, as it has no support for hard disks, and early 2.0 doesn't have support for directories.
 In this example I'm going to install MS-DOS 6.22.  It's very straight forward.

← Older revision		Revision as of 01:33, 30 July 2009
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	qemu -hda msdos.disk -m 64 -L . -fda dos622_1.img -boot a		qemu -hda msdos.disk -m 64 -L . -fda dos622_1.img -boot a
	</pre>		</pre>
		+
		+	On the first boot, MS-DOS will partition the disk & slap down a MBR.. Let it have the whole disk, you just hit enter a few times, then qemu will reboot, then it will format the disk & then prompt for disk two. Remember it's control+alt+2 to get to the qemu console to ''change'' the floppy to dos622_2.img, then control+alt+1 to get back to the display to hit enter. You only have to do this twice, then MS-DOS is installed. Once it is installed, you can close Qemu.
		+
		+
		+	== Running MS-DOS ==
		+
		+	You can now start Qemu like this:
		+
		+	<pre>
		+	qemu -hda msdos.disk -m 64 -L .
		+	</pre>
		+
		+	And you are good to go.
		+
		+	== Where to go from here ==
		+
		+	Well MS-DOS by itself isn't that useful, you may want to investigate network clients (ones that use TCP/IP are better!), sound settings and of course CD-ROM access. I'll update these topics in the future.