Here is a batch file that will let you audition the different console fonts provided with FreeDOS. Mine is named TRY.BAT. At the end of mine I also run a program called cookie that gives a fortune cookie from a file, the reason I run that is cookie uses the line drawing characters to create a box around the fortune.

You can run TRY.BAT without any parameter to just see the list of fonts provided, then TRY NAME.FNT to see what that font looks like. gnuchcp -r will reset you back to the factory font if you want.

 undefined

    
@ ECHO OFF
CLS
ECHO.
ECHO.
DIR /ON /B /W C:\UTIL\GNUFONTS\*.FNT
GNUCHCP  C:\UTIL\GNUFONTS\%1
ECHO WHY NOT?  0 O, 5 S, 1 l 


  

[Solved] Put in the first disk, do a DIR and see what is there. Remove it and put in a second disk and do a DIR and see the same contents. Reboot, and see different contents for the same 2nd diskette. USB floppy 3.5" 1.44, Connected directly to a USB port on the computer. Running MSDOS 6.22.

Solved by switching to FreeDOS. Be aware of the minor issue with FreeDOS format.exe = the /u flag is causing errors in the FD13 version. But one can do without it.

This is strange, I am running MSDOS 6.22 on a modern laptop, a Lenovo i7 ideapad. The machine boots directly to MSDOS. There is an external keyboard attached because lenovo swapped the right shift key and the up arrow key in some way that causes me to hit up arrow when I mean shift.

I am finding that I can press the Insert key to switch to insert mode, as soon as I hit

<enter>

I even searched the BIOS for some salient setting, no luck.

I am sure it used to work as I am remembering it - the system starts up in insert mode and pressing the insert key toggles between insert and overwrite. The setting persists thru carriage returns.

(Worked Around) Installed MS-DOS 6.22

When attempting to tab complete a filename when the prompt is not specific enough and loud beep comes from my system speaker. I have tried plugging in headphones / earbuds to make the sound smaller - It is so loud. I looked in the bios for a way to quiet it - no luck. Of couse DOS / FreeDOS knows nothing of the volume buttons.

I use the machine sometimes when the wife is sleeping in another room and I think it might even be loud enough to wake her. I do not want that.

(resolved) Just now, the last two times I was in Freemacs editing a qbasic program the machine humg, and hung so bad that ctrl-alt-del did not budge it and a power cycle was needed. How can I discover what did it?

If so, do you remember how to start the editor on a specific line number?

I tried some time ago to install it but got stuck along the way. I will have to try again to say where.

What is everyone running their FreeDOS on?

Ok, right now I am running FreeDOS under DosBox on my production laptop, but it might be nice to have a small machine, preferably a desktop, that will still boot in Legacy Mode.

Is there a machine I can buy new that I might be able to outfit with a 5.25 and 3.5 floppy drive? That can boot Legacy Mode? Extra points if it can also boot Legacy mode from a USB stick or Ventoy external drive!

Btw cost is an important consideration.

A dropbox link to SHELL - This is a command line shell that provides the following:

• point and activate all kinds of files
• Issue any command that you could type on the command line by just typing the command
• Select many files for operations such as copy, move, delete, print, anything you could do with one file from the command line.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/5n29byg1gxsb7454ekmrc/SHELLSHA.ZIP?rlkey=3rvyzyycqtu011p6r4v5uorr6&dl=0

Note that there is a video (~24 minutes long; a transcript is available) accompanying the article.

This topic has come up several times in the mailing lists over the past months; here is one such example. It's a good article, and the summary of the mailing list link is that FreeDOS won't run on newer hardware.

Gnome Boxes offers a painless way to run FreeDOS, for anyone looking for an easy way to get up and running!

Announcement copied from the main page of the FreeDOS website:

" Please help us test the new release candidate (RC) for the FreeDOS 1.3 release! There are a ton of new changes and improvements from 1.2, including:

• New FreeCOM 0.85a
• New Kernel 2043 and an 8086 version with FAT32 support
• Floppy Edition now uses compression and requires about half as many diskettes
• The return of networking
• Some new programs and games
• Many many many package updates
• Some updates and improvements to NLS
• Improved install process, especially with the MBR
• Some support to automatically set the COUNTRY.SYS information
• Improved CD initialization for the boot media and installed system ... and much, much more! Get your copy of FreeDOS 1.3 RC5 from the FreeDOS Downloads page. Thanks to everyone for helping make this next FreeDOS 1.3 release candidate!

Things are looking pretty good in this release. We'd love to make this the last release candidate before the official release of "FreeDOS 1.3."

Pictured above: a printout of an unformatted NRO source document (see link at bottom to get a PostScript or Plaintext copy)

What is NRO?

'NRO is a text processor based on the design provided in "Software Tools" by Kernighan and Plauger.' -- taken from the NRO description

(link: https://gitlab.com/FDOS/unix/nro/-/blob/master/HELP/NRO)

But that's not exactly helpful, is it? Put more simply, NRO is nroff for FreeDOS. Not sure what nroff is? For the GNU/Linux user, it's the program that makes manpages look the way they do. The GNU version used for GNU/Linux is called groff. For those unfamiliar, each line beginning with a period (.sp 2 for example) starts a formatting command. The letters specify which command is meant. All other lines contain the text that will be formatted. To learn more about nroff, look at the following Wikipeidia article on troff: https://en.wikipedia.

Have you ever wished there were a proper desktop for your DOS system, and thought that the GUI options, like Ozone or Seal, weren't quite cutting it? They don't really come with much software integrated into the GUI, and the transition back to command line is rather jarring. What if I told you there were a better, more useful alternative?

Well, thanks to TheOuterLinux (link: https://theouterlinux.gitlab.io/), there's now an excellent TUI (text user interface) desktop for DOS! Packed with tons of useful software, such as web browsers, file managers, music players, and even a lock screen, PsychDOS offers an alternative to the entirely command line driven DOS while playing to the strengths text mode offers.

Get PsychDOS: https://psychoslinux.gitlab.io/DOS/INDEX.HTM

Still on the fence about trying it out? Don't just take my word for it! FreeDOS founder Jim Hall provides an overview of PsychDOS on the FreeDOS YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQCiZtnJekU

Featured image: P