FreeDosEmuBox-OS (Linux x64)

The place to ask for technical support and offer assistance
Post Reply
sk1re
Less than a nibble
Posts: 6
Joined: August 26th, 2014, 11:54 am

FreeDosEmuBox-OS (Linux x64)

Post by sk1re »

Hello!

I installed FreeDos on my old laptop but i could not get sound to work. DOS seems to require some specific Soundcards which i do not own.
So i thought i should make a Linux OS which boots direct into a Dos Emulator (Dosbox and DosEmu2)
I couldn't accomplish making an Linux OS for now, i'm struggling with Buildroot. https://www.buildroot.org/

But i wrote some scripts for Dosbox and DosEmu2 for launching, copying files to Images and automatically making ISOs(*.cue,*.bin) from CDROM compatible with Dosbox.
And i made a frontend for launching these tasks. (the frontend does start in fullscreen with an intro video - frontend is "Attract Mode" www.attractmode.org)
I uploaded a first Beta which should run on all major Linux x64 Distros. (Tested on Arch Linux and Ubuntu Mate)
It uses relative paths, so you can extract and run it wherever you want.

Download here:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/2c2jgfljl ... a1.tar.bz2 ~568MB <--old version
Download the fixed version here:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/k31gp1ked ... ix.tar.bz2 ~57MB

It requires at least 5,8 GB HDD space for extracting.
DosEmu2 is interesting because it can run Quake1 with QDOS engine http://dk.toastednet.org/QDOS/ in 1024x768 resolution with 60-70 FPS on my Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3570K CPU @ 3.40GHz.
I've included Quake1 Shareware for testing.

And i have some questions:
1) Is there a way to mount Images bigger than 2GB in Dosbox? Or is there a Tool which can create Images from Files/Directories?
2) Does anyone have experience making a Linux Distro? I know there are a lot of applications out there, but most of them can only make a LiveCD.
I need a Distro which can run LiveCD and an Installer or a .img file which can be written with Etcher https://etcher.io/ like Batocera Linux https://batocera-linux.xorhub.com/ .
And it should be able run a lightweight Desktop like Openbox or Fluxbox. It does not matter which Linux x64 because FreeDosEmuBox is made to run on all Linux Distos.
Are there any tools you can recommend? (other than Buildroot)
3) Does DosEmu2 run that fast on your PC? (seems like it needs a KVM enabled CPU to run fast)

my TODO list:
- make Linux Distro "FreeDosEmuBox-OS" which boots into the frontend or Dosbox/DosEmu2 (can be choosen by a script)
- DosEmu2 make CDROM and IPX working
- the ability to select and edit different Dosbox config files
- polish some of the scripts
- Dosbox and Dosemu2 startup script - IPX startserver/connect & mount ISO files

i made a video of the frontend artwork and DosEmu2 with Quake1 running:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIIvR2A9_3A

that's all for now,
regards - Tom (sk1re)

EDIT: forgot to make ./emus/Filesystems/isos folder - please add "isos" folder manually or ripping cds and mounting with dosbox does not work
EDIT 2nd: i could reduce the filesize for the download to 57MB. And ISOs folder is now there.
Download the fixed version here:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/k31gp1ked ... ix.tar.bz2 ~57MB
sk1re
Less than a nibble
Posts: 6
Joined: August 26th, 2014, 11:54 am

Re: FreeDosEmuBox-OS (Linux x64)

Post by sk1re »

Ok, i gave up making a Distro for Dosbox. It's too dangerous for me not to accidentally delete your Windows or any other Distro's partition.
What you can do is install a x64 Linux Distro, i recommend Lubuntu https://lubuntu.net and add "Launch_FreeDosEmuBox.sh" to the Autostart applications.
Install Linux only if you know what you are doing!

Download FreeDosEmuBox x64:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/k31gp1ked ... ix.tar.bz2
Malvineous
8-bit mega nerd
Posts: 292
Joined: March 17th, 2007, 6:40 pm
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Contact:

Re: FreeDosEmuBox-OS (Linux x64)

Post by Malvineous »

If you're happy with emulation, you could just make a virtual machine image that people can download and run in VirtualBox or similar.
sk1re
Less than a nibble
Posts: 6
Joined: August 26th, 2014, 11:54 am

Re: FreeDosEmuBox-OS (Linux x64)

Post by sk1re »

I was thinking about this but i don't like the idea of "emulating an emulator".
Malvineous
8-bit mega nerd
Posts: 292
Joined: March 17th, 2007, 6:40 pm
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Contact:

Re: FreeDosEmuBox-OS (Linux x64)

Post by Malvineous »

I was thinking that the VM would run FreeDOS natively, so there's only one layer of emulation. Of course VMs emulate only certain hardware, DOSBox emulates specific hardware best suited to DOS games.

I believe there are AC97 drivers for DOS so you can use some modern sound cards under native DOS, but I haven't looked into it as I prefer a real retro PC myself.

If you're worried about overwriting stuff when installing Linux, then you could look into live USB/CD distros, which boot and run entirely off a CD or USB stick and never touch your main OS. Reboot and remove the USB stick or CD and there's no trace your system was ever running a different OS.

Buildroot is an absolute pain and mainly intended for embedded systems (e.g. routers). You'd be better off looking at something like Linux From Scratch instead, or just downloading a Ubuntu live USB stick, installing DOSBox on it and calling it done.
sk1re
Less than a nibble
Posts: 6
Joined: August 26th, 2014, 11:54 am

Re: FreeDosEmuBox-OS (Linux x64)

Post by sk1re »

I've already tried to run FreeDOS with QEMU. But it has some weird bugs with Fullscreen and Sound. QEMU isn't made to emulate old DOS.
Dosbox is ok for older games. For newer DOS Games like Quake1&2 with QEMU(windowed mode) and DosEmu2(+FreeDOS), both can run it at 60-70FPS in 1024x768 resolution.
http://stsp.github.io/dosemu2/
http://dk.toastednet.org/Q2DOS/
There are AC97 drivers out there. I wonder if it would be possible to combine FreeDOS and a Linux kernel together for Sound compatibility?
Malvineous
8-bit mega nerd
Posts: 292
Joined: March 17th, 2007, 6:40 pm
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Contact:

Re: FreeDosEmuBox-OS (Linux x64)

Post by Malvineous »

Not sure how combining FreeDOS and a Linux kernel would work. That'd be like combining Windows and Mac OSX.

Just saw this, looks like someone has already come up with a DOSBox live USB stick: https://www.reddit.com/r/dosgaming/comm ... x_liveusb/
Post Reply