Bootable PC-DOS usb drive

Posted 10-06-2016 at 09:23 PM by number22
Updated 10-07-2016 at 09:38 PM by number22

We need a system to run old DOS program. Microsoft's Win98 lacks proper memory management for modem computer with larger amount memory. We have PC-DOS (from IBM) lay around.

Basic setup: Syslinux + floppy image with boot.bss

Need create a empty floppy image on usb drive.(your usb is already fdisk with FAT16 partition, and mkfs.msdos formatted).

Code:

#mount -t msdos /dev/usbpartition# /mnt/usb
#cd /mnt/usb
#dd bs=512 count=2880 if=/dev/zero of=fd0.img
2880+0 records in
2880+0 records out
1474560 bytes (1.5 MB, 1.4 MiB) copied, 0.00706025 s, 209 MB/s
#sync

dos format this fd0.img and mount it with loop device

Code:

#mkfs.msdos fd0.img
#losetup -f --show fd0.img
/dev/loop0
#mount /dev/loop0 /mnt/floppy

make copy IBMBIO.COM IBMDOS.COM and COMMAND.COM into /mnt/floppy (keep the order)

Code:

#mcopy /source/IBMBIO.COM /mnt/floppy
#sync
#mcopy /source/IBMDOS.COM /mnt/floppy
#sync
#mcopy /source/COMMAND.COM /mnt/floppy
#sync

find a floppy boot file on internet or form a bootable floppy disk and drive.

Code:

#dd if=/dev/fd0 of=boot.bss bs=512 count=1
#mcopy boot.bss /mnt/floppy

open your text editor, write a syslinux.cfg for fd0.img

Code:

DEFAULT floppy
LABEL floppy
KERNEL boot.bss
APPEND -

save it and sync it, Change out to usb mounting point and

Code:

#cd /mnt/usb
#syslinux /dev/loop0
#sync
#losetup -d /dev/loop0
#umount /mnt/floppy

you need 2nd syslinux at your usb drive

Code:

#mcopy /usr/share/syslinux/memdisk /mnt/usb
#vi syslinux.cfg

SAY Welcome PCDOS boot disk
DEFAULT floppy
TIMEOUT 3
LABEL floppy
LINUX memdisk
INITRD fd0.img
APPEND floppy

Save then and unmount usb

Code:

#cd 
#umount /mnt/usb
#syslinux /dev/usbpartition#

reboot to bios and select your bootable usb hdd or usb key

your A: drive contents are just image under pc-dos can't be altered. But you can modify it under mounted linux directory. Should add proper Autoexec.bat, Config.sys and other utilities file before closing fd0.img.

we test memdisk and chain.c32; memdisk is faster and lean. Although, chain.c32 has pcdos=IBMBIO.COM, but I failed to make it works.

note: PC-DOS doesn't support FAT32, only FAT12/FAT16, if you want to transfer files with your usb drive, create a small FAT16 partition.

Code:

#fdisk -c=dos /dev/usb
#mkfs.msdos  -F 16 -f 2 -s 128 -S 512 /dev/usbpartion1

note2: if you put SYS.COM in your fd0.img, you can use it to transfer system files of ibm dos to other hard drive, make it boot directly to pc-dos.

Goodluck

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Comments

Why not use DOSBox?

http://www.dosbox.com

Posted 10-09-2016 at 12:02 AM by rkelsen