MS-DOS 6.22 Full Installation on HPC!

After running DOS programs under PocketDOS for a couple of weeks, I decided to go the full monty by installing the complete MS-DOS 6.22 (plus the supplement disk) on my Jornada 720.

Here is a quick demonstration of how to get this done.

Part I: Preparation
Ready MS-DOS 6.22 disk images >> Launch PocketDOS >> Create a new harddisk (virtual HDD image) as C:





Edited by hpcboy 2020-11-11 3:49 PM

Part II. Installation
Set up A: by supplying the DOS Disk 1 image >> Initiate setup >> Exit setup (press F3) >> Run fdisk (and restart PocketDOS) >> Run format C: /s for the HDD image (and restart PocketDOS) >> Launch MS-DOS setup again >> Continue the previous setup >> Confirm country, keyboard layout, and installation directory >> Begin the installation procedure >> Supply the next disk image when prompted





Edited by hpcboy 2020-11-11 3:50 PM

Part III. Finetuning
Restart PocketDOS to boot the newly installed MS-DOS (need to set the boot priority to C: ) >> Load the MS-DOS Supplemental Utilities Disk image >> Run setup >> Select and install the components >> Load PocketDOS Disk Utility image to A: >> Copy A:\DOS\*.* C:\DOS >> Copy A:\config.sys >> Copy A:\autoexec.bat >> Edit autoexec.bat to set the right PATH (A:\DOS becomes C:\DOS)




Edited by hpcboy 2020-11-11 3:51 PM

Why full installation? It contains a large arsenal of MS-DOS tools and programs (even QBasic and DOS Shell) that are absent from the vanilla FreeDOS.





Isn't it cool?

Also see how much memory MS-DOS consumes upon booting up:



Despite the quantum increment of computing power and memory space (640KB vs. 640GB), I simply don't think our productivity has been increased by this many times over these years.


Edited by hpcboy 2020-11-11 3:57 PM

Well done. And thank you for posting such specific instructions--that will assist other for years to come.

I suppose if you had a HP 200LX, you could run its desktop software (CPACK) on the J, sharing HP's databases, etc.

How does DOShell run? That can be a memory hog, but it was my first GUI adventure.

Jake

I used to run Arachne on the DOS side of one of my Win 95 machines, a pretty sweet internet suite.
Good work and good write-up, OP.

Edited by Mjolnir 2020-11-11 8:06 PM

My demo is actually based on the PocketDOS official tutorial.
I don't have 200LX, but will try to find a copy of CPACK to test it out. Sounds fun.
[EDIT 1: Just searched a bit. CPACK is written for 80286/80386. PocketDOS cannot run CPACK as it emulates only 8086/80186]
DOShell runs fine. Starting up takes about 7 seconds. Once loaded everything works smoothly. I didn't notice obvious lag. In fact DOShell only uses an additional 250KB of memory, which is definitely manageable under PocketDOS.
[EDIT 2: After changing the refresh Timer from 5ms to 1ms, DOSShell launches in just 2 seconds!]


Edited by hpcboy 2020-11-12 4:41 AM

Re: CPACK--dunno much about DOS flavors, but I run CPACK on Win10 thru DOSBox, so I'm surprised that PocketDOS would have problems. Oh, well.

Glad to see DOSShell up and running. Can a user hide the bottom row of Fn keys in PDOS? Seems a waste of real estate.

Before TextMaker's 2002 birth, I was very much considering PDOS/NewDeal for my word processing on the J-720. I do love me some NewDeal--what a great suite.

Jake

If you change the CPU emulation core on PocketDOS you can actually emulate other CPUs. Many moons ago I managed to emulate an 80486 on PocketDOS to run Windows 3.1 in standard mode. You can find the full discussion here: https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=15103
obs: please ignore my English from the post above. At that time, I didn't know how to properly write in English...

This is a great tutorial, never really been a DOS user other than disk tools but impressed it'll all run on the J720. Wonder if it could handle win3.1??

Windows 3.1 runs fine under PocketDOS. The only question is you need to find an installer or hdd image yourself.
For the moment I don't feel a strong need to run Win 3.x as I am very happy with the text-based DOS programs. For GUI stuff I simply fall back to CE.

That's wonderful "news" to me. Will give it a try soon.

If you’re looking for a GUI experience on PocketDOS, Windows 3.0 in real mode runs a lot smoother than Windows 3.1 in standard mode with a 80486 plugin

For some reason, I've always wanted to run 3.1 on the J-720, if only to use 16-bit Word 6.0, a wonderful word processor. On the other hand, TextMaker2002 is even better, so I can't account for my fascination. [I think Word 2.0, another good wp, will run on Win3.0]

Jake

If I remember correctly, Win 3.1 on PocketDOS is only worth as a science project because it is too slow to be usable. Win 3.0 in real mode on the other hand is quite snappy.