re: Re: Dosemu

Hello!

El dom, 10-11-2002 a las 20:24, Bart Oldeman escribió:
> On Mon, 11 Nov 2002, Eric Auer wrote:
...
> 
> Debian, Gentoo, PLD (a Polish distro) and ALT Linux (a Russian
> distro) have DOSEMU too. Red Hat doesn't have it anymore. I don't know
...

Yes, Debian's Gnome-Desktop has it on the "Debian Menu"->Apps->Emulators

However, when you install dosemu, it tells you, that FreeDos cannot be
delivered with Dosemu, since it does not comply with Debian
requirements, I suppose Copyright Policies.

You have to follow instructions in a file named
/usr/share/doc/dosemu/README.Debian to do this, where the only problem
is, that the given ftp-address for dosemu-freedos-bin.tgz is incorrect.
Given a correctly downloaded dosemu-freedos-bin.tgz (from sourceforge,
for example) all other steps get you immediatly to a running Freedos
under Debian.  Just tested it out.
-------------------------
Now, that are not answers to the question asked by Paul:

"Speaking of dosemu, anybody use the virtual packet driver support in
that?

Also is there any major compatibility differences between running
FreeDOS under dosemu and running it stand alone?  I'm planning on
developing some applications on FreeDOS, but since my primary home
system in Linux, dosemu seems to be a good choice for doing all but
final testing."
...

I do not use the virtual packet driver, so I cannot say anything about
it, but the second question has to be answered with a definitly yes!
There are major compatiblity differencies.

If FreeDos is run standalone, it has direct access to the computers
hardware.  Dosemu, while beeing a great product, uses emulation for some
hardware functions and "wrappers" for others.  As this is Software, it
contains bugs, and there is no guarantee that it works the same way.
On the other hand, there are issues of the underlying operating system
(unix), which deal either with security, or with adaptation to its way
how hardware is dealt with, which make dosemu behave diferent than a
mere '86 hardware, no matter if you run FreeDos or MS-Dos, or any other
Dos.
On the other hand, you are provided with a "shield" against
malfunctioning programs.  If a FreeDos (or any other) crashes, you just
kill the emulator job, no harm is done to the operating system.  There
are many debugging options, which allow you to "X-Ray" the running
FreeDos kernel and applications when you use dosemu.

So, it can be a big advantage, to manage Dosemu sufficently good, as it
can give you extra help with FreeDos, unless you are using stuff that is
not compatible with the hardware emulation.  However, if it is a bug in
the hardware emulation of Dosemu, it is great if you report or repair
it.

Best Regards,

	Jorge-León