Installing FreeDOS

I would like to install the newly-released FreeDOS 1.3 into dosemu2
(on Ubuntu 21.10, x86-64.)

In fact, I would like to install *any* FreeDOS into it. :-) I have
installed the package `install-freedos` but it does not do what it
says -- in fact, it does not do anything. I think it installs some
scripts and the user must run them.

The entirety of the package description is:

=C2=AB
A set of scripts to install freedos.
Also provides a set of bat files for dosemu2 integration.
=C2=BB

It does not tell me what the scripts are, or where they are located,
or what to run, or what parameters are needed. There's no `man` page.
I can't find any info at all on the web, and there's no info on
Github:
https://github.com/dosemu2/install-freedos

So, I have been trying to work it out for myself, but so far, without
success. I would be very happy to write some README files for you,
maybe even a HOWTO or something, if I could work out what to do.

Looking at the package properties, I can see the following list of files:

=C2=AB
/.
/usr
/usr/libexec
/usr/libexec/dosemu
/usr/libexec/dosemu/dosemu-downloaddos
/usr/libexec/dosemu/dosemu-installfreedosuserspace
/usr/libexec/dosemu/dosemu-setupfreedos
/usr/share
/usr/share/doc
/usr/share/doc/install-freedos
/usr/share/doc/install-freedos/changelog.Debian.gz
/usr/share/doc/install-freedos/copyright
/usr/share/dosemu2-extras
/usr/share/dosemu2-extras/bat
/usr/share/dosemu2-extras/bat/dosrc.d
/usr/share/dosemu2-extras/bat/dosrc.d/1sugfdus.bat
/usr/share/dosemu2-extras/bat/dosrc.d/bin2path.bat
/usr/share/dosemu2-extras/bat/insfdusr.bat
/usr/share/dosemu2-extras/bat/rmfdusr.bat
=C2=BB

There's no usage message if the batch files are invoked without
parameters. That would help! I was reasonably skilled with DOS batch
files 30 years ago, so if I can work this out, I can add that for you.

So, I tried `-?` which got me an informative error. Then I tried `-h`
and that got me some info.

Next I tried:

root@lproven:/usr/libexec/dosemu# ./dosemu-downloaddos freedos12

This downloads 9 files, then fails with this error:

=C2=AB
Downloading https://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/distri=
butions/1.2/repos/base/command.zip...
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/libexec/dosemu/./dosemu-downloaddos", line 205, in <module>
    download_dos(dos_to_download, destination)
  File "/usr/libexec/dosemu/./dosemu-downloaddos", line 170, in download_do=
s
    download_FREEDOS_FULL_ARCHIVES(FREEDOS12_URL, destination)
  File "/usr/libexec/dosemu/./dosemu-downloaddos", line 117, in
download_FREEDOS_FULL_ARCHIVES
    download_file(freedos_url + '/repos/base/' + filename + '.zip', destina=
tion)
  File "/usr/libexec/dosemu/./dosemu-downloaddos", line 57, in download_fil=
e
    with urllib.request.urlopen(urllib.parse.quote_plus(source,
"\./_-:")) as response, open(destination_file, 'wb') as f:
  File "/usr/lib/python3.9/urllib/request.py", line 214, in urlopen
    return opener.open(url, data, timeout)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.9/urllib/request.py", line 523, in open
    response =3D meth(req, response)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.9/urllib/request.py", line 632, in http_response
    response =3D self.parent.error(
  File "/usr/lib/python3.9/urllib/request.py", line 561, in error
    return self._call_chain(*args)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.9/urllib/request.py", line 494, in _call_chain
    result =3D func(*args)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.9/urllib/request.py", line 641, in http_error_defa=
ult
    raise HTTPError(req.full_url, code, msg, hdrs, fp)
urllib.error.HTTPError: HTTP Error 404: Not Found
=C2=BB

I have looked in
http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/distributions/1.2/r=
epos/base/

... and it is true, there is no COMMAND.ZIP.

I don't know Python to any useful level, so fixing this script is
beyond me. Is there any other way I can proceed?

--
Liam Proven ~ Profile: https://about.me/liamproven
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Twitter/LinkedIn: lproven ~ Skype: liamproven
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053