Open Metalhead33 opened 6 years ago
But, did they work?
No, in both cases, there is a failure to boot up. In both cases, the end result is a kernel panic that prevents even installation of Linux, let alone anything to work with.
What CPU did you ask DOSBox-X to emulate?
Most Linux distributions I'm aware of tend to target the Pentium Pro (i686) and they won't run on Pentium and 486 systems.
I got DosBox to emulate 486, and I deliberately picked two variants of Linux that are known for working on 486.
I used this for a reference.
@Metalhead33 When I tested Gentoo's latest install media on 86Box, it wouldn't boot unless Pentium Pro processors or higher were used, even though the distro itself claims to support 486. I got this answer from their IRC channel.
@MoochMcGee Do they mean then that the packages are compatible with the 486? It might be possible to get it to boot if you replace the Linux kernel in the hard disk image with one recompiled for the 486.
I guess so.
CentOS 2 installer boots from floppy in lowres nofb mode, so theoretically it should be possible to run it at least from floppy. Won't test further though ) With enough RAM it even enters installer, but continuing would require ISO+HDD image mounted and stuff.
@ghost cool!
i got debian 2.0 and basiclinux working in dosbox-x but its only read-only
I am about to complete an installation for a 1998 version debian, hamm. get the iso here: https://mirror.debianforum.de/debian-iso-archive/hamm/i386/
I have almost zero reconfig from default for the current version of DosBox-X.
the same steps might help for other distros too.
mount c: d:\worksspace\dosbox-x
. add this to "autoexec.bat" section for ease of accessimgmake dbian.img -t hd_8gig # create a disk image, it will be fat32, we later format to ext2
imgmount 2 dbian.img # mount is as a raw drive
imgmount e debian_hamm.iso # mount CD image
e: # switch drive
cd install # and to install folder
boot.bat # run the boot file
during the installation, CD driver will be mounted at one of /dev/hdX
. try them one by one, you get "failed" messages, or a folder path so you know you found it. don't use /dev/hda
is it would be the hard disk image, not the CD. if you did so, reboot and restart.
after you succeed installing linux, reboot to DOS again, mount CD image and , from install folder, copy these files to C drive
loadlin.exe
, linux
(no extenson)then mount both disk images again (package installations will need CD) and run the following:
loadlin.exe linux root=/dev/hda1
The device path to CD, when installing packages, will possibly be the same as before. Package installation may take hours depending on your selections.
At the end, use the same command every time you want to start linux, or add it to autoexec.bat, so it will start immediately
It has been few hours I am working on this. It took this long because of mistakes I took lessons from:
EDIT: installation is fine. I just seem to messed up with packages. I tried to install everything, thus got error in few packages along with lots of configuration questions so took very long. I think X windowing works, I messed installing it as there are many managers, and the last one retained did not have mouse working, yet graphics mode seems to work. (not that I need a desktop).
addition: installation is fine. I just seem to messed up with packages. I tried to install everything, thus got error in few packages along with lots of configuration questions so took very long. I think X windowing works, I messed installing it as there are many managers, and the last one retained did not have mouse working, yet graphics mode seems to work. (not that I need a desktop).
Subbing because this is super neat. Keep at it hacker! \o/
Not sure if Dosbox-X ever intends to allow DosBox to boot into any system other than MS-DOS and Windows 9x, but I did some experimentation with attempting to boot Linux within DosBox, believe it or not.
Without further ado, I present the results:
slackware.conf
slackware.log
gentoo.conf
gentoo.log