FreeDOS stuff -- page last updated: January 19, 2009
(links in bold mean open source)
This page needs massive improvements and is still under construction! (Man, I suck ...)
News: FreeDOS News Archive | comp.os.msdos.djgpp | Flox's DR-DOS pages | BTTR Software Forum | OS News
RUFFIDEA (my mini FreeDOS floppy distro on Google Pages) -- last updated: September 15, 2008
Other (slightly older) FreeDOS distros
Joris made an 8086 compatible variant of the updated first diskette of Eric's 1.0 three diskette distro.
Also check out Balder (intended to
replace ODIN, whose version using ye olde FreeDOS beta9r2 in various sizes can still be downloaded here). Or get an official FreeDOS 1.0++ .ISO to burn to CD-R ( readme.txt ). N.B. I also have a rough list of updated packages since last year's FreeDOS 1.0 release: FDPKGNEW.TXT (as of Aug. 11), if you're curious.
Add DOS to preinstalled Windows
- the Partition Resizer (no srcs) DOS tool can be used for FAT partitions non-destructively
- You can resize NTFS under XP with a GParted liveCD from here.
- or try understanding the complete Vista/XP/Linux dual-booting guide and figure it out (sorry!)
- there's also EasyBCD 1.7 for Vista boot config setup
- Vista's DISKPART util can shrink NTFS, supposedly
- another seemingly-good configless boot loader intended to replace Lilo and Loadlin is Gujin, which auto-finds Linux kernels and bootable partitions w/ gfx menu (else just use GRUB4DOS; see its tutorial)
- DOS/Win9x users can use MetaKern, BOOTMGR, or Smart Boot Manager (which can boot CDs w/o "El Torito" BIOS support ??)
- also try PLoP Bootmanager (boot CD or USB w/o BIOS support)
- (these are all mostly untested by me, so good luck!!)
Misc. DOS-related stuff
Bored? Try some FREEWARE games for DOS!
- Star Tetris 2 (mouse, music, save/load, preview, multiple levels + difficulty, non-standard pieces, 386 + 387 FPU / VGA)
- Mine Mayhem 2.90 (greatly improved minesweeper for DOS; unfinished Win32 port now available)
- Ken's Labyrinth full (3D FPS a la Doom)
- Freedoom 0.6.2 (all new levels and gfx under BSD-ish license; needs 20+ MB RAM, at least w/ Doom Legacy so set DOSBOX.CONF accordingly)
- Xquest 2 (286, VGA?)
- Rose_SWE's Chess Lite 1.4.1 (286 w/ FPU)
- PSR Invaders 1.1 (extra tiny but fun, 8086 / VGA but < 486 is too slow)
- Invaders 1978 v02 (more authentic look and feel, XPL0 conversion also exists; 8086?, VGA)
- Boboli final (interesting Gauntlet-ish game, 586?) -- pic1, pic2
- Galactic Conquest 8.0 beta 1 (nice turn-based strategy space war game w/ modified ASCII graphics, 286 + VGA)
- Lacewing 1.10 ("arcade-style shoot-em-up", like a mix between Spacewar + Centipede)
- Dungeon Crawl 4.0.0 beta 26 (386+; view its website or download w/ C++ srcs this excellent ASCII roguelike; also see an active variant Stone Soup 0.4.4, and optionally play via telnet on crawl.akrasiac.org)
- SLASH 'EM 0.0.7E7F2 (386+; popular 32-bit NetHack fork, uses tiled gfx via Allegro; needs "lh cwsdpmi -x" first in pure DOS or DOSBox else crashes)
- old NetHack 3.3.1 (old / final? 16-bit realmode version of NetHack; get latest here)
- ADOM 1.1.1 (very in-depth ASCII roguelike, needs 386 + probably DJGPP's FPU emulation; beward its old CWSDPMI!)
- Ragnarok 2.5 full (nice graphical Norse mythology-based roguelike using mouse or keyboard movement; VGA, 386+)
- Telengard 5.04 full (old-fashioned dungeon explorer RPG; CGA, 8086?)
- Cash Invaders 1.1 (nice shooter w/ variety of levels and powerups, < 586 is too slow)
- Lure of the Temptress full (adventure game a la King's Quest, 486?; also check out their Beneath a Steel Sky)
- BioMenace full + bugfix patch (286, EGA)
- Major Stryker full (286, EGA)
- Alien Carnage full++ (aka, Halloween Harry; 286, VGA)
- Jetpack, Squarez Deluxe full (8086, MCGA??)
- Llamatron, Revenge of the Mutant Camels full (8086, EGA or VGA)
- Elder Scrolls: Arena full (386/25, 4 MB RAM, VGA, mouse, 25 MB HD free; runs fine in DOSBox)
- Inner Worlds (side-scrolling arcade-ish game, 486 + VGA + 8 MB RAM + 20 MB free HD; if trouble, either use SETUP to disable soundcard *and* unset BLASTER or try a different memory manager, e.g. FDXMS instead of JEMMEX or even clean boot; uses MOSS DOS extender, see its home or discussion)
Compilers? Interpreters? Assemblers? Debuggers? We got 'em!
- DJGPP 2.04 beta (GCC/G++ 4.3.2) -- see online FAQ or comp.os.msdos.djgpp for more info (ports, patches, news, etc.)
- Perl 5.8.8 (the duct tape of the Internet, very beloved by some for its awesome power)
- Ruby 1.8.4 (supposedly "a better Perl", built-in regex, and everything is an object)
- PythonD 2.4.2 Release 1.0 (yet another popular, "easy-to-use" scripting lang)
- CC386 3.74 (discontinued, 32-bit DOS/Win32 C compiler, only 2 MB download!, many included DOS extenders such as HX, has NASM backend, nice VALX linker, InfoPad (alpha), improved DOS installer)
- XPL0 2.6 ("less cryptic than C, less formal than Pascal, more powerful than BASIC")
- Alice Pascal (Pascal interpreter w/ "syntax-directed" editor; also has low-mem version)
- MinForth (nice portable Forth focused on simplicity and stability; also see the book Starting Forth online)
- GNU Forth 0.5.0 (a nice "portable, fast" ANSI Forth w/ input completion and history, manual / tutorial, etc.)
- 4tH 3.5c rel.3 (another portable Forth-ish variant, very interesting, many examples)
- DX Forth 3.80 (another nice 16-bit Forth w/ simple multitasking)
- OpenWatcom/WASM 1.8 RC2 (or only get what .ZIPs from 1.7a for parts you need from here; also see Japheth's JWasm fork)
- Desmet C 3.1n (small C compiler w/ editor, kinda old but still useful)
- Small C 2.2.117 (the original "small" C subset compiler w/ asm, textwin lib, etc.)
- Sphinx C-- 0.239b26 / Apr. 27 (small but interesting C / ASM hybrid language; only use under EMM386 in FreeDOS or restub! (i.e. ZRDX is buggy))
- SmallBASIC 0.8.1 ("full-featured, easy to use", interpreted)
- XST Basic 1.91 (based on AMOS/STOS, nice examples)
- BASM286 6.5 (converts a BASIC subset to x86 asm using ArrowASM, with helptext and examples)
- Moonrock 0.50 (semi-open source .BAS to .ASM subset compiler using ArrowASM, very interesting)
- Context 1.3 / 2.01 (interesting mini C-ish compiler targeting DOS / Win32 / Linux)
- ML1 11/20/2007 (script driven macro cross compiler)
- GRDB 9.4 (discontinued, 386+ MMX debugger)
- Insight 1.24 (8086 debugger w/ 486 disasm)
- FreeBASIC (FBC) 0.20.0b (also get fbhelp 0.8b)
- FreePascal (FPC) 2.2.2
- GNU Pascal (GPC) 20060325 (GCC 3.4.4)
- Prainf***ed (PFD) 1.1.0 (841-byte, 8086-compatible, DOS Brainf***-to-.COM compiler!)
- FASMD 1.67.29 (x86-64 assembler [Intel/AMD] + syntax-highlighting DOS IDE in one .EXE, 386+; also excellent online forum, where I found ...)
- YASM 0.7.2 (x86-64 assembler, mostly compatible w/ NASM, GAS, and experimental TASM frontend; or get latest snapshots' .EXEs or .C srcs)
- NASM 2.05.01 (get latest srcs or .EXEs for this popular x86 assembler; now w/ x86-64 support)
- Octasm 0.169 (SSE3, unique / powerful but very cool, flat bin and debug map output only, reads subset of ELF reloc; needs 486 DX, works in latest DOSBox but hates normal DOS EMM386s, apparently)
- Wolfware (WASM) 2.23 (286 only but tiny)
- Dev86DOS/BCC 0.16.2 (16-bit, small-model K&R-ish C compiler)
- 386SWAT 6.06 (386+ MMX/SSE debugger for DOS and Win98 or lower only)
- NewBasic (NBASM32) 00.26.17
- Lazy (LZASM) 0.56 (SSE4, compatible w/ TASM Ideal mode only!)
- Arrowsoft 2.00c (286 only but MASM 3.0 compatible)
- Turbo C 2.01 (also see Turbo C++ 1.01 and Turbo Pascal 5.5 and even get TASM32 5.3 from Win32's Turbo C++ 2006 Explorer)
- Micro C 3.23 (small subset C compiler, not for average use, meant for extra small/embedded apps; version from demo sfx, w/o examples or src, is freeware)
Textfiles / References
- (todo ...)
Sound / Audio software
- Mpxplay 1.56 beta 2 / July 18, 2008 (DOS .MP3, .MP2, .OGG, .WV, .WMA, .AAC, .AC3, FLAC etc. player, even AC97/SB Live! cards natively w/o emulation drivers, needs very fast 486 DX4/100)
- OpenCubicPlayer 2.6.0 pre6 (.669, .AMS, .MXM, .UXM, .MDL, .IT, .OKT, .PTM, .ULT, .WOW, .DMF, .XM, .S3M, .MOD, .MP3, .MID; can also output to .WAV)
- PacePlayer 2.0 beta (gfx viewer / sound player: .MOD, .XM, .STM, .S3M, .MTM, .ULT, .MP3, .MID, .VOC, .WAV; needs 486 DX?)
- OGGENC / OGGDEC / OGGINFO / VCOMMENT / VCUT 1.01 (.OGG sound utils, src available; see free software song)
- SoX 12.18.2 (cmdline converter between audio formats)
- Dr. Track 1.45 (.MOD music creator/editor/player, 286/EMS)
- Scream Tracker 3.21 (the classic freeware .MOD/.S3M tracker for DOS, 386/EMS)
- Impulse Tracker 2.14 patch #5 (the newer "classic" .S3M/.XM/.IT freeware tracker for DOS)
- LMP 0.9 (DOS .MOD/.S3M/.IT/.XM/.MTM/.PTM player only for SB Live! w/o drivers; 386, EGA)
- SJGPlay 1.29 (karaoke "lyric-playback" CD player, editable; Windows versions exist)
Other stuff I like a lot
- TDE 5.1v (my favorite text editor; wimpy 16-bit or better 32-bit DOS versions, public domain; Win32 binary included, also compiles on Linux w/ Ncurses)
- VILE 9.7 (excellent 32-bit vi, very powerful and useful; see recent changes here or try beta i18n compile of 9.7g here)
- VIM 7.2 (full 32-bit DOS version, use older 7.1 for 16-bit; famous text editor, "VI iMproved")
- Exuberant Ctags 5.7 (source code tags for many many languages, excellent!; works with VIM, VILE, JED, Mined, SETEDIT; recompile with DJGPP or just use HX w/ default Win32 .EXE)
- FTE V0.50.1-cvs (nice folding text editor w/ tag support, highlight, etc.)
- Bloček 1.33b (gfx Unicode text editor / picture viewer for DOS; needs mouse)
- Mined 2000.14 (non-gfx, console Unicode text editor for DOS, *nix, etc.)
- FIGlet 2.2.2 (like *nix banner but much improved w/ many fonts)
- UPX 3.03 (.com / .exe / .sys packer; see here for how to compile UPX-UCL)
- 624 1.1 (semi-open source packer for .COMs < 20-25k, and its < 2k !!)
- HX DOS Extender 2.14 / 2.15 WIP (DPMI servers, partial Win32 emulation in DOS, etc.)
- AdvanceComp 1.15 (recompresses .ZIP, .GZ, .MNG, .PNG to smaller sizes via improved Deflate based on 7-Zip)
- Arachne v195;GPL (gfx web browser, e-mail, news, telnet -- now at SourceForge; good luck configuring!!!)
- DOSLynx 2.82rel.1 (textmode web browser, 386+; see Bobcat for 8086)
- p7zip 4.61 (7-Zip, DJGPP cmdline build; or use Win32's 7ZA.EXE 4.64 + HXRT; 386+)
- 4DOS 7.99 (improved alternative to COMMAND.COM w/ massive help info and LFN support if available)
- Odi's LFN Tools 1.79 (directly access LFN files on FAT fs in pure DOS w/o fancy drivers like DOSLFN 0.40e)
- LTOOLS 6.12 (access files on a Linux ext2 / ext3 / ReiserFS partitions from DOS/Windows)
- RESTORE 6.3 (better RESTORE than MS-DOS or PC-DOS w/ .ASM src, for non-military use only)
- TestDisk 6.10 (recover lost partitions and/or make non-booting disks bootable again)
- Toddy 6.15 (cmdline history editor a la DOSKEY but w/ tab completion, 8086?; not for use in conjunction w/ 4DOS or standard FreeCOM)
- WDOSX 0.97 (excellent DOS extender, write DPMI apps w/ NASM or restub DJGPP, Borland C 5.x Win32, Watcom/LE stuff)
- DOS/32A 9.1.2 (nice Watcom/LE extender, can handle > 512 MB RAM; also much smaller DOS4GW drop-in replacement w/o swapping; can be a built-in or external .EXE)
- D3X 0.90.h (yet another DPMI extender for DJGPP, Watcom32, assembly; builds with NASM)
- WarpLink 2.70 (16-bit DOS .OBJ linker; also home to the Causeway DOS extender)
- ObjConv 2.03 (convert between COFF, ELF, OMF/OBJ, Mach-O; needs Japheth's HX to run in pure DOS else use Japheth's older 2.02 DOS port)
- BIEW 5.7.2 (x86-64 interactive hex editor, to-file disassembler, viewer, etc.)
- HTE 0.7.5 (last DOS/DJGPP port of this hex editor / .EXE header viewer; newer versions exist for Win32 and may? work under HX)
- QView 2.91 (386+ DOS hex editor w/ 486? disasm view)
- Info-ZIP (zip 3.0, unzip 5.52; see their SourceForge site for newer betas; see here for my ZIP 3.0 pre-compiled DOS binaries)
- LPAQ1v2 or LPAQ6 (download "lite PAQ" for DOS: includes .EXE(s) .CPP src + Win32 .EXE(s); also see its homepage)
- GZip 1.3.12 (download the standard Deflate compressor, 386+; also see its official homepage for the 16-bit version)
- Bzip2 1.0.5 (download BWT compressor, better than GZip for .TXT, 386+; also see its official homepage for news, but no 16-bit binary ever, probably)
- UnRAR 3.80.5 (you may need this if you don't already have it)
- GFX2 (nice 256-color paint alternative; Win32 version also available)
- VGAPaint 386 5.073 (Deluxe Paint IV clone)
- xgrep 1.03 (less than 4k, excellent unless you need regex filename globbing or Perl regex: see GNU grep 2.5.3 r3)
- xWCopy 0.8.1b (tiny 8086+ LFN-aware DOS XCOPY w/ NASM src)
- DosZip 1.30 (small LFN-aware DOS file manager w/ built-in unzip; NC clone)
- IDARC 2.15.03 (archive identifier, also available in German)
- ARCLDS 0.94.3 (archive lister: ACE, ARC, ARJ, CAB, DWC, HA, HAP, HPK, HYP, LIM, LHA/LZH, PAK, RAR, SQZ, YAC, ZIP, ZOO)
- LGFV 2.11 (archive lister: same as above plus BOA, LBR, LZO, X, Q, QFC, SKY, SWG, TAR)
- SH Archive Identifier 2.70 (also similarly useful w/ wildcard support)
- UHarc 0.6b (very VERY good archiver / compressor, usually as good or better than most high-end compressors while being much faster)
- HIEW 6.50 (hex editor w/ disasm view, last free DOS version)
- Necromancer's DOS Navigator 2.31.2699 / Jan. 4, 2009 (easily the most powerful DOS file manager, and the only fork still updated from (the mostly outdated) 16-bit DN151 although DN/2 got a DPMI version fairly recently too)
- IDA Free -- Interactive Disassembler 3.7 (latest?? DOS version; or get the newer IDA Free 4.9 for Win32)
- LXPIC 7.3 (20k .COM shows .BMP, .JPG, .PCX, .GIF in only 64k of mem. on 8088 CGA up to 2048x1536 VESA, with slideshow, thumbnails, zoom)
- Pictview 1.94.3 (another excellent DOS picture viewer w/ many many formats supported, e.g. .PNG, .ICO, .FLI, .LBM, .TGA, .PBM, animated .GIFs)
- Display 1.90a-t5 (another really really robust image viewer, shell, w/ mini-preview, convert, etc; DJGPP v2 version)
- MPC 2.4 (multi precision algebraic calculator; only partially open-sourced: MPCALC unit)
P.S. DOSBox 0.72 can negate the bad DOS gaming capability of your Windows OS (esp. Vista), if you want to experience true retro bliss. Otherwise, try QEMU 0.9.1 or BOCHS 2.3.7. Also, *nix users may appreciate using DOSEMU 1.4.0.
Pocket PC / handheld users may wish to try the shareware PocketDOS 1.12.2 (for 16-bit 80186 stuff, anyways; see their screenshots)
You may also want to try Joris' Retro 0.4 (tiny 8086 emulator in Java, runs DOS or Minix or even Windows 2.0). His FreeDOS floppy image files are MUCH more 8086-compatible than any of mine so far. Or try JPC (another Java emulator, more complete but slower, which can run more recent DOS games within your web browser).
For older computers, Damn Small Linux (aka, DSL) 3.4.12 / 4.4.10 is "only" (heh) a 50 MB .ISO download but bootable and nicely extensible with optional packages (e.g. DOSBox 0.63, Wine 0.9.22, GCC/G++ 3.3.4). You can even use it in Windows with QEMU (see their "embedded" download)! Another good, "relatively" small (< 100 MB) GNU/Linux distro was PuppyLinux when it was 2.16, but currently is 4.1.2 (2.6.x kernel; Flash/YouTube works out of the box) but sadly now needs 128 MB RAM or more. Yet another lite distro for older computers (for use with less than 32 MB RAM, unlike Puppy) was DeLi Linux 0.7.2 (2.4.x kernel, see forum for unofficial liveCD), which had the latest DOSEMU as a simple add-on package. Unfortunately, DeLi 0.8.0 added Unicode and bloated up too big (e.g. P2 w/ 64 MB minimum now). Or try dyne:bolic, intended to run on P1/MMX + 64 MB RAM. Or try the latest / last ZipSlack (2.4.x kernel, UMSDOS / Slackware 11.0), which optionally boots from DOS (like DOS-Minix or OctaOS). For CLI-only fans (w00t!), try INX.
Oh, and there's a also tiny gfx www (links via SVGALIB, links_text)/IRC (rhapsody)/telnet two-floppy Linux distro called BlueFlops 2.0.15 (newer 2.6.18 Linux kernel than the outdated, overformatted, single-floppy 2.2.20ext3 tomsrtbt, which only has wget/telnet only), at least. Or if you're really minimalistic, try BasicLinux 3.50 (2.2.x kernel, old libc5, compatible with Slackware 4.0) which uses 20 MB of space on top of your FAT partition (UMSDOS).
If you want a "100% free/libre" GNU/Linux distro (liveCD), try gNewSense 2.1.
Whatever floats your boat. Oh, and Viva la DOS! :-)