DOS ain't dead - Old NX-DOS boot help request

nico7550

18.07.2023, 23:47

Old NX-DOS boot help request (Miscellaneous)

Hi,

I like to test old kernel and I want to try NX-DOS, if someone can take a little time to have a look please?

It's from 2015 and the site is shutdown for some years...
https://web.archive.org/web/20150814042113/https://sourceforge.net/projects/nxdos/

But I cannot manage to build a valid boot disk.
First the batch file included has a naming error for the included format (exe instaed of com) tools but once build it cannot boot.

I notice that the boot segment refer to msdos.sys (!) and I cannot manage to fix it (blank msdos.sys file or hex modify the boot file didn't help).

Here is a mirror on uptobox of the latest binary (but I cannot remenber where I found it !)
nxdos-bin-i486-0.9.9.8.5.zip

The olde site show 2 IMG files but I cannot find them anywhere...
nxdos-11082012.img
nxdos-freedos-mod-0.9.6.1-img-i386-20080920.IMG

Thanks for your help

Nico

glennmcc

North Jackson, Ohio (USA),
19.07.2023, 20:07
(edited by glennmcc, 19.07.2023, 22:28)

@ nico7550

Old NX-DOS boot help request

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> Hi,
>
> nxdos-bin-i486-0.9.9.8.5.zip
>

Attempting to download that ZIP.....

This page is not allowed in the US

We're sorry but it appears your IP comes from the US so you're not allowed to download or stream.

If you have a premium account, please login to remove the limitation.

________

OK, got it now by using a proxy server in Columbia.

____________

Same situation as you ran into.

Have now tried several different things and still can't get the resulting diskette to boot.

______________

Well, according to the brief description by the author,
it does not even have a working FAT file system.

https://www.kicktraq.com/projects/124579097/nxdos/

---
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http://glennmcc.org/

Oso2k 20.07.2023, 05:10 @ nico7550	Old NX-DOS boot help request Post reply
	Maybe reach out to Chris Evans, the author. He was active handful of years ago but it's been a while since I've seen him on various lists.

jadoxa Queensland, Australia, 20.07.2023, 07:10 @ nico7550	Old NX-DOS boot help request Post reply
	> I notice that the boot segment refer to msdos.sys (!) and I cannot manage > to fix it (blank msdos.sys file or hex modify the boot file didn't help). The entry for msdos.sys must immediately follow the entry for nxbio.sys. That will stop the non-system disk message, but it still fails to boot. Tried various things, but unless you can get the source I think it's a lost cause.

nico7550 20.07.2023, 07:24 @ jadoxa	Old NX-DOS boot help request Post reply
	Thanks for your help to all and the time you take

Oso2k 25.07.2023, 04:05 @ nico7550	Old NX-DOS boot help request Post reply
	> Thanks for your help to all and the time you take Christopher Evans popped up recently. His new website seems to be http://icctechconsult.com/ With an email address of aaxiomfinity-at-gmail-com

nico7550 26.07.2023, 13:02 @ Oso2k	Old NX-DOS boot help request Post reply
	> > Thanks for your help to all and the time you take > > Christopher Evans popped up recently. His new website seems to be > http://icctechconsult.com/ > > With an email address of aaxiomfinity-at-gmail-com Thanks for the info, I send him a help request

nico7550 26.07.2023, 21:03 @ nico7550	Old NX-DOS boot help request Post reply
	Christopher Evans reply to me and give a link to the latest source and binary, I'm digging. I have a correct bootsector file but latest kernel hang/halt/crash all time, will report with more soon

CandyMan 01.08.2023, 10:27 @ nico7550	Old NX-DOS boot help request Post reply
	> Christopher Evans reply to me and give a link to the latest source and > binary, I'm digging. > > I have a correct bootsector file but latest kernel hang/halt/crash all > time, will report with more soon Could you provide a link to the sources and binaries? Can I help? Here is the corrected MS.COM https://megawrzuta.pl/download/fea0b7cf5e1ed791143d5d427a928977.html

nico7550

01.08.2023, 22:54

@ CandyMan

Old NX-DOS boot help request

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first thanks for the new ms version, will test it very soon (I manage to add Paragon DOS kernel to my boot disk (now 18 kernels in the same 1.44 disk) so I have time now).

Second, I still have your EDR dos kernel to test, it's the next one i my list

third, here is the link for the archive Christopher Evans share with me (107Mo): https://megawrzuta.pl/download/5e7be61539332c715de2110a16b1ddd9.html
I only spend a few hours for now and I just dig into it. Even if I manage to boot the latest kernel, it crash for me, but some previous version works (see bin\img folder), will give more time after EDR dos. (here is a smaller archive without the archive folder (5Mo): https://megawrzuta.pl/download/a16db70fd615b106404d04488b05a7b6.html )

CandyMan

02.08.2023, 12:12

@ nico7550

Old NX-DOS boot help request

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I tested various disk images that I found in the archive you posted. The first two after booting test COM and LPT ports (which I no longer have) displaying terrible messages in the form of a string of numbers. Then the system freezes. Another after booting displays "SYSTEM HALTED" and waits for [R]estart to be pressed. The system in the last image boots up fine and waits for a command to be entered (only a few commands are available) after which it hangs because there is a video memory address in the stack that it jumps to after executing the RET instruction. I managed to fix it, but I can't tell if it will work. I used my debugger (Dark Debugger) to trace the boot process. I am sending you images of disks that work relatively well for me. IMHO the NX-DOS system is very unstable and there is nothing to play with it. Also, it doesn't (probably) support FAT32 drives.

Here are my files:
https://megawrzuta.pl/download/f961a24e3f8e0381789fe33595de0fb6.html

nico7550 02.08.2023, 12:55 @ CandyMan	Old NX-DOS boot help request Post reply
	Thanks, that the conclusion for it, it's sad because Alexander seems to have spend a lot of time on it