DOS ain't dead - Optimisation of freedos boot

Damien

22.02.2014, 11:28

Optimisation of freedos boot (Users)

Hi all,

Is it possible to change something in the dos boot process, between end of bios setup and beginning of config.sys / autoexec.bat?

At the present time I am using FreeDos. It boots quite fast but I would like to delete all the unnecessary stuff. For example at the present time I have a screen which wait for me to press F5 or F8 (I think it asks me if I want to run config.sys/autoexec.bat or not).

In other words, during the boot process, I would like to go as fast as possible to the autoexec.bat (or fdauto.bat).

How can I do that?

Thanks

tom

Germany (West),
22.02.2014, 16:58

@ Damien

Optimisation of freedos boot

Post reply

> Hi all,
>
> Is it possible to change something in the dos boot process, between end of
> bios setup and beginning of config.sys / autoexec.bat?
>
> At the present time I am using FreeDos. It boots quite fast but I would
> like to delete all the unnecessary stuff. For example at the present time I
> have a screen which wait for me to press F5 or F8 (I think it asks me if I
> want to run config.sys/autoexec.bat or not).
>
> In other words, during the boot process, I would like to go as fast as
> possible to the autoexec.bat (or fdauto.bat).

all DOS'es should support

[CONFIG.SYS]
SWITCHES=/N (disable keyboard processing for F5/F8)

or

SWITCHES=/F (set time for keyboard processing to 0)

for FreeDOS, additionally

sys config SKIPCONFIGSECONDS=0

patches kernel.sys for 0 seconds to wait for F5/F8

>
> How can I do that?
>
> Thanks

Damien 23.02.2014, 19:17 @ tom	Optimisation of freedos boot Post reply
	Thank you, indeed the SWITCHES command works fine. > > [CONFIG.SYS] > SWITCHES=/N (disable keyboard processing for F5/F8) > > or > > SWITCHES=/F (set time for keyboard processing to 0) > > for FreeDOS, additionally > > sys config SKIPCONFIGSECONDS=0 > > patches kernel.sys for 0 seconds to wait for F5/F8 >

Arjay

25.02.2014, 23:29

@ Damien

Optimisation of freedos boot

Post reply

> Thank you, indeed the SWITCHES command works fine.
Depending on what you are doing then if only running a single EXE or COM program is required without needing BATch files. Then a simple trick is just to rename the single program to COMMAND.COM If the replacement COMMAND.COM supports the running of an external program than you can still drop to a command shell by running it, e.g. rename the original COMMAND.COM to FREECOM.COM

Concerning FreeCOM in other situations worth also referring to this page:
http://www.freedos.org/freecom/