Guides:MAME - Software - MS-DOS 6.22

Installing DOS 6.22 in MESS

Introduction

This guide will walk you through the process of getting MS-DOS running within the MAME ct486 machine. We'll cover off some of the specific tweaks required when installing DOS

For general information on the MESS project and how to use it including external references see the dedicated MESS Page

Prerequisites

• A CHD
• A copy of the MS-DOS 6.22 floppies.

Process

Having created a CHD to use you will now boot the ct486 driver with the hdd attached.

The ct486 driver doesn't have an auto configure HDD in the bios so you'll need to know your Cylinders, Heads and Sectors (CHS) values in relation to the CHD you are going to use. If you don't have the CHS information you can query the CHD image directly for this information, refer to the chdman Guide on how to do this.

Boot the ct486 machine with the hdd attached

$ ./mame64 ct486 -hard1 <chdname.chd>

On first boot you can expect the CMOS checksum to fail, the machine BIOS setup values will need to be entered.

Hit the F1 key on your keyboard to resume and enter the BIOS setup screen.

Under STANDARD CMOS SETUP configure the HDD and the FDD if not already configured

HDD (This is where you will need your CHS values from earlier)

Type: 47=USER TYPE
Cyln: <Cylinders>
Head: <Heads>
Sect: <Sectors>

It is not necessary to modify WPcom or LZone

FDD

Type: 1.44MB

Press ESC to exit this screen and select WRITE TO CMOS AND EXIT from the main menu, answer Y when prompted

This only needs to be completed the first time you boot the machine. MAME will create a nvram file on the hosts hard drive (not the CHD) under nvram/ct486 which will maintain the configured state between machine boots.

Shutdown the machine (close MAME) and restart the ct486 with the first floppy disk installed

$ ./mame64 ct486 -hard1 <chdname.chd> -flop1 <disk01.img>

The machine should begin to boot the MS-DOS setup you will known this because you will see "Starting MS-DOS" on the machine. If your machine appears to hang here see Troubleshooting -> Installation further down this page.

Continue through the standard setup as prompted, applying the defaults unless you have specific requirement for partitioning etc.

When prompted for the next disk press the Scroll Lock key to toggle to Partial Emulation mode and press TAB to enter the MAME UI. Scroll down to File Manager then select the floppy drive disk image, press Enter to browse for the next disk. Once the disk has been selected press TAB again close the MAME UI

If required interact with the machine as prompted so it checks for the newly inserted disk, e.g. press Enter

Once the setup complets the machine will prompt you and then reboot, power off the machine (close MAME) and start the machine without the disk image attached so it will boot from the drive

Troubleshooting

Installation

If your machine appears to hang at the "Starting MS-DOS" prompt.

Reboot the machine again and press F5 when you see the '"Starting MS-DOS" prompt to drop to a A:\> prompt.

When you reach the A:\> prompt type DIR to list the directory contents and look for SETUP.EXE

Run SETUP.EXE to begin the installation

A:\>SETUP.EXE

Follow the prompts as mentioned above.

For reference the md5 of the disks we use in this guide are

15e0439466f6e39a30cab8ac0d5a7942  MS-DOS 6.22 Disk 1 Setup.IMA
44701afcc03a2c3c9dc8b83506d3cb2f  MS-DOS 6.22 Disk 2.IMA
c41dca1ec654b231c97c576e05035b4b  MS-DOS 6.22 Disk 3.IMA
d6e7ccba2644bbeffd79c89e9b45c27c  MS-DOS 6.22 Supplemental Disk.IMA