part of The FreeDOS Project

How to install FreeDOS manually

For the rare times you need it, here's how to install FreeDOS manually.

The FreeDOS install process is very smooth and should accommodate most users. By responding to a few prompts, you can easily install FreeDOS on your system, whether that's on a virtual machine or on real hardware.

But if you have an "edge" case where you can't use the installer, you can instead install FreeDOS the "old school" way, entirely from the command line, without the compiler. In general, the steps are:

  1. Make a DOS partition with FDISK
  2. Create a DOS filesystem with FORMAT
  3. Make the system bootable with SYS
  4. Install the packages with UNZIP

Boot your system using the FreeDOS LiveCD, then follow these steps:

1. Make a DOS partition with FDISK

Exit the LiveCD to a DOS prompt. Use the FDISK fixed disk program to create a new DOS partition on the system, and mark it as Active. Type this command:

FDISK

After you've created the partition, you'll need to reboot the FreeDOS LiveCD on your computer. This is because FreeDOS (like any DOS) reads the partition information on the disk exactly once, at boot-time, so FreeDOS needs to reboot in order to recognize the new partition.

2. Create a DOS filesystem with FORMAT

After rebooting, exit the LiveCD to a DOS prompt. Use the FORMAT program to create a DOS filesystem on the new C: drive with this command:

FORMAT C:

You should see output from the FORMAT command that shows the new size of the DOS filesystem.

3. Make the system bootable with SYS

Now that you have a DOS filesystem, you need to make it bootable by copying over the "system" files. These are the FreeDOS kernel and FreeCOM shell (the COMMAND.COM program). Use the SYS command do do this for you:

SYS C:

If your system has a very odd disk geometry, you might need to force the kernel to use an old-style disk addressing method called "CHS" for cylinders, heads, and sectors. Modify your SYS command like this:

SYS C: /FORCE:CHS

4. Install the packages with UNZIP

If you want to install the rest of FreeDOS, you will need to do that entirely from the command line. FreeDOS uses zip files for its package file format. These zip files contain extra metadata that FDIMPLES uses to track which packages have been installed or removed. If you don't use FDIMPLES to install your system (if you install manually) then you'll lose this extra information.

The packages that make up the standard DOS environment are stored in the BASE directory under the PACKAGES directory on the LiveCD. Navigate to that directory, and use a FOR loop to unzip each zip package to your C: drive, like this:

CD PACKAGES
CD BASE
FOR %F IN (*.ZIP) TO UNZIP %F -d C:\FREEDOS

The -d (destination) option tells UNZIP where to extract the package. In this case, you can extract them to the FREEDOS directory on the C: drive.