How to install FreeDOS on a Raspberry Pi

Run FreeDOS in a "window" on your Raspberry Pi.

FreeDOS (like any DOS) requires an Intel-compatible CPU and a BIOS in order to function. DOS was created for this combination of hardware, and so were the countless applications written for DOS in the 1980s and 1990s. Without an Intel-compatible CPU or working BIOS, DOS and DOS applications would not work. For example, many DOS applications use the BIOS to read keyboard input, such as which key was pressed.

As a result, it's impossible to "rewrite" FreeDOS to support some other hardware system, like the Raspberry Pi. The Raspberry Pi uses an ARM CPU (a completely different architecture that is not Intel-compatible) and does not provide a BIOS.

However, you can install FreeDOS on a Raspberry Pi using a virtual machine so you can boot FreeDOS in a "window" on your Raspberry Pi desktop system.

See the instructions for qemu.md. The steps will be the same on Raspberry Pi, but without the -enable-kvm option.