corbindavenport / cobalt Goto Github PK

The current installer can format disks and copy a core DOS system, but more features should be implemented.

• Avoid wiping target drive by default
• Install core utilities to C:\SYSTEM directory (#1)
• Detect existing DOS systems and installing over them (keep the kernel, replace everything else)
• Detect virtual machines and show tips (e.g. changing sound card on VirtualBox)
• Create separate USB installation image that doesn't rely on floppy emulation (maybe using GRUB2?)

Are you able to archive this old repo of cobalt or change the readme to let people know this version exist?
https://github.com/Cobalt-OS/Cobalt
I think websites like ArchiveOS links to the old one, so it would be cool for the people to know this is still getting updated.

The installer doesn't work on PCs without a CD drive.

After USB installing is implemented (#7), it shouldn't be too much extra work to generate hard disk images that have a working Cobalt system (just extracting the contents of system.zip to the image). That could then be used to generate a VirtualBox appliance and a VM file for UTM.

This can happen once #3 is done.

The initial set of packages to include in Cobalt (minus whatever gets picked for #2), I'll check these off as they are properly configured:

• base/append
• base/assign
• base/attrib
• base/chkdsk
• base/choice
• base/comp
• base/ctmouse
• base/defrag
• base/diskcopy
• base/display
• base/fc
• base/fdapm
• base/fdisk
• base/fdxms
• base/find
• base/format
• base/jemm386
• base/keyb
• base/keyb_lay
• base/label
• base/mem
• base/mode
• base/print
• base/shsucdx
• base/undelete
• base/unformat
• base/xcopy

The installer from the old Cobalt OS: https://github.com/Cobalt-OS/Cobalt/blob/master/CDROOT/COBALT/SETUP.BAT

I'm not actually sure where SUSCR came from, so text can just be rendered on a blank background.

The c:\system directory is blank with install CDs generated from GitHub Actions. I see this error in the results:

mv: cannot move '/home/runner/work/cobalt/cobalt/tmp/BIN' to '/home/runner/work/cobalt/cobalt/sysroot/system/bin': No such file or directory

It would be neat if Cobalt could run on top of other DOS kernels in addition to FreeDOS, like MS-DOS or DR-DOS, for edge cases where FreeDOS might not be ideal. Ideally, Cobalt would be available in multiple editions, or the installer would ask the user for which system to use.

Distribution will be the tricky part here, because MS-DOS files can't be included in the repository. Maybe a desktop application for patching the installer (which could download the system files from elsewhere) would work or something.

At a minimum, updating the installer to allow overwriting existing DOS installs (#7) would allow someone to install another DOS first, and then run the Cobalt installer after that.

https://www.4dos.info/v4dos.htm#751

Another shell might also work better: https://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/repositories/1.3/pkg-html/group-apps.html

The old Cobalt OS used PCICFG.EXE to detect VirtualBox during installation, and added a text file to the C drive as a variable: RBPCI\PCICFG.EXE -t *|FIND.EXE "DeviceID BEEF" > nul

Then it initialized an internet connection in AUTOEXEC.BAT:

if exist \SYSTEM\VBOX.TXT goto vbox

...

:vbox
LH \SYSTEM\BIN\PCNTPK INT=0x60
SET MTCPCFG=\SYSTEM\NET\MTCPCFG.TXT
LH \SYSTEM\BIN\DHCP
if exist \WINDOWS\SYSTEM\DOSX.EXE goto windowsinfo
if exist \SYSTEM\DOSSHELL.EXE goto desktop
goto end

It would be cool to include the version numbers of all included packages in the release notes for each version. Not sure yet what is the best way to do this semi-automatically, but packages from iBiblio have it on a line in /APPINFO/X.LSM.

https://git.javispedro.com/cgit/vbados.git/about/#vbmouseexe-dos-mouse-driver

This would need a detection mechanism in the installer, where VMs get VBMouse, and other systems get CuteMouse.