Plain text version
Chapter 
: Compatability - does OpenDOS support:
4DOS?
Yes.
Boot managers?
Yes. The OS files are IBMBIO.COM and IBMDOS.COM if you need to know. Current advice (as always) is to back up your existing stuff before trying anything; this also applies to OpenDOS. One that has been mentioned is GRUB at http://www.uruk.org/grub/. Also note that OpenDOS currently needs to be installed in the primary partition of the first hard disk to work. See using GRUB for more information.
Booting from the second hard drive?
Nope. However, once the sources are released, check out the IBMBIO.COM sources. A simple fix should be possible.
DJGPP?
Yes, but you can't use EMM386's DPMI - it's buggy. Disable it and use cwsdpmi instead.
DPMI?
Yes, but it's buggy. Use cwsdpmi instead for DJGPP programming.
DPMI 1.0?
Nope. Very few things do. Yet...
DPMS?
Yes. (it's Dos Protected Mode Services, used by TSRs to reduce their conventional memory usage)
FAT32 partitions?
Nope. File system support is currently a hot topic on the mailing list, though, so we will see...
Loading high?
Yes. More than MS-DOS, too; there are reports of a 629K TPA. How? It uses the HMA as well as UMBs for loadhi. For more information about loading high, follow this link.
MSCDEX?
Yes, but it comes with NWCDEX which can load 100% into high memory. See NWCDEX for more information on NWCDEX.
Multi-config? (in config.sys)
In banging around the IBMBIO code, Gene discovered that it supports SWITCH, GOTO, GOSUB, and labels. Check DOSBOOK.EXE to find more info on it. IBMBIO will also process DCONFIG.SYS _before_ config.sys if it is present. OpenDOS se
ts the OS environment variable to OPENDOS and VER to 7 while processing autoexec.bat; you can use that to help keep the two straight.
Multi-processor machines?
Nope. OpenDOS can do multitasking and multithreading, but there is no multi-processor support. Yet.
NDOS?
Yes.
Netware with 802.3 packets?
Apparently not, as checksums are not supported. However, see http://www
.delorie.com/opendos/archives/browse.cgi?a=opendos&p=1997/01/29/14:56:10.
Norton Utilities 8?
Yes, but not under the multitasker. You might need patches from semantec's web site.
TCP/IP?
Yes, but the driver isn't ready.
Windows 3.1?
Yes. You need to install himem.sys before you can install windows, but you can remove himem.sys afterwards.
Windows 95?
Yes, but the long file names confuse chkdsk, so don't try it. You must install OpenDOS before Win95 in order to boot to "a previous version of dos"
Windows NT?
Yes. It is possible to make NT load OpenDOS from the boot manager. Using a disk editor, save a copy of your NT boot sector. Install OD as usual on the drive, then using the disk editor, write the boot sector to a file in the root directory called "bo
otsect.dos". Write the NT boot sector back into place, edit "boot.ini" to change the title from "MS-DOS" to "Caldera OpenDOS", and away you go. Not for the faint hearted.