Progress news

We have a preliminary, but working, support for VM86, to run legacy DOS applications, most notably real mode stubs that start protected mode applications. This allows to run DOS protected mode applications without special modifications, for example we have managed to run the Mpxplay MP3 player. We have a new, improved, FAT driver, ATAPI CD-ROM and ISO 9660 file system drivers to access compact discs (although with some limitations), the keyboard driver has been improved to support keymaps and the kernel includes some support for processes. We plan to release our 0.0.6 alpha before the end of the year. That would be likely the last 0.0.x series, as deep rearrangement is in progress in a separate branch: using a new libc for the kernel, new memory management code, new low-level kernel code, better modularity and of course better support for applications.

Salvo Isaja - 2005-12-02

Source code rearrangement

The drivers CVS module and the drivers directory of the fd32 CVS module have been merged. Now there is a single modules directory in the fd32 CVS module, containing all the FreeDOS-32 modules and drivers. As a result, the most typical download would require just the fd32 CVS module, besides OSLib. The "How to compile FreeDOS-32" and "How to get the source code from CVS" documents have been updated to reflect the change.

Salvo Isaja - 2005-06-23

FreeDOS-32 release 0.0.5

The 0.0.5 alpha release is available for download, featuring improved support for applications, a new ATA driver and some internal rearrangements. Details about the release can be found in the release info page.

Salvo Isaja - 2005-06-01

FreeDOS-32 release 0.0.4

A new alpha release of FreeDOS-32 is available through the SourceForge.net file release system. Please refer to the downloads page and the release info page.

Salvo Isaja - 2005-03-19

Source code rearrangement

The devel CVS branch has been finally mirrored to the main branch and closed. The development is now carried on in the main branch again. The "FAQ", "How to compile FreeDOS-32" and "How to get the source code from CVS" documents have been updated to reflect the change, as well as to include instructions to use the MinGW compiler.

Salvo Isaja - 2005-02-14

Draw a sloth for the new site

Wanna help? Can you draw? Great! The new web site needs a new drawing of our mascot, that is a three-toed sloth, in the top-left corner, in the blue bar near to the "FreeDOS-32" logo. Due to the space limit it should be nice but basic, almost iconic. Feel free to send your drawings to Salvo (larger, to be resized, SVG vector image preferred). An "art" section will be opened on the site showing all the drawings.

Salvo Isaja - 2005-01-12

FreeDOS-32 release 0.0.3

I put on the sf project page a new binary release: it is just a snapshot from the head of the devel branch. It is important that as many people as possible test it either on real hardware and on emulators, and report the problems that they encounter.

Update: see the release info page for known issues about this release.

Luca Abeni - 2004-12-10

The LEAN File System

A first generic (not strictly FD32-related) implementation of the LEAN file system is available through the leanfs CVS module. Documentation for the LEAN file system is available here.

Salvo Isaja - 2004-11-30

Progress news

Luca's wrapper to run regular DJGPP executables seems to work properly. Besides porting Python to FD32, Hanzac has improved the keyboard driver. I am reorganizing the file system to make it more modular, and I'm working on a new file system, called the LEAN file system, that aims to be a free replacement of FAT. Expect also a new version of the site (hopefully more usable) in the near future.

Salvo Isaja - 2004-11-19

Some more bugs have been fixed

I recently fixed some bugs in the devel branch: - biosdisk is working again (it was not able to access the hard disk) - the floppy light now turns off correctly - the wrapper is not crashing anymore. The only bug that I am currently aware of is the infamous rombios panic under bochs. I really don't know what can cause it... However, nothing similar happens on real hardware, hence it might be a bug in bochs or in the bochs bios.

Luca Abeni - 2004-05-19

Serial mouse driver

A first version of the Serial mouse driver can be found in the drivers module of the main branch of our CVS. It supports MS (2-buttons) and Mouse System protocols, and should suppot (but I've not tested them yet) 3-buttons and mouse wheel protocols. Only one mouse on COM1 works at present. Comments are welcome.

Salvo Isaja - 2004-04-30

Win32 executables and current functionality

There are some improvements in the devel CVS branch. We have a basic win32 support!!! Thanks to Hanzac Chen, that developed a new PE parser and a "minimalistic mscrt", FD/32 can execute a win32 "hello world" program! Summing up, FD/32 can currently: - run DPMI programs compiled with DJGPP, if they are linked at a proper address - boot our command.exe - run simple win32 programs - run simple unmodified DJGPP programs, linked at their original address (this can sometime fail and there probably is some memory corruption somewhere).

Luca Abeni - 2004-04-10

First implementation of the wrapper

Here is the result of a weekend of hard work... ;-) A first implementation of the wrapper!!! [the driver to run executables in segmented memory]. I was able to use this wrapper to load some programs, and it is "kind of working", even if this patch is not ready for being applied.

Luca Abeni - 2003-10-14

FD32 release 0.0.2 is out

The second alpha release of FD32. This is a bugfix release, intended for testing and debugging only. You can download packages from our project page on Sourceforge.net. See the Downloads page for download instructions.

Salvo Isaja - 2003-09-12

Time for some graphics

I imported into CVS my VESA2 Graphics Library, featuring high-res 32-bit video modes, transparent blitting and PCF font support (those of X-Window). Check out the graphics CVS module if interested. I'm using this library to develop a simple GUI for FD32.

Salvo Isaja - 2003-06-02

Project Info page in Belarusian

Thanks to Juras Benesh, the Project Info page of the site is now available in Belarusian language.

Salvo Isaja - 2003-03-03