5.25 - 3.5 Chicken or Egg DOS4 - DOS5

[Chuckphd53]

Seems like moving from DOS2,3,4 to DOS 5 is getting to be a pain
especially keeping track of what works and what is patched etc...

is there a concise document that mentions all the 'tasks' that are needed to make it work with the JR ?

seems like back in the day SOMEONE has put together a list as everyone would have been upgrading to DOS5.....

maybe the Jr Newsletters ?

Unless I get a good reason to move from DOS5.0 to 5.02 gonna hang tight...

[Brutman]

I think you are making this more complex than it has to be.

• IBM DOS 2.1: Original to the PCjr. Works. Should be patched for bugs in DOS 2.1 that affect all machines.
• IBM DOS 3.3: The last good version of DOS that is supported on the PCjr. No patches required for the PCjr. No serious bugs.
• IBM PC DOS 5.02: Requires patching to work on the PCjr.

DOS 6.x works too; the patch procedure is basically the same. But DOS 5.x gives you everything you need already; it's not like you want to run Stacker on a PCjr.

If you have those three boot diskettes you can do pretty much anything.

[Chuckphd53]

I dont mine moving to Dos5 for the JR-IDE, but would like to be sure all the key players arein place.
Like you mentioned FORMAT has to be patched. My thoughts are this has been done by many folks so there should not be a need to reinvent the wheel...
It would be great if there was a document that talks about how to do this and the other items associated with a Dos 5upgrade.

I did a format on a new 5.25 360Kdisk using Dos 5 and patched the disk usign debug...
Now I could have missed something, but it would not boot, copied all the needed files, but nope,,,
did not have enough time to try some other things, this is probably what you are talking about patching the Format to a FormatJR disk.

will try more tomorrow..... but at least I have the Three drive floppy board working, with a 5.25, 3.5, and usb floppy emulator module...

Good thing we consdier this fun .... or I'd have a lot less hair to pull out,,, (grin)

thanks Mike, always good to get your input also...

[Brutman]

You don't have to "move" to DOS 5. My hard drive has both DOS 3.3 and DOS 5.02 on it. I flip between them regularly.

The DOS 5 patching procedure has been discussed for years on the forum. See viewtopic.php?f=3&t=224 as an example. What would be nicer is a well written web page; I'll put it on the todo list. Even better would be a program that just does the work.

[Chuckphd53]

Certainly agree with the webpage but more so with the Program... (trixter) any thoughts Jim ?

I did not know Dos 3.3 was ok with Hard drives, I think I used Dos 4.01 because I had an issue with Dos 3.30 but will review this tonight..
good to know...

ps I will send you an email about the Floppy Controller...stay tuned..

[Chuckphd53]

Mike...

Patching FORMAT for Dos5x

Can you explain why, if it carries the boot sector stuff, then it would only apply to those diskettes that you format and want to boot from ! Correct ?

but just formatting a diskette for general use it would be ok to use as is ?

[Brutman]

Correct. If you boot DOS and just use the diskette for file transfer then none of this matters. It only matters if you try to boot from that diskette.

[Trixter]

Even better would be a program that just does the work.

I wrote one that worked for me: ftp://ftp.oldskool.org/pub/misc/Softwar ... TCHDOS.ZIP
Does it not work for everyone?