<sect>The old way of generating a bootable DOSEmu
<p>
Since dosemu-0.66.4 and once again since dosemu-0.99.6 you will not need the
complicated method of generating a bootable dosemu suite (see Quickstart).
However, who knows, maybe you need the old information too and in case you
are using the DosC (FreeDos) kernel, you will <em/need/ the below info, because
at the time of writing DosC can't cope with drive redirection.

<sect1> Boot ( tool generated `hdimage' method )
<p>

Short reminder: a hdimage is a virtual disk the contents of which are
put into a nomal Linux file. There is a tool to help you generating a
bootable hdimage It doesn't require to boot native DOS (as decsribed
below), nor do you need to fiddle with a floppy:

<itemize>
<item> You need to have mtools-3.8 for this to work

<item> You need an already installed (native) bootable DOS in one of your
  partitions (maybe a floppy). If this is the case, you just need to type
<tscreen><verb>
  ./setup-hdimage
</verb></tscreen>
  in the dosemu directory. It will prompt for needed information and
  generate a bootable /var/lib/dosemu/hdimage.first

<item> Make _CERTAIN_ that your first disk statement in /etc/dosemu.conf is
  pointing to /var/lib/dosemu/hdimage.first!

<item> Run 'dos -C', and dosemu should boot your DOS.
  If not make certain that the /etc/dosemu.conf is setup correctly.
  You can't do much DOS stuff at this moment, though you may use the tiny
  ezedit.com editor to change the config.sys / autoexec.bat to your needs.

<item> Exit dos by running "c:\exitemu".  If you have problems, hold down the
   &lt;ctrl&gt; and  &lt;alt&gt; buttons simultaneously while pressing
   &lt;pgdn&gt;. (&lt;ctrl&gt;&lt;alt&gt;&lt;pgdn&gt; will automatically
   exit dosemu.)
</itemize>

If you <em/don't know how to copy files/ from/to the hdimage,
have a look at the recent mtools package (version 3.6 at time of writeing).
If you have the following line in /etc/mtools.conf
<tscreen><verb>
drive g: file="/var/lib/dosemu/hdimage.first" partition=1 offset=128
</verb></tscreen>
then you can use <em/all mtool commands/ to access it, such as
<tscreen><verb>
    # mcopy g:autoexec.bat -
    Copying autoexec.bat
    @echo off
    echo "Welcome to dosemu 0.99!"
</verb></tscreen>


<sect1> Boot ( `traditional' method )
<p>

<sect2>If you are <em/new to DOSEMU/
<p>

<itemize>
<item> Make <em/CERTAIN/ that your first disk statement in /etc/dosemu.conf <em/IS/
  pointing to your hdimage!

<item> Reboot DOS (the real version, not DOSEMU.)  Put a newly formatted
  diskette in your a: drive.  Run "sys a:" to transfer the system files
  to the diskette.  Copy SYS.COM from your DOS directory
  (usually C:\\DOS) to the diskette.

<item> Reboot Linux.  Run 'dos -A'.  After a short pause, the system should
  come up.  Try "dir c:" which should list the files on the harddrive
  distribution image.  If that works, run: "sys c:".
  Exit dos by running "c:\exitemu".  If you have problems, hold down the
  &lt;ctrl&gt; and &lt;alt&gt; buttons simultaneously while pressing &lt;pgdn&gt;.
  (&lt;ctrl&gt;&lt;alt&gt;&lt;pgdn&gt; will automatically exit dosemu.)
</itemize>

<sect2>If you already have a HDIMAGE file
<p>

<itemize>
<item> If you have a previous version of DOSEMU running, you should copy the
  *.SYS, *.COM, & *.EXE files in the ./commands directory over to the
  hdimage drive that you boot from.  Some of these files have changed.
</itemize>

<sect2>If you don't know how to copy files from/to the hdimage
<p>

<itemize>
<item> Have a look at the recent mtools package (version 3.6 at time of writeing).
  If you have the following line in /etc/mtools.conf

<tscreen><verb>
     drive g: file="/var/lib/dosemu/hdimage" partition=1 offset=128
</verb></tscreen>

  then you can use <em/all the mtool commands/ to access it, such as

<tscreen><verb>
    # mcopy g:autoexec.bat -
    Copying autoexec.bat
    @echo off
    echo "Welcome to dosemu 0.99!"
</verb></tscreen>

</itemize>

  all clear ? ;-)

