FreeDOS Beta4 | Errata
Updated Aug 1 2000
The FreeDOS "Beta4" Distribution was released on 29 Dec
1999. On this page, I will track any issues that are raised with
the distribution, and offer a way to download patches.
Broken
- The internal COPY command in FreeCOM still must have some bugs.
You will want to alias the external COPY and use that instead.
- There seem to be memory problems with FreeDOS (possibly FreeCOM?)
When you load programs and when the program exits to DOS, RAM may not
be cleared properly.
- There are some problems with FreeCOM (our command.com shell).
Trying to do DIR on a non-existent drive (i.e. DIR D:\MYFILES if the
D: drive doesn't exist) causes the system to hang, instead of just
printing an error message. Trying to change to drive D: yields the
error message 'Invalid drive specification', suggesting that this is a
DIR-specific problem.
- The NRO120X.ZIP package does not contain an exe.
- The TEE-X.ZIP file does not indicate a version number. I'll have
version numbers attached to all packages in Beta5.
- The TED-X.ZIP package does not indicate a version number. This
was version 1 of TED.
- The WCD package did not include an LSM file.
Seem Broken, But Aren't
- Some anti-virus software, including Norton's, will report that
the install boot floppies contain a virus (usually reported as the
"Bloodhound" virus.) This is a false positive; there is
no virus.
- Don't try to run RAWRITE from Windows NT. The hardware
abstraction layer (HAL) doesn't let you make direct access to the
hardware (in this case, the floppy device.) Windows NT will hang or
crash your system. Boot directly to DOS to run RAWRITE, or do it
from within Windows 95/98, or use 'dd' if you have Linux.
- The LSM file for FIND has an incorrect description (the one for
CLS.)
- The boot floppy uses FreeCOM 0.76, not 0.78. The Base.1 floppy
will install FreeCOM 0.78.
Changes And Updates
- The FreeDOS kernel has been updated:
[Web site]
- The FreeCOM (FreeDOS command.com) has been updated:
[Web site]
- The FreeDOS install program has been updated:
[Web site]
- COPY has been updated. FDISK/FORMAT have been updated. For a
list of all FreeDOS software, refer to the FreeDOS
maintainers list.
- The FreeDOS kernel distributed with the Beta4 (build 2017f) does
not contain the bug for large disks. This bug seems to have
been removed when CD-ROM support was added.