Installation

The first thing to remember is that DOSEMU is being modified and upgraded all the time, to add new functionality, take out bugs to improve its reliability and also to keep up with developments and changes in Linux itselL This means that a good idea if you want to install the package is to try to obtain the latest version from tlie FTP archives.

There are two ways to get hold of the package, one is as a ready-built set of binary, configuration and documentation files, the other is as a set of sources which you need to compile, install and configure yourself. Several Linux distributions arrive with DOSEMU as one of their standard or optional packages, in which case it is usual for the package to be ready-built. This obviously makes the installation of the package a bit easier but may also mean that you won't have the latest version.

Assuming now that you have a set of sources to build and install, the procedure runs something like this:

To start with, even though DOSEMU is only a user level program (i.e. it doesn't run in the kernel) you may still need to build a new kernel in order to get it to run. This is because it uses the shared memory and semaphore inter-process communication (IPC) mechanisms from the System V IPC package. This means that you must build a new kernel with the IPC software configured into it (unless, of course, your existing kernel already has it in). Also make sure that your kernel version number is high enough for the version of DOSEMU you are trying to install.
Make sure you are logged in as root or you will not be able to complete the installation. Now unpack the software from the archive into a sensible place to build it. This will require about 2Mb of disk space for the sources plus the space that you will use creating all the binaries.
Building the software, creating the documentation and performing the installation itself couldn't be easier. You just change to the top level directory in which you unpacked the software and type:
```
	# make doeverything
```
and, believe me, it does. Or, at least it does if you have the TeX text processing package installed so that make can build the manuals. If you don't have TeX or you don't want to build the manuals, then, instead, you can use the command:
```
	# make most
```
You should finish the installation by copying the file that will become your initial DOS C: drive into the appropriate place, as follows:
```
	# cp ./hdimage.dist /var/lib/dosemu/hdimage
```
Next you need to configure, the package by creating the file:.
```
	/etc/dosemu.conf
```
with appropriate contents. The two ways to do this are either to run the Configure script and answer lots of questions about your machine's configuration, or copy the example configuration file as:
```
	# cp ./examples/config.dist /etc/dosemu.conf
```
and then customize the file, following the instructions in the comments that are contained within it. Also at this time you should create a file called:
```
	/etc/dosemu.users
```
into which you should edit a list of login names for those users who have permission to use the DOSEMU package.
You are now ready to introduce your copy of DOS into the picture. In order to do this you will need a DOS bootable floppy disk onto which you have copied the two DOS files:
```
	FDISK.EXE
	SYS.COM
```
Insert this floppy disk into your A: drive and then type the command:
```
	# dos -A
```
The DOS on your floppy disk should boot up and you should be looking at the familiar A> prompt. Try typing dir c: to see if you can list the contents of the hdimage file. This Linux file is made to appear like your C: drive by the emulator. If you can see the C: drive okay, then you can execute the following commands to install your copy of DOS into the DOSEMU C: drive and make it bootable:
```
	A:\> fdisk /mbr
	A:\> sys c:
	A:\> c:\exitemu
```
The last of these commands will cause DOSEMU to terminate and return you to a Linux shell prompt. You shouldn't need the floppy disk to boot DOS under the emulator any more, you should just type:
```
	# dos
```

Having got DOSEMU installed and working you can now spend some time working through its documentation and manuals and then tweak the configuration file to do a more thorough setup.

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