FreeDOS

[mcandre]

TODO

• Apply tppatch http://www.ipnet6.org/tppatch.html
• Setup serial port (telnet) communication without requiring a telnet server

https://www.laurentiupancescu.com/blog/5913767b/

https://techtooltip.wordpress.com/2008/09/12/using-host-serial-port-from-guest-in-virtual-box/

https://gist.github.com/garyachy/c1ee689c73bde019a44078edc5b8ed02

https://gist.github.com/brandonsoto/48d582b90b1293025ab1fcd69f730cfa

• Evaluate VNC command submission, using tee on temporary files with an rsync client to retrieve command results.
• Try syncterm http://syncterm.bbsdev.net/
• Try tsracid https://defacto2.net/f/af2d700?dosspeed=auto
• Try Terminate & stay resident BBS (1) http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=72553
• Try Terminate & stay resident BBS (2) https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=72554
• Try Synchronet BBS v2- http://www.synchro.net
• Find telnet clients for macOS, Windows, and Linux that support xmodem / ymodem file transfer.
• Try Kermit http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/mskermit.html
• Search for a BBS for DOS that supports Ethernet connections, acts as a telnet server, supports xmodem / ymodem file transfer, and ideally runs as a TSR.
• Try wrapping DOS VM inside a UNIX VM, issuing keyboard commands over VBoxManage/qemu over SSH from the host.
• Try VBoxManage controlvm <id> keyboardputscancode <hex> [<hex> [<hex>...]] via Vagrant VirtualBox provisioning customization https://www.vagrantup.com/docs/virtualbox/configuration.html
• Try configuring 2 or more NIC's for FreeDOS, as a way to reduce network contention when using multiple networking applications concurrently.
• Try rmenu's emulated DOS prompt.
• Try WATTCP's telnetd http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:yvoVoiAqvrcJ:ftp://ru54.com/pub/4Nikodim/TELNETD/TELNETD.TXT+&cd=8&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
• Try replacing the network stack with WATTCP https://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/distributions/1.2/repos/pkg-html/wattcp.html
• Resolve HTTPS redirect conflict with FreeDOS wget for https://dos.retropc.se/network/tcpip/wattcp/telnetd.zip (by downloading from the host and using packer boot command wget http://{{.HTTPIP}}:{{.HTTPPort}} to transfer to guest).
• Resolve X00 Jemm386: exception 06 occurred at CS:EIP=003C:00008961 kernel panic
• Resolve iNiQUiTTY Runtime error 200 at 1E22:0091.
• Resolve Terminate Runtime error 200 at 08FB:0BD7.
• Resolve a different Renegade installation Runtime error 002 at 0000:04A1.
• Resolve Renegade installation Runtime error 200 at 0129:0091. (Use installation media from main http://renegadebbs.info/ website rather than http://software.bbsdocumentary.com/IBM/DOS/RENEGADE/
• Try BNU FOSSIL driver.
• Try rlfossil.
• Try iNiQUiTTY support for concurrent networking applications. http://www.bbses.info/mirrors/iniquitybbs.com/files/
• Try Terminate support for concurrent networking applications. http://www.terminate.com/
• Try Celerity support for concurrent networking applications. http://software.bbsdocumentary.com/IBM/DOS/CELERITY/
• Try McBBS support for concurrent networking applications. https://www.diskery.com/projects/mcbbsfile.html
• Try QuickBBS support for concurrent networking applications. http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/software/IBM/DOS/QUICKBBS/
• Try TAG support for concurrent networking applications. http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/software/IBM/DOS/TAG/
• Try other BBS's. http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/software/
• Try yet more BBS's. http://archives.thebbs.org/ra103a.htm
• Resolve many dropped characters in rmenu COMMAND.COM session (So many glitches, I may end up actually writing another BBS implementation for DOS!)
• Evaluate a crazy even-odd booting rule to rotate between telnet daemon, ftp daemon modes.
• Lookup Docker images for quickly spinning up rsync daemons.
• Evaluate host client connections to mTCP HTTPServ running on guest within rmenu context (Anticipate similar connection refused behavior similar to FTPSrv within rmenu context).
• Evaluate host client connections to mTCP netcat server running on guest within rmenu context (Anticipate similar connection refused behavior similar to FTPSrv within rmenu context).
• Setup rsync daemon on host, and evaluate fdimples rsync client, in particular filenames when transferring files (in both directions).
• Evaluate HTTP client connectivity within rmenu context (wget able to access host HTTP server as well as external www.google.com server when run directly from outermost COMMAND.COM shell, but no connectivity when run within rmenu environment.)
• Setup FTP server on host, and evaluate mTCP ftp client behavior, in particular filenames when transferring files (in both directions). (FTP client appears to work as dedicated app, but unable to form connections when run from within rmenu telnet session.)
• Lookup any on-demand SSH to telnet proxies for shimming legacy telnet communication into Vagrant and Packer workflows.
• Configure Packer to automatically port-forward telnet from the guest to the host. Identify a way to query/reuse the host port information when configuring host telnet clients.
• Provide a Packer implementation for telnet provisioning.
• Provide a Vagrant implementation for telnet provisioning.
• Ensure downstream Vagrant grandchild extended boxes continue to port-forward telnet from the guest to the host.
• Evaluate GNU inetutils suitability for DOS https://www.gnu.org/software/inetutils/inetutils.html
• Smoketest FreeDOS box using essentially the same test suite as for other boxes, especially interactive shell sessions, one-off commands, halting, and bidirectional sync operations.
• Smoketest Hello World C/C++ compilation, application runtime behavior.
• Publish base DOS box.

Optional

• Write a crude rsync-like daemon and client useable from an rmenu context, using only libc and CLI tools common to both FreeDOS and macOS.
• Write a crude command executor y file transfer daemon and client, using POST calls to differentiate between requests to run commands vs. transfer files, using only libc and CLI tools common to both FreeDOS and macOS.
• Lookup how to configure new port-forwarding configurations for a fresh Vagrant instance.
• Lookup how to configure new port-forwarding configurations for a running Vagrant instance.
• Provide a Vagrant implementation for on-demand rsync host daemon file transfer.
• Provide a Vagrant implementation for on-demand FTP host server file transfer.
• Provide a Vagrant implementation for on-demand netcat host server file transfer.
• Provide a Packer implementation for on-demand rsync host daemon file transfer.
• Provide a Packer implementation for on-demand FTP host server file transfer.
• Provide a Packer implementation for on-demand netcat host server file transfer.

[mcandre]

https://www.freedos.org/

Package manager: fdimples

Work in progress feature branch:

https://github.com/mcandre/packer-templates/tree/issue-366

• Pending https://github.com/shidel/FDNET/issues/2
• Pending Recommendation for pure DOS BBS's? jquast/x84#302
• Pending Feature: VNC Provisioner hashicorp/vagrant#11021
• Pending Enhancement: Delay timer between each character of telnet commands ansible/ansible#60390
• Pending https://github.com/mcandre/tonixxx/issues/241
• Pending Enhancement: Local shell provisioning like Packer hashicorp/vagrant#11017
• Pending Feature: telnet, ftp provisioner hashicorp/packer#7971
• Pending vagrant-telnet plugin #367
• Pending Feature Request: Publish DOS package PowerShell/PowerShell#10342
• Pending Serial port provisioning hashicorp/vagrant#11041
• Pending Keyboard provisioning for inline shell commands ansible/ansible#61408
• Pending Raw keyboard subcommand jedi4ever/veewee#1115
• Pending https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=94476

Tasks:

• Fix networking (Use fdimples to install fdnet and mTCP, then reboot. Do NOT manually configure MTCPCFG, nor set any tcp.cfg contents, nor override the VirtualBox NIC hardware.)
• Install /dev/random shim:

C:\MTCP\htget -o noise063a2.zip http://www.rahul.net/dkaufman/noise063a2.zip
unzip noise063a2.zip
echo device=c:\noise\noise386.sys >>c:\FDCONFIG.SYS
reboot

• Examine fdimples' unzip for any flags for forcing extraction to occur in a specific subdirectory (-d <dir>)
• Research environment variables for forcing move to skip confirmation, similar to copy environment variables.

Nope, move is stupid. An explicit /y flag is not required when executed from a BAT script, where damage is far more likely to occur, yet /y is required when executing interactively in a plain COMSPEC shell.

Unlike copy, move does not have an environment variable for skipping confirmation prompts.

https://www.computerhope.com/movehlp.htm

• Spin up test FTP server on host https://gist.github.com/mcandre/30720862d2c62e2d648162a394ee0d7f
• Evaluate strategies for multiline DOS echo commands. (Big nope, gotta use one echo per line.) https://stackoverflow.com/a/7992971/350106
• Figure out how to automate the TWO stupid FTPSrv diskette swap prompts and launch errors (Configure ftpsrv_exclude_drives AB in the MTCP.CFG file, and do so carefully, with no trailing whitespace!)
• Fix PATH erasure (Perform all PATH modifications after post-install reboot for FDNet, mTCP).
• Obtain external media (htget -o <local-path> <HTTP URL>)
• Evaluate FTP client as HTTP media downloader (Not capable of managing HTTP requests, unlike ftp applications from other operating systems).

Major strategies:

• Port sshd, and prefably rsync daemon as well, to MS-DOS (good luck!)
• Try Windows-style syntax for launching concurrent applications from BAT files (no start entry for executables; call is synchronous; start behavior for BAT files is to edit them; unable to pipe FTPSrv to rmenu, nor vice-versa).
• Try launching FTPSrv from RMENU session (FTP connection never succeeds).
• Launch FTP server from host, use telnet to execute commands on guest, use guest FTP client to sync data back and forth.
• Launch CMS HTTP server from host, use telnet to execute commands on guest, use guest HTTP client to sync data back and forth.
• Configure Packer to port-forward 23 (telnet) to the host, similar to ssh_host_port_min with 22 (ssh).
• Provide an ssh server shim, so that vagrant ssh [-e <command>] and config.vm.provision "shell"... are able to work.
• Evaluate SMB support in FreeDOS (no net command).
• Provide an rsync server shim, so that vagrant rsync and vagrant rsync-back are able to work.
• Provide an scp shim, so that config.vm.provision "file"... is able to work.
  Evaluate file mirroring strategies using a client on the guest and a server on the host.
• Port lftp to DOS (good luck!)
• scp / sftp client running on guest https://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/distributions/1.2/repos/pkg-html/sshdos.html , sshd running on host
• rsync client running on guest https://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/distributions/1.2/repos/pkg-html/rsync.html with rsync server daemon running on host on a well-known port such as 873
• FTP client from mTCP
• Evaluate Apple built-in FTP server (no longer built-in)
• Evaluate tnftpd (not integrated with brew services, no tnftpd binary, no man page)
• Evaluate vsftpd (missing secure_chroot_dir)
• Evaluate proftpd (never binds to 21)
• Evaluate pure-ftpd (missing ftp system account)
• Evaluate https://gitea.com/goftp/ftpd (uncloneable git repo)
• Evaluate https://github.com/andrewarrow/paradise_ftp (deposits configuration file onto local file system)
• Evaluate https://github.com/fclairamb/ftpserver (deposits configuration file onto local file system)
• Evaluate https://github.com/wconrad/ftpd
• Evaluate other macOS-compatible FTP servers
• TGZ host directory, transfer via FTP, then extract in guest tree.
• ZIP host directory, transfer via FTP, then extract in guest tree.
• Do the worm ~~~

https://blog.bravi.org/?p=732

curlftpfs with rsync local:

• https://serverfault.com/a/211546/16645
• http://www.2net.co.uk/rsync.html

FTP mirroring:

• https://serverfault.com/a/24833/16645
• http://www.brutman.com/mTCP/mTCP_FTPSrv.html
• https://github.com/glejeune/syncftp

VMSMount:

• https://sourceforge.net/projects/vmsmount/
• https://www.vmware.com/

rmenu:

• http://www.bttr-software.de/products/jhoffmann/#rmenu

https://superuser.com/questions/1472469/how-to-run-multiple-networked-applications-concurrently-on-dos

https://www.reddit.com/r/bbs/comments/cs4bht/help_installing_iniquitty_on_freedos/

https://www.reddit.com/r/DOS/comments/crw7lr/how_to_run_wget_inside_rmenu_commandcom_telnet/

https://www.reddit.com/r/vintagecomputing/comments/cs57dd/how_to_setup_a_freedos_bbs_in_virtualbox_for/

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/vagrant-up/NixRa2nTKLE

http://www.retroarchive.org/cdrom/index.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_BBS_software#MS-DOS_and_compatible

http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/software/

http://www.pcmicro.com/bnu/

http://www.bbsing.com/bbsfossil/bbsfossil.html

https://virtuallyfun.com/wordpress/2011/07/01/bbsing-with-windows386-windows-3-0-under-qemu-or-how-i-learned-to-love-rlfossil/