“Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they never stopped to ask if they should.”
-Dr. Ian Malcolm
DOS Subsystem for Linux
11–20 of 182 posts
Re: DOS Subsystem for Linux
#12So does this run DOS on Windows? Or DOS on Linux? Or Linux on DOS? Or DOS on Linux on Windows? Would be nice if there were an explanation in the README.
This runs Linux "inside" of DOS, allowing you to exec Linux i686 binaries "inside" of a DOS terminal I put inside in quotes because how this actually works is quite amusing (and apparently is actually how Windows 95 also works)
Is this explained somewhere? I'd love to read how it works (without trying to understand the source code).
Re: DOS Subsystem for Linux
#13Does it support running 16-bit real mode DOS binaries a la DOSBox?
Re: DOS Subsystem for Linux
#14If I recall correctly, there was at one time a Linux boot loader that ran from DOS, which could make use of DOS device drivers. I recall using Yggdrasil Linux which had an option to boot this way, which used the DOS driver for my SCSI card and CDROM drive to make it available under Linux.
Re: DOS Subsystem for Linux
#15I guess someone had to ask this... Does it run under WSL?
Well, no... WSL runs Linux inside Windows. DSL runs Linux inside DOS. So there's no stacking that makes sense here.
(I think we're seeing just how confusing the "Subsystem for Linux" naming is. "Foo Subsystem for Linux" sounds like a way to run Foo under Linux, but it's the opposite...)
Re: DOS Subsystem for Linux
#16Also Dick Sucking Lips
Re: DOS Subsystem for Linux
#17If I recall correctly, there was at one time a Linux boot loader that ran from DOS, which could make use of DOS device drivers. I recall using Yggdrasil Linux which had an option to boot this way, which used the DOS driver for my SCSI card and CDROM drive to make it available under Linux.
That was LOADLIN. When coupled with a Linux filesystem called umsdos, it allowed you to boot Linux without repartitioning your disk or clobbering your MBR. Fun times.
Umsdos overlaid a POSIX file system on top of an MS-DOS file system, using a scheme somewhat similar to Windows long filenames (but created before that became a feature of Windows). Basically, every directory would have a magic file called --LINUX-.--- that contained POSIX file data, including full filenames and permissions.
Re: DOS Subsystem for Linux
#18Just wondering. Since "Windows subsystem for Linux" is running Linux on Windows, shouldn't it be named "Linux subsystem for DOS"?
Re: DOS Subsystem for Linux
#19If I recall correctly, there was at one time a Linux boot loader that ran from DOS, which could make use of DOS device drivers. I recall using Yggdrasil Linux which had an option to boot this way, which used the DOS driver for my SCSI card and CDROM drive to make it available under Linux.
I used to use that when I had a sound card that was not supported in Linux. I would load the drivers from DOS which provided Sound Blaster compatibility, then boot Linux from there.
Re: DOS Subsystem for Linux
#20I guess someone had to ask this... Does it run under WSL?
Well, no... WSL runs Linux inside Windows. DSL runs Linux inside DOS. So there's no stacking that makes sense here. (I think we're seeing just how confusing the "Subsystem for Linux" naming is. "Foo Subsystem for Linux" sounds like a way to run Foo under Linux, but it's the opposite...)
Windows -> Dosbox -> DSL -> Wine?