Jolt Country

is to run DOS on an old netbook.

My excuse is a distraction-free word processor, although I seem to have forgotten how dangerous it was to process words in the days before autosave. Truth be told, I think the magic I am trying to recapture goes back to the mid-1990s, sitting on a Metro-North train, going home from NYC, reading Jolt Country messages using a DOS offline reader on my Librex 286 laptop. (I still have the laptop, but it doesn't boot anymore. How dare it not be able to go the distance!)

The netbook is an Acer Aspire One N270, Intel Atom, 3GB, 320GB.

(320GB!!)

I think the kids today call this "retrocomputing" or "vintagecomputing". I call it being too cheap to throw away shit no one wants because it still works, dammit.

I've actually had the rig working in a few iterations, most recently dual-booting with FreeDOS and LXLE Linux. Linux gives me an easy way to get stuff on/off the DOS machine without needing to set up networking. Also lets me enjoy the idea that my "main" computer has 2 GB of hard drive space and the "support" computer has 319.

I figured Freedos might make some stuff easier, but for reasons I can't imagine, it won't run Professional Write 2.11, my word processor of choice from the 90s. This would force me to learn WordPerfect 5.1, something I have been meaning to do since before it was obsolete. (Turns out AbiWord on Linux will read WP5.1 files. Hey hey!)

But that level of complication could lead to me getting bored of the idea and giving up faster than normal. (Remember when I was going to run a BBS?)

So, back to MS-DOS 6.22, which does work on the Asus and does some basic gaming. Don't know if Freedos would make anything any easier, but so far everything I've fiddled around with seems to work in MS-DOS. So I'll keep that.

And then it occurred to me... a lot of the stuff I'd like to do in DOS, like, say, answering email, could be done from the Linux command line, and I would not have to worry about networking, etc. Linux command line is another thing I've been meaning to get around to, though not for as long as WP. (I've used Linux as an OS for quite a while now.) LXLE does not have an option to boot to the CLI, which I know is a formality, but booting to a graphical OS to switch to CLI seems like cheating.

So, next thought is to make the Asus dual-boot MS-DOS and Debian, something super-simple that I could just install the aps I need, boot to the CLI when I use Linux and only start the GUI when I need it, if I need it.

Of course, I'm generally not good enough at Linux to stumble through Debian. So. The chances of getting this set up before I get bored and give up and move on to something else (like Klepto Josie, the screenplay I promised myself I'd get written this year) are slim. Also, I need to do my taxes.

But this time I spent $25 -- twenty-five dollars! US, not Canadian!* -- on a battery and power supply for the Asus, so that's incentive.

* I just finished watching The Gilded Age so $25 seems like a lot of money.

But, so... Jonsey, you must be doing some sort of DOS something or other, right? Anyone else? Do tell.

I am doing something with DOS! Right next to be is a PCjr that starts DOS 3 or 5, the only problem is that two of the monitors have flyback leaks and the other one fell and never worked again. I can compute for 20 minutes at a time before the monitors start cracking.

At the moment. I do not want to fix them myself but I'll find something.

Ive been playing with my Aspire for a while but not succeeding in doing anything productive with it. Never thought about dos, theres a 486 in the basement for that.

Let us know your solutions, please!

What is a flyback leak?

Vark: So far so good, Debian was a bust, too slow, too complex. Going back to LXLE for my Linux distro and I'll figure out how to boot to CLI. Pics coming... eventually.

The battery arrived today and its farking HUGE. Makes the back of the laptop stand up like jacked-up '66 Mustang in 1987 when such things weren't cool, they just made you look like a douchebag.

Re: flyback leak

Wheres that Indian video with Punjab poking around in a monitor with a screwdriver?

The REAL Real Man wrote: Sat Mar 09, 2024 8:05 pm What is a flyback leak?

Great question. And I have an update!!

The CRT monitor for the PCjr (and all monitors like this) has something called a flyback, which controls how the electrons are fired at the phosphor-coated tube that we look at. I think, because mine is making a snapping/cracking sound, that the housing of this component may be damaged. Thus sending out electrical energy until it strikes another portion of the monitor, which is bad.

However, I got a reply from a guy on a PCjr forum and he thinks that it's probably that there is nothing wrong with the flyback, but rather another part of the monitor that may have dried out. Since it has been 40 years, I am willing to accept this theory. I just have to discharge the monitor and then get it wet HEH. Not a problem.

LCD and LED screens are so much better, but I just want my PCjr to use original hardware that looks nice. :/

AArdvark wrote: Sat Mar 09, 2024 8:08 pm Re: flyback leak

Wheres that Indian video with Punjab poking around in a monitor with a screwdriver?

Yessir. I may be able to try something that gets me around having to replace it!

I think, because mine is making a snapping/cracking sound, that the housing of this component may be damaged.

Or your house is about to burn down. Y'know, one of the two.

You are far braver when it comes to vintage hardware than I am!

Update, got the asus running nicely and actually wrote a little blog entry about it (stand by for blog news). But of course I am not satisfied. I thought it might be handy to make it triple-boot, so I could have MS-DOS and FreeDOS and play around with the latter.

And then I thought, well, if I'm going to set it up for triple-boot... why not QUADRUPLE-boot... with a partition reserved for Windows 98. Don't know if it'll work, but it's easier to set up the partitions now.

SO... that's what I am doing. Since MS-DOS wants FAT16 and FD and everything else wants FAT32, it's a usb-disk-shuffle of booting and rebooting and installing and formatting and copying, and I'm not sure I can describe it because that'll take longer than doing it, whcih is taking pretty fucking long.

Anyway, if I get as far as Win98, plan is to basically do a disk-dump from a partial setup on VirtualBox and copy it over and see what happens.

Eets soo crazzzzy, eeet just might vurk!

TRM

Since when have you had a blog? Please post a link to it!

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote: Tue Mar 12, 2024 7:22 pm Since when have you had a blog? Please post a link to it!

Well, it's sort of not ready for prime time yet. But will be before too long. Only a few posts, and the last ones were in 2017. Also its's supposed to be funny and I'm not sure it is.

Give me a couple of weeks to get some more funny on there and then I'll share.

TRM

The REAL Real Man wrote: Tue Mar 12, 2024 5:31 pm And then I thought, well, if I'm going to set it up for triple-boot... why not QUADRUPLE-boot... with a partition reserved for Windows 98. Don't know if it'll work, but it's easier to set up the partitions now.

So this idea was FAILFAILFUCKINGFAIL. Grub did see two of the three OSs (and to be fair, Win98 partition didn't really have an OS on it) but I can't boot FreeDOS off an extended partition, afuckingpparently.

Which is proof if you ask me that they are JEW HATING ANTISEMITIC BASTARDS even though there is no God.

So, back to DOS/Linux, and I think what I'll do is put Freedos on a CF card, leave that inserted and boot off of it as needed.

And if THAT doesn't work, well, fuck FreeDOS. It's worth what you pay for it. At least I still have the satisfaction of pirating Micro$oft DO$!!!

TRM

Annnnnd I had to pay four dollars for a small SD card because I threw all the other ones I had. It's not the money, it's the principle. I told my wife I should never throw anything away!!! Did she believe me? No.

The REAL Real Man wrote: Tue Mar 12, 2024 9:56 pm Annnnnd I had to pay four dollars for a small SD card because I threw all the other ones I had. It's not the money, it's the principle. I told my wife I should never throw anything away!!! Did she believe me? No.

I experience that often. Because of the nature of the retro-anything enthusiast, it is best for us just to keep everything. I have 1GB SD cards hanging around and I should get rid of them..... but then I will get a flash cart for something and the instructions will say that it won't work with a large SD card. So I am glad I kept it around. That is happening a lot lately.

I got rid of all my extra cords once. ONCE. When we moved here. And I have had to re-purchase at least two of them.

I have one other note. Pinback and I have talked about how we enjoy "scene setting" our games. I think you may enjoy the process of setting it up. If you feel hollow inside once you get it perfect and can focus on enjoying it - that's ok! You may just be a "scene setter" like the two of us!

I enjoy setting the scene.

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote: Tue Mar 12, 2024 10:45 pm Because of the nature of the retro-anything enthusiast, it is best for us just to keep everything.

THIS IS WHAT I KEEP SAYING AND NO ONE WILL LISTEN.

Except you. Marry me, Jonsey.

Actually, I can't be that sick. Recently I asked a friend what kind of computer he had before his first Mac (1980s). He said... a PDP-11. (He used to work for DEC.)

And he still has it.

I am in AWE

He enjoys firing up the occasional game of Spacewar. We've all been there.

Scene setting! I think I just get bored. But... the sickness has spread. I brought my old Stinkpad X131e out of storage and set up FreeDOS on it, thinking the ol' Stinky has a better keyboard for sustained typing than the Asus.

But... the battery (an older Lenovo replacement which I suspect could be counterfeit) got VERY warm when I was charging it. So it'd need a new battery. And probably a new keyboard; I typed so much I wore letters and a layer of plastic off some of the keys. Anyway, lots of refurbishment and not sure if it's worth it. For one thing, the potentially explosive counterfeit battery notwithstanding, I remember one of my Lenovos generating a lot of heat... the Asus OTOH stays room temperature. I don't think the Intel Atom has enough computing power to warm itself up. Thinkpad is an AMD.

But... ooooh, that keyboard.

Although... DOS text looks less shitty on a 10.6" screen than 11.6".

THE
SOMEONE HELP ME
REAL MAN

The REAL Real Man wrote: Tue Mar 12, 2024 8:07 pm Which is proof if you ask me that they are JEW HATING ANTISEMITIC BASTARDS even though there is no God.

Whenever I call you a Jew, you get mad at me. Make up your mind.

Da King wrote: Wed Mar 13, 2024 6:36 pm Whenever I call you a Jew, you get mad at me. Make up your mind.

That's because you are a JEW HATING ANTISEMETIC BALDING BACKPADDLING BESPECTACLED BASTARD.

But I love you.