did you try pressing ctrl-f4 after you reenter the application ?

but it could be that the program is checking some weird thing.
You could try running it in the debug version to see if something odds pops up

CTRL-F4 is the same as typing RESCAN at the shell right? Both seem to have the same effect, which is nothing.

Are debug versions of DOSBox publicly available? How would I get one?

yeah. I stickied even
DOSBox debugger

Ah, thanks.

I took a look with the debugger, and didn't see much of interest, and no special calls or anything when it came time to switch / detect floppies. Just in case it's useful, here's the output leading up to the install procedure, but again none of this occured near the floppy switch request:

19982865: FILES:Special file open command 40 file A:\GEOWORKS.001
19988430: FILES:file create attributes 0 file C:\AGEMOPLA\AMMAGATL.EDZ
19989859: FILES:file create attributes 0 file C:\ISFYZQVO.TWJ\SWAPFILE.HDR
23952582: BIOS:INT15:Function 0x88 Remaining 0000 kb
24814638: DOSMISC:DOS:Unhandled call EA al=00. Set al to default of 0
27270552: BIOS:INT15:Function 0x88 Remaining 0000 kb
28129123: DOSMISC:DOS:Unhandled call EA al=00. Set al to default of 0
32442834: MISC:DOS:Set File Attributes for c:\VER.TMP not supported
35110932: MISC:MSCDEX: INT 2F 150B BX= 0000 CX=0000
35111208: MISC:MSCDEX: INT 2F 150B BX= 0000 CX=0000
35113873: MISC:MSCDEX: INT 2F 150B BX= 0000 CX=0000

I think this error is reminscent of the List-of-lists drivers that were partially
implemented -- int 15/ Ah=8x, is trying to find free extended memory;
On a hunch I suspect its probably trying to use Xenix/Dos 1/Unix7 device access, and freezing in the lists.

Also, I recall that there was a few undocumented ints triggered by disk eject,
(I cant remember the program that made it obvious at the moment;
its was one of those where the disk-light stayed on, and prompted you to
change disks.. non of that flashing/buzzing thing M$ made famous).

Just tried this again, with 0.72 (on Ubuntu 8.10) and got the same result. Really wish I knew what the GEOS installer was looking at, besides disk label, when it says I don't have disk 2 inserted.

"asks for floppy" means it prints some "press a key to continue" message,
repeatedly if the wrong floppy is (mis)detected, right?
Put some logging into dosbox, like at CPU_Interrupt (excluding those that
annoy too much and are of no interest, like int8/int1c), and execute the
app to that key press message thing. Then add a breakpoint to stuff like
int16 or some code part that is right after the key detection. Check the
interrupts that are called then (maybe some findfirst operations, possibly
low-level disk routines, whatever). Maybe you can grab some idea of what
could be wrong.

Just out of curiousity, why are you trying to install Geoworks? I had purchased Ensemble 2.0 in the days of Windows 3.0 and installed it. To be honest I wasn't impressed. Ensemble was nothing more than a shell with AOL built-in and some included apps. Windows had 386 enchanced mode which allowed multi-tasking (I would be downloading with Telemate for DOS while playing MS Arcade). Ensemble would only multi-task it's own apps, when you went to DOS you had no access to Ensemble unless you quit your DOS app.

The one impressive thing that kept me from erasing it from my hard drive was the print output. It had scalable fonts that produced near laser-like quatlity on my 9-pin Epson dot matrix. Sadly I loaned out my disks and never saw them again however Windows 3.1 had just come out with TT fonts so I was able to achieve similar results on my printer. The thing that killed Ensemble is the lack of support. Compare the software and hardware available for Ensemble at the time vs. Windows.

So again I ask, what does Ensemble have that you can't get from Win 3.1? The person I loaned my disks to told me GEOS' solitaire was better than Windows. Is that it?

Norton Commander asked:

Just out of curiousity, why are you trying to install Geoworks? I had purchased Ensemble 2.0 in the days of Windows 3.0 and installed it. To be honest I wasn't impressed. Ensemble was nothing more than a shell with AOL built-in and some included apps. Windows had 386 enchanced mode which allowed multi-tasking (I would be downloading with Telemate for DOS while playing MS Arcade). Ensemble would only multi-task it's own apps, when you went to DOS you had no access to Ensemble unless you quit your DOS app.

The one impressive thing that kept me from erasing it from my hard drive was the print output. It had scalable fonts that produced near laser-like quatlity on my 9-pin Epson dot matrix. Sadly I loaned out my disks and never saw them again however Windows 3.1 had just come out with TT fonts so I was able to achieve similar results on my printer. The thing that killed Ensemble is the lack of support. Compare the software and hardware available for Ensemble at the time vs. Windows.

So again I ask, what does Ensemble have that you can't get from Win 3.1? The person I loaned my disks to told me GEOS' solitaire was better than Windows. Is that it?

Nostalgia? Killing time? Relive the "good old days"? Any reason will do. I am sure he does not NEED Geoworks Ensemble for anything productive. Just for the fun of it.

I'm all about nostalgia and re-living the good old days - that's what DOSBOX is all about! 😀

I'm just reading all the trouble oneirotekt is having so I'm trying to see if I can help him achieve the same end results with another shell/OS and less frustration. But then again he's a Linux user so he's probably used to endless debugging sessions and retro-fitting of software.

Hi there. Yep, it's pretty much nostalgia, though I was going to see if I had any document data left over from those days I could revisit too. I installed Win 3.1 in DOSBox a few months ago and it brought back more good memories than I would have thought, which got me thinking about GeoWorks as well.

The one advantage GW had back in the day is that it ran really fast on a 286! I was stuck with one for longer than most people back in the day (always saving up for a new PC) and "386 enhanced mode" was but a distant dream.

And yeah, the dot matrix printer output was pretty nice.

I loved GEOWORKS Ensemble 2.0, but my disks seemed to self destruct and I wasn't interested in paying through the nose to replace them when MS Office 2000 does everything I want and I have 2 legal copies of it!

😁

I loved GEOS on the C64 and still have the 2.0 disks and thanks to a preservationist, Pete Rittwage, he digitized my original C64 disks including the GEOS disks! 😁

If only I could convert the C64 GEOS Fonts to Windows... 😢

oneirotekt wrote:

I'm trying to install GeoWorks Ensemble 2.0 within DOSBox. I have five directories, each containing the contents of an install disk. I mounted the first disk as a floppy drive in DOSBox using these MOUNT parameters:

I managed to get my disks back and when I attempted to install I ran into the same problem until.....I copied the contents of all 5 diskettes to a subdirectory (ignoring the "DISK.ID" exsists, overwrite?" prompts) and mounted that subdirectory as a C: drive. Install files have to appear in root to DOSBOX, not a subdirectory or GEOS will complain that it can't find GEOS.INI. Ran install and it completed successfully!

Unfortunately when I try to run the GEOS20.BAT or LOADER.EXE I get "no valid font data found in /USERDATA/FONT" and back to dos prompt. There are plenty of fonts in the afore mentioned directory so I don't know what could be the problem. 😕

Maybe you can take it from here and do some more hacking but at least we can now get it to install.

Norton Commander wrote:

...Unfortunately when I try to run the GEOS20.BAT or LOADER.EXE I get "no valid font data found in /USERDATA/FONT" and back to dos prompt. There are plenty of fonts in the afore mentioned directory so I don't know what could be the problem. 😕

Maybe you can take it from here and do some more hacking but at least we can now get it to install.

SOLUTION: Open GEOS.INI and first change: ContinueSetup = true in [system] to ConinueSetup = false

Then - more important - make sure, that the correct file system in [system] is chosen:

fs = os2.geo and not: fs = ms4.geo (normally DOSBox works with a special DOS version and not MS-DOS!)

Here a picture of GEOS 2.01 within DOSBox Megabuild 4 under WINDOWS 7, Build 7077 (!):

GEOS 2.01 in DOSBox Megabuild 4 under Windows 7!

Big picture:

http://www.broimg.de/pics/L4WdsWucPVudr4GDp1cASDri5.jpg
_____________________________________________________________

I ran many versions of GEOS within DOSBox:

- GEOS 2.01
- NewPublish (v2.50)
- NDO 97 (v2.70)
- NDO 98 (v2.81)
- NDO 3.2a
- BrotherWorks 98
- NDO 2000 (v4.20)
- Breadbox Ensemble 4.12

And also GW 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.28 (Pro) are working in some special solutions!

One of them is using images under DOSBox! I have built an 70MB image (f.e.) and formatted it with MS-DOS 5.0. Then I installed Geoworks 1.x and it worked! I also have built an image with 140 MB and formatted it with MS-DOS 6.x and there also are all versions greater than v2 running!

Under MS-DOS 6.x a well seen solution is: input setver.exe in your system and GEOS have no more starting problems!

____________________________________________________________

Maybe one of the best GEOS sites worldwide:

www.geos-infobase.de

Manfred

fs = os2.geo and not: fs = ms4.geo (normally DOSBox works with a special DOS version and not MS-DOS!)

Can you elaborate on that? As it sounds like it works only when using a
compatibility installation (os2's dos compatibility was good but probably
not on-par with msdos).

Just tried out the steps here, and it worked great. Thanks a ton guys!

And to think, it only took 5 and a half years for my nostalgia wish to come true.

Yeah for a "let's wait until xyz" tactics 5 years is quite cheap.

Weirdly enough I'm having this problem on a Tandy 1000 TL/2. I have an original copy of GEOS Geoworks Ensemble 1.2 but it gets stuck at disk 2. 😒 Did anyone figure out what the setup is looking for exactly?

EDIT I got it to install using a copy for 5.25" diskettes instead!!!

I've got it installed by mounting a hard drive image and booting DOS 5.0 first. IIRC. Nothing special for me to do but that.