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<TITLE>The dosemu HOWTO: The preliminaries</TITLE>
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<A HREF="DOSEMU-HOWTO.html#toc1">Contents</A>
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<H2><A NAME="s1">1. The preliminaries</A></H2>
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<H2><A NAME="ss1.1">1.1 What is dosemu, anyway?</A>
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</H2>
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<P>To quote the manual, "dosemu" is a user-level program which uses
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certain special features of the Linux kernel and the 80386 processor
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to run MS-DOS/FreeDOS/DR-DOS in what we in the biz call a `DOS box.'
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The DOS box, a combination of hardware and software trickery, has these
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capabilities:
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<P>o the ability to virtualize all input/output and processor control
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instructions
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<P>o the ability to support the word size and addressing modes of the
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iAPX86 processor family's "real mode," while still running within
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the full protected mode environment
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<P>o the ability to trap all DOS and BIOS system calls and emulate such
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calls as are necessary for proper operation and good performance
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<P>o the ability to simulate a hardware environment over which DOS
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programs are accustomed to having control.
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<P>o the ability to provide DOS services through native Linux
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services; for example, dosemu can provide a virtual hard disk
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drive which is actually a Linux directory hierarchy."
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss1.2">1.2 What operating systems does dosemu work under ?</A>
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</H2>
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<P>Dosemu is primarily written for Linux. It also works on NetBSD and
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possibly FreeBSD, however the graphics emulation is unlikely to work
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on NetBSD, which means that all DOS programs that use graphics mode
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(most DOS programs) will not work under NetBSD.
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss1.3">1.3 What processors does dosemu work on ?</A>
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</H2>
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<P>Dosemu only works on Intel 80x86 processors, e.g. 80386, 80486,
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Pentium etc.
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss1.4">1.4 What if I have an Alpha/Sparc/Motorola/other non-Intel CPU ?</A>
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</H2>
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<P>Dosemu only works on Intel 80x86 processors but there are alternatives:
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Bochs (<B>
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<A HREF="http://www.bochs.com">http://www.bochs.com</A></B>) is an open
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source shareware PC emulator that
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runs on most Unixes (as well as MS-Windows), and there are other
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(non-free) alternatives - see the comp.emulators.misc FAQ, available via
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usenet or <B>
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<A HREF="ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-hierarchy/comp/emulators/misc/">ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-hierarchy/comp/emulators/misc/</A></B>
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss1.5">1.5 Do I need MS-DOS to use dosemu ?</A>
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</H2>
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<P>No. You need some version of DOS but not necessarily MS-DOS.
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See the section "What versions of DOS are known to run with dosemu ?"
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss1.6">1.6 Can I run Microsoft Windows programs under dosemu ?</A>
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</H2>
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<P>Not reliably. You would be better to use the Windows emulator
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Wine (<B>
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<A HREF="http://www.winehq.com">http://www.winehq.com</A></B>). If you insist on running Windows
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under dosemu, see section 8 - dosemu and MS-Windows 3.1.
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss1.7">1.7 I want to run something that won't run under DOSemu or Wine</A>
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</H2>
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<P>See section 1.4.
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<H2><A NAME="ss1.8">1.8 Names and numbers</A>
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</H2>
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<P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
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(xx/yy/zz) means day zz in month yy in year xx.
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</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
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<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
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winemu mean WinOS/2 running in dosemu.
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</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss1.9">1.9 What version of Dosemu should I use?</A>
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</H2>
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<P>Dosemu uses the same numbering scheme as the kernel. Uneven second
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numbers are for possible unstable developer releases, even second numbers
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are for releases considered stable. At the time of writing, <B>0.98.8</B>
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is the latest stable release, while <B>0.99.10</B> is the latest
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developer's release. So if you want to use dosemu, get the latest
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<B>stable</B> release.
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss1.10">1.10 What's the newest version of dosemu and where can I get it?</A>
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</H2>
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<P>The newest version of dosemu as of 99/04/09 is
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<B>dosemu0.98.8</B> and can be ftp'ed from:
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<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
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<A HREF="ftp://ftp.dosemu.org/pub/dosemu/">ftp://ftp.dosemu.org/pub/dosemu/</A></CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
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<P>Remember that this is ALPHA code, however: there may be serious bugs
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and very little documentation for new features. The development version
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is particularly likely to have bugs. Please use it only if you
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like to do active development. Don't report bugs in the development
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version, fix them instead.
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss1.11">1.11 Where can I ask questions?</A>
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</H2>
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<P>If you have problems regarding installing and running dosemu after
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reading the documentation, first try to help yourself: Your question
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has probably been asked and perhaps answered before. Try some search
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engine on the internet to retrieve that information. E.g. you can ask
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<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
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<A HREF="http://www.dejanews.com">http://www.dejanews.com</A></CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
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<P>to find all newsnet articles containing the keywords of your
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question. Helping yourself will probably be faster than asking a well
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known question. It also frees up the time of developers from answering
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trivial question and so helps the further development of dosemu.
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss1.12">1.12 Where can I report bugs and ask questions?</A>
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</H2>
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<P>If you want to ask questions and report bugs regarding dosemu, you
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should consider subscribing to the linux-msdos mailing list.
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To subscribe, send mail to <B>
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<A HREF="mailto:Majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu">Majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu</A></B>
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with the following command in the body of your email message:
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<PRE>
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subscribe linux-msdos your_username@your.email.address
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</PRE>
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If you ever want to remove yourself from the mailing list, you can
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send mail to <B>
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<A HREF="mailto:Majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu">Majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu</A></B>
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with the following command in the body of your email message:
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<PRE>
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unsubscribe linux-msdos your_username@your.email.address
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</PRE>
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(95/8/11). When you are subscribed to linux-msdos, you can send your
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report as mail to linux-msdos@vger.rutgers.edu. There is a gate that
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send mails to linux-msdos@vger.rutgers.edu as postings to the
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newsgroup named <B>linux.dev.msdos</B>. If your News provider
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doesn't carry that group, ask her(him) to add that group.
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Before you ask a question, you should carefully read all of the
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documentation, including this HOWTO and check one of the mailing list
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archives listed at <B>
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<A HREF="http://www.dosemu.org/mailinglist.html">http://www.dosemu.org/mailinglist.html</A></B> to see whether your
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question has already been asked and answered.
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss1.13">1.13 What documentation is available for dosemu?</A>
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</H2>
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<P>Dosemu comes with documentation. The main documentation files
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README.txt and README-tech.txt cover virtually all aspects of dosemu
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and may be more up-to-date than this HOWTO.
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<P>The "dosemu Novice's Altering Guide" or DANG is a road map to the
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inner workings of dosemu. It is designed for the adventurous, those
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who wish to modify the source code themselves. The DANG is maintained
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by Alistair MacDonald (<B>
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<A HREF="mailto:alistair@slitesys.demon.co.uk">alistair@slitesys.demon.co.uk</A></B>) and is
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found in the doc directory of the dosemu source tree.
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<P>
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<P>The EMU failure list (EMUfailure.txt) is a partial list of programs known
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<B>not</B> to work under dosemu.
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<P>
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<P>And then, of course, there is the dosemu FAQ/HOWTO. But you already
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know about that, don't you. It is also posted once in a while to the
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mailing list and found in the doc-directory. The most recent version
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can be found at <B>
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<A HREF="http://www.dosemu.org">http://www.dosemu.org</A></B>.
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss1.14">1.14 I have a program that fails, not listed in EMUfailure.txt </A>
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</H2>
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<P>First check, if the failure of your program is not caused by some
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of the fundamental incapabilities of dosemu, listed in EMUfailure.txt. If
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you think you have something new, please report to
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<A HREF="mailto:linux-msdos@vger.rutgers.edu">linux-msdos@vger.rutgers.edu</A>.
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Perhaps it can be made going with the help others. Give detailed
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information about your setup, tell the version of kernel, dosemu etc
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and name the observed errors. You can use xdos to cut and paste the
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error message into your report. But keep your report in a readable
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form. We know the content of ../etc/config.dist. So only send the
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active lines from your dosemu.conf. Try running dosemu with some or all
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debug output turned on and scan through your debug output
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and at first only send those parts you think are relevant. Few people
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are willing to decode some long attachment to a mail, to do debugging
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for others. But keep your logs at hand, in case others ask detailed
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questions.
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<P>
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss1.15">1.15 How do I submit changes or additions to the HOWTO?</A>
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</H2>
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<P>The preferred method is to edit the file
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<B>dosemu-HOWTO-xx.x.sgml</B> to incorporate the changes, create a
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diff file by typing something like
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<P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
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diff -uw original-file new-file
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</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
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<P>and send it to <B>
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<A HREF="mailto:davidhodges@altavista.net">davidhodges@altavista.net</A></B>.
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If you do not know SGML, that's ok. Changes or new information in any
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form will be accepted. Creating the diff file just makes it easier on
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the HOWTO maintainer. :-)
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<P>
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss1.16">1.16 Message from Greg...</A>
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</H2>
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<P>Unless otherwise stated, Linux HOWTO documents are copyrighted by
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their respective authors. Linux HOWTO documents may be reproduced and
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distributed in whole or in part, in any medium physical or electronic,
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as long as this copyright notice is retained on all copies. Commercial
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redistribution is allowed and encouraged; however, the author would
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like to be notified of any such distributions.
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<P>All translations, derivative works, or aggregate works incorporating
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any Linux HOWTO documents must be covered under this copyright notice.
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That is, you may not produce a derivative work from a HOWTO and impose
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additional restrictions on its distribution. Exceptions to these rules
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may be granted under certain conditions; please contact the Linux HOWTO
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coordinator at the address given below.
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<P>In short, we wish to promote dissemination of this information through as
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many channels as possible. However, we do wish to retain copyright on the
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HOWTO documents, and would like to be notified of any plans to redistribute
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the HOWTOs.
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<P>If you have questions, please contact Greg Hankins, the Linux HOWTO
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coordinator, at gregh@cc.gatech.edu(95/8/11).
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<P>
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<HR>
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