Mike OS on Raspberry Pi

[Enum]

I just got my first Raspberry Pi (Model A+, Pi 1) yesterday. I want to know if I can run Mike OS on my Pi.

The reason I want to use Mike OS is because of its flexibility and the fact that I can heavily change it easily.

Does the Pi support Mike OS? Does Mike OS use the right kind of Assembler Language?

Thanks in advance.

[buja]

No. The Pi is not an x86 PC, but has a very different and incompatible CPU.

Quotation from the MikeOS website (the almost very first thing you read) http://mikeos.sourceforge.net/:

MikeOS is an operating system for x86 PCs, written in assembly language.

[klricks]

I just got my first Raspberry Pi (Model A+, Pi 1) yesterday. I want to know if I can run Mike OS on my Pi.

The reason I want to use Mike OS is because of its flexibility and the fact that I can heavily change it easily.

Does the Pi support Mike OS? Does Mike OS use the right kind of Assembler Language?

Thanks in advance.

In general if the maintainer of the OS or any other software does not indicate that their software will work on a RPi including which RPi model, then don't even bother with it. It will not likely work on the RPi.

[HawaiianPi]

The reason I want to use Mike OS is because of its flexibility and the fact that I can heavily change it easily...

The same could be said about Linux.

[NodeTechGaming]

While you cannot run MikeOS directly on the Pi, I recently got it working in Dosbox.

Steps for installing on Raspian:

1. Open Terminal
2. Type sudo apt-get install dosbox
(make sure you have an internet connection to your pi)
3. Download MikeOS files to your Pi
4. This step is optional. Navigate to "/home/pi(or your username)/.dosbox"
This is a hidden folder so make sure to type it in correctly to file manager.
5. Open dosbox configuration (if it doesnt exist, open dosbox then close it again, it is located in the Games tab from the drop down menu)
6. Scroll down to the bottom and type (without quotes) "mount c /home/pi/mikeos-4.5" (this is an example, make sure to navigate wherever mikeos folder is then go inside it)
7. Under that line type "c:" (also without quotes)
8. Under that line type "boot disk_images/mikeos.flp" (without quotes...)
9. Save the file and open dosbox. MikeOS should boot

To load MikeOS manually when you open dosbox just type the commands you added into the config and it will load.
Sorry if the instructions dont make sense but to summarise, just mount the c: drive in dosbox then use the boot command to load mikeos.flp which is in the mikeos download folder. Or direct it to your own built version of mikeos.

Hope this helps!

[n67]

So, despite the initial responses on this thread, the answer to the original question is "Yes".

Good!

[n67]

There's a general theory that everything is some sort of emulation.

Think of (current versions of) Windows running on x86. You wouldn't believe how many layers of emulation are going on there. Yet no one would seriously argue that Windows doesn't run on x86...

Edit: While I was composing/posting this, the previous post - to which I was responding - seems to have disappeared. Did the poster delete his own post?

[jahboater]

Mike OS looks fun in a "retro" sort of way! Especially if you are keen on 16-bit x86.

The reason I want to use Mike OS is because of its flexibility and the fact that I can heavily change it easily.

As an earlier post says, this is also true of Linux but to a far far greater degree.

Please try Raspbian, the preferred OS for the Pi. It is based on Debian Linux. It is a very powerful open source operating system that you can do almost anything with. You will also get orders of magnitude faster performance than Mike OS running on a 16-bit x86 emulation. Raspbian runs native in 32-bit mode and is highly optimized. There are some 64-bit Linux distros you can run on the Pi too.

Did the poster delete his own post?

Edit: yes, sorry, decided to re-word it!

[NodeTechGaming]

If you were refering to my dosbox instructions, no I didnt remove them. Must be some kind of glitch.

[n67]

If you were refering to my dosbox instructions, no I didnt remove them. Must be some kind of glitch.

No. It was "jahboater", to whom I was responding. He had deleted his response while I was composing my response to his response - which resulted in 2 posts in a row by me (seen above). He then re-posted below my post.

Anyway, my point in all this is that, yes, you can run MikeOS on the RPi. I intend to try it out at some point...

[NodeTechGaming]

Raspbian runs native in 32-bit mode and is highly optimized. There are some 64-bit Linux distros you can run on the Pi too.

But the Pi uses an ARM processor doesnt it? It cant run x86 OSes. It can only be emulated (hence the dosbox instructions)

[bensimmo]

Though that is not the same as 'supports the OS' as it has the wrong sort of stuff the OP asks for.
You kind of loose the 'simplicity' part.

[NodeTechGaming]

The OP wanted to run it due to its flexibility and how easily it can be changed. Running it over Raspbian would actually be easier, because you can build new versions of the OS directly on the system. The only downside would possibly be slowdown of emulation from using a slower model of Pi. The next best thing would be Retropie's PC/x86 emulator.

[mahjongg]

In addition to Mike OS needing an x86 processor, it also needs the video characteristics provided by a PC with a typical PC video card, such as CGA, EGA or VGA and predecessor video systems, meaning it needs video character memory a a certain memory location and color video memory at another location, and the specific font with pseudo graphic characters, all tied closely to PC video systems. It also needs and expects to find a PC BIOS with entry points for things as keyboard input, and a memory map like a PC.
A PI has none of these characteristics, so all of them need to be emulated, by an emulation system like DOSBOX.

[NodeTechGaming]

In addition to Mike OS needing an x86 processor, it also needs the video characteristics provided by a PC with a typical PC video card, such as CGA, EGA or VGA and predecessor video systems, meaning it needs video character memory a a certain memory location and color video memory at another location, and the specific font with pseudo graphic characters, all tied closely to PC video systems. It also needs and expects to find a PC BIOS with entry points for things as keyboard input, and a memory map like a PC.
A PI has none of these characteristics, so all of them need to be emulated, by an emulation system like DOSBOX.

Thanks for clearing that up for us!
If you want to run MikeOS in dosbox then follow the instructions I posted.

[HawaiianPi]

Thanks for clearing that up for us!
If you want to run MikeOS in dosbox then follow the instructions I posted.

Or better yet, just run Raspbian.

[NodeTechGaming]

The whole point of trying to install MikeOS was for its flexibility and how heavily it can be changed, as the OP stated.

[jahboater]

The whole point of trying to install MikeOS was for its flexibility and how heavily it can be changed, as the OP stated.

Yes correct.

But people are pointing out that Raspbian is even more flexible and easily changed.

Plus a whole heap of other benefits (speed - native ARM rather than emulated 16-bit x86), ease of installation and use, massive user base - enabling lots of support, including support from the RPF engineers . etc etc.

Thats not saying Mike OS isn't fun though!

[n67]

I don't understand why people are singing the praises of other OSes in this thread.

Surely, there are plenty of other topics where such hosannas would be on-topic, no?

Anyway, I followed NodeTechGaming's recipe above and it works great! Well done!

One small note:

Rather than edit the config file, which seems awfully committal, I did it manually. The command I did were:

Z> mount C: mikeos-4.5
Z>C:
Z> boot disk_I~1/mikeos.flp

This also works:

Code: Select all

dosbox -c 'mount C: mikeos-4.5'  -c 'boot C:disk_i~1/mikeos.flp'

[NodeTechGaming]

.

[NodeTechGaming]

Ignore this and the above post, new to this forum and messed up

[NodeTechGaming]

The instructions were mostly based on experience. I found this thread because I had recently been playing with MikeOS on the Pi and was wondering if anyone else had tried the same. Thats why I included the config editing. Also I find it easier than typing in commands every time you load dosbox..

4. This step is optional.

To load MikeOS manually when you open dosbox just type the commands you added into the config and it will load.

[Ronaldlees]

What does MikeOS do? Internet? Running an old-time OS can be entertaining or challenging or both. I have used Lynx with DOS and an old DOS based TCP stack set up on a floppy disk, in order to surf the internet. It was a little primative, but (for a short time) - entertaining. Things do not need to be 100 percent "practical" to be worth doing.

As far as an alternative OS being off topic: that's the forum subsection we're in, and the original question was related to the Pi (and not Raspbian).