DOS on a WYSE Thin Client

[Galane]

I installed DOS 7.1 onto a WYSE S30 thin client but it won't boot from the IDE flash. Says missing operating system despite it being correctly installed onto an active, primary partition.

The problem is with the way the BIOS waits for the OS to start booting then it disables the IDE controller. The Windows CE, WYSE Linux V6 and, XP Embedded for these is coded to work around that or re-enable the IDE.

At the bottom of this page is how someone fixed it in Tiny Core Linux. http://www.parkytowers.me.uk/thin/wyse/s10/Linux.shtml

I have a FreeDOS image someone made for the 64 megabyte module for these thin clients. It boots properly but it's all in French.

Since FreeDOS can work, how can MS-DOS be hacked to work?

I've used computers since 1983, DOS from 2.1, Windows since 3.0.

[patio]

Tried DOS 6.2 yet ? ?...force IDE in BIOS ? ?

Also See Here...

[Squashman]

The last stand-alone version of MS-DOS was 6.22.  If you used version 7.1 then you were using IBM's PC-DOS.  So when you say you want to get MS-DOS hacked to work, you really mean MS-DOS 6.22.

[BC_Programmer]

There are versions of MS-DOS 7.1 floating around that are "standalone" that were effectively hacked out of Windows 9x releases. Wouldn't surprise me that they might have compatibility issues like this.

[Galane]

Tried DOS 6.2 yet ? ?...force IDE in BIOS ? ?

Also See Here...

All that can be changed in the WYSE Sx0 BIOS is the boot order of IDE, PXE, USB, and how much video RAM is allocated.

[patio]

But you stated the IDE timing out was the issue...

[Galane]

It's not timing out, it won't allow operating systems to boot from it unless they have whatever tweak WYSE used in their Windows CE, Linux, or XP Embedded releases, or what the guy with the parkytowers site did to linux.

I just tried installing FreeDOS 1.2 Lite from a 512 meg USB drive onto a WYSE S30. Result? Failure.

It boots and launches the setup. First is says there's no fixed disk, then is says drive D: is not partitioned. So I have it partition and reboot.

Repeats this exactly the same. It's apparently blocking writes to IDE when booted from a USB that's not prepared with the WYSE utility for making an updater flash drive.

[patio]

So my link above was no help ? ?

[BC_Programmer]

This may be useful. It describes how/where to get the software that is used for creating a WYSE USB Image stick. However, it looks like it wants the image file to be an RSP file, and I've not found a reliable source on what exactly that even is.

[Galane]

I just now tried a "MS-DOS 7.1" boot floppy with a USB floppy drive. I was able to wipe and repartition the DOM with FDISK then reboot and format c: /s then reboot to a DOS prompt off the DOM.

Then I tried the Lite USB install of the latest FreeDOS, same exact failure as before.

I have made Windows CE and WYSE Linux installers. First I updated all three of my S30's to the last WYSE release of Windows CE, along with their BIOS.

Then I figured out how to put their Linux on one. They're locked to the OS they shipped with but knowing that WYSE offered an XP Embedded kit to upgrade any Sx0 (except the first version with soldered RAM) to S90, I figured there had to be a back door to cross-upgrade the OS. It's simple, there's a configuration file that's put on the USB stick, with a "key" that the install matches to what's embedded somewhere in the hardware. So to put WYSE Linux on an S30, just make both a WinCE and a Linux update stick then find the WinCE key and replace the Linux key with it. I'd bet all the older WYSE thin clients are done the same way. WYSE ThinOS is a different beastie. That was the S10 model and ThinOS goes into the BIOS chip. the other models may or may not have a larger BIOS chip and in any case you just can't simply download the latest/last update for it.