Using Toka-DOS

Toka-DOS is the Izarra 3000's bundled operating system: a FreeDOS-based DOS built to General Simulation Works's own product identity, shipped in the machine's system ROM and mounted onto the hard disk at boot. This page covers what you get at the C:> prompt and how the disk is laid out.

Boot banner

The kernel signs on with:

Toka-DOS 3.0 (C) 1997 General Simulation Works - tongue firmly in cheek.
See C:\LICENSE.TXT for more.

C:\LICENSE.TXT explains what Toka-DOS is actually built from: the FreeDOS kernel and FreeCOM shell, plus MOVE, SORT, MEM, and other tools from the FreeDOS project, all free software under the GNU GPL. General Simulation Works's own additions (GSWMODE, TOKAMOUS, TOKAEMM.SYS) are layered on top of that stock FreeDOS base; the shell and kernel underneath are otherwise unmodified.

What's on the disk

The C: drive root stays sparse: only the files DOS needs there, plus a DOS directory that holds the command interpreter and every tool.

C:\
    CONFIG.SYS      AUTOEXEC.BAT    LICENSE.TXT     DOS\

KERNEL.SYS lives in the root too, because the boot sector loads it by name, but it is hidden, so a plain DIR of C:\ shows only CONFIG.SYS, AUTOEXEC.BAT, LICENSE.TXT, and the DOS folder. Everything you actually run lives in C:\DOS:

C:\DOS\
    COMMAND.COM     GSWMODE.COM     MEM.EXE         FIND.EXE
    TOKAMOUS.COM    MOVE.EXE        ATTRIB.EXE      LABEL.EXE
    TOKAEMM.SYS     SORT.EXE        CHOICE.EXE      DELTREE.COM
                    MORE.EXE        XCOPY.EXE       HELLO.TXT

AUTOEXEC.BAT puts C:\DOS on the PATH, so every tool runs from any directory by name. See the DOS command reference for what each one does.

The system ROM

Toka-DOS does not really live on the hard disk. It ships inside the Izarra 3000's system ROM and is mounted onto C: at power-on, so the operating system comes up the same on every boot no matter what the last program did to the disk. General Simulation Works built the ROM to be reflashed for updates, but none ever shipped, so Toka-DOS ended up immutable: the hidden KERNEL.SYS, the shell, and everything under C:\DOS are mounted read-only and cannot be deleted or overwritten from DOS. Most DOS machines of the era ran the whole system off a writable disk; the Izarra 3000 kept it in ROM instead.

CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT are the two exceptions. The machine writes editable copies of them to C: the first time it boots and then leaves them alone, so your startup configuration is yours to change while the system files underneath it never drift. Repair Toka-DOS resets just those two files to the ROM defaults if you want the stock startup back.

Drive letters

Drive What it is
A: The floppy drive. Mount a .img/.ima/.flp image from the IzarraVM GUI.
C: The hard disk. In IzarraVM, a real host folder presented as a FAT disk.
D: The ATAPI CD-ROM. Mount an ISO, a CUE/BIN pair, or a host folder as a data disc from the GUI.

CONFIG.SYS sets LASTDRIVE=D, matching exactly these three drives with nothing spare. See the IzarraVM GUI guide for how to point C: at a folder and mount removable media.

The shell

Toka-DOS's shell is FreeCOM, FreeDOS's COMMAND.COM. Booting drops you at:

C:\>

set by PROMPT $P$G in AUTOEXEC.BAT. Everything you'd expect from a FreeCOM shell works normally:

  • DIR, COPY, DEL, REN, and the rest of the built-in command set.
  • Batch files: .BAT scripts with the usual %1-style parameters, IF/GOTO/FOR, and CALL. CONFIG.SYS boots straight into one via SHELL=C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM C:\DOS /E:2048 /P=C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT.
  • Redirection and pipes: >, >>, <, and | all work, which is what makes MORE and FIND useful as filters (see the command reference).
  • Command history and editing: the usual FreeCOM line-editing keys recall and edit previous commands at the prompt.

AUTOEXEC.BAT

The stock startup script is short:

@ECHO OFF
PROMPT $P$G
PATH C:\DOS
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 T6
LH TOKAMOUS

SET BLASTER advertises the ReSonique 2's Sound Blaster-compatible digital audio to any program that looks for the environment variable (base 0x220, IRQ 5, 8-bit DMA 1, 16-bit DMA 5). See the ReSonique 2 manual for what those numbers mean. LH TOKAMOUS loads the mouse driver high, into an upper memory block if TOKAEMM has one free, falling back to a normal load otherwise.

Repair Toka-DOS

If the installed copy is damaged (files deleted, COMMAND.COM overwritten, whatever went wrong), the IZBIOS setup panel has a Repair Toka-DOS row that reinstalls this same disk layout from the image built into ROM. It only touches the Toka-DOS system files; anything else you've put on C: is left alone. This is a repair action, not a full restore: your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT are backed up to .OLD copies first, then replaced with the stock defaults, rather than silently overwritten.

Next