DOS emulator for linux?

[Kooldino]

Does it exsist? Would it run actual DOS programs?

[gt40]

VMware.
unfortunetly it costs money
but it will run virtually any OS on linux.

[Ribbit]

Have a look for:

Bochs - a PC emulator. Slow (it's an emulator!), and missing some functionality (like greater-than-16-colour graphics). But within those limits it should run practically anything. I've had it running Win98. It can emulate SMP and AMD64 systems as well.

Plex86 - A free virtualiser, like VMWare. Last time I checked it was still very limited and basic, and I haven't heard much since - it may have been abandoned.

DosEmu - a DOS emulator. Runs lots of DOS software, including 386 protected-mode stuff if it's DPMI compliant (like DOS4GW games). This isn't a PC (hardware) emulator, so it should be pretty fast.

DosBox - a PC emulator with built-in DOS. Doesn't emulate protected mode, and probably won't for some time.

It's late and I should be in bed, so you'll have to google for them yourself. Of the above, DOSemu is probably what you want.

[Chrono_Wanderer]

Bochs sounds interesting. It can even emulate AMD64? That's pretty amazing IMO.

[Marshmallowman]

I think Dos emu (or even wine) would be the most practical solution.

[leech]

I've noticed that DosBox is much easier to use than Dosemu, though Dosemu does support more functions.

I don't know if wine would be very appropriate for running some dos applications. What softare are you trying to run?

Leech

[Ribbit]

Wine has to emulate some of DOS, so it could run some DOS software. I imagine it's quite limited in that area though.

[leech]

I guess if you were really bored, you could try getting DosEmu to run Win3.1 then try running apps through that. Ewww, Windows 3.1 just outright BLEW chunks.

Leech

[Kooldino]

Sweet! Giving DOSEmu a go...

[Belwarrior]

hmm... i have a very old game.. but it is too fast for me to play in my pc now (1.2GHz Duron) .. Which DOS emulator can make it run say roughly 300MHz? it would make me a very happy guy.

The game in question is Fantasy Empires (by Silicon Knights i think). I can now only play it on the strategy mode.. but what i want to do is control my dwarf hero and carry an axe to chop down the enemies...

[mallowman]

I've had good luck with dosemu for a lot of programs. Some even had working sound. If you set it up just right it can get direct access to your VGA hardware and stuff so the graphics pretty much just work. If I remember correctly, you can also tune the effective speed of the computer to run older games at a normal speed.

[Kooldino]

I installed dosemu but it wouldn't run. It said "no OS installed have a nice day" or something. IS there an image file or something I need?

[Ribbit]

DosEmu needs a copy of DOS to run.

(Can't really help you much more with that, haven't used it myself. Sorry.)

[TnT]

DosBox is probably the best for running games. Check out http://dosbox.sf.net for a list of games that have been tested.

[runderwo]

DosBox is probably the best for running games.

Old games. Anything that requires DPMI (most every post-1994 game) won't run under Dosbox.