ESXDOS

esxDOS

esxDOS is one of the operating systems that can be run on the Next. It provides a POSIX-like API to access the SD card as disk and it provides a familiar interface to the disk from BASIC. esxDOS from version 0.8.6 supports the Real Time Clock of the Next; a new version 0.9.x is being written with features like Long File Name (LFN) support. esxDOS currently only supports the so-called USR0 mode in BASIC (single keyword/48K Basic) - there is an experimental .128 command to allow the editor to be started.

You do not need to install esxDOS if you just want to run software designed for it as NextZXOS implements the esxDOS Application Programming Interface (API) so programs will work anyway. This includes running "dot commands". You can copy your dot command files to the /DOT folder of the SD card. Note that NextZXOS already includes several dot commands that are newer than the ones included with esxDOS, so you may want to use these. Many of these work on both systems. For esxDOS compliant versions, use the ones located under c:/dot/extra.

If you want to use its other features like BetaDisk support or just want to see what it is like you will need to follow the instructions to install it as another identity on the Next.

Instructions to Install esxDos on the Next

1. Download the esxDOS distribution (minimum version 0.8.6) from www.esxdos.org

2. Within NextZXOS, create two folders on the root of your SD card, named "bin" and "sys" by giving:

 mkdir "c:/BIN"
 mkdir "c:/SYS"
 mkdir "c:/TMP"

3. Using a PC, unzip the contents of esxdos.zip.

4. If you are using esxDOS 0.8.6, rename esxmmc.rom to esxmmc.bin. No need to do this for esxDOS 0.8.7 and above, as the file is already called esxmmc.bin.

5. Copy the esxmmc.bin file into /machines/next/ on the SD card

6. Copy the contents of the "BIN" and "SYS" folders in the esxDOS distribution into their respective places on the SD card.

7. [todo --- modify the /machines/next/config.ini file ?]