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The FreeDos project offers a number of downloads, but all of these contain an installer that tries to install FreeDos from an installation media onto the harddisk. Selecting the mobile stick as installation target is not supported. Since typical USB sticks typically large enough to contain the OS plus applications, writing onto the harddisk is often not intented. Some pages point to tools like Rufus, which can create a bootable FreeDos installation from a template, but this disk is then missing the typical FreeDos components. So how can a complete FreeDos be installed onto a bootable usb stick to create a live USB version with FreeDos?

Unfortunately the current information on the FreeDOS Wiki is not up to date, but with the help from FreeDos Developer Jim Hall I could find the solution:

1. Download the USB “Full” installer from the FreeDOS page.


2. Unpack the downloaded zip


3. Use a USB formatting tool (for example rufus) to write the image to USB (take care to write over the right drive)


4. Move the directory D:FDSETUPBIN to D:BIN


5. 
   

   Edit first and last two lines in D:FDCONFIG.SYS as follows

   
   
   

   !COUNTRY=001,858:BINCOUNTRY.SYS
   
   !LASTDRIVE=Z
   
   !BUFFERS=20
   
   !FILES=40
   
   
   
   DOS=HIGH
   
   DOS=UMB
   
   DOSDATA=UMB
   
   
   
   DEVICE=BINHIMEMX.EXE
   
   
   
   SHELLHIGH=COMMAND.COM BIN /E:2048 /P=AUTOEXEC.BAT
   
   

   
   


6. 
   

   Edit D:AUTOEXEC.BAT as follows (Windows will hide this file, but you can open it by directly giving the filename).
   Only the line setting the DOSDIR needs to be changed and some display code at the end of AUTOEXEC.BAT are to be removed

   
   
   

   @echo off
   
   SET DOSDIR=
   
   SET LANG=
   
   SET PATH=%dosdir%BIN
   
   
   
   SET DIRCMD=/P /OGN /Y
   
   
   
   rem SET TEMP=%dosdir%TEMP
   
   rem SET TMP=%TEMP%
   
   
   
   rem SET NLSPATH=%dosdir%NLS
   
   rem SET HELPPATH=%dosdir%HELP
   
   rem SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330
   
   rem SET COPYCMD=/-Y
   
   
   
   DEVLOAD /H /Q %dosdir%BINUDVD2.SYS /D:FDCD0001
   
   
   
   SHSUCDX /QQ /D3
   
   
   
   rem SHSUCDHD /QQ /F:FDBOOTCD.ISO
   
   
   
   FDAPM APMDOS
   
   
   
   rem SHARE
   
   
   
   rem NLSFUNC %dosdir%BINCOUNTRY.SYS
   
   rem DISPLAY CON=(EGA),858,2)
   
   rem MODE CON CP PREP=((858) %dosdir%CPIEGA.CPX)
   
   rem KEYB US,858,%dosdir%binkeyboard.sys
   
   rem CHCP 858
   
   rem PCNTPK INT=0x60
   
   rem DHCP
   
   rem MOUSE
   
   
   
   rem DEVLOAD /H /Q %dosdir%BINUIDE.SYS /H /D:FDCD0001 /S5
   
   
   
   SHSUCDX /QQ /~ /D:?SHSU-CDR,D /D:?SHSU-CDH,D /D:?FDCD0001,D /D:?FDCD0002,D /D:?FDCD0003,D
   
   
   
   rem MEM /C /N
   
   
   
   SHSUCDX /D
   
   
   
   rem DOSLFN
   
   
   
   rem LBACACHE.COM buf 20 flop
   
   
   
   SET AUTOFILE=%0
   
   SET CFGFILE=FDCONFIG.SYS
   
   alias reboot=fdapm warmboot
   
   alias reset=fdisk /reboot
   
   alias halt=fdapm poweroff
   
   alias shutdown=fdapm poweroff
   
   
   
   rem alias cfg=edit %cfgfile%
   
   rem alias auto=edit %0
   
   
   
   vecho /p Done processing startup files /fCyan FDCONFIG.SYS /a7 and /fCyan AUTOEXEC.BAT /a7/p
   
   

   
   



7. Delete D:SETUP.BAT



8. Done, safe your files and safely remove the USB stick

Boot and test

The USB key now boots directly into FreeDOS and loads into high memory, leaving roughly 600KB of common memory for programs.

How can a complete FreeDos be installed onto a bootable usb stick?

See USB - FreeDOS:

This article describes how to create a USB boot "disk" using FreeDOS.

...

The instructions for Windows are as follows (see the link above for instruction for Linux):

Partition the USB stick

If using Windows, your USB stick is mounted as something like E:. All
operations must be performed as Administrator (right click, Run as
Administrator) using Windows Vista, or Windows Server 2008. The
Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE) 2.x should also work, for
those that need it.

diskpart

Then enter the following diskpart commands:

list disk

select disk {disk number}

clean

create partition primary

select partition 1

active

format fs=fat32

assign

exit

Install a boot loader

It is probably easiest to use SYSLINUX. To do so, simply download and
extract the archive. Let's say you put it in C:syslinux, and your USB
stick is E:. Change to the location where you extracted SYSLINUX, and
run it:

cd /d C:syslinuxwin32

syslinux.exe -fma E:

Create a new file E:SYSLINUX.CFG as follows:

prompt 1

ontimeout q

default f32

timeout 1200



label f32

  kernel fat32lba.bss

  append -



# cancel and try next boot device

label q

  localboot −1

        kernel /memdisk

        initrd /fdodin06.144

Copy the boot files from the FreeDOS "full" CD-ROM image
(fdfullcd.iso) to your USB stick. In the following, assume the CD-ROM
drive is mounted as D:.

md E:ODIN

XCOPY D:FREEDOSSETUPODIN* E:ODIN /E/H/I

move E:ODINCOMMAND.COM E:

move E:ODINKERNEL.SYS E:

Extract sourceukernelbootfat32lba.bin from
D:FREEDOSPACKAGESSRC_BASEKERNELS.ZIP to the root of your USB drive
and rename it to fat32lba.bss

Boot and test

Your USB key should now boot directly into FreeDOS. You can modify the
contents of the USB stick directly as you like.

Source USB - FreeDOS