
ANNOUNCEMENT
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The DOSEMU team is proud to announce DOSEMU 1.2.0,
the PC Emulator for x86 based Linux.

WHAT IS DOSEMU?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DOSEMU is a PC Emulator application that allows Linux to run a DOS
operating system in a virtual x86 machine. This allows you to run
many DOS applications. These are the capabilities of DOSEMU that are
worth noting:

  - color text and full keyboard emulation (via hotkeys) even on a terminal
  - built-in X-Windows support (includes IBM character set font)
    including fullscreen X (via Ctrl-Alt-F)
  - graphics capability at the console (for most compatible video cards)
    (requires suid-root or sudo)
  - graphics emulation in X for many color modes
    (X-server may be in true color mode)
  - DPMI support
  - runs several 32-bit DPMI-compliant video games (including those based
    on DOS/4GW) at the Linux console (suid-root) and on X (non-suid)
  - integrated (command line) instruction level debugger, various break
    points, single stepping etc.
  - integrated EMS and XMS drivers
  - integrated packet driver
  - integrated mouse driver
  - integrated joystick driver
  - CDROM support
  - ASPI driver support (CD writers, scanners, tapes etc.)
    (requires access rights to /dev/sgX)
  - support for redirected drives (any Linux directory can be 'mounted'
    as DOS drive via the lredir command)
  - can even directly boot from a Linux directory containing all DOS files
  - sound support (including sound DMA and Midi)
  - NetWare and other network connectivity via built-in IPX and pktdrvr
    support
  - the dosemu-freedos binary package starts a DOS-"C:\>"-Drive
    'out-of-the-box' in a normal user's $HOME directory and runs without 
    any further configuration (no root rights needed)

WHAT IS NEW against version 1.0.2.1?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Many bugs have been fixed.
- Easier configuration and installation from source code.
- Much improved DPMI support.
- Unicode support: translates between many different codepages and 
  character sets for keyboards, terminals and copy & paste in X.
- Much improved sound support, including SoundBlaster 16 and
  Midi emulation (but no OPL3 FM / Adlib yet).
- Improved VGA emulation in X.
- Fullscreen support in X using the Ctrl-Alt-F hotkey.
- Console improvements: by avoiding POST more graphics cards can
  be accessed directly in the "plainvga" mode. Raw keyboard support
  now also works without special privileges.
- Many improvements to the networking code (TUN/TAP).
- Improved PIC (Programmable Interrupt Controller) emulation.
- Joystick support.
- xterm mouse support (including PUTTY).
- DOSEMU shows the running DOS program in X and xterm title bars.
- Better terminal support (more keys are recognized).
- Improved I/O performance using asynchronous I/O.
- Added large file support for file locking.
- Security:
  * DPMI in suid-root DOSEMU is no longer inherently insecure; DOSEMU
    now drops its root priviliges after initializing; a forked off
    "I/O port server" (if necessary) allows access to the specified
    I/O ports where the main DOSEMU is not capable.
  * DOSEMU can be run via sudo in the same way as suid-root (it will 
    revert to the identity of the original user) -- therefore it is
    no longer necessary to install two seperate DOSEMUs (one suid-root
    and one non-suid-root copy) for security. One non-suid-root copy is
    all you need if you use sudo.
    As a side-effect dosemu.users is no longer necessary; without a 
    dosemu.users file DOSEMU will only use its root privileges if it is 
    run on the Linux console.
  * Partition access, mouse access (console only) and serial access
    are no longer automatically accomplished using root privileges
    but must be regulated via permissions on the relevant /dev/xxx
    devices.
  * Note that, as before, root permissions are in general not
    necessary if DOSEMU is run in a terminal or in X.

REQUIREMENTS
~~~~~~~~~~~~
  - Linux >= 2.0.30 (with IPC support, IPX support optional)
  - a DOS as guest-OS, which can be booted by DOSEMU
    (FreeDOS is included in the RPM or can be downloaded as
    dosemu-freedos-*-bin.tgz)

When compiling DOSEMU yourself:
  - GCC 2.91.66 or higher and glibc 2.1.3 or higher are required
  - binutils > 2.9.1.0.25
  - bison, _not_ yacc, and flex

COPYRIGHT
~~~~~~~~~
DOSEMU is set under GPL version 2 (see file COPYING in the distribution).
                        ~~~~~~~~~
The DOS, which is processed (booted) by DOSEMU, may have any other policy and is
explicitly allowed to be proprietary.


WHERE TO GET IT
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The DOSEMU PC Emulator can be downloaded at:

  http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=49784

The binary package is dynamically linked against glibc-2.2 and libX*
from XFree86. It should run on all recent Linux distributions.


HELPING US
~~~~~~~~~~
Many thanks to all who have helped with this release, by sending bug
reports, patches, comments and/or ideas for DOSEMU! Our apologies for
not having answered every letter, and possibly missing some important
information. If you know something you think we should know, contact
us. We can be reached at:

"The DOSEMU Team" <linux-msdos@vger.kernel.org>
http://www.dosemu.org


- - - -	- - - -				January 2004,
					Bart Oldeman <bart@dosemu.org>
					coordinator of "The DOSEMU Team"
