DOSEMU
DOS compatibility layer for Linux
title: "DOSEMU" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1992-software", "dos-emulators", "compatibility-layers", "linux-emulation-software"] description: "DOS compatibility layer for Linux" topic_path: "technology/operating-systems" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOSEMU" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary DOS compatibility layer for Linux ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox software"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| screenshot | Dosemu.png |
| caption | DOSEMU Running on C:\ |
| author | DOSEMU Team |
| released | |
| latest release version | 1.4.0 |
| latest release date | |
| discontinued | yes |
| operating system | Linux |
| genre | Compatibility layer |
| license | GPL |
| website | |
| platform | IA-32, x86-64 |
| :: |
|screenshot = Dosemu.png
|caption = DOSEMU Running on C:
|author = DOSEMU Team
|released =
|latest release version = 1.4.0
|latest release date =
|discontinued = yes
|operating system = Linux
|genre = Compatibility layer
|license = GPL
|website =
|platform = IA-32, x86-64
| developer = | name = dosemu2 | latest release version = | latest release date = | latest preview version = 2.0pre9 | latest preview date = | website = | repo =
DOSEMU, stylized as dosemu, is a compatibility layer software package that enables DOS operating systems (e.g., MS-DOS, DR-DOS, FreeDOS) and application software to run atop Linux on x86-based PCs (IBM PC compatible computers).
Features
It uses a combination of hardware-assisted virtualization features and high-level emulation. It can thus achieve nearly native speed for 8086-compatible DOS operating systems and applications on x86 compatible processors, and for DOS Protected Mode Interface (DPMI) applications on x86 compatible processors as well as on x86-64 processors. DOSEMU includes an 8086 processor emulator for use with real-mode applications in x86-64 long mode.
DOSEMU is only available for x86 and x86-64 Linux systems (Linux 3.15 x86-64 systems cannot enter DPMI by default. This is fixed in 3.16).
DOSEMU is an option for people who need or want to continue to use legacy DOS software; in some cases virtualisation is good enough to drive external hardware such as device programmers connected to the parallel port. According to its manual, "dosemu" is a user-level program which uses certain special features of the Linux kernel and the 80386 processor to run DOS in a DOS box. The DOS box, relying on a combination of hardware and software, has these abilities:
- Virtualize all input-output and processor control instructions
- Supports the word size and addressing modes of the iAPX86 processor family's "real mode", while still running within the full protected mode environment
- Trap all DOS and BIOS system calls and emulate such calls as needed for proper operation and good performance
- Simulate a hardware environment over which DOS programs are accustomed to having control.
- Provide DOS services through native Linux services; for example, dosemu can provide a virtual hard disk drive which is actually a Linux directory hierarchy.
- API-level support for Packet driver, IPX, Berkeley sockets (dosnet).
References
References
- "DOSEMU for Linux / History / Browse Commits".
- "#751632 dosemu: DPMI fails to initialize on x86_64 with linux 3.15".
- "The dosemu HOWTO".
- "dosemu v1.3.5 source".
- (2007-05-05). "dosemu v1.4.0 source".
- (2007-05-05). "The DOSEMU team is proud to announce DOSEMU 1.4.0".
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::