Please could someone help me with this DOSemu problem:

I've installed DOSemu V1.9.99 (a.k.a. 1.2.0) and have got it running quite nicely on Slackware 9.1 (2.4.22 kernel). It recognises the DOS partition on the HDD and will run programmes like Xtree and Wordstar without any problems.

However, I have a programme written in Turbo Basic that accesses the serial port (COM1) and I'm having trouble getting it to talk to the port properly under DOSemu. This is the error message I get as DOSemu is coming up:

ERROR: PORT: conflicting devices: COM1 & std port io

The programme appears to be able to send out of the port but cannot get any data coming back in. I've set /etc/dosemu/dosemu.conf to deal with the COM1 port like this:

$_com1 = "/dev/ttyS0 irq 4" $_ports = " device /dev/ttyS0 fast range 0x3f8,0x3ff" $_irqpassing = "4"

but I can't stop the 'conflict' message or get any data from the port into my programme. The remainder of the programme appears to work properly, even printing to what it thinks is LPT1.

I've an idea that I need to tell Linux to ignore COM1 (ttyS0) so that the DOS programme can have it, but I don't know how to do this. Is there a parameter to give to a module or the kernel at boot time, or something like that?

I've tried DOSemu V1.0.2 and get the same problem, so I'm sure it's something I'm doing that's messing it up, rather than a DOSemu bug.

Any ideas, please, anyone?

Gerald.