Step-by-step, task-oriented guides - do this, in this order, to get this result.
The single most common reason to boot FreeDOS today: building a bootable USB stick to run a vendor's DOS-based firmware update tool.
Getting a CD-ROM drive recognized and assigned a drive letter on FreeDOS through the driver-plus-MSCDEX layering DOS CD-ROM support was always built on.
Installing a text editor and a couple of common utilities on FreeDOS, and wiring them into your PATH and environment correctly.
Creating a primary partition, an extended partition with logical drives, and setting the active boot partition the way DOS disks have always been organized.
Installing FreeDOS onto a virtual machine or real hardware, from booting the installer through to a working CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT.
Getting real TCP/IP networking working on FreeDOS using mTCP and a packet driver, enough for FTP, Telnet, and a basic text-based browser.
A current vm-bhyve workflow for verified firmware, ZFS storage, virtual switches, guest templates, installation media, consoles, and backups.
A rollback-safe FreeBSD static-network workflow for interface identity, IPv4 and IPv6 addressing, routes, resolver ownership, staged activation, and validation.
A method-aware FreeBSD major-upgrade runbook covering release eligibility, boot environments, external backup, staged installation, bootcode, packages, and rollback.
A least-privilege FreeBSD WireGuard setup covering if_wg, protected keys, cryptokey routing, PF exposure, NAT peers, rc startup, traffic tests, and rotation.