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SELECT was the automatic installation program for MS-DOS 3 and later. SELECT on MS-DOS 3 was not interactive, and was supposed to be invoked with the following syntax:

SELECT [[sourceDrive:] targetDrive:[path]] countryCode keyboardCode

Where valid countryCode and keyboardCode values were listed in various manuals. For example, to install from A: to C: for US locale and keyboard:

SELECT A: C: 001 US

The program then requires access to both KEYBOARD.SYS and COUNTRY.SYS to set up the locale and keyboard settings. However, MS-DOS 3.30 was shipped on two 5.25-inch 360KB floppy disks. COUNTRY.SYS was on disk 1 and KEYBOARD.SYS was on disk 2, which resulted in the program always complaining about failure to access one of the two files.

SELECT complaining about either Failure to access KEYBOARD.SYS or COUNTRY.SYS

I imagine that users could work around the issue by copying all the files from the two floppies to a larger disk and use that as the source. The destination disk for SELECT would be wiped so it could not be used temporarily for this purpose. So, I wonder what was supposed to be done on a system with 360KB FDDs only. Did users create temporary HDD partition for this? Did they cherry-pick files from the two disks to fit on a single 360KB floppy? Or did they resort to the "manual" way of installing by FORMAT C: /s, copying all the files, and then setting up config files?

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    I never in my life used SELECT to install MS-DOS. Like you said, you'd just do FORMAT C: /s, copy things over, and set up config files. Commented Jul 17 at 4:33
  • Are you using 360k disk images on 3.5 inch drives? os2museum.com/wp/… Commented Jul 17 at 12:25
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    @user3528438 that’s not the issue here — MS-DOS disks have keyboard.sys on disk 2 which breaks keyb and select on disk 1. Commented Jul 17 at 13:06
  • @user3528438 As Stephen said, that is not the problem. Interesting read nonetheless! Commented Jul 17 at 14:20

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select came from IBM’s PC DOS. The version of the DOS 3.3 manual you linked to on the Internet Archive is IBM’s, and it’s somewhat unusual in the DOS galaxy of manuals in referring to select as the recommended installation method. However, this is consistent with the PC DOS disk layout: disk 1 in the two-disk 5.25” set, the “Startup” disk, contains all the files needed for select: the system files of course, but also format.com, xcopy.exe, country.sys, keyb.com, and keyboard.sys. So following IBM’s documentation on a system with IBM PC DOS would work fine.

Microsoft’s (and OEMs’) versions of the manuals didn’t refer to select in the “installation” instructions. Instead, they referred to diskcopy to create a backup of the MS-DOS floppy, and to format and copy to install MS-DOS to a hard drive. select was documented in the reference manual but, as dirkt says in a comment, most users would never use it.

Bear in mind too that few users would actually install DOS. DOS was provided with the computer, customised (in 3.x days) by the relevant OEM, so most users would have a floppy that “just worked” with the correct language and keyboard for the country they bought the system in. If the computer had a hard drive, DOS would be provided on it already, with all the relevant files. In situations where that wasn’t true (for example, when Amstrad dumped its remaining stock of UK PC-200s in various European countries), users would be provided at least with a sheet of instructions to adjust the system, and those instructions would involve manually configuring keyb, not using select.

The distribution of keyboard.sys on the second disk in MS-DOS 3.3 on 5.25” affects more than select: keyb is also broken. Try running keyb uk (with any country code) on a system booted from the first floppy and you’ll only get a “Bad or missing Keyboard Definition File” error.

Prior to DOS 3.3, keyboard configuration was different, with specific programs (keybuk, keybgr etc.). select in 3.2 and earlier, which was only available on PC DOS, could explicitly handle cases where the relevant program was on a different floppy; it asked the user if that was the case, and then prompted the user to insert the appropriate floppy when necessary.

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  • Thanks for answering. I saw manuals from many OEMs documenting the SELECT command, and used the IBM one for reference because it had that nice country/keyboard code table. But then maybe you're right, commands being documented doesn't necessarily mean a good experience will result when using them. The customizations made by IBM probably enabled them to promote SELECT as a recommendation. Maybe it could also be seen as a case for cherry-picking, just done by the OEM. Commented Jul 17 at 8:16
  • It’s important to distinguish the reference manual from the user manual; the latter is what users would read (if anything) if they needed to install DOS. I was intrigued by your choice of the IBM manual — the Microsoft version shows the country and keyboard code table in the select description which I find more useful. Commented Jul 17 at 10:14
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    That’s because searching "DOS 3.30 manual" on Internet Archive didn’t yield the Microsoft version so I didn’t find it. Anyway, good point. Commented Jul 17 at 10:40

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