Microsoft HIMEM.SYS throws a VDISK memory allocator error when used with FreeDOS

[zhro]

I am able to use HIMEM.SYS with MS-DOS 7.1 without any problems. But when I try to use it with FreeDOS I get an error at startup:

ERROR: VDISK memory allocator already installed.
       XMS Driver not installed.

I am using FreeDOS 1.3, and DEVICE=HIMEM.SYS is the only thing in my CONFIG.SYS, with an empty AUTOEXEC.BAT file.

[PerditionC]

is this on a cold boot, warm boot, or both? A cold boot would be power up which usually also clears the memory while warm boot is a restart that usually doesn't. I am trying to determine if a previous boot left the signature and not properly cleaned up. 2 possible issues, reboot handling is incorrect and not clearing properly and perhaps we should clear the marker before loading any drivers.

[xerz-one]

@PerditionC seems to happen to me on QEMU only on a warm boot, after using JemmEx (HimemX works fine). Cold boot seems to work well.