DOS ain't dead

There were some emails over the past months complaining that HX doesn't run on Virtual PC (2004 and 2007). Well, my point of view still is that this is a VPC problem, but nevertheless there is a modified HDPMI32 available which might run in VPC:

http://www.japheth.de/Download/hdpmivpc.zip

Some details: this modified version runs clients with IOPL=0, the standard version runs them with IOPL=3. To run clients with IOPL=0, HDPMI has to handle all protection faults caused by IO sensitive instructions (CLI, STI, IN, OUT) internally, run them in ring 0 and return to the client. This slows down execution to some degree, so better don't use the modified version outside of VPC.

---
MS-DOS forever!

> point of view still is that this is a VPC problem

Obviously: since HDPMI32 works well in QEMU and BOCHS (yeah BOCHS has an EIP=0 bug ), not to talk about VPC size, license, and system requirements

> Obviously: since HDPMI32 works well in QEMU and BOCHS (yeah BOCHS has an
> EIP=0 bug ), not to talk about VPC size, license, and system
> requirements

Please stop bashing software you don't like! Thanks.

---
Forum admin

> > Obviously: since HDPMI32 works well in QEMU and BOCHS (yeah BOCHS has an
> > EIP=0 bug ), not to talk about VPC size, license, and system
> > requirements
>
> Please stop bashing software you don't like! Thanks.

Sorry, but VPC's size, license and system requirements *are* not the best. Don't think this is "bashing". IMO VPC is the worst emulator for DOS software. Far better are VMWare (Player and Workstation) and DosBox.

---
MS-DOS forever!

> Sorry, but VPC's size, license and system requirements *are* not the best.

Depends on...

Size = Is bigger not better?
License = It's (nearly) best for Microsoft.
System requirements = VPC 2007 needs XP Professional oder Vista Business/Ultimate. So it's best for Microsoft again. And for hardware vendors, of course.

Just kidding!

> Don't think this is "bashing".

But DOS386's messages often are. Maybe I'm just too sensitive to his messages...

---
Forum admin

> There were some emails over the past months complaining that HX doesn't run
> on Virtual PC (2004 and 2007). Well, my point of view still is that this is
> a VPC problem, but nevertheless there is a modified HDPMI32 available which
> might run in VPC:

While we are at it,
i just tried a new virtualizer, called VirtualBox.
http://www.virtualbox.org/
Free and GNU.

During the tests, i noticed that Jemmex 5.63 produced a crash of VirtualBox.

Fortunately, v5.66 does not produce such a result, and the system seems to go fine with it.

VirtualBox has also other issues, such as Keyboard redirection, so i would rather suspect this program rather than Jemmex. Nevertheless, i figured it could be interesting to know.

It could be that the 16KB alignment you added in later version did the trick for this emulator compatibility...

Regards

> During the tests, i noticed that Jemmex 5.63 produced a crash of
> VirtualBox.

Did you try switches NOINVPLG and/or NOVME?

> Fortunately, v5.66 does not produce such a result, and the system seems to
> go fine with it.

If latest JemmEx works, why would anyone use 5.63?

> VirtualBox has also other issues, such as Keyboard redirection, so i would

What do you mean?

> rather suspect this program rather than Jemmex. Nevertheless, i figured it
> could be interesting to know.

VirtualBox is already mentioned at Welcome to our support forum! (for new category "Emulation") and http://www.freedos.org/freedos/links/.

Do you think, I should put those at my Links page too? Most emulators at the FreeDOS page, were "contributed" by me.

---
Forum admin

> If latest JemmEx works, why would anyone use 5.63?

Japheth seems to like testing in all kinds of VMs. So it's no surprise that it works. (Kudos to him.)

> VirtualBox is already mentioned at Welcome to our support
> forum! (for new category "Emulation") and
> http://www.freedos.org/freedos/links/.

I haven't tried it, but I hear that VirtualBox shares some code with some of the more common VMs (QEMU??). So I'm not sure how "new" or "better" it really is.

---
Know your limits.h

> I haven't tried it, but I hear that VirtualBox shares some code with some
> of the more common VMs (QEMU??). So I'm not sure how "new" or "better" it
> really is.

Yes, it's QEMU with some candies.

---
MS-DOS forever!