[mdlug] Anyone with FreeDOS and Virtualbox Experience?

[Robert Adkins II]

So, maybe something to do with how Virtualbox is addressing and providing
memory to the VM could be interfered with by Windows 7. I will see if I can
obtain different results running Virtualbox as administrator.

The funny thing is that plenty of other applications run perfectly fine and
address memory above 1mb with no issue. In setting things up, I fired up
arachne, which is a "Web Browswer" that is actually more a GUI-lite
environment that can use a VESA driver to produce up to 16-bit color and
1024x768 resolution and display web sites quite admirably. 

It's just this stupidly important specialty application that is failing to
function properly.

--

Regards,
Robert 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mdlug-bounces at mdlug.org 
> [mailto:mdlug-bounces at mdlug.org] On Behalf Of Jeff Hanson
> Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2012 12:56 PM
> To: MDLUG's Main discussion list
> Subject: Re: [mdlug] Anyone with FreeDOS and Virtualbox Experience?
> 
> Using some command-line applications on Wine on Ubuntu would 
> fail because the kernel wouldn't allow conventional memory 
> (<1MB) access.
> There was some memory protection option that had to be 
> disabled through /proc, IIRC.  No idea if this has anything 
> to do with your problems but I can't think of anything else.
> 
> On 4/11/12, Robert Adkins II <radkins at impelind.com> wrote:
> > Hey all,
> >
> >     I'm stuck on a problem. We have a piece of software 
> that must be 
> > used and it was written back in the 80's.
> >
> >     About 4 years ago, I created a FreeDOS installation that ran it 
> > like a champ inside of Virtual PC, both the first and 
> second release 
> > after Microsoft bought out the original developers. I was 
> able to use 
> > the Virtual PC Extensions to share a folder betwen the Host 
> PC and the 
> > "MS DOS" (wink,
> > wink) VM Client.
> >
> >     One of the problems with this setup is that Virtual PC pegs the 
> > CPU utilization up to 100% when running FreeDOS (or any DOS 
> for that 
> > matter), depending primarily on the application being ran. 
> This isn't 
> > something that's great for the longevity of a CPU.
> >
> >     Flash forward to now...
> >
> >     Virtual PC, that is built into Windows 7 no longer supports the 
> > DOS Filesharing bit, along with plenty of other really sweet things 
> > that older Virtual PC versions did. (It's almost funny that what 
> > everyone said Microsoft would do with Virtual PC they ended up 
> > actually doing with Virtual
> > PC...)
> >
> >     So, I've been looking at Virtual Box. It looks good, FreeDOS 
> > boots, I can get it to network so that I can upload and 
> download files 
> > into the Virtual FreeDOS PC using an FTP Server running on 
> the FreeDOS 
> > PC. However, it flat out refuses to run the 800 year old 
> program that 
> > we need. (DOSBox is a no go, I worked around with that too, 
> it doesn't 
> > like basic operations and won't call the external 
> executables that the 
> > main program needs with any amount of success.)
> >
> >     I have taken the original Virtual PC setup, opened that up on 
> > Virtual Box, enabled just the networking and even setup a separate 
> > boot configuration to keep the network packet driver and other 
> > networking bits from stepping on the memory for the 
> important program. 
> > I can transfer files in and out all day, but once I reboot 
> and go to 
> > the same exact configuration that runs perfectly fine on the old 
> > Virtual PC install, the program we need just craps out and runs 
> > roughshod over the FreeDOS memory system/kernel which 
> causes commands 
> > to fail and then it will kick out an Invalid Opcode error 
> refferencing a memory location.
> >
> >     The only thing I can see different between the original working 
> > installation and the setup I need on Virtual Box is the difference 
> > between the Host Virtual Machine software.
> >
> >     Any suggestions?
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> >
> > Regards,
> > Robert Adkins II
> > IT Manager/Buyer
> > Impel Industries, Inc.
> > 586-254-5800
> >
> >
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