Corrupted display - Freedos / VMWare player \ VOGONS

Corrupted display - Freedos / VMWare player

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First post, by compused

Posted on 2007-02-01, 21:40

compused Offline

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Location: Melbourne, Australia

Hello
I am using Freedos beta9 Service Release #2 (2005-11-30) within VMWare player 1.0.3 build-34682. The host OS is windows XP with video display 1024 x 768 pixels

The Freedos partition is 200megs, FAT16. Freedos has been installed on the partition and boots from it.

This site has been recommend for a frustrating problem. I am trying to run a dos application (its not a game) but instead of seeing for example the usual rows and columns against a coloured background, I am seeing some of the expected text up the top, against a black background

Is there a way to troubleshoot this please?

Could it be the video display - but I don't know how u change the video display in this situation? Can this be done via freedos? I am using the standard

Regards to all & thanks to anyone who can help

Compused 😦 😦

...still a little bit compused

Reply 1 of 7, by wd

Posted on 2007-02-01, 21:55

wd Offline

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What program? Do you have a screenshot of the bad display?

Reply 2 of 7, by DosFreak

Posted on 2007-02-01, 22:02

DosFreak Offline

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Your not going to have much luck with DOS applications in Vmware.

You should try:

DosBox
or
Virtual PC 2004 or 2007 (not Virtual Server)

How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
Make your games work offline

Reply 3 of 7, by compused

Posted on 2007-02-04, 07:38

compused Offline

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Location: Melbourne, Australia

Thanks for this. Not working under Windows Virtual PC either.

I understand that the newer chip sets in display adapders do not support the 8 x 14 (VGA) font in their BIOSs. I read that this VGA font is used in older DOS games, so you get garbage / scrambled /corrupted text characters on screen.

The reference is: http://www.soleau.com/tsr.html

Is there any work around in e.g. freedos eg via the 'mode' setting and how does one make changes to 'mode', or is there is there some other way?

Would appreciate any help.

Regards
Compused 😁

...still a little bit compused

Reply 4 of 7, by wd

Posted on 2007-02-04, 11:17

wd Offline

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Did you try it in dosbox? Is the program (without name) from the
same company as you provided a link to?

Reply 5 of 7, by compused

Posted on 2007-02-04, 13:52

compused Offline

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Location: Melbourne, Australia

yes...thank you for that recommendation. It works in dosbox...but unfortunately dosbox does NOT have printing functionality. There is an addon, but that did not work

so it is very difficult.

I may need to buy a new graphics card, that has backwards compatibility for 8x14 font support

Again, yours in compusion

Compused

...still a little bit compused

Reply 6 of 7, by wd

Posted on 2007-02-04, 13:57

wd Offline

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Try bochs, not sure how far they support lpt access and/or printing though.

Reply 7 of 7, by Jorpho

Posted on 2007-02-06, 20:33

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compused wrote:
Is there any work around in e.g. freedos eg via the 'mode' setting and how does one make changes to 'mode', or is there is there some other way?

This is strictly a problem with the fact that the data needed to render the font just isn't in the video card's memory. (In the case of Virtual PC or vmware, it's not in the emulated video card's memory.)

Is there some reason you cannot use the FIX8X14 TSR mentioned on that page you linked to? That should fix the problem. It is highly unlikely you will be able to find a current video card that supports this font in hardware, and even if you did it still probably wouldn't fix the problem in Virtual PC or vmware.

In any case, the problem you described in your first post doesn't sound at all like the 8x14 problem. If I am not mistaken, that problem only causes text to appear garbled, rather than making the text appear in entirely different positions. Can you take a screenshot?

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