First post, by CZM
Hello, this is ZM.C. I'd like to report the installation of W98Se on DOSBox0.74 and
a patch that changes the DL of boot.com, supports up to 4 HDD images and free
geometric type of FDD images.
A few days ago, I saw the thread of guides about installing W95b on this forum.
Following the settings and procedures, I succeeded. (except that using core=dynamic).
It was stable and speedily. I was so happy, similar to the previous poster 😁.
And I wondered how about W98Se...
After days of trails and errors, I've seen W98Se running on DOSBox0.74.
Without audio and net, it is stable. And it's fast than VirtualBox I ever used.
(However, the more powerful CPU would be more helpful to emulate more hardware)
Here below is the report:
1. It might be better that DOSBox does not call DLL externally, uses static Lib instead.
2. Edit dosbox.conf
[sdl]
priority=higher,lower
[dosbox]
machine=svga_s3
memsize=31
[cpu]
core=dynamic
cputype=pentium_slow
cycles=auto 8192 99%
Disable all other hardware emulation or leave the options as default values.
3. Use 3 images to speed up the installation. One is for source(>160M) , other one is
for destination(>256M) and the last one is for temp( >32M).
During the installing, choose compact/minimal hardware/software for now.
It takes about 2 hours to finish the installation, although the W98 claim 1 hour...
After 1 hour of beginning, the timer meter shows 20 min remained. 1st reboot.
No error happened till now. Choose "close and go on" if there's any error occurred.
While the timer meter shows 7 minutes remained, the 1st error occurred.
At 3 minutes remained, the 2nd error occurred.
4. Finally the installation is finished the and the system runs in normal mode.
If you want to use the "DOSPROMPT", uncheck the ROM EMU option, choose FULL SCREEN.
Run the DOSPROMPT, and type "mode co80" if the screen is blank.
Now we can change the hardware configurations,
e.g. higher resolution 1024*768*256 color, audio and net.
But these changes might cause the Explorer unhappy.
Increasing the frameskips or cpu cycles or decreasing the audio rate to make it happy again.
It would fail to execute DOSBox in this virtual machine.
5. Wishes and questions.
Wish that the command Boot.com reserve the boot disk_no in DL.
Support 2 more hdd images.
Support free geometry type of FDD.
( I'd implemented them in a patch as attached)
Is it possible to use memory block move in the INT13_Handler?
W98 usually save the video rom in C:\videorom.bin, will it be an issue to DOSBox?
In W98 dos mode, 2 floppy are functional. But floppy B's disappeared in the windows mode ?
6. List of files in the attachment
_Report.txt --- this text file.
2 conf(s), for installing/normal running phases.
6 screenshots.
A patch as item 6 stated.
The app I built and used to install W98Se.
P.S. some tools to mount images I known
vmware-mount -- free. mounts hdd images. I mostly used.
filedisk -- open source. mounts un-partitioned (single partition) image.
vfd -- open source. mounts floppy image.
winImage -- shareware.
osfmount -- free. supports many types of image. I just heard it recently
DOSBox+W9x+net-- a huge collection but completed. That's why I try to extend to 4 HDDs.
03/11/2012