VOGONS


Reply 140 of 242, by Bruninho

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I've decided to try out the successor of BeOS - Haiku OS. The system looks quite nice and relatively simple to use.

Had to reinstall to get sound working, though. The 64-bit version has no sound support somehow, only 32-bit with OpenSound install through HaikuDepot.

EDIT: Gave up on it because it is so damn slow and their webbrowser doesn't work that well, especially with YouTube. Thumbs down.

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"Design isn't just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."
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Reply 142 of 242, by Bruninho

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LMAO. Zero Interest. I think PCem on M1 Mac will be better.

"Design isn't just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."
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READ: Right to Repair sucks and is illegal!

Reply 143 of 242, by Bruninho

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Just enabled sound for MacOS 9.2.2 on my UTM iOS install, using usb-audio. No need for a qemu-screamer fork, it seems. More testing is needed to confirm this, but initial results are very encouraging. So far the only issue I had was the shutdown process, it hangs.

"Design isn't just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."
JOBS, Steve.
READ: Right to Repair sucks and is illegal!

Reply 144 of 242, by Bruninho

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Now, this is amazing... https://github.com/knazarov/homebrew-qemu-virgl

"Design isn't just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."
JOBS, Steve.
READ: Right to Repair sucks and is illegal!

Reply 145 of 242, by Bruninho

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Today I used some hours to do a cleanup and shrink some VMware machines sizes. I used 40GB for a XP machine that will never fill it up, so I reduced it to a 16.8GB.

The sizes as they are now:
- Ubuntu 20.04 remains unchanged, has a 25GB HDD, 50% of its storage used; This is a web server for work on Moodle themes and size should increase with its usage.
- Windows XP themed to look like 2000, was 40GB has now 16.8GB, and 50% of its storage used; Used for fun and games and intended to resemble Windows 98.
- DOS 6.22/WFW 3.11 remains unchanged, has 2GB, and 75% of its storage used; Used for fun and games.
- Windows 10 Pro has 60GB, remains unchanged with less than 9GB of storage free (I'd say it's 90% used). This machine is mainly used for work credentials and for Grand Prix 4 game, so particularly because of the certificates/credentials used at work, I will not change anything.

Also tweaked a bit IE8 appearance on XP to be more in line with what we saw from IE6 on Win98. Not 100% exact, but closer.

Edited to update Ubuntu usage description and Windows 10 Pro status on this list.

Last edited by Bruninho on 2021-04-04, 21:31. Edited 1 time in total.

"Design isn't just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."
JOBS, Steve.
READ: Right to Repair sucks and is illegal!

Reply 147 of 242, by Bruninho

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Now checking the QEMU VMs...

- DOS 6.22/WFW 3.11: Remains unchanged at 2.15GB, but has 50% usage and 50% free disk storage;
- Windows 98 SE: Remains unchanged at 8GB, with 5GB usage and 3GB free disk storage;
- macOS 9.2.2: Remans unchanged at 5GB, with 30% usage and 70% free (3.51GB) storage;

The PCem (1) and DOSBox-X (2) VMs will go under a rework to fix and test certain new updates that both projects has brought, especially DOSBox-X with regards to 3Dfx emulation. OpenGlide is now available and supposed to be working for macOS hosts, so Glide passthrough should be possible. PCem is still quite slow on my Intel Mac so with a W95 or streamlined W98 install, or even a M1 in the future things can improve. @almeath has an i9 and a better PCem machine results.

Fortunately, there are other devs working on 3d acceleration for QEMU so it's a matter of time. This project makes it available for Linux VMs on QEMU through VIRGL on macOS Hosts, for both the *hopeless* Intel and *incredibly powerful* M1. They even nicely "packaged it into an easily-installable brew repository". This is something I'll be following closely with a great interest. If and when 3D becomes available for QEMU, then QEMU will be my #1 solution for emulation.

The reason I haven't gone for the M1 yet is because I'd rather wait for the transition to complete. Although the M1 is undeniably impressive, I am not gonna beta test it for nearly two years. When it's rock solid, I'll go after it. Meanwhile, gonna stick to this useless, slow and overheating Intel Mac until OS updates are available.This means a couple of years using QEMU for emulation and VMware for virtualization.

Last edited by Bruninho on 2021-04-05, 01:53. Edited 4 times in total.

"Design isn't just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."
JOBS, Steve.
READ: Right to Repair sucks and is illegal!

Reply 148 of 242, by kjliew

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PCem is *hopeless* on any mobile CPUs the way it was designed. Apple has great products, but even M1X won't bring the magics for PCem. Even without Apple HVF acceleration, you are better off with QEMU TCG and some form of 3D acceleration. At least, some games may still be playable, such as CS 1.6 OpenGL.

You are the only one who thought PCem will be fine with M1. 🤣 Dream on, my friend ...

Reply 149 of 242, by Bruninho

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I am not a fan of any emulator in particular. At the end of the day, I only care about what works best for me without much work.

That said, here is the source code of my opinion, compile it and see it by yourself. Oh, wait, it requires some dependencies to compile. Good luck finding them for your platform of choice.

"Design isn't just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."
JOBS, Steve.
READ: Right to Repair sucks and is illegal!

Reply 151 of 242, by Bruninho

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robertmo wrote on 2021-04-05, 10:10:

I guess you haven't tried qemu in your Windows 10 Pro VM

Nope, because this is a stupid idea.

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READ: Right to Repair sucks and is illegal!

Reply 153 of 242, by Bruninho

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robertmo wrote on 2021-04-05, 13:07:

actually it's a better idea than running native qemu as you can also use dgvoodoo2 this way which allows higher resolutions.

No, it's not what I want because I will not run that Windows VM when I get a M1. I want definitive solutions, not temporary solutions.

"Design isn't just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."
JOBS, Steve.
READ: Right to Repair sucks and is illegal!

Reply 155 of 242, by Bruninho

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robertmo wrote on 2021-04-05, 17:37:

should work fine in rosetta2

Nope. Rosetta 2 does not work for virtualization apps and neither for x86 virtualization.

x86 Windows on M1 is only possible through QEMU.

"Design isn't just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."
JOBS, Steve.
READ: Right to Repair sucks and is illegal!

Reply 156 of 242, by Bruninho

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Managed to get FIFA 99 running with full 3Dfx glory on latest DOSBox-X and high level emulation, thanks to a finally good OpenGlide compilation and a few dosbox configuration fixes. Gonna test Grand Prix 3 and later try to fix the reason why FIFA 98 RTWC is going to black screen on start. This is going to look good.

"Design isn't just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."
JOBS, Steve.
READ: Right to Repair sucks and is illegal!

Reply 157 of 242, by Bruninho

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This night I also managed to screw up a dosbox-x Win98 machine. nice. Then I thought "oh I won't bother reinstalling everything again" and looked at an image of win98 for QEMU I had. "Well, it should work" so I copied it over to my dosbox-x install, converted from qcow2 to raw (thanks to qemu-img) and booted it...

I have to admit, I'm surprised to see that it booted without problems, just missing a few devices without drivers like NE2000 (QEMU uses AMD PCNET). Nice. Luckily I had a win98 folder on C:\ with the CD media so I did not need the CD this time. Alright. Back on the road now.... gotta fix these voodoo drivers. I found the reason why FIFA 98 wasn't starting - the game does not play nice with the drivers I was using in previous install. Once I fixed it, the game at least showed the 3dfx animation. Progress.

FIFA 99, by the other hand, runs fine.

EDIT: Right, fixed. Voodoo emulation with openglide passthrough working fine. FIFA 98 RTWC and FIFA 99 are running in full 3dfx glory on dosbox-x now. Flawless victory.
EDIT2: GP3 definitely needs a much faster machine. Stick this game to QEMU.
EDIT 3: Gonna try NBA Live 97 now...

"Design isn't just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."
JOBS, Steve.
READ: Right to Repair sucks and is illegal!

Reply 158 of 242, by Bruninho

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Not much news these days. UTM has released a new version to try out, and DOSBox-X is still improving.

Meanwhile I am just tidying up a macOS 9.2.2 VM. I have set up a raspberry pi 3B to run two services: Browservice and Cameron Kaiser’s Crypto Ancienne. The first one provides “modern browsing” in a similar way the Web Rendering Proxy does, but better. The second one is specifically for Classilla on macOS 9, provides TLS 1.2 support. Both makes web browsing somewhat better for my VMs (Win 3.11, Win 98, macOS 9).

Crypto Ancienne for Classilla (I do not know if it works for other mozilla based browsers but I suspect it does) does basically the same thing Roytam1’s NSS updates did for me on Netscape 9.0.0.6 under Windows 98SE. TLS 1.2 support and HTTPS sites accessible now.

Both solutions work like a treat, the only downside is the need for a raspberry pi, but it’s understandable.

Now I need to find a way to increase the resolution for a few games under macOS 9... Wolfestein 3D runs in a tiny square, ack....

"Design isn't just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."
JOBS, Steve.
READ: Right to Repair sucks and is illegal!

Reply 159 of 242, by Bruninho

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Right, I'm slowly getting back into the business. I am trying to show up occasionally on #dosbox (irc.freenode.net) and #macgarden channels as a new habit, with both my older VMs (Win 98/mIRC and MacOS9/Ircle). Meanwhile, some light browsing with Browservice to help the developer improve its usefulness.

And I'm also exploring macOS 9 to find out ways to make it still relevant for me these days. The OS and the UI of a pre-OSX operating system is very beautiful. It's just like a time machine to go back to the 90's. The more I learn about it, the more I like it.

"Design isn't just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."
JOBS, Steve.
READ: Right to Repair sucks and is illegal!