How do I use VESA driver in Win98SE in VirtualBox?

[Ben321]

I have a VirtualBox running Win98SE, but it is limited to 640x480 and 16 colors. I downloaded a universal VESA driver from http://bearwindows.boot-land.net/vbe9x.htm and installed it, but I can't get it to give me better resolutions above 800x600. Any resolution above 800x600 it automatically bumps up the bitdepth to 256 colors, and while that sounds good, it causes VirtualBox to crash, almost as if VirtualBox is intentionally nerfing the emulated monitor's (or graphic card's) capabilities. Any time I select a bitdepth above 16 colors, it automatically crashes the virtual computer. Is this an inherant limitation of Windows 98SE? Or is it VirtualBox simply not emulating a graphics card with higher bitdepth capability, when I select "Windows 98" as the machine type when I initially set up the virtual machine? Do I need to lie to it, and tell it I'm setting up a Windows XP machine, to get it to emulate a better graphics card?

[socratis]

Do I need to lie to it, and tell it I'm setting up a Windows XP machine, to get it to emulate a better graphics card?

No, no way! You do NOT want to lie about the guest OS/version, the GPU is the same in any event...

In the Howtos and Tutorials » Windows Guests section of the forums, there are a couple of FAQs that can help you:

• Tutorial: Windows 95/98 guest OSes
• Windows 98SE step by step
• Win98SE with ACPI - Success At Last!

[Ben321]

I tried the Scitech Virutal Display Doctor driver but it is a trial version. Further research shows that they went out of business. However, according to one post I've read, before they went out of business they decided to release their driver as freeware so people could use it without registering it. According to other posts I've read though, it was not released as freeware, but people have illegally posted serial numbers that can be used to register it. Which is the truth? Was it ever officially released as freeware? If so, where can I download a copy of the freeware version of it?

[Ben321]

The Scitech Display Doctor driver is NOT able to detect the emulated graphics card. It lists it as "unknown". And you know in that tutorial viewtopic.php?f=28&t=32989 that's posted that says to enable the driver with the option button? Well after doing that it tells me to reboot. And after rebooting it automatically reverts back to the driver being disabled. Whatever changes were made to virtual box since 2015 (when the tutorial was written for how to use Scitech video driver in VirtualBox), has made this driver no longer able to detect the emulated graphics card, and thereby made the driver no longer function. So until Oracle fixes this bug in VirtualBox, I will be STUCK with a copy of Windows98 running at 640x480 and 16 colors. I don't know why companies (like Oracle) always insist on adding new features in their software (like VirtualBox) at the expense of breaking old features (like being compatible with the Scitech Display Doctor driver).

[mpack]

Read the FAQ - there are alternatives to the Scitec driver. I personally prefer the BearWindows driver. But both work fine. Neither are supported.

I've never heard of a freeware version of the Scitec driver. If you heard differently then I suggest you ask questions wherever you heard it. AFAIK the SciTec driver was trialware, with registration required to bypass the nag screens. My lack of interest in hacking nagware is the main reason I stick with BearWindows.

[socratis]

I will be STUCK with a copy of Windows98 running at 640x480 and 16 colors. I don't know why companies (like Oracle) always insist on adding new features in their software (like VirtualBox) at the expense of breaking old features (like being compatible with the Scitech Display Doctor driver).

“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”
– Yoda

[Ben321]

Read the FAQ - there are alternatives to the Scitec driver. I personally prefer the BearWindows driver. But both work fine. Neither are supported.

I've never heard of a freeware version of the Scitec driver. If you heard differently then I suggest you ask questions wherever you heard it. AFAIK the SciTec driver was trialware, with registration required to bypass the nag screens. My lack of interest in hacking nagware is the main reason I stick with BearWindows.

I read in one of the tutorials that the Scitec driver is the better one, and the BearWindows one had trouble with displaying fonts and other bugs. None of the drivers work, because as soon as you try to set a bit depth above 16 colors and reboot, upon reboot it tells you (with an error dialog box) that that's an invalid setting, and reverts it back to 16 colors.

[andyp73]

None of the drivers work

This may win the award for non-sensical statement of the day. As you have been told there are many people using both drivers in Windows 98 guests. If there is a problem it is with your setup.

For reasons lost in the mists of time, my Windows 98 guest is set for 44MB of video memory and uses the BearWindows driver. Specifically the download I used is the 140214 beta release from here. When installing the driver I think I used the 64MB version.

-Andy.

[Ben321]

Are you using 98, or 98SE (second edition)? Mine is SE.

[mpack]

Mine is SE. Both 98 and 98SE use the same WDM driver model, so it shouldn't matter which of those guests is involved, and besides which no-one else has reported a difficulty.

I imagine most people install SE: it's the bugfixed version of Win98. If you wanted to accomplish something real with a Win98 VM then I can't imagine why the buggy option would be attractive.

[socratis]

I used the Win98SE last night to verify that indeed the BearWindows drivers work. And they do. I chose the 64 MB option. Deviations from the default template include:

• RAM: 256 MB
• VRAM: 64 MB

I made an ISO from the BearWindowsVGADriver20140214 driver. I mounted it in the Win98SE VM as "D:\".

Right-click on the desktop » Properties » Settings » Advanced » Adapter » Change... » Next » Display a list of drivers » Next » Have disk... » Browse » "D:\032mb\vbemp.inf" » OK all the way out of the dialogs. It asks to restart.

Right-click on the desktop » Properties » Settings » change the resolution to the one you want.