Windows 98 SE guest missing CD-ROM drive

Discussions about using Windows guests in VirtualBox.
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Vegito2121
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Joined: 22. Oct 2021, 16:11

Windows 98 SE guest missing CD-ROM drive

Post by Vegito2121 »

I'm using the latest Virtualbox version and I just finished setting up a Windows 98 SE guest on my Windows 10 PC last night and for the most part it works with minimal errors but now it won't detect the disc drive I used in the setup making it so I can't use any ISOs.
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: Windows 98 SE guest missing CD-ROM drive

Post by mpack »

Not really possible IMO. The disk drive is part of the virtual hardware (i.e. its part of the PC), so if it was bad for Win98SE then it would be bad for every other OS we might install - and I'd think someone would notice that.

Make sure that you still have a CD drive as part of the VM recipe. Also make sure it isn't on a SATA controller since Win98 doesn't know anything about SATA.

And tell us what the VirtualBox version is. Better yet provide a VM log.
Vegito2121
Posts: 6
Joined: 22. Oct 2021, 16:11

Re: Windows 98 SE guest missing CD-ROM drive

Post by Vegito2121 »

mpack wrote:Not really possible IMO. The disk drive is part of the virtual hardware (i.e. its part of the PC), so if it was bad for Win98SE then it would be bad for every other OS we might install - and I'd think someone would notice that.

Make sure that you still have a CD drive as part of the VM recipe. Also make sure it isn't on a SATA controller since Win98 doesn't know anything about SATA.

And tell us what the VirtualBox version is. Better yet provide a VM log.
Here's the log of the VM and I'm on version 6.1.28 and I'm pretty sure I have the CD drive enabled as far as I can tell.
Attachments
Windows98 SE-2021-10-22-10-03-57.log
(95.35 KiB) Downloaded 64 times
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: Windows 98 SE guest missing CD-ROM drive

Post by mpack »

I don't see any error in the log regarding the ISO. It seems to be treated normally. However it does seem to be suspiciously small, only 136 sectors. And I believe that is referring to 512 byte sectors, not the 2048 byte sectors of the data CD spec. In that case the ISO is only 68KB, including the filesystem and all files, which seems a bit light.

Where did this ISO come from? How was it created and by whom?

What happens if you open the ISO in Windows Explorer on the host? (Right click the ISO, Open With, choose Windows Explorer). Can you access the contents (not just display the directory)?

Also - you can turn off 3D graphics acceleration. There are no Guest Additions for Win9x, hence no possible way to access the graphics chipset.
Vegito2121
Posts: 6
Joined: 22. Oct 2021, 16:11

Re: Windows 98 SE guest missing CD-ROM drive

Post by Vegito2121 »

mpack wrote:I don't see any error in the log regarding the ISO. It seems to be treated normally. However it does seem to be suspiciously small, only 136 sectors. And I believe that is referring to 512 byte sectors, not the 2048 byte sectors of the data CD spec. In that case the ISO is only 68KB, including the filesystem and all files, which seems a bit light.

Where did this ISO come from? How was it created and by whom?

What happens if you open the ISO in Windows Explorer on the host? (Right click the ISO, Open With, choose Windows Explorer). Can you access the contents (not just display the directory)?

Also - you can turn off 3D graphics acceleration. There are no Guest Additions for Win9x, hence no possible way to access the graphics chipset.
I got the ISO from a Mega link in this video tutorial for 256 color mode on Windows 98 https://youtu.be/WFTCazn199I because I've been trying desperately to get 256 color mode enabled in the VM for games that require it which is most of the games I wanted this VM for in the first place.
KDulcimer
Posts: 6
Joined: 2. Nov 2007, 18:42

Re: Windows 98 SE guest missing CD-ROM drive

Post by KDulcimer »

I'm having the exact same issue. It doesn't matter where I put the drive on the IDE system, it won't appear in Win 98 SE.
KDulcimer
Posts: 6
Joined: 2. Nov 2007, 18:42

Re: Windows 98 SE guest missing CD-ROM drive

Post by KDulcimer »

Vegito2121 wrote:I'm using the latest Virtualbox version and I just finished setting up a Windows 98 SE guest on my Windows 10 PC last night and for the most part it works with minimal errors but now it won't detect the disc drive I used in the setup making it so I can't use any ISOs.
Did you do the fix for the missing DLL? Disable all 32-bit protected-mode disk drivers? I wonder if that's it.
Vegito2121
Posts: 6
Joined: 22. Oct 2021, 16:11

Re: Windows 98 SE guest missing CD-ROM drive

Post by Vegito2121 »

KDulcimer wrote:
Vegito2121 wrote:I'm using the latest Virtualbox version and I just finished setting up a Windows 98 SE guest on my Windows 10 PC last night and for the most part it works with minimal errors but now it won't detect the disc drive I used in the setup making it so I can't use any ISOs.
Did you do the fix for the missing DLL? Disable all 32-bit protected-mode disk drivers? I wonder if that's it.
Now that you mention it I did do that fix. Brb I'm gonna reverse that real quick and come back.
Vegito2121
Posts: 6
Joined: 22. Oct 2021, 16:11

Re: Windows 98 SE guest missing CD-ROM drive

Post by Vegito2121 »

Re-enabling those did the trick. It is now detecting ISOs and still booting up just fine.
KDulcimer
Posts: 6
Joined: 2. Nov 2007, 18:42

Re: Windows 98 SE guest missing CD-ROM drive

Post by KDulcimer »

I just installed 98 SE on a Linux Mint host, still version 6.1 of VBox, and the CD-ROM drive shows up just fine.

There were a lot more errors in setup, though. May have been my particular settings.
KDulcimer
Posts: 6
Joined: 2. Nov 2007, 18:42

Re: Windows 98 SE guest missing CD-ROM drive

Post by KDulcimer »

Apparently 98 has the worst time trying to run on Ryzen and Bulldozer systems. Unfortunately, that's all I have around here right now...
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: Windows 98 SE guest missing CD-ROM drive

Post by mpack »

Vegito2121 wrote: I've been trying desperately to get 256 color mode enabled in the VM for games that require it
It shouldn't be that hard. My own Win98SE VM uses the BearWindows VESA driver as discussed in our Howto tutorial on Win9x guests. I use it in a 32bit color mode since you always want the color depth to match the host for the fastest possible rendering. However the BearWindows driver supports a 256-color mode too if that's really necessary. I just tested it and it seems to work fine.
Vegito2121
Posts: 6
Joined: 22. Oct 2021, 16:11

Re: Windows 98 SE guest missing CD-ROM drive

Post by Vegito2121 »

mpack wrote:
Vegito2121 wrote: I've been trying desperately to get 256 color mode enabled in the VM for games that require it
It shouldn't be that hard. My own Win98SE VM uses the BearWindows VESA driver as discussed in our Howto tutorial on Win9x guests. I use it in a 32bit color mode since you always want the color depth to match the host for the fastest possible rendering. However the BearWindows driver supports a 256-color mode too if that's really necessary. I just tested it and it seems to work fine.
Thanks for the tip. The 256 mode still doesn't work but both 32 bit color modes do and the games that required 256 are working perfectly on the 32 bit modes exactly how I remembered them.
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: Windows 98 SE guest missing CD-ROM drive

Post by mpack »

The 256 color mode definitely works on my PC, and I don't see how it's possible for it to not work on yours: it doesn't require anything from the host hardware, so if you installed the linked BearWindows driver then this feature must work. It would be like saying you can get Win10 to work but not Win7.

Also, there's only one 32bit color mode. I can't imagine why there would ever be two. The modes offered in <right click desktop>|Properties|Settings|Colors are "2 Colors", "16 Colors", "256 Colors", "High Color (16 bit)", "True Color (24 bit)" and finally "True Color (32 bit)". Only the last one is a 32bit color mode and so will not require processing to be compatible with modern hosts, assuming of course that the host isn't so modern that it's using 10/12 bit HDR.
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