Windows 2000 Advanced Server and PAE

Discussions about using Windows guests in VirtualBox.
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VBProblems
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Joined: 1. Sep 2014, 17:33

Windows 2000 Advanced Server and PAE

Post by VBProblems »

My virtual machine breaks when PAE is enabled on the machine with the boot.ini. Nothing appears besides a blank blue screen after logging in. This setup used to work perfectly on one of the recent previous versions of VirtualBox. The log file is attached.
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Logs.7z
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VBProblems
Posts: 32
Joined: 1. Sep 2014, 17:33

Re: Windows 2000 Advanced Server and PAE

Post by VBProblems »

I wasn't sure whether to post this here or in the bug reports...
mpack
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Re: Windows 2000 Advanced Server and PAE

Post by mpack »

This Microsoft doc page: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/window ... -extension

... makes no mention that any version of Win2K supported PAE.
fth0
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Re: Windows 2000 Advanced Server and PAE

Post by fth0 »

FWIW, Wikipedia does mention it: Physical Address Extension - Operating system support. Perhaps Microsoft eliminated older OSes than Windows XP from some of its web pages. Note that in 32-bit OSes you need PAE already for NX support, independent of the amount of available memory.

I'll take a look at the log file later ...
fth0
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Re: Windows 2000 Advanced Server and PAE

Post by fth0 »

There are some differences between the two newer and the two older VBox.log files:

ntkrnlpa.exe (PAE support, no SMP) is used instead of ntoskrnl.exe (no PAE support, no SMP), which is expected. VBoxGuest.sys, the XPDM graphics driver and VBoxService.exe are started, but VBoxTray.exe is not, which is unexpected.

This means that something went wrong, but doesn't give me a direct hint on what the problem is. I'd suggest to analyze within the guest OS (I don't know how to do that on Windows 2000 Advanced Server, does it have an Event Log?), or to question if a physical installation of Windows 2000 Advanced Server allows to switch between its kernels without re-installing.
VBProblems
Posts: 32
Joined: 1. Sep 2014, 17:33

Re: Windows 2000 Advanced Server and PAE

Post by VBProblems »

I did some more troubleshooting. Windows Server 2003 32-bit works fine on all my computers with PAE + 8GB of RAM + nested paging enabled. Windows 2000 Advanced Server also runs without issue with PAE + 8GB of RAM + nested paging enabled on my intel machine (Skylake). Windows 2000 Advanced Server runs great with PAE and 8GB of RAM, *if* nested paging is *disabled* on my AMD Ryzen 3100 computer. The log files I attached are for the Ryzen 3100 computer.

Basically, this bug appears to require VirtualBox + Windows 2000 Advanced Server + PAE + nested paging + AMD Ryzen computer. Most importantly, Windows 2000. Windows 2000 refuses to go beyond the start/password screen and freezes. The blue background is all that ever appears. I assume that would explain the failure to load VBoxTray.exe

I discovered an interesting bug/glitch and I will definitely be doing yet more troubleshooting and create another guest to test it with.
Last edited by VBProblems on 24. Jun 2022, 21:49, edited 1 time in total.
fth0
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Re: Windows 2000 Advanced Server and PAE

Post by fth0 »

VBProblems wrote:I discovered an interesting bug/glitch and I will definitely be doing yet more troubleshooting and create another guest to test it with.
Based on your new test descriptions, I'll make an educated guess:

There is a known issue with AMD CPUs executing Windows 95|98|Me on physical PCs (and in VMs), and I wouldn't be surprised if the same base problem exists on some Windows NT variants. See Windows 9x TLB Invalidation Bug and TLB and Pagewalk Coherence in x86 Processors for the gory details.

If you have an external SSD available, you could install Windows 2000 Advanced Server on it and try if your host can run that installation without a virtual machine being involved.

Please keep reporting what you discover, I'm all eyes. ;)
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