Windows 98 (Win98) general discussion
Posted: 26. Dec 2007, 22:11
Since this site has no topic search capability, I suggest including a
continuing discussion thread here about Windows 98 issues, to permit
a single point of reference which can include anything useful in
working with these guests, and which can be text searched by the user
offline.
I have a few obversations and a question:
(Win98SE guest on Win2k SP4 host)
1. Scitech Display Doctor 7 needs no 'crack' to disable the 21 day
timeout; it can be 'registered' from the app's user interface using
a known-good registration code. I have tested the timeout by
advancing the clock and report that all references to 'trial period'
are gone.
2. SDD 7 took about six reboots during installation and configuration
to get it to recognize the VM's virtual display adapter and to set and
retain display modes and resolutions. On at least four reboots
the VM hung and needed power cycling.
3. Running the app 'sdd.exe' may sometimes produce no visible window
and it will need to be killed. Often it takes up to five minutes to
display (it seems to be doing system analysis, which it reports
when it is visible).
4. Network IP routing between the guest and host works when IP packet
forwarding is enabled in the host's registry (must be manually
changed) and persistent (published) routes set up on the host,
and the virtual NIC is set up as a TAP interface (not bridging or NAT).
5. Installing 'amnhlt.vxd' on the guest really reduces host CPU load
and does seem to improve guest responsiveness as well.
6. The lack of 'shared folders' support for this guest is really not an
issue; one can set up SMB shares on the host and mount them
in the guest in the conventional fashion.
Question 1:
I need to do IPX packet forwarding in the Win2k Pro host in order
to use the Novell client on the Win98SE guest; what registry changes
and/or components are necessary on the host? What components
moved from Win2k Server, NT3.51 Server or NT4.0 Server to the
Win2k Pro host might work? Win2k Pro has a (limited) version of
'nwlink' and also 'ipxroute.exe'.
Observation 1:
The successful setup of a Win98SE guest inside Win2k Pro (or other
hosts for that matter) permits integration of a number of previously
incompatible environments; for example, I can now use my Canon
CD-300 dye sub photo printer on a Win2k host (or using RDP on
other host O/Ses) even though it is limited to a Win95/98 driver).
Since Virtualbox does not support the parallel port, the printer
must be connected to a network printer server device (I use HP
Jetdirect boxes). Also, if IPX can be made to work, I can now
administer Arcserve 6.x on Netware from Win2k (or other O/Ses)
and avoid the need for a separate Win95/98 client machine for
the task (or dual booting a workstation). This version of
Arcserve serves us well in a heterogeneous environment of Netware
and Unix hosts and newer backup systems have dropped support
for many of them, so maintaining it is essential. The mananger
program won't handle device control on versions of Windows
newer than Win98SE so the virtualization of this environment is
extremely useful.
I also do embedded development on DOS and Win3.1 and find
virtualization very useful here as well. I suspect that there are
many more folks leveraging the environment to enhance mature
software environments than Innotek believes; people please speak
up!
Regards,
Michael
continuing discussion thread here about Windows 98 issues, to permit
a single point of reference which can include anything useful in
working with these guests, and which can be text searched by the user
offline.
I have a few obversations and a question:
(Win98SE guest on Win2k SP4 host)
1. Scitech Display Doctor 7 needs no 'crack' to disable the 21 day
timeout; it can be 'registered' from the app's user interface using
a known-good registration code. I have tested the timeout by
advancing the clock and report that all references to 'trial period'
are gone.
2. SDD 7 took about six reboots during installation and configuration
to get it to recognize the VM's virtual display adapter and to set and
retain display modes and resolutions. On at least four reboots
the VM hung and needed power cycling.
3. Running the app 'sdd.exe' may sometimes produce no visible window
and it will need to be killed. Often it takes up to five minutes to
display (it seems to be doing system analysis, which it reports
when it is visible).
4. Network IP routing between the guest and host works when IP packet
forwarding is enabled in the host's registry (must be manually
changed) and persistent (published) routes set up on the host,
and the virtual NIC is set up as a TAP interface (not bridging or NAT).
5. Installing 'amnhlt.vxd' on the guest really reduces host CPU load
and does seem to improve guest responsiveness as well.
6. The lack of 'shared folders' support for this guest is really not an
issue; one can set up SMB shares on the host and mount them
in the guest in the conventional fashion.
Question 1:
I need to do IPX packet forwarding in the Win2k Pro host in order
to use the Novell client on the Win98SE guest; what registry changes
and/or components are necessary on the host? What components
moved from Win2k Server, NT3.51 Server or NT4.0 Server to the
Win2k Pro host might work? Win2k Pro has a (limited) version of
'nwlink' and also 'ipxroute.exe'.
Observation 1:
The successful setup of a Win98SE guest inside Win2k Pro (or other
hosts for that matter) permits integration of a number of previously
incompatible environments; for example, I can now use my Canon
CD-300 dye sub photo printer on a Win2k host (or using RDP on
other host O/Ses) even though it is limited to a Win95/98 driver).
Since Virtualbox does not support the parallel port, the printer
must be connected to a network printer server device (I use HP
Jetdirect boxes). Also, if IPX can be made to work, I can now
administer Arcserve 6.x on Netware from Win2k (or other O/Ses)
and avoid the need for a separate Win95/98 client machine for
the task (or dual booting a workstation). This version of
Arcserve serves us well in a heterogeneous environment of Netware
and Unix hosts and newer backup systems have dropped support
for many of them, so maintaining it is essential. The mananger
program won't handle device control on versions of Windows
newer than Win98SE so the virtualization of this environment is
extremely useful.
I also do embedded development on DOS and Win3.1 and find
virtualization very useful here as well. I suspect that there are
many more folks leveraging the environment to enhance mature
software environments than Innotek believes; people please speak
up!
Regards,
Michael