Running OS/2 under Virtualbox

[Yoda]

I'm finally happy to report that 3.5 years after first writing the original post in this thread, VB 4.2.0 has fixed the problems I was having. Admittedly I had to revert to using os2apic.psd instead of acpi.psd but that doesn't concern me in the least.

I use latest available ACPI here, and it works fine with Vbox. Even the shutdown feature
does now work.

What I have now running under CentOS 5 is an OS/2 system with dual processors, 2GB RAM, 2 virtual disks and it has functioning network and USB hard disks. Even the video has no problems running with SNAP 3.1.8.

That seams to be not quite true .......

So far, 4.2.0 seems to allow use of all of them though I have had a few hangs on PM startup creating the desktop but those used to happen anyway before, they just seem a bit more frequent now than before... but a quick Ctrl-Alt-Del almost always fixes it next time around so...

That is a know problem with SNAP, which isn't SMP safe. With ex. 4 CPUs enabled, it hangs
hard at every startup here.

I tried sysbenching SNAP, Panorama and Gengradd. There is not any big difference.
Dive is same for all - Panorama and Gengradd completely the same, and SNAP a bit
faster than the others in Graphics tests.
Since Panorama has its own quirks, I'll say Gengradd looks like the best choice for
>1 CPU use in VBOX

[Yoda]

Hi Trevor,

could you post VM configuration details and kernel/drivers used inside guest? here I'm trying to get the same using a Ubuntu 12.04 host, but only single CPU configurations are working well. After I enable SMP using os2apic or acpi, I get trap 8 at random places (even while booting), or solid hangs of the system. (ecomstation 2.1 as guest).

thanks!

How old is your PC Yuri ?
My old laptop which do have VT-X support, do not work with eCS at all.
I ended up buying a new laptop, and here we are, running eCS in Vbox with
no problems. With the old one I got Trap 8's and random Guru mediations -
even in UNI mode

[ydario]

How old is your PC Yuri ?

This is a Dell Vostro 1520, cpu is an intel P8600 if I recall correctly.

eComstation inside vbox works well only with one cpu enabled, even if SMP kernel is installed. Instability starts when os2apic or acpi are enabled.

Maybe Trevor's VM configuration can help on my side too.

[Yoda]

How old is your PC Yuri ?

This is a Dell Vostro 1520, cpu is an intel P8600 if I recall correctly.

My old one, that doesn't work is a core duo - yours seem to
be 2 years newer, so it should have a better chance, I assume.

eComstation inside vbox works well only with one cpu enabled, even if SMP kernel is installed. Instability starts when os2apic or acpi are enabled.

Maybe Trevor's VM configuration can help on my side too.

Well, here it is a plain eCS 2.1 install, with SMP kernel as it is included,
and with latest ACPI incl the added bugfixed doscall1 and keyboard drives. This works fine on new laptop.

[ydario]

Well, here it is a plain eCS 2.1 install, with SMP kernel as it is included,
and with latest ACPI incl the added bugfixed doscall1 and keyboard drives. This works fine on new laptop.

I tried kernel .105 smp with gradd and acpi 3.21.02, no way, it restarts after switching to graphics or immediately after loading desktop.
Disabled mouse integration and same problem.

do you use jfs or hpfs for boot partition?

[Yoda]

I tried kernel .105 smp with gradd and acpi 3.21.02, no way, it restarts after switching to graphics or immediately after loading desktop.
Disabled mouse integration and same problem.

do you use jfs or hpfs for boot partition?

JFS. Same kernel and ACPI, and mouse integration.
Gengradd and Panorama works fine here with 4 virtual CPU's.
SNAP max 3 virtual CPU´s, but it still sometimes hangs when
switching to graphics mode.

[ydario]

JFS. Same kernel and ACPI, and mouse integration.
Gengradd and Panorama works fine here with 4 virtual CPU's.
SNAP max 3 virtual CPU´s, but it still sometimes hangs when
switching to graphics mode.

which vbox version? host os?

[Yoda]

which vbox version? host os?

4.2.0 Win 7 64 bit

[ydario]

I got it to work in SMP mode! )

There are two vbox features not compatible with os2 guest, at least here:
1) SATA Controller with AHCI driver;
2) I/O host cache for controllers

Adding sata for boot disk or enabling I/O cache results in VM reboots without trap screen.

Now systems seems quite stable, used it for hours and got only a couple of freeze locks, but this could happen also under native os2.
I need only to discover the cause of a 10% IRQ load, which was not present in earlier SMP setups...

Using host-only networking, I can read/write to the host samba OS at about 9-10 MB/s one way and 6-7 MB/s the other way.

virtual box 4.2, smp kernel 14.105, acpi 3.21.02, panorama driver with mtrr patch at 1400x900 custom resolution.

[Yoda]

I got it to work in SMP mode! )

There are two vbox features not compatible with os2 guest, at least here:
1) SATA Controller with AHCI driver;

Right. I had same experience when I tried to add a AHCI virtual disk.
I wanted to speed test and compare it to IDE controller - but it
traps or resets, when SATA disk is accessed.

There is already 1 report about Vbox problems with AHCI driver in bugtracker.

[JonH]

This has been an informative thread. Thank you, posters.
I'm considering buying a used Dell Optiplex 775 that has in intel E6700 processor. This processor supposedly has VT-x but I have not yet looked at the bios setup screeen.

In another thread "michain" suggested that anything older than an i3 core was "not worth using for virtualization in 2012".

How about some opinions on running eCS guest on Suse with that Optiplex 775? The price for the Dell is only $500 but if it just isn't "going to cut it" running VBox I'd hate to waste those funds. I've decided to make Suse my primary OS and want to be able to run some OS/2 apps in VBox.

BTW, eCS v2.0 runs ok in VBox v3.2.12 on my Thinkpad T61 under XP. It isn't blazingly fast but it does what I need if I'm not using the browser.

Jon

[michaln]

I'm considering buying a used Dell Optiplex 775 that has in intel E6700 processor. This processor supposedly has VT-x but I have not yet looked at the bios setup screeen.

There's a Core 2 Duo E6700 and a Pentium E6700 (yay for Intel's product matrix). They're based on the Conroe and Wolfdale microarchitectures respectively, which means two generations behind. The overall performance isn't going to be quite comparable to the current Ivy Bridge Core i3/i5/i7 machines, and the difference is going to be far more pronounced when it comes to virtualization. $500 is IMHO far too much for a system built around such an outdated processor.

FWIW, I bought a similar CPU in 2006 (a Core 2 Duo based on the Conroe microarchitecture). It was really great in 2006... but now we're getting close to 2013.

[JonH]

michain:

Thanks for those comments. I tend to buy hardware a few generations older to avoid the rather large price hit for the "latest & greatest". I'm still running scsi HD's!! That said, I do recognize that buying something 6 yrs old is probably foolish and have trashed that plan. Today I found a "Dell Vostro 470 "Ivy Bridge" Core i5 Desktop" for $500 but haven't checked to see what add-on are required to make it useful or whether it even meets my needs, other than that's it's new.

Thanks for talking me out of the E6700.

Jon

[michaln]

Well, Ivy Bridge is definitely good for virtualization

[Martin]

I've managed to install and run eCS in Vbox on a Thinkpad X100e with an AMD Turion L625, 3GB RAM and Windows 7
It seems to run well but I didn't do much with it.