win 98 on vista

oscar615 · Post by **oscar615** » 9. Mar 2008, 02:43

I have an old scanner I want to run. So I need to install win 98 in virtualbox on a vista host. I have a couple of questions though.
1. I have three copies of win 98. None will install on virtual box because none are bootable cd's Win 98 came with a setup.exe file. So my question is how to install Win 98? It does not seem possible, as virtualbox tries to boot off of the cd. And then tells me no bootable media. But there must be a way since virtualbox will let you create a win98 machines.

2. The scanner runs off of the parallel port and then passes through to the printer. How would I set this up?

And one other question. I also tried to set up ubunto server 7.10. As a lamp server. It would install until it restarted and then give me the error "Panic: CPU to old for this kernel" and it won't start. Yet the desktop version with the same kernel runs fine. And I seriously doubt the cpu really is to old. Any thoughts on this?

Thanks for any help.
Robert

My machine:
amd64 2800+ 1.8ghz
120gig HD
1.25 Gig ram
geforce fx5200
Vista home premium
Ubuntu 7.10 desktop version in virtual box

Post by **JohnG** » 9. Mar 2008, 05:46

Regarding parallel ports... it's my understanding that VirtualBox doesn't support them.

> None will install on virtual box because none are bootable cd's

As far as I know, Win98 never came as a bootable CD. There was always a boot floppy included in the package. You need to find yourself a bootable floppy that includes CDROM support (Google might give you some links). One option is to make a bootable Win98 CD yourself -- you would use Nero (or other burner software), using files from the bootable floppy and the Win98 CD.

hth,
John

Technologov · Post by **Technologov** » 9. Mar 2008, 10:44

incorrect.

There were Windows 98 SE (Second Edition) bootable CDs shipped. I even played with one.

Post by **JohnG** » 9. Mar 2008, 13:26

I stand corrected. :-)

oscar615 · Post by **oscar615** » 9. Mar 2008, 20:12

Thanks for the input guys. Like I said I have three disks of win 98. two are SE. None are bootable but with a setup.exe file instead. I tried the win 98 boot disc, to boot with cd support. But it hangs during the loading of the aspi manager. I never get to the command line prompt to be able to start setup.exe. I will try to get another boot disk and see if it will work. But because of this problem I may not be able to load win98.

Robert

snake92069 · Post by **snake92069** » 9. Mar 2008, 23:11

Try making a virtual image of one of those SE disk. Install FreeDOS and use its Xcopy to install the file to the hard drive. i've got FreeDOS, GEM, and 98SE working on one Virtual Drive. also remember to turn on the IO APIC, It speeds thing up for 98SE. AS for the port your on your own on that, id say plug it into a port to USB adapter but those are hard to find. I got one lucky at a old stock store called Big Lots.

Post by **JohnG** » 10. Mar 2008, 05:51

Further comments...

snake92069's suggestion is good, I've gone that route myself, too. But if you want to "future-proof" installing Win98, then it's worth investigating creating your own bootable Win98 cd. This way you don't have to worry about having a floppy disk and drive available, nor copying files here and there.

---

I got curious about USB-Parallel adaptors, and did a bit of googling...
- Jameco have a "USB 2.0 Docking Station" that looks quite interesting. It includes a serial, a parallel, and USB ports, all for $22.95. (Jameco part #527822, www.jameco.com)
- DirectDial (Canada) have a Startech USB-Parallel adaptor cable (http://www.directdial.com/ICUSB1284D25.html)

I also came across this warning on one site:
"NOTE: USB to Parallel Cables will only work with printers, and not other types of parallel devices, as they map in as "USB Printing Support", not as a true parallel port."

This would suggest you may not be able to properly link to the scanner. You'll want to check feasibility before you invest too much time/money on this.

hth,
John

oscar615 · Post by **oscar615** » 10. Mar 2008, 06:50

So how would one create a bootable win 98 cd? Do you mean just copying the files from a win 98 boot floppy to it? And then maybe copying all the files from the install disc onto the same cd?

snake92069 · Post by **snake92069** » 10. Mar 2008, 08:25

oscar615 wrote:Thanks for the input guys. Like I said I have three disks of win 98. two are SE. None are bootable but with a setup.exe file instead. I tried the win 98 boot disc, to boot with cd support.

i still have my real 98SE disk and its able to boot up the install file from the setup.exe file....you have tried the F12 during virtual boot to say boot from disk right, try an image of the disk. i notice that virtual box has issues reading real disc in the drive, i had to image one of my disc to the hard drive to get around it, that might be the same with you and would explain why it wont install off your disc.

Post by **JohnG** » 10. Mar 2008, 09:41

snake92069 wrote:
> i still have my real 98SE disk and its able to boot up the install file from the setup.exe file....

I just tried my original Win98SE cd, and yes it will boot, both in the host machine, and in a VM. <embarrassed grin>

---

oscar615 wrote:
> So how would one create a bootable win 98 cd?

Before you do this, check the boot order in your VM - try setting the CDROM as the first boot drive (if it's not already), see if that makes a difference.

If you really can't get any of your cds to boot, then use burner software - like Nero - to create the bootable cd. Nero has a function built in for this (called "Bootable Data Disk"), and I assume other burner software will also.

hth,
John