upgrade to 5.1.4 breaks XP mode hack

[mrxp]

I really need this too, I have legal 7 and xp mode. I haven't been able to use my vm for months

So I tried to dump it but I get an error?

i.imgur. com/5L00Ok2.png

[tinyapps]

I tried to dump it but I get an error?

i.imgur. com/5L00Ok2.png

Your screenshot shows "Dump Error ! (SLIC Table Not Found ! )" on the Basic tab.

You need to click the Memory Access tab then Dump > Export.

[Bo_RBTS]

For Virtualbox 5.1.22, change step 4 to:

Find memory Offset 9130, and Past the following values from 913B to 916D

i.e, one byte further offset than in the instructions above. Worked great, Thanks Chris!

[ktdt00]

Still works on 5.1.28 using the new offset listed on page 4. Thanks csmccarron and Bo_RBTS!!!!

I would be happy to post the resulting bin file but I saw where a previous one was removed. I have no clue why. The source file is derived from a vbox slic that is dumped from memory. The acpi of nearly every bios in the free world is openly available everywhere and its not like you can copyright what is dynamically flowing through RAM. But... whatever... not my rules.

Finding the slic_toolkit without a bunch of freaking malware and viruses was the hardest part! I avoided the @fterD@wn downloader and searched for SLIC_ToolKit_V3.2.rar and got it from bios dot net dot cn. Chrome flipped out about the site and the RAR but I scanned the heck out of it and it's clean.

Good Luck!

[mpack]

but I saw where a previous one was removed. I have no clue why.

It was removed because the original poster neglected to say where the file came from, and did not respond when asked.

And yes, if you copy code to RAM and then copy RAM to a file - especially for distribution - then that IS a very clear breach of copyright, if the original material was copyrighted.

Why would it be relevant that others do open source BIOSes? Even if I accepted that to be true and relevant, copyright rules still apply - plus the rules of whatever license the code was distributed under, which generally require accreditation and/or preservation of copyright notices.

Seriously, if you want to take legal risks, then you had best do it on your own server. Surely you must understand that while you might anticipate that a copyright holder may turn a blind eye to one little guy abusing the license, that will not be the case when the offender is a big corporation with deep pockets such as Oracle.

[ktdt00]

I respect that this is your playground. Like I said... your ball... your rules! No worries brother. I appreciate your allowing the guidance.

[Sandshark]

Anybody tried it in 5.2.2 yet? My Win7 machine died and I'm setting up another. Wanted to move to latest VBox if I can.

[mpack]

Since the problem is not a VirtualBox bug (the problem was that people doing the hack assumed that the VBox BIOS was static) I'd be surprised if the situation has improved. I can't see the devs imposing a static design and memory layout on the BIOS just to help people rip off the XP mode license (I'm not saying that's you).

I also don't see what the fuss is about: if you want an XP license then go onto eBay and buy one. They used to be expensive, but not any more. Just make sure to get the full install version, not an upgrade or a recovery disk. I'm looking at a listing right now on the UK eBay site: £4.89 ($6 or so) for what they claim is a full, genuine XP Pro 32bit license. I imagine it's actually a recovered CD key. Anyway that's probably less than you'd charge for the time you took to come on here and ask the question.

[mrxp]

I came from xp mode. How do I use a new license?

[mpack]

Are you asking how to convert an XP mode license to a CD key bought on eBay? I have no idea if that would work, though I'm sure Google could help. My suggestion was to create a new VirtualBox VM that can continue forever without the XP mode license baggage.

[mrxp]

Yeah it'll help. Moving would take hours though.

[Sandshark]

Yes, I could go get a license, but you cannot activate an XP Mode installation with any kind of license key. It is tied to that string in the BIOS. In fact, the key it uses is in key.txt in plain text. So, I'd have to do a full installation, including hundreds of updates, then re-install all apps to use a standard license. I had temporarily solved my problem because I finally convinced my boss to buy my old Win7 computer off lease, so i didn't have to move everything to Win10. But now the old machine died and the only Win7 machine I have found does not support Microsoft virtualization, so reverting back to that's not even an option.

I was hoping that one of the other posters in the thread would know how to recognize where the string needs to go. Did they determine the new location for 5.1.22 by trial and error, or is there something to look for? If nobody can answer soon, I'm just going to have to go with an older version of VBox.

[vb-user]

These exact instructions still work for VirtualBox 6.0. The pcbios.bin that worked for me since I applied these instructions for v>5.0 didn't work for v6.0 on my system. So I went back, followed these instructions and now can use v6.0 the same way I could use 5.1.x-5.2.22.

Thanks again for teaching me how to fish so I could feed myself.

[mrxp]

Thanks