usb floppy woes in a DOS vm

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windtalker
Posts: 12
Joined: 6. Apr 2012, 06:25

usb floppy woes in a DOS vm

Post by windtalker »

Host: Mint 20.3
VM: DOS 6.22
USB floppy drive: Sony ext drive

Some years ago, I was able to install a DOS 6.22 VM directly from the floppy media, and later read/write files from the flippy drive as well. But the last couple years on my current computer, I was forced to do the install with 3 .img files for the 3 floppies. And, when doing a [> DIR A:] failed to recognize the floppy drive. Only thing left to do was to shut down the DOS vm, only to find the floppy drive comes to life, and we got a listing the msdos files... in the host's file manager.

It seems like the host must not have relinquished control of the floppy drive.
I see its icon (grayed out) on the dos vm's status bar. (and the hint shows its proper name).
I tried plugging it in before and after starting the vm.
When setting the USB filter, it recognized it with no hesitation, using the sony name.
The vBox manager shows the floppy called out under Storage, for the dos vm.

I have been trying to get around this problem for a couple years on differing Mint versions. I must have forgot something.... eh?
mpack
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Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: usb floppy woes in a DOS vm

Post by mpack »

USB didn't exist in the DOS era. No doubt somebody makes flakey USB drivers for DOS, but in practice: you have no chance of accessing a USB drive from DOS, no matter how low the capacity.

So please stop trying to configure USB filters: DOS doesn't speak USB so giving a DOS VM control at USB level will definitely fail. You should remove any filters you already created.

Likewise DOS 6.22 is too old to have viable networking features or VirtualBox Guest Additions, so shared folders will also fail.

If the floppy drive is installed on the host then VirtualBox has the means to map that to a virtual floppy drive in the guest OS. However I have no idea if a USB host drive can be mapped as a floppy.

Better IMO to copy all remaining floppy files to an ISO image or virtual ISO folder, and consign the floppy drive to history. The only other viable alternative is to create raw images of all your floppy disks.
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