virtualbox.org

I'm guessing this is not a host issue, but if it is, I can change to the OS X host forum instead.

I'm using VirtualBox on my iMac and I want to install Win98 on it. I've installed it, but when Windows tries to start, I get a locked screen, so I started it asking for confirmation at each step. It froze after I told it to proceed with "msmouse.vxd." There were no other comments or commands on the line, just that by itself.

I've installed WinXP without trouble on this setup. (Haven't tried Win2K yet.)

What do I need to do so Win98 will boot properly?


Thanks!

Exact same behaviour here with 2.2.2 under XP host and Linux host.
I tried many different settings for the Virtual Machine, but I can't get it to boot.

Installing Windows 98 is not an easy task (probably why it is not supported) and one that really should be done by someone that has had a lot of experience installing W98 when it was out or has learned enough from experience to know what to do. I bet your mouse is on a USB port and that is what could be confusing the install. Win98 did not support USB back then until you installed a driver after the fact. If you look at the top of the Windows guest section you will see a tutorial and it can help but this will not make it work smoothly. You will still need to be able to find the right dll files and drivers on the Win98 CD. Then you will need to install special software to keep it from using 100% of the CPU even when idle.

I installed W98 the other day and it took me almost 2 hours and I knew exactly what it was going to need. Still it does not work at anything I would call a descent speed, and I have nothing that will run it in anymore either.

Still it is a fun nostalgic thing to try and if you do get it going you will have learned a lesson on what it was like back then. Other than that it is just too old of a piece of software to work effectively. Go for XP and have some fun.

Thanks for that, I think I installed 95/98 at least 500 times on all kinds of hardware, It is a blast from the past seeing the instalation again, and remembering the pain of it taking over an hour. Luckily now it passes in about 5 minutes.

However, I have now tried and noted the same behaviour with 95, It won't load, not even in safe mode.

USB is not activated, and I don't think it's a mouse problem. I'd be more inclined to look at the drive controller. Obviously 95/98 worked at some point. Does anybody else have it booting up with 2.2.2 ? Maybe somebody who installed and booted it before could try now and see if it locks up with the latest VB?

EDIT:
http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=2682 - talks about actually closing and reopening VB after changing settings, and in the last post Tech Evangelist says to make sure VT is disabled and set Video Memory to 8MB. I did this before and it still hung, yet doing it now makes it work

I currently have 95 running in a VBOX with 32MB ram, 4MB Video Memory, VT off.
it boots regardless of ACPI, IO APIC, PAE/NX It also boots with 3D Acceleration activated, but I believe that is pointless. it is also booting now regardless of Video Memory Setting. the only thing that I can do to prevent it from booting is activate VT-x/AMD-V.
That is indeed odd.


I know, I know, We should all just move on..... nostalgia..
thnx.

Some more information for you. I installed this in version 2.2.2 and have updated to version 2.2.4 and it still works. I still have a lot of tuning to do before it will be stable but it should install for you. My settings are as follows in the second graphics. and the results in the first graphics (that's the way that VBox added the files, sorry). I Have Vista for the host and maybe that makes a difference.