Windows 98 Guest First Boot Fails

[fastoy]

I am a new user of VirtualBox. My host OS is Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit and VirtualBox is 3.1.2.

I am trying to get a Windows 98 SE virtual machine running. I have researched the posts on this forum and believe I have followed the suggestions. Specifically, I have read and acted on:

Read http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=9918
From http://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/910
o Go to Settings | System | Acceleration and DISABLE the option "Enable VT-x/AMD-V".
From http://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/1400
o at win98-guest define IDE as "PIIX3"
From http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic. ... 95#p115793
o Disable AMD VT. Set Soundcard to SB16.
From http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic. ... 19#p104971
o Try Video RAM 8 MB, disable VT, disable USB.
From http://forums.virtualbox.org/memberlist ... file&u=515
o Max 64 MB RAM, 4MB Video RAM, disable Audio, USB, ACPI before Installation.
From http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic. ... 63#p119843
o Do you have PAE/NX (in System Processor) and VT-x/AMD-V (in System Acceleration) disabled? Without that, my setup would crash with MS0DOS Extender error. Under Video, do you have both 3D and 3D Acceleration also disabled?
From http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic. ... 35#p105447
o Whilst Windows 98 cannot be installed with hardware virtualisation enabled, in most cases it can be enbaled safely after installation, making it absolutely fly.

My virtual machine configuration is as follows:

System
o 64MB, VT-x/AMD-V Disabled, Nested Paging Disabled
o IO APIC Disabled
o EFI Disabled
o PAE/NX Disabled
Display
o Video Memory 4MB, all else Disabled
Storage
o IDE Controller PIIX3
o IDE Primary Master Windows 98.vdi
o IDE Secondary Master Win98 SE.iso
o IDE Primary Slave Empty (DOS 6.22 boot CD-ROM was here)
Floppy Controller
o Floppy Device 0 Empty
Audio
o Host Driver Windows Direct Sound
o Controller SoundBlaster 16
Network
o Adapter 1 PCnet-FAST III (NAT)
Serial Ports
o Disabled
USB
o USB 2.0 Disabled
o Device Filters 0
Shared Folders
o None

To install, I boot the virtual machine with a DOS 6.22 CD-ROM iso, partition, and format c:. Then I set the drive to c: and run setup.exe from a Windows 98 SE CD-ROM iso.

The install goes fine and I omit Dial-Up Networking and miscellaneous other components, e.g. Multimedia and On-Line Services.

The install goes through copying files and asks me to remove any floppy disks. I remove the DOS 6.22 CD-ROM iso and let it reboot.

The install goes through Plug-and-Play detection and non-Plug-and-Play detection and then reboots.

At this point, I see the Windows 98 shutdown graphics, the Windows 98 boot graphics, then a DOS window with just a cursor in the upper left corner. After about a minute or so, Windows 7 says "VirtualBox GUI has stopped working" and it's all over.

Windows 7 diagnostics are as follows:

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: VirtualBox.exe
Application Version: 3.1.2.0
Application Timestamp: 4b2a3909
Fault Module Name: VBoxDD.DLL
Fault Module Version: 0.0.0.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 4b2a3925
Exception Code: c0000094
Exception Offset: 0000000000056736
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: 0309
Additional Information 2: 0309522899dc5f08e44bd904dd003cd7
Additional Information 3: 620b
Additional Information 4: 620bb7041437ec19edf439666d3d76b4

Windows 98 will boot in Safe Mode but I don't know what I need to do to get Windows 98 running normally.

I've attached the VirtualBox virtual machine log.

Sorry to be so verbose but I was trying to provide all the information I could on the initial post.

Thanks for the help!

[stefan.becker]

Ihad the problem on 1 machine. I disabled all VT Settings via VBoxManage:

VBoxManage modifyvm Win98 --hwvirtex off
VBoxManage modifyvm Win98 --nestedpaging off
VBoxManage modifyvm Win98 --hwvirtexexcl off
VBoxManage modifyvm Win98 --vtxvpid off

[fastoy]

Ihad the problem on 1 machine. I disabled all VT Settings via VBoxManage:

VBoxManage modifyvm Win98 --hwvirtex off
VBoxManage modifyvm Win98 --nestedpaging off
VBoxManage modifyvm Win98 --hwvirtexexcl off
VBoxManage modifyvm Win98 --vtxvpid off

Thanks. I made those changes and the VirtualBox GUI still crashed.

[fastoy]

I continue to work on this. Most recently I have re-enabled VT in the guest machine. Same results.

[mpack]

I continue to work on this. Most recently I have re-enabled VT in the guest machine. Same results.

The only similar problem I've had with Win98SE guests is that the VirtualBox GUI locks up if I set the boot order to boot from HDD first, and there is a bootable (virtual) CD mounted at boot time. Unmount the CD and the guest boots just fine. Put the CD first in the boot order and of course it boots from the CD, again just fine.

[fastoy]

Thanks! Removing the attached CD-ROM iso got it to boot. I didn't think that was a bootable CD-ROM but whatever that did it!

However, when it booted it went looking for the drivers for the SB16, etc. and wanted the Win98 SE CD-ROM. I reattached it but it couldn't see even the drive.

Making slow progress. It may all be fruitless if I can't get any data over to the Windows 98 image. I have an old program I'm trying to run there. I even tried attaching a USB drive to the virtual machine but it wanted the Win98 SE CD-ROM for drivers and ...

[mpack]

and wanted the Win98 SE CD-ROM. I reattached it but it couldn't see even the drive.

That's another thing I noticed with a Win98SE install - the CD drive letter changed several times during the install. Can't remember exactly, but lets say it would start off as D:, suddenly become E: after a reboot, then later on it was back to D: again after another boot. Once the install was complete it was stable.

And, I may have been mistaken about the CD needing to be bootable. That was what I had, but that it mattered was just my guess.

[fastoy]

The DOS that I ran setup.exe from saw the Win98 SE.iso as S. I could never see the CD-ROM from Windows 98 SE proper. Wonder why?