virtualbox.org

I have a old DOS app .. 16 bit old dos app that I would like to run. However it uses the COM PORT and this seems to be a huge issue .. as I cannot get this app to work in any OS newer than WIndows 98 due to the OS blocking the com ports. I was hoping Virtualbox would help here. I don't know terribly much about the app .. but it runs fine in DOS as it can access the required com port.

I have installed a Windows 7 32 bit guest on my WIndows 8 host. That is all good.

However I would like to have the app run and access the COM PORTS .. COM1.

I think I can install the com ports on the guest just fine. I get no errors.

I tried running the same program using a straight DOS guest and the program did not seem to get any data in the com port.

Can someone help me with how to test if I am actually able to get data in my com port to the guest ?

Thanks
Kevin

The usual test is to connect two PCs together using a null modem cable, and type text into terminal packages - it should appear in the other PCs window. A stiffer test would be a file transfer, which would test the receivers ability to handle bursts.

Don't expect top speeds in a VM: simulating UART registers and interrupts is not a very efficient way to do serial comms.

Someone recently recommended vDOS (a FreeDOS fork) as an alternative for running old DOS programs. I know nothing about it, but you might want to give it a try. Or FreeDOS.

Thank you ... after some thought I have decided that I will just continue to run the app on my DOS machine. It works .. cause that is really how it was designed to work.

But .. I do need virtualbox to run WIndows 7 32 bit on my Windows 8 64 bit machine to compile the 16 bit DOS app.

So for now, it works. I do not make many changes .. so this is not a real big deal.

Kevin