Author Topic: Windows 95 in DOSBox/2  (Read 14226 times)

Ibrahim Hakeem

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Windows 95 in DOSBox/2
« on: October 20, 2020, 10:15:17 am »
Hi all, I hope we're doing well today  :)

Recently I've been trying to get Windows 95 running under DOSBox/2 upon seeing that it's been done before, if the screenshots in the eCSoft2 page are correct. I was hoping to find out if anyone here has actually managed it before and if so, any comments about how they got it up and running. I've only gotten as far as mounting the image and booting it with a generic "Error Loading Operating System" so far.

Cheers  ;D
« Last Edit: October 29, 2020, 09:37:55 am by Ibrahim Hakeem »

Martin Iturbide

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Re: Windows 95 in DOSBox/2
« Reply #1 on: October 29, 2020, 02:58:24 am »
Hi

I wanted to give it a try just to know if it is possible on ArcaOS 5.0.6 and Dosbox/2 0.74 (built 2020/06/06).
I tried the instructions of this kid in YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp361UR_-Ps

Basically it is:
1) Get W95.img file: http://www.mediafire.com/file/763teqrm784exe2/W95.IMG/file
2) Run DoxBox
3) Inside DOSBox run:
- mount c c:\W95\                   --> This is where you stored the  W95.img on your hdd
- c:
- imgmount A: C:w95.img
- boot w95.img

I got the same message you got. "Error loading operating system".
I tried it on Windows 10 and it worked.

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Martin Iturbide
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Dave Yeo

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Re: Windows 95 in DOSBox/2
« Reply #2 on: October 29, 2020, 03:06:55 am »
I doubt that Dosbox can give enough address space on OS/2. Microsoft broke Win32s and Win32 on Os/2 by forcing some DLLs to load into high memory.

Doug Bissett

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Re: Windows 95 in DOSBox/2
« Reply #3 on: October 30, 2020, 06:11:28 pm »
Since DOSBox is an operating system (DOS), I don't know why you would expect it to run another operating system (Win95). Win 3.1 can (must) be installed in DOS, so Win 3.1 works (possibly even the win 32s extension, I never bothered trying). Win95 programs will often (but not always) run in ODIN.

Dave Yeo

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Re: Windows 95 in DOSBox/2
« Reply #4 on: October 31, 2020, 12:11:52 am »
I thought DosBox was more of a virtual machine designed to run DOS. Win95 is at its heart DOS and on other OSes, there are reports of Win95 running on it.
Even in our DOS session, I've successfully ran an old 16 bit version of Minix, which I'd assume would also run under DosBox.

Jochen Schäfer

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Re: Windows 95 in DOSBox/2
« Reply #5 on: November 03, 2020, 04:28:20 pm »
Well, as Win95 needs DOS as a bootloader, it should work in Dosbox.
I will try debug the problem. @Martin: Can you send me your setup?

Martin Iturbide

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Re: Windows 95 in DOSBox/2
« Reply #6 on: November 03, 2020, 05:15:36 pm »
@Martin: Can you send me your setup?

Hi Jochen.

I have a Thinkpad L420 with ArcaOS 5.0.6. I installed Dosbox/2 0.74 (built 2020/06/06) from your site. This is the machine were I get the error by following the instructions from the YouTuber I posted before.

Let me know what else can I do to help.

Regards
« Last Edit: November 03, 2020, 05:18:15 pm by Martin Iturbide »
Martin Iturbide
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Jochen Schäfer

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Re: Windows 95 in DOSBox/2
« Reply #7 on: November 03, 2020, 05:20:05 pm »
Hi Martin.

What is your dosbox.conf?


Bye Jochen

Martin Iturbide

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Re: Windows 95 in DOSBox/2
« Reply #8 on: November 03, 2020, 09:58:55 pm »
Hi Jochen.

It is a recent install of DOSBox, I haven't modified dosbox.conf. Here it is attached.
Regards
Martin Iturbide
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Jochen Schäfer

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Re: Windows 95 in DOSBox/2
« Reply #9 on: November 05, 2020, 08:54:45 am »
I tried it and it doesn't work. Being at it, I just compiled a new version and uploaded it to the usual place.
I have to talk to the developer, whether they have any clue. I also want to do some boot tests.
Stay tuned.

Jochen Schäfer

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Re: Windows 95 in DOSBox/2
« Reply #10 on: November 07, 2020, 09:29:01 am »
So, it seems that the boot features doesn't work correctly. I tried a boot disk image, but that wouldn't  boot either.

Martin Iturbide

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Re: Windows 95 in DOSBox/2
« Reply #11 on: November 08, 2020, 06:13:57 pm »
Hi Jochen.

Is that something specifically not working on the OS/2 port? Or it is something wrong in the project source code?

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Martin Iturbide
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Jochen Schäfer

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Re: Windows 95 in DOSBox/2
« Reply #12 on: November 09, 2020, 09:48:49 am »
I would think, that this is a port issue, first. If it would be broken in Dosbox (entirely possible), I would think, that this gets fixed immediately.
I have to sort out how to debug stuff, because I can't get any OS/2 debugger to see debug symbols.

Andi B.

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Re: Windows 95 in DOSBox/2
« Reply #13 on: November 09, 2020, 10:57:13 am »
Which tool chain do you use for compiling?

Jochen Schäfer

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Re: Windows 95 in DOSBox/2
« Reply #14 on: November 09, 2020, 12:09:14 pm »
It's GCC 9, the Watcom linker etc. from Yum.
I put "-g" on CFLAGS, CXXFLAGS and LDFLAGS, but in the Watcom debuggers and the IBM C Compilers debugger, all I get is assembly. All my attempts to select sources, failed for me.