OS/2, eCS & ArcaOS - Technical > Setup & Installation

Old DOS Program on ArcaOS VDM

<< < (2/2)

Roderick Klein:

--- Quote from: Ramon Perez on February 24, 2023, 08:23:09 pm ---Hi all:
I would be interested to use a statistics program designed for MS-DOS 3.0 or later in an ArcaOS VDM session. But when I run it. it gives me this error.

   "OS386 requires 80386 processor
    Kernel cannot continue"

Is VDM an emulation of a 286 processor?
Could the DOS parameters be modified to make it work?
I've already tried a real MS-DOS 6.22 session on a floppy, but since it takes DOS/OS2 session parameters, we're the same.
This program has the peculiarity that it must not use EMM386.SYS but rather HIMEM.SYS as the extended memory controller.

This program needs:
- IBM PC 486 or 386 or compatible
- DOS 3.2 or later
- Min 4MB extended RAM (not expanded) The program takes 3 MB
- Mathematics co-processor
- Graphic adapter CGA,EGA,VGA or MCGA or one that emulates any of these (16 colors recommended)

This is the DOS version of The Unscrambler by Camo
Someone knows?
Thanks.

--- End quote ---

The VDM does not emulate a specific CPU. It uses the CPU instructions at CPU level.
Check the DOS memory settings (Right mouse click on the DOS Icon).
Extended memory by default is setup to 2 MB, so that is the first thing you can modify.
For a DOS extender modidy experiment with 3 DPMI_ settings.

Roderick

Ramon Perez:

--- Quote from: Dave Yeo on February 25, 2023, 01:04:19 am ---Not all DOS extenders are compatible with OS/2, you could try playing with the DOS settings, mostly memory related. The VDM does support i386

--- End quote ---

--- Quote from: Dave Yeo on February 25, 2023, 01:20:31 am ---This, https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=10960 might help getting it running in DOSBox

--- End quote ---

Thanks Dave, I've been playing with the VDM DOS settings without success.
The program works right first time in Dosbox, so I'll use it.
Regards.

Ramon Perez:

--- Quote from: Martin Iturbide on February 25, 2023, 01:08:25 am ---Hi Ramon

I don't know which program it is, my guesses are:

A) Just in case test it also with DOSBox to see what happens.
B) This program uses "Ergo OS386 DOS extender" which is very unknown to me (The most known are DOS/4G and DOS/4GW). Does the program has a different .exe for the extender? Do you think it can be possible to get a different version of just the extender on the internet and see if the statistics program still run with it?
C) Looking around I also found "RPROMEM.EXE" (DOS utility to test system memory), which also uses "Ergo OS386 DOS extender" and gives the same error. I think it ends the "B" idea since it seems that the program binary and extender are on the same exe. Maybe these ones will not run on DOS VDM.

By the way, "RPROMEM.EXE" crashed DOSBox here. (Vogons site related thread here)

Regards

--- End quote ---
Hi Martin, thanks.
It seems that the extender is built into the executable.
I just installed Dosbox2 and the program works fine with the default options.
It also works fine in a VirtualBox MSDOs 6.22 session, but VirtualBox does not support data exchange or GuestAdditions (It´s not handy for me)
Since the programs runs over the same C drive that AOS, I would find a VDM session more useful for data management.
But, it seems that it is not going to be and I will use DosBox2, which is fast and wonderful.
Thank you very much for all.
Regards.

Thanks.
Regards.

Ramon Perez:

--- Quote from: Roderick Klein on February 25, 2023, 02:56:55 pm ---The VDM does not emulate a specific CPU. It uses the CPU instructions at CPU level.
Check the DOS memory settings (Right mouse click on the DOS Icon).
Extended memory by default is setup to 2 MB, so that is the first thing you can modify.
For a DOS extender modidy experiment with 3 DPMI_ settings.

Roderick

--- End quote ---
Thanks Roderick, I've been changing for a long time, the VDM memory settings, both in the DOS session and in the one on floppy A (with MSDOS 6.22) and I haven't been able to get it to work.
I'll use Dosbox2 which seems to be more compatible, although I regret this.
Greetings.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[*] Previous page

Go to full version