Installing eCS under Virtual Box

[Doug Bissett]

When I try to extract either the 32 or 64 bit files from an eCS window under the Virtual box (using the command VBoxWindowsAddition-XXX /extract /D=F:\Drivers, where XXX is either X86 or amd64 from the Install Additions under VBox on S:), I get a old OS/2 Windows error message in the eCS window that the files are not extractable.  Is there a problem that I named my virtual disk F: for this process, or am I doing something else wrong?

I think you are doing something wrong. To install the extensions, you simply attach the extensions CD (ISO) by clicking the VBox menu option Devices-> Insert Guest Additions CD image. Then, open the CD drive (in eCS), and look in the \OS2 directory. The instructions are in readme.txt. Be careful with the LIBCxxx.dll files, they are now down level, so don't replace the later ones, if you have them installed. Note that it says to use the GRADD driver, not SNAP, or Panorama. Apparently, they both work, but do nothing but add unnecessary overhead.

[eirik]

Doug and others,

thanks for providing advice on how to get the screen resolution right.  It now works.  I will come back with some comments related to install instructions on that matter.

My next issue is sharing folders.  Here, it looks as if I am up against a dead end in the sense that according to the VBox help system, shared folders is not possible when OS/2 (eCS) is running as the guest OS.  Is this correct, or have someone figured a smart way to solve this?

Eirik

[Doug Bissett]

Is this correct, or have someone figured a smart way to solve this?

At one time (years ago), I did get it to work, but I don't remember exactly how. I think you need to use the old NETBIOS over TCPIP, and connect to //vboxsvr/share (share is the name you put into the configuration). I haven't been able to do that with SAMBA (they may have changed something in VBox that broke it), but a normal network share works as well as it works in a real machine (meaning that you may need to turn off a bunch of security stuff in windows networking).

[eirik]

Doug, thanks for a swift response.  Unfortunately, "networking" from the VBox eCS to the rest of the system will not work as I cannot adjust the security settings (we no longer have full administrator rights - so much for trusting employees).   On the bright side it appears I may still be able to run eCS using boot manager and keep the Win 8.1 setup.  With a shared VFAT partition, that will work for me (I hope).

Eirik