Weblog entry #116 for ajt
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#116
Further Adventures in Virtualisation
Posted by ajt on Wed 14 Nov 2007 at 22:33
I've played with VirtualBox-OSE a lot more and it is a really great tool, though it's hardware support can be weak in older guest operating systems like Windows 9x and FreeDOS, you're limited to plain VGA. With middle-aged operating systems like Windows NT4 where the guest side stuff kicks in you get more things working, and with modern ones such as Windows 2K and the current generation of Linuxes - the VirtualBox client tools really shine - and the virtualisation is great.
The integrated VB GUI is neat and works well making working with your Virtual system really easy. I went through the manual today over lunch and there are lots of things to tweak and I look forward to tinkering with VB further as time permits.
Tonight I'm having another tinker with Qemu, which I have also been digging further into. Qemu provides more basic hardware, so it supports older operating systems better than VB - though Win 9x and DOS need the idle CPU patch installing or they eat host CPU time even when doing nothing. I also think I know why the -win-2k-hack is required and why you should always use it when applying service packs to Windows (the same issue happens in VB too).
I've installed some Qemu GUI add-ons in Lenny without much success. They are sending commands to Qemu that it doesn't understand, I'm guessing there is a mismatch between versions at the moment.
I've started to use snapshots to save me from the endless problems of screwing up systems while updating them - very well implemented and automated in VB by the way.
Nothing is perfect but as I didn't pay for any of these virtualisation tools, they still at least allow me to use old legacy systems like Windows and Windows applications that won't run under WINE.
Problems I've encountered:
* Win98 unusable under VB, no proper video driver
* Win98 can't use Qemu/kqemu acceleration
* WinNT4 "white square" mouse pointer problem under Qemu
* WinNT4 mouse goes berserk after a while under Qemu
* WinNT4 no sound driver under VB
* Win2K disk driver bug, remember win-2k-hack when installing and applying service packs (VB and Qemu)
* Don't start an ACPI session then take turn it off, Win NT systems don't like it!
The integrated VB GUI is neat and works well making working with your Virtual system really easy. I went through the manual today over lunch and there are lots of things to tweak and I look forward to tinkering with VB further as time permits.
Tonight I'm having another tinker with Qemu, which I have also been digging further into. Qemu provides more basic hardware, so it supports older operating systems better than VB - though Win 9x and DOS need the idle CPU patch installing or they eat host CPU time even when doing nothing. I also think I know why the -win-2k-hack is required and why you should always use it when applying service packs to Windows (the same issue happens in VB too).
I've installed some Qemu GUI add-ons in Lenny without much success. They are sending commands to Qemu that it doesn't understand, I'm guessing there is a mismatch between versions at the moment.
I've started to use snapshots to save me from the endless problems of screwing up systems while updating them - very well implemented and automated in VB by the way.
Nothing is perfect but as I didn't pay for any of these virtualisation tools, they still at least allow me to use old legacy systems like Windows and Windows applications that won't run under WINE.
Problems I've encountered:
* Win98 unusable under VB, no proper video driver
* Win98 can't use Qemu/kqemu acceleration
* WinNT4 "white square" mouse pointer problem under Qemu
* WinNT4 mouse goes berserk after a while under Qemu
* WinNT4 no sound driver under VB
* Win2K disk driver bug, remember win-2k-hack when installing and applying service packs (VB and Qemu)
* Don't start an ACPI session then take turn it off, Win NT systems don't like it!