Category Archives: VirtualBox

Windows 9x Video Minidriver Source Code

As promised, here is the source code for the Windows 9x VirtualBox display minidriver. For discussion of the source code, see the included readdev.txt file. The code was developed on a Windows 10 host system. For extra credit, I attempted … Continue reading

Posted in Development, Source code, VirtualBox, Watcom, Windows 95 | 18 Comments

Windows 9x Video Minidriver HD+

The OS/2 Museum has made available the first version of a display driver disk for Windows 9x running on VirtualBox. The driver uses a linear framebuffer and supports 8/16/24/32bpp modes with resolutions up to 1920×1200 pixels (see more below). The … Continue reading

Posted in Development, VirtualBox, Watcom, Windows 95 | 61 Comments

NT video miniport UHD

I’ve finally managed to update the previously released NT video miniport. The reason for the update was indirect, hacking up the video “hardware” access code to support other environments. That led me to separate the generic mode set code from … Continue reading

Posted in NT, VirtualBox | 1 Comment

Installing IBM OS/2 1.0 in a VirtualBox VM

Some time ago I wrote that IBM OS/2 1.0 and 1.1 cannot be installed in a VM due to the way it switches between real and protected mode. At the time I did not realize that there was another obstacle, … Continue reading

Posted in OS/2, VirtualBox, Virtualization | 17 Comments

SCO UNIX 3.2.0f, Limping Along

For the purposes of ancient TCP/IP and NFS research, I wanted to run old SCO UNIX in a VM. I was able to run XENIX with TCP/IP earlier, but SCO’s NFS (provided, like the TCP/IP stack, by Lachman Associates Inc.) … Continue reading

Posted in NFS, SCO, Software Hacks, TCP/IP, UNIX, VirtualBox, Virtualization | 14 Comments

IBM XENIX: Two Steps Forward

There are reasons to revisit an old topic. Very old, considering that IBM Xenix 1.0 was released in 1984, well over 30 years ago. To recap, this version of Xenix is unique in that it runs only on 286 processors. It … Continue reading

Posted in 286, IBM, VirtualBox, Xenix | 22 Comments

IBM XENIX: One Step Forward, One Step Back

A while ago I wrote about why IBM PC XENIX 1.0 can’t work on any CPU other than a 286. But not content to leave well enough alone, I attempted to patch this version of XENIX so that it would … Continue reading

Posted in 286, 386, IBM, VirtualBox, Xenix | 5 Comments

Windows 8.1 Startup Bugcheck 0xC4

On some systems, both physical and virtual, 64-bit Windows 8.1 as well as Server 2012 R2 consistently crashes with error code (bug check) 0xC4; 64-bit Windows 8 may run on these same systems without trouble. On physical systems, the BSOD … Continue reading

Posted in Bugs, Microsoft, NT, VirtualBox | 15 Comments

Installing Windows 95 on SCSI in a VM

For the adventurous, it is possible to install Windows 95 in a VM configured with SCSI storage (hard disk, CD-ROM) attached to an emulated BusLogic HBA. This works in VirtualBox, but there’s a catch—the emulated PCI BusLogic HBA must have … Continue reading

Posted in BusLogic, SCSI, VirtualBox, Windows 95 | 7 Comments

NT Video Miniport for VirtualBox, With Source Code

Note: See also an updated version. Upon reader request, the OS/2 Museum is publishing the source code to the NT video miniport driver for VirtualBox. To recap, this is a NT video miniport which allows 32-bit NT versions to use high-resolution graphics … Continue reading

Posted in Graphics, NT, Source code, VirtualBox | 48 Comments