DOS6.22 + EMM386.EXE crashing Vbox

[ddn]

Im created VM with params 512Mb HDD, 32 RAM, 7 Video Ram, CDROM, SB16 emulation. Installed DOS 6.22. Added EMM386.exe in config.sys (device=emm386.exe auto) started test DOS application (alone in the dark 3)

now VBox crashed with message in its log: fatal error in recompiler cpu: triple fault.

[Nikolay Igotti]

Does it crash with any public available application, so that we can test it?

[Mark Rumsey]

Replying to ddn:

Im created VM with params 512Mb HDD, 32 RAM, 7 Video Ram, CDROM, SB16 emulation. Installed DOS 6.22. Added EMM386.exe in config.sys (device=emm386.exe auto) started test DOS application (alone in the dark 3)

now VBox crashed with message in its log: fatal error in recompiler cpu: triple fault.

I might be able to help here. I've got 2 PCs set up with VBox running similar configurations to yours. The first is an AthlonXP2000 running Windows XP as the host, the second is a Celeron laptop running openSuSE11.1 as the host. In both cases the VBox is set up with 32MB RAM with SB16 emulation and a physical CDRom. The Windows hosted version has 7M video ram and a 512mb hard drive, whilst the Linux hosted box has 5M video ram and a 285mb hard disk. In both cases I have installed MSDos 6.22. I have found that neither box will accept emm386.exe with the highscan option, but I am able to manually map the upper memory using the include option and load drivers into the upper memory area sucessfully. I have tried Doom and Day Of The Tentacle on both systems, and they both run. Unfortunately they run too slow to work. Doom is only a little slow, but that does affect its usability and also makes the sound echo. DOTT runs so slow however it assumes the SB16 sound card isn't working and does not attemtp to use the card. Unfortunately it is still so slow its unusable. I have tried both in other VMs and emulators (which I will not name) and the results range from working at acceptable speed with no sound, to working perfectly. For Dos operating systems I'm afraid VBox dos seem to be lagging well behind the competition.

If you want to try reconfiguring your config.sys to get emm386 working properly try this. device=c:\dos\emm386.exe ram i=b000-b7ff i=e000-e1ff i=e300-efff

if that works OK, you might be able to use this version. device=c:\dos\emm386.exe ram frame=000 i=b000-b7ff i=e000-efff

That might or might not work as it is mapping over a rom (e200-e2ff). In my case it works on the XP host, but not the Linux host. Also please note that you may need to fine tune the configurations if your own VBox setup has a slightly different upper memory arrangement to mine. Once you have the upper memory working correctly, you can use memmaker to optimise the upper memory area by using custom set up and making sure it does not scan the upper memory aggressively.

Now, I have no experience of the game you have been trying, so I have no idea whether this will work for you, or simply make the system crash in new and interesting ways! I am also unlikely to be trying VBox with more Dos programs as I have found other better ways of running them, but I will probably be using VBox for more 'modern' operating systems.

[Xytl]

Replying to ni81036:

Does it crash with any public available application, so that we can test it?

with a basic config.sys file containing only:

DEVICE = C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS and DEVICE C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE

it will test extened memory and complete and then it will hang the DOS VirtualBox. I cannot even get to a point of running other applications that require expanded memory. If I don't need to run expanded memory the DOS VirtualBox works fine but many programs I want to run require Expanded Memory so I need to be able to load EMM386.exe

[Technologov]

I have MS-DOS 6.22 running here with EMM. Tried with both VT-x enabled and disabled.

Host: Windows 7, x64, Core 2 Q6600, VBox 3.1.0-BETA1.

config.sys: (many lines, shown only 2 first)

DEVICE = C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS

DEVICE = C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS v

-Technologov

[Technologov]

However, you still may be right, as I was unable to configure DOS with MemMaker to allow expanded memory. (EMS)

-Technologov

[Claus Reibenstein]

The problem still exists in VB 3.2.6 :-(

[uhansen]

uhansen log file

[uhansen]

Virtual box crashes soon after an Expanded Memory Manager was loaded. It doesn't matter which application you use, even the "dir" command, used one or two times, leads to a crash.

I use FreeDOS 1.0 in VirtualBox 3.2.6. I tried with EMM386 (FreeDOS version) JEMMEX EMM386 (DR-DOS version)

None of the suggestions above helped. Even the option "X=TEST" didn't solve the problem.

This makes DOS pretty unusable as guest system in VirtualBox. regards Uli

PS: See added log file. PPS: At least Himem.sys alone works, so you can load parts of the system in the High Memory Area.

[uhansen]

As far as I can say, the bug is fixed for me in Virtualbox 4.0. FreeDOS works as guest system with EMM386. Thanks!