Release Qemu for Pandora (for rebirth competition)


Awesome! The memories came flooding back with Fatal Racing. Looks a bit choppier than I remember, but memories do tend to "HD" the hell out of old games. :p


Thanks for testing that one. Gonna have to give it a try myself sometime. ^_^
 
marovada said:
This is great work. I'd be interested to know if you had to use Qemu 0.9.1 because I found that newer versions can't boot windows - only dos. If so, did you have to build GCC 3.4.6 from source? Presumably you can install older versions of GCC into your build environment and then use symlinks?

My build of qemu seems to have been much slower than yours. Kudos!


Edit: what display drivers are you using in your images to get qemu to work with svga+ resolution and directx?


Edit 2: there's also some source and a prebuilt sdl binary here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=692682. It's tailored to Android so I'm not sure how useful it is.
Click to expand...

This is Qemu 0.15.1. Some patching was needed to disable the scaling and get some more performance, but most optimizations need to be done to the guest system.


Recent 1.1 builds, but has some bugs, that prevent it from being usable as host on arm.


I will release the source, too of course, when the compo ends.


Then we would be happy, if some other people want to improve it.
 
I have been piddling around with various windows versions (though I have very little time these days). I was getting frustrated by some issues when trying to make "lite" versions specially for gaming. I seem to be getting the best results by modifying Windows 98 First Edition. Win98 SE isn't running nearly as well. Windows ME actually has more promise than 98 SE! Anyway, as yet I haven't made a system that's both stable and useful. Once I do I'll make out instructions and possibly make an image or at least the tools available privately to people who can prove to me they own a legit copy of windows by PM'ing me. I'm very naive and easily convinced! Just out of curiosity has anyone else beta testing been driven mental by 98's refusal to install stable PCI IDE interface for the CDROM?
 
Hey, thanks for your efforts! Did you install the msdos cdromdriver first?


I had the same problem with almost all win 9x versions, that the idedrivers seem to be a bit broken.
 
mcobit said:
marovada said:
This is great work. I'd be interested to know if you had to use Qemu 0.9.1 because I found that newer versions can't boot windows - only dos. If so, did you have to build GCC 3.4.6 from source? Presumably you can install older versions of GCC into your build environment and then use symlinks?

My build of qemu seems to have been much slower than yours. Kudos!


Edit: what display drivers are you using in your images to get qemu to work with svga+ resolution and directx?


Edit 2: there's also some source and a prebuilt sdl binary here: http://forum.xda-dev...ad.php?t=692682. It's tailored to Android so I'm not sure how useful it is.
Click to expand...

This is Qemu 0.15.1. Some patching was needed to disable the scaling and get some more performance, but most optimizations need to be done to the guest system.


Recent 1.1 builds, but has some bugs, that prevent it from being usable as host on arm.


I will release the source, too of course, when the compo ends.


Then we would be happy, if some other people want to improve it.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the explanation. I had tried much earlier versions eg 0.12 which were the latest at the time. I'm glad to see that 0.15.1 is able to boot windows out of the box with arm host.
 
Well, I tried lots of ways of getting the CD working in 9x. Strangely, changing the (mistakenly detected as HDD PCI IDE) driver to "Standard PCI Dual IDE" in device manager made the CD pop up and work, though after resetting I get "ye olde BSOD"! The BSOD also prevented me from loading the CD drivers through dos and then starting up windows.


What I'd originally intended to do anyway actually worked quite nicely though.... I was always intending to make a large (15gb) virtual drive, and store iso files inside the image. The reason I wanted to do it that way is some games use multiple CD's, and by using MagicDisc you can mount loads (like all 4/5 CD iso's for a game - no swapping). So far I'm a bit limited by the software and hardware I have at hand (my trusty Asus EEEPC 1001p is a touch slow compared with the I7 Quadcore beast I have at my disposal normally). It takes me quite a while getting an image installed and to extract CAB files etc...


For getting files onto the image (without CDROM) I've found the easiest way is to fromat an SD as fat32, pop it in the netbooks SD slot (as opposed to it's air vents...) and mount the physical drive as HDD2 using Qemu manager. For some reason this mounts perfectly (usually) in a 9x VM and it's really easy just to download files from the net or copy them from my 500gb passport drive I stuffed with "useful" data before running for the train. A quick reboot of the QEMU VM is needed to pick up new data, but you can easily copy games and stuff over for testing. So far I havent tested games on the pandora, I'm more interested in getting the OS as stable, minimal, compatible and speedy as possible. I was pleased to see there's some major enhancements and improvements in compatability of newer" XP only" software running on win98 using the latest kernelEx extensions. Once I get the 98 OS (I want it as it's easiest and most compatible for running DOS/95/98 software in a single system) running nice I may look into trying networking. I should get a bit more time to mess with this next week, this week has been chaotic (family problems). I hate setting up networks in old windows though - it hurts my brain.


I really am looking forward to getting more time to mess with this, what I tried so far on the pandora (which was to play solitaire on a sturrering 98 SE) was very impressive. By using 98 FE as the base OS I have high hopes for something easy and very compatible. QEMU is an impressive piece of work, and all you guys are in for a real treat comes the end of march. All credit to you guys doing the porting work.


Just a minor note on windows ME, it actually ran quite nice though the gfx card gave me grief. It gets wrongly detected and installing the right drivers didn't work either. The universal VBE driver also failed to produce more than 16 rancid colours. I might try again using the alternative bochs VGA card. Having said that it had less problems with the intermittent stuttering I've experienced on 98SE. I also reccomend for any OS shutting off virtual memory (and where possible use "qemm 97" memory manager - you can assign it to report some real RAM as virtual memory which stops some programs moaning and works well with 128mb - in the era of win95 some HDD's were 128mb!). Scitech display doctor 7 has also given me grief so far, which is a shame as it offered the possibility of opengl and better 3D. Maybe when I get more time, and my faster PC on the job I can install OS's till my hearts content.


I'll keep playing with this - I have a 5 hour train journey in the next few days so I might use it productively! On my last journey I watched some Buster Keaton movie on the netbook and there was a young kid about 3 or 4 on the train who was absolutely transfixed by it, I didn't have the heart to turn it off and start installing a DOS based OS.


EDIT - Haven't time to try this on the pandora yet, but on the netbook I just tested the universal VBE9X display driver (still using cyrix 5446) on Win98 FE and I can set the display to 800x480. I have no idea how this will display on the pandora, will it be native resolution. If I get time I'll check it out tomorrow. Excuse me if I'm repeating anything someone else has already tried, I haven't had time to read through everything.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
TitanUranus said:
Well, I tried lots of ways of getting the CD working in 9x. Strangely, changing the (mistakenly detected as HDD PCI IDE) driver to "Standard PCI Dual IDE" in device manager made the CD pop up and work, though after resetting I get "ye olde BSOD"! The BSOD also prevented me from loading the CD drivers through dos and then starting up windows.

What I'd originally intended to do anyway actually worked quite nicely though.... I was always intending to make a large (15gb) virtual drive, and store iso files inside the image. The reason I wanted to do it that way is some games use multiple CD's, and by using MagicDisc you can mount loads (like all 4/5 CD iso's for a game - no swapping). So far I'm a bit limited by the software and hardware I have at hand (my trusty Asus EEEPC 1001p is a touch slow compared with the I7 Quadcore beast I have at my disposal normally). It takes me quite a while getting an image installed and to extract CAB files etc...


For getting files onto the image (without CDROM) I've found the easiest way is to fromat an SD as fat32, pop it in the netbooks SD slot (as opposed to it's air vents...) and mount the physical drive as HDD2 using Qemu manager. For some reason this mounts perfectly (usually) in a 9x VM and it's really easy just to download files from the net or copy them from my 500gb passport drive I stuffed with "useful" data before running for the train. A quick reboot of the QEMU VM is needed to pick up new data, but you can easily copy games and stuff over for testing. So far I havent tested games on the pandora, I'm more interested in getting the OS as stable, minimal, compatible and speedy as possible. I was pleased to see there's some major enhancements and improvements in compatability of newer" XP only" software running on win98 using the latest kernelEx extensions. Once I get the 98 OS (I want it as it's easiest and most compatible for running DOS/95/98 software in a single system) running nice I may look into trying networking. I should get a bit more time to mess with this next week, this week has been chaotic (family problems). I hate setting up networks in old windows though - it hurts my brain.


I really am looking forward to getting more time to mess with this, what I tried so far on the pandora (which was to play solitaire on a sturrering 98 SE) was very impressive. By using 98 FE as the base OS I have high hopes for something easy and very compatible. QEMU is an impressive piece of work, and all you guys are in for a real treat comes the end of march. All credit to you guys doing the porting work.


Just a minor note on windows ME, it actually ran quite nice though the gfx card gave me grief. It gets wrongly detected and installing the right drivers didn't work either. The universal VBE driver also failed to produce more than 16 rancid colours. I might try again using the alternative bochs VGA card. Having said that it had less problems with the intermittent stuttering I've experienced on 98SE. I also reccomend for any OS shutting off virtual memory (and where possible use "qemm 97" memory manager - you can assign it to report some real RAM as virtual memory which stops some programs moaning and works well with 128mb - in the era of win95 some HDD's were 128mb!). Scitech display doctor 7 has also given me grief so far, which is a shame as it offered the possibility of opengl and better 3D. Maybe when I get more time, and my faster PC on the job I can install OS's till my hearts content.


I'll keep playing with this - I have a 5 hour train journey in the next few days so I might use it productively! On my last journey I watched some Buster Keaton movie on the netbook and there was a young kid about 3 or 4 on the train who was absolutely transfixed by it, I didn't have the heart to turn it off and start installing a DOS based OS.


EDIT - Haven't time to try this on the pandora yet, but on the netbook I just tested the universal VBE9X display driver (still using cyrix 5446) on Win98 FE and I can set the display to 800x480. I have no idea how this will display on the pandora, will it be native resolution. If I get time I'll check it out tomorrow. Excuse me if I'm repeating anything someone else has already tried, I haven't had time to read through everything.
Click to expand...

Thanks for all your efforts!


This is the kind of testing we need. If you can select 800x480, then it should be displayed fullscreen. Hope you can get it to work.
 
I had testet this VBE Driver too but i gived up,because its not working right on the Pandora for me.


Maybe you have Luck :)


here is a new Video with Qemu on Openpandora(Video is accelerated for Music) :D


I dont make often VideoEditing and i saw too late that the Video is broken at half Time,but what you can see is funny :( :)


happy Posting


Edit:i reupload it now,maybe then its better,wish me Luck


so next Try


maybe Video format is not correct,i convert it tomorrow,good night


sorry i removed the Video because i have in German Pandora Forum Messages i should make better Videos in


Realspeed.Then i try Videoediting another Time :)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Yeah - VBE9x driver is crashing QEMM faster than a ZX speccy when trying to load a c64 tape into it (and let's face it, which of us didn't try that when we were kids?). It actually caused the emulator to quit completely first time I loaded it at 800x480, from then on it just kept putting me back to 16 colour (yes, 16 colours, like my beautiful c64 - not 16 million like my amiga!) and 640x480 default.


There's something wierd with sound drivers under 9x too, they seem to work, then not work (especially after installing directX). I've had this problem with 98 SE and FE (FE works far better by the way in most ways). I've not had a lot of time with this today, tomorrow I have a train journey but it's hideously early and I might catch up on some sleep. I did try a really quick install of the tablet drivers which I didn't have time to get working. It'd be nice if they actually worked with some of the old point and click games (and I'm still itching to try out Tex Murphy games, Star Trek Judgment Rites and 25th Anniv too. I also dug out Virtual Snooker, and I'm hoping Virtual Pool Hall is playable too. I'm a little in need of some "recreation" so I may end up installing MSDOS 6.22 or FreeDOS (which is supposed to be faster) and trying out some easy to run games - that'd be nice.


Ahhh, MSDOS, why they ever started dumbing down and making anything beyond Win 3.11 is a mystery. It's like people are intellectually devolving when it comes to OS's. PC's also suffer a sort of reverse of Darwin's theory, where OS's being hugely bloated and ill suited to all opperating environments is promoted in modern computing. It's truly survival of the shittest when it comes to Windows. Coders abuse the excessive resources available, and simple, efficient clean code is not needed or expected.


Thankfully the likes of the pandora brings some of the beauty of efficient coding, and making the most of the hardware available, back to a modern audience. Thanks guys, and long live classic DOS.
 
Thx so Much for testing all.


Here are little speedup Tipps that i found out


use the Parameters


-no-acpi -no-hpet


to get a very little Speedbonus


Wikipedia has the Link to the Scietech FTP Server there you can Download SDD 5.3a for Dos(univbe) and Wikipedia also has a Link who stands the Serial for this,because its free for private using.(newer Versions dont work on Qemu)


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UniVBE


and here is a new Video with Halflife on Pandora.


Slow but it work and when we have Luck with a better grafical Driver,then maybe it work little little better :D

https://www.youtube.com/embed/hmTs1vVBv6g?feature=oembed
 
NESnero said:
>Half Life


>Open Pandora


Auauuguguguhghg yeah.


What's up with the resolution going crazy when you load the game?
Click to expand...
HL is definitely something to show off to jealous Pandora-less friends
 
I've managed to install a new "improved" version of Win98 in qemu on the netbook while on the train today. As it was installing I watched 2 episodes of "Quincy ME" on the Pandora, including one that I hadn't seen before. It was all about some woman who had amnesia - just let me know if I'm off topic here.


Anyway, so far I haven't much to report about this new install, but thought I'd make a note of something before I forget. If it's possible, and easy, would an option to "use physical drive" be added to qemu for the pandora? If I format one of my 16GB cards to fat32 and install windows directly onto it it'd make copying files (like ISO's that can be mounted in win98) really really simple.


I also remembered something else that might be worth trying, I once installed win95 into ram. By creating a 64mb ramdisk this might very well be a great way to make a "speedy" OS. Files would be copied to ram from SD before booting, and games could of course be installed on a D drive seperate to the main OS.


Edit: MEant to ask ingoreis, did you try the VBE driver with the bochs gfx card instead of cyrix? I forgot to try it, I'll have a go at some point unless you already tried it.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
john4p said:
thatgui said:
It's not - so called abandonware is nothing else than an illegal copy - please remove the link. As long as the copyright holder says otherwise, it is illegal to distribute a copy of the game, regardless it is still sold or not !
Click to expand...
Ah, didn't know that. Link removed.
Click to expand...
Check this link for significant awesome: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_commercial_video_games_released_as_freeware


Cool, the original Simcity was released under GPL!
 
TitanUranus said:
I once installed win95 into ram. By creating a 64mb ramdisk this might very well be a great way to make a "speedy" OS. Files would be copied to ram from SD before booting, and games could of course be installed on a D drive seperate to the main OS.
Click to expand...

this ;)


To use the OS as a laucher only, this is a good choice, I don't think there are so much games that require all the RAM and are playable on the Pandora...
 
Wally, The pnd hasn't changed.


TitanUranus, you ca. Already mount a drive as drive in qemu. Just add the options to the other options line in the frontend. Of course I can make it an option directly in the frontend.


And this ram idea is very good, hope that can speed things up a bit.
 
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