Hi,

Recently I tried to install the Windows 1.0 Developer Release 5 in Bochs 2.5.1 (an x86 emulator for those who don't know), under Windows 8 Consumer Preview. I configured Bochs with a 16MB HDD, and the usual 5.25'' floppy drives, and 1 MB RAM (the minimum). I also set the first COM port as a serial mouse, and emulated an XT-type keyboard.

I proceeded to boot MS-DOS 3.30A from floppy, use FDISK and format the HDD, copy install.bat from the first Developer Release diskette, and run the install. It all worked fine.

However, when I proceeded to run MSWIN to try and start the pre-release up, MS-DOS got stuck running kernel.exe.

From a fresh boot, here's a screenshot of the Bochs window:


It's hung at this point. CTRL+C'ing does nothing.

Also, after running MSWIN, the Bochs console shows two information messages which may be of use, but I cannot decipher them as I'm no master in the mechanics of the x86 CPU:



What I also don't understand here is that this "unallowed" message would surely be classed as an error, yet the 'i' in the timestamp code in those log entries indicates that it's just a piece of general information. But never mind, it's probably irrelevant.


Any help to try and get this resolved will be appreciated! Thanks in advance.


EDIT: I just tried setting the first COM port to output to a file, just in case the Windows executables sent debugging information (this is what install.bat recommends), but I got nothing.

Use PCem: http://www.tommowalker.co.uk/pcem.html

Yes, that or PicoXT (which works as far as I know). From what I remember, only the Beta release (May 1985) and higher were able to run properly on Bochs.

I tried PicoXT, DR5 dosn't run. PicoXT doesn't support mice so DR5 crashes.

It should support IBM AT and DOS 3 enhancements , not only XTs.
The DR5 code makes special assumptions about CPU ,some DOS stuff and mouse hardware.
We need a motivated guy to check out that interesting build and get the SDK to work.

Use PCem 0.3 to make it work.

Thanks for the replies, people. I incidentally already knew that PCem was the solution, due to having used it on this build a while back.

I just wanted to see if anybody had got it working in Bochs, really, and if not, at least find out the reason why it doesn't work in a generic x86 emulator such as Bochs. I guess the "special assumptions about CPU" explanation by z180 works, so thanks for that. I'd investigate it further but I assume the only real way to fix this would be to recompile Bochs with some custom code, which I would utterly fail at.

Thanks for the replies though, everyone, I'll stick to PCem with this build.

no problem
Note: the Alpha build has the same problems, so for it, still use PCem 0.3 (not 0.6)