Running Desqview/X in emulation

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Onyx_RE2
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Running Desqview/X in emulation

Post by Onyx_RE2 »

Desqview/X is fairly difficult to run in emulation (for me at least).
Here's a screenshot of it running in 1280x1024 (256 colors) in QEMU 1.50rc2 (windows version).
The QEMM memory manager which is used by Desqview/X has a hard time doing automatic optimizations and it bombs several times. Each hypervisor has a certain memory address range that needs to be excluded from the upper memory pool.
Anyhow, QEMU runs Desqview/X in the highest resolution supported (something I was unable to do in VMWare Workstation 9).
Network is hit or miss. If someone has experience with proper network config of this in a virtualized environment please post your thoughts/solutions.
Enjoy the pic!

This is Desqview/x 2.0 running on MS-DOS 6.22 with QEMM 8.03 memory manager.
It has the Motif Window Manager. Running apps include Xearth in the background, Quarterdeck Manifest, Zork I, II and III, Tetris, Xclock, Xeyes, File Manager and Remote Terminal.


QEMU commands used to execute:
QEMU>qemu-system-i386.exe -hda dos.img -m 64 -soundhw sb16 -net nic,model=ne2k_isa -net user

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AlphaBeta
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Re: Running Desqview/X in emulation

Post by AlphaBeta »

A tutorial how to get it working would be appreciated.
AlphaBeta, stop brainwashing me immediately!

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Onyx_RE2
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Re: Running Desqview/X in emulation

Post by Onyx_RE2 »

It is a weird mutant mix for sure, but 20 years ago this was good stuff.
I'll put together a tutorial on how to do this in QEMU as well as an ISO with all the relevant pieces.
A good chunk of the software can be obtained already online (as mentioned in other threads).
Anyone have any good network experience with QEMU? I could use some help with the network bit and the NE2K_ISA part.

sapperlott
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Re: Running Desqview/X in emulation

Post by sapperlott »

Yeah - setting up networking in Qemu can be a bit awkward - especially under Windows.

These 2 guides might help a bit:
http://www.keysolutions.com/blogs/kenye ... KYE-7Z2QS9
http://www.h7.dion.ne.jp/~qemu-win/HowToNetwork-en.html

GL1zdA
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Re: Running Desqview/X in emulation

Post by GL1zdA »

mrRadio wrote:So what ?
IMHO I think it's ugly mutant: dos + X11
DESQview/X was meant for serious business, not for eye candy. It was used either for porting X programs or running them remotely. No one really cares whether their LOB apps have fancy windows.
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sapperlott
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Re: Running Desqview/X in emulation

Post by sapperlott »

Oh - here's a guy who also got it running in Qemu (with networking):
http://virtuallyfun.superglobalmegacorp.com/?p=400

Maybe there are some worthwhile hints in there. Interesting stuff indeed :)

Twylo
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Re: Running Desqview/X in emulation

Post by Twylo »

Wow, that's actually pretty fantastic. Deskview/X was one of those things I always desperately wanted to try when it was in all the BYTE ads in the early 90s, but by the time I finally had a machine that could run it I was running Linux and didn't need it any more.

I really should give QEMU some love. I use VMware a lot, but for doing most classic software it's extraordinarily hit-or-miss. I had an almost perfect Openstep setup in VMware Workstation once, but I think an update stopped it from working and I could never get it going again. What a pain.

DJ Deedahx
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Re: Running Desqview/X in emulation

Post by DJ Deedahx »

Hey guys!
I found a link for DESQview/X 2.10 on WinWorldPC:

http://wdl2.winworldpc.com/Abandonware% ... 83.5%29.7z
DDX — 86Box Staff/Power User & YouTube Channel Manager

dans34
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Re: Running Desqview/X in emulation

Post by dans34 »

DJ Deedahx wrote:Hey guys!
I found a link for DESQview/X 2.10 on WinWorldPC:

http://wdl2.winworldpc.com/Abandonware% ... 83.5%29.7z
chances are its allready on the BA FTP

DOS
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Re: Running Desqview/X in emulation

Post by DOS »

Onyx_RE2 wrote:Desqview/X is fairly difficult to run in emulation (for me at least).
Here's a screenshot of it running in 1280x1024 (256 colors) in QEMU 1.50rc2 (windows version).
The QEMM memory manager which is used by Desqview/X has a hard time doing automatic optimizations and it bombs several times. Each hypervisor has a certain memory address range that needs to be excluded from the upper memory pool.
I've had lots of trouble with QEMM too. I had less with versions 7.5 and 7.53 than 8 or 9, and less when I used Bochs instead of QEMU, but it's all very painful! I don't know if DESQview/X has any particular requirement regarding the version of QEMM that you use, though.

Onyx_RE2
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Re: Running Desqview/X in emulation

Post by Onyx_RE2 »

I've only tried with QEMM 8.03 as it is what this website recommends:
http://www.chsoft.com/dv.html

It is much simpler to setup in a real PC than in a virtual server and QEMU runs it better than VMWare.
I should try Bochs. Thanks for the tip.

EDIT: I noticed that QEMM97 is on chsoft also. Has anyone tried with that?

DOS
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Re: Running Desqview/X in emulation

Post by DOS »

Onyx_RE2 wrote:It is much simpler to setup in a real PC than in a virtual server and QEMU runs it better than VMWare.
I should try Bochs. Thanks for the tip.
I shouldn't have to use real PCs in this day and age! :)

I should have mentioned, for anyone who isn't aware, that Bochs is much slower than QEMU. I think it's a cycle-accurate simulator, if I recall correctly.

I finally found some more of my notes on QEMM, it looks like I tried lots of combinations of hypervisor, QEMM version, and tools on top of that, and actually some version combinations worked better with QEMU than Bochs, so I might have been misleading you there, sorry! I suspect my notes are not actually verbose enough, and that maybe when I said I had less trouble with QEMM 7.5/7.53 on Bochs (2.6.2), that was when I was trying to run other apps on top of it, and not actually trying to run OPTIMIZE. I found notes saying that I couldn't ever get OPTIMIZE from QEMM 7.50 to pass on Bochs 2.4.5 with any combinations of options I tried (admittedly I probably gave up eventually and didn't try every combination), whereas it looks like I found one combination where things worked: QEMU 0.13.0 for Windows, '-soundhw pcspk -no-acpi -m 16' command-line options to QEMU, and running OPTIMIZE with STEALTH disabled.

Do you have any details of what memory address ranges you excluded? I tried looking into doing this, but struggled to find information about what ranges the hypervisors use. Looking back, I probably should have been able to work this out for Bochs, I think you specify all the BIOS images in the configuration file, but as for QEMU, I don't know about its defaults.

I've used QEMM97 (but not with DESQview or DV/X) and it didn't magically fix all the problems I was having with QEMM 8 like I hoped :)

DJ Deedahx
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Re: Running Desqview/X in emulation

Post by DJ Deedahx »

I've had a recent issue with Desqview/X 2.10 trying to run on Virtual PC 2007 SP1. I use Windows 8.0.

It says it is not a Desqview/X error, but I am certain that it is DOS messing up in the background. Plus, DOS doesn't have much support with VPC 2007.

I tried it on VirtualBox, and it ran fine; however, the mouse wasn't working. :(
DDX — 86Box Staff/Power User & YouTube Channel Manager

Onyx_RE2
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Re: Running Desqview/X in emulation

Post by Onyx_RE2 »

I will have to spin up the VM soon to give you the memory settings (I can't seem to find the VM right now though!, must have zipped it up and archived it somewhere).

The mouse will work using the ctmouse driver available here:
http://cutemouse.sourceforge.net/

You may need to use an older version as I recall a problem with the latest rev.

GL1zdA
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Re: Running Desqview/X in emulation

Post by GL1zdA »

If someone wants to look at other non-UNIX X Servers, I've found the X Servers for PCs, Macs, and Amigas -- NonUNIX FAQ. Original source: XServers-NonUNIX.txt.Z
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Onyx_RE2
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Re: Running Desqview/X in emulation

Post by Onyx_RE2 »

The MESS forums has a great and simple tutorial to getting Desqview/X running under MESS (with networking too):
http://forums.bannister.org/ubbthreads. ... #Post87518

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