W98 SE working OK for me - Opera browser too

Hi folks

@jbcarreon123

Trying this on VMWare workstation 16 on Linux Host

working for me just fine .

Opera browser also works ("after a fashion")




@Hopachi

You CAN run KVM and VMWare virtual machines concurrently on Linux these days. Here's W10 (latest preview build on KVM/QEMU and W98 SE on VMWare both up concurrently.



(KVM/QEMU I think won't do it (Win 98 SE) without mega hassle -- as I said VMWare is quite good at supporting really Old OS'es).

This VM also runs without problems on Windows 10

Here's the vmx VM config file -- note set HW version to '7' - the newer hardware capability of VMWare workstation / player might cause all sorts of problems.

#!/usr/bin/vmware
.encoding = "windows-1252"
config.version = "8"
virtualHW.version = "7"
scsi0.present = "TRUE"
memsize = "256"
ide0:0.present = "TRUE"
ide0:0.fileName = "Windows 98.vmdk"
ide1:0.present = "TRUE"
ide1:0.autodetect = "TRUE"
ide1:0.deviceType = "cdrom-raw"
floppy0.startConnected = "FALSE"
floppy0.fileName = ""
floppy0.autodetect = "TRUE"
ethernet0.present = "TRUE"
ethernet0.connectionType = "nat"
ethernet0.wakeOnPcktRcv = "FALSE"
ethernet0.addressType = "generated"
usb.present = "TRUE"
ehci.present = "TRUE"
sound.present = "TRUE"
sound.fileName = "-1"
sound.autodetect = "TRUE"
pciBridge0.present = "TRUE"
pciBridge4.present = "TRUE"
pciBridge4.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"
pciBridge4.functions = "8"
pciBridge5.present = "TRUE"
pciBridge5.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"
pciBridge5.functions = "8"
pciBridge6.present = "TRUE"
pciBridge6.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"
pciBridge6.functions = "8"
pciBridge7.present = "TRUE"
pciBridge7.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"
pciBridge7.functions = "8"
vmci0.present = "TRUE"
roamingVM.exitBehavior = "go"
displayName = "Windows 98"
guestOS = "win98"
nvram = "Windows 98.nvram"
virtualHW.productCompatibility = "hosted"
extendedConfigFile = "Windows 98.vmxf"
ide1:0.fileName = "auto detect"
ide1:0.startConnected = "FALSE"
ethernet0.generatedAddress = "00:0c:29:25:a8:32"
tools.syncTime = "FALSE"
uuid.location = "56 4d f6 4b ba dc e9 aa-f3 6c a1 36 05 e0 12 91"
uuid.bios = "56 4d 3f 89 ec d0 2f c2-1d af c5 31 46 25 a8 32"
cleanShutdown = "FALSE"
replay.supported = "TRUE"
replay.filename = ""
ide0:0.redo = ""
pciBridge0.pciSlotNumber = "17"
pciBridge4.pciSlotNumber = "21"
pciBridge5.pciSlotNumber = "22"
pciBridge6.pciSlotNumber = "23"
pciBridge7.pciSlotNumber = "24"
scsi0.pciSlotNumber = "16"
usb.pciSlotNumber = "32"
ethernet0.pciSlotNumber = "33"
sound.pciSlotNumber = "34"
ehci.pciSlotNumber = "35"
vmci0.pciSlotNumber = "36"
vmotion.checkpointFBSize = "16777216"
ethernet0.generatedAddressOffset = "0"
vmci0.id = "1176873010"
policy.vm.managedVMTemplate = "FALSE"
policy.vm.managedVM = "FALSE"
numa.autosize.cookie = "10001"
numa.autosize.vcpu.maxPerVirtualNode = "1"
monitor.phys_bits_used = "40"
softPowerOff = "FALSE"

I'm not developing this any further as I have no use for Win98 but it was just a challenge to see if it could work one way or another -- lucky we've got plenty of spare time these days.


Cheers
jimbo

Thanks @jimbo45 !

Nice to see them side by side.

I know about VMWare supporting those old OSes.

For KVM/QEMU there's no virtio no qxl so you'll need to set video type -manually- to cirrus in your VM.
VGA and other display devices in qemu | kraxel’s news
I've tried that already. I can launch W98 / ME nicely.
Though I couldn't shutdown fully; hangs after initiating shutdown. No big deal.
But we may need a few more tweaks to improve it even further.

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If you give what I said a try in virt-manager, make sure you set your cpu to some oldie model, just in case:


When you create VM, check the end of life OS option, W98 has a template:


Cheers!

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I didn't expected that so it was a nice surprise to see it in the options.

Hopachi said:

Thanks @jimbo45 !

Nice to see them side by side.

I know about VMWare supporting those old OSes.

For KVM/QEMU there's no virtio no qxl so you'll need to set video type -manually- to cirrus in your VM.
VGA and other display devices in qemu | kraxel’s news
I've tried that already. I can launch W98 / ME nicely.
Though I couldn't shutdown fully; hangs after initiating shutdown. No big deal.
But we may need a few more tweaks to improve it even further.

- - - Updated - - -

If you give what I said a try in virt-manager, make sure you set your cpu to some oldie model, just in case:


When you create VM, check the end of life OS option, W98 has a template:


Cheers!

- - - Updated - - -

I didn't expected that so it was a nice surprise to see it in the options.

Hi there

@Hopachi

I thought I'd give this just another go !!

On KVM / QEMU how did you get past this stage -- in the final setup (Windows 98 SE) -- I haven't tried W95 or the original W98 OSR though.

so what ISO did you use. !!

VMWare worked as shown above of course.

I'm using kernel 5.11.16 on the Linux host.

Never give up though -- Changed CPU to Opteron G1 in the KVM config file (running on an AMD machine)

Also shuts down properly too.



Bingo !!!


Booze time now !!! These older OS's take a lot more work than the new stuff !!!!

Cheers
jimbo

I'm using the one from Winworld.
W98 SE.
WinWorld: Windows 98 Second Edition

Interesting to see you got install error because I didn't installed to try that.
I've taken the VMWare VM option and converted it.

Here's the screenshot after I got to the desktop:


- - - Updated - - -

Still need to tweak the gfx a bit since the screen flickers on drag...
EDIT: better on VGA graphics than Cirrus.

- - - Updated - - -

OK I see you got VGA.

The built-in driver for cirrus is barely holding the line.

I'll have a look at the bearwindows.boot-land driver to improve the graphics a bit.
FAQ - KVM

- - - Updated - - -

UPDATE

I've switched from Cirrus to VGA type.
Then used driver "2014.01.31" from here:
https://bearwindows.zcm.com.au/vbe9x.htm#2

The 32MB edition is more than enough.
VM has default 16MB gpu memory assigned.

Works way better now.
Has also 32 bit color modes.
Here on 16 bit is enough ATM.


Off topic:
my host had issue with kernel 5.11.16 on Fedora using NVIDIA (again re-install driver) I failed to get the driver installed.
Is fixed now. Runs well again.
I had to temporarily go back to a backup so today I'm strolling for a while on 5.10.10... until I can fix this gfx issue.

@ClippyBeer

Cheers to that!


I've used PCem. Gets the old ones going when they fail in VM.
The disk I used above was tested there as well. I might have gotten to lazy installing W98.

ClippyBeer said:

If you think that's hard try setting up MS-DOS 6.22/Windows For Workgroups 3.11 with networking, sound and 800x600 16M colors!

I have played with VirtualBox, VMWare and MS Virtual PC but for this I used PCEm (a PC emulator, not a vitrualizer).

Host is Windows 7 x64 Ultimate.


Pretty much a futile effort since the only website it can connect to is Google. I just wanted to see if it could be done (and how much I remember from those days).




Ahh the days of BBS, Doom, Wing Commander, Compuserve..

Well done

There's obviously more people playing around with these old OS's than I would have thought.
BTW I think the lynx web based text browser might work !!!! for web sites - no graphics though.

LYNX – The Text Web-Browser

Other text based browsers : (Linux)

Best Linux Text-Based Browsers – Linux Hint

For Windows :

9 Best Free Text Only Browser For Windows

You'll be lucky though to get any sort of web browser running on W3.11 -- Opera might (just) but you'll probably only get google, or an early version of Netscape -- the main problem is all the Internet protocols have changed so much that even the earliest version of IE might not be of much use.

For file browsing I still think the old XTREE was one of the best





Cheers
jimbo

My old VM is Win95 and Win3.1.1. Also MS-DOS 6.22
(I don't have an pic for today, My PC is turned off for now.)



Also, You have a link for Opera old versions?

jimbo45 said:

@jbcarreon123

Trying this on VMWare workstation 16 on Linux Host

working for me just fine .

Opera browser also works ("after a fashion")

So now, I can visit TenForums using a Windows 95 machine?




I just upgraded to Win98SE.
I should visit TF using Wayback Machine.

Also, I'm now using PCem.

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Nah. I will just prefer this.

Perhaps an older Firefox would be better than Opera. I wonder if Vivaldi would work.