I want to export my Win98 as a VM

[GuypronouncedGuynotGuy]

I have a coworker over in IT that wanted something/anything to get started on linux so offered this up.  

You're friend would be better served to use a USB install of LXDE or XFCE set up to be a persistent install.

The biggest mistake windows people make is to try and run linux on old hardware and then complain about how pathetic/slow/poorly it performs. Let it run on his win pc hardware, even off USB it will likely be faster than the machine you'd be giving him.

Just my experience.

[T6]

the cd you have, the 98 upgrade legally can't be used for the task you want to do

since win98 is abandoned long time ago you can use the license you wish to use, microsoft practically declared it as a abandonware in 2003

only retail licenses can be used for virtualization and if you don't have them installed on other real hardware

the virtual machine doesn't have access to your real hardware, just to the cpu(and if you have multiple cores, you can limit to a certain number of cores to be accessed by the virtual machine), the rest on the virtual machine will not be real hardware, only emulated hardware

you don't need drivers for win 98 because the os is encapsulated, contained inside a virtual environment using the desired to be emulated hardware, if you wish to emulate sound, network, usb, serial ports and what type of video card you want with the desired amount of vram, also the size of ram for the virtual machine

if you try to install drivers for your real sound card windows will tell you that the drivers doesn't work or the hardware can't be found and this is perfectly normal

none of the real hardware is seen on the virtual machine

we are talking about virtualbox, not sure if vmware can work with it, qemu was a good option but not sure what happened with it

about lotus, i know that the 95 version works in xp, a friend still uses it in his work, you could do some searches to find out what steps are required, afik, it is just install from the cd

[Nish]

Well thanks for checking and I believe you then that 98 just doesn't work in a VM.  Not likely an old laptop would be able to run Alice, it used a quake engine and it is pretty intense for old machines.  I upgraded my hardware a couple of times for it and finally hit a sweet spot on the last of the socket A boards and a Sempron 2700 that I could max out all the settings  beautiful game.  If the board was micro ATX I would keep it but it is the largest ATX I have run into and fits only in my enormous Lian Li case.

I am going to keep it all intact on its harddrive though just in case something comes up in the future.  Heck, people are running emulators for atari and coleco games, because some things you just can't let go of and when there is simply no more hardware that can run it, you never know what super geeks might come up with   

[menotu]

Well thanks for checking and I believe you then that 98 just doesn't work in a VM.

I think you'll find that Virtualbox does support Win98

[T6]

i tried last year to install win 98 in vbox and after 1 hour of installation i decided to kill the machine

98 can't take 20 minutes on this hardware

yes, virtualbox can support from DOS/win 3.1 to win7

about the game alice you mention, what is it?

what is the hardware requirements?  if it uses quake engine 1 or 2 a 8 mb video card should be enough to run it at 640*480

if it is a quake 3 you need 16 mbs of ram in a intel 815 minimum to run it properly

[Klinux]

I suggest you to create a clean install in VirtualBox. Right there is no official Guest Additions, but there are some unofficial drivers which allow you to get high resolutions and high colors. They can be found in the website of VirtualBox itself.

I even managed to get Windows NT 4 (with no SP up till SP6) in VirtualBox, working fast.

You have 3 options:
- Virtual machine
- Try Wine, maybe those old games which don't work on XP will work on Wine
- Try ReactOS

[Nish]

American McGee's Alice, quake 3 engine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_McGee%27s_Alice And initially I ran it on low end hardware (128MB of RAM, 1800XP on an ECS K7S5A with a 32MB nvidia card) but never could max out the settings and run the highest resolution (possible for that game anyway) until I got up to my ASUS A7N8X, with 526MB of RAM and video card with 64MB on it.  On this last setup it flew and I saw detail I never saw on earlier hardware - was really nice.  I couldn't believe what I had been missing because I thought it was great before.  The sequel is supposed to be coming out: http://www.ea.com/alice so it makes me want to play the earlier even more.

I bought Crossover Games, I have had no luck with launching Alice although it is rated Gold in their database.  Will try a few more times for sure.  I also bought Crossover Office but Lotus 123 is rated poorly and I have never managed to even get it to install. The Tombraider games, I did purchase GLIDOS ages ago and it worked a treat in 98 but I have had no luck in XP, there are patches and instructions for XP but 2 of the earlier favorites have been problematic.

Not sure what to do now, I know so little about VMs (nearly nothing).  I will save the hard drive, seems like a plan.  And keep googling the 98 nostalgia thing.  Sooner or later...

[menotu]

And keep googling the 98 nostalgia thing.  Sooner or later...

Do you have a Win98 CD?

[Nish]

And keep googling the 98 nostalgia thing.  Sooner or later...

Do you have a Win98 CD?

Yes, my Windows 98SE CD is a retail upgrade to a retail Windows 95.  I have only had it on one machine at a time, but I do clean installs and just show the 98 installer the windows 95 CD when it asks for it.  The consensus in those days was to always do it fresh.  I no longer let the 98 install contact the internet even though I am behind a router because it is hopelessly insecure.  There are all sorts of updates I have on CD from a Window 98 affecianado site even but there are just a couple of things I have to install for my games.

I have two disks in that machine - 100GB that is all FAT32 for Windows XP OEM and I know I can't move, oh well I have retail licenses on my other machines - then another partition for 98 that boots when chosen from the Windows bootloader.

I have small 40GB secondary harddisk that has couple of linuxes. I was going to pull the Windows disk out of the machine and reformat that secondary with a nice install of PCLinuxOS for the coworker to try out linux and give him the enormous beast.

And yes, I think it was VMware where I was reading a long while back you could do what I wanted to do. The VMWare site had my head spinning with cloud stuff - I do see mention of something (VM converter) to capture your XP so you can run it in Windows 7, but alas, nothing to do 98 in XP.  I don't mind paying to do this within my means.  I am old but I remember what I read though it was awhile ago, at the time, I just kept squirreling away the older hardware to keep 98 going.

[T6]

if i remember correctly the retail disc doesn't work to install from clean but if you say that you have done that way, that is ok

about windows security, there is still routers, web browsers and lots of plugins to use it on internet, with all the updates and using it wisely(not clicking on everything) it is almost the same as xp

about buying vmware, first give virtualbox a go

if successful you will have one of the most simple and stable virtual machines existing and if unsuccessful all you do is learn how to use it for another windows os 

[John Bee]

I think you'll find that Virtualbox does support Win98

And I think you'll find that Win98 in Virtualbox without Guest Additions is something
you'll not want to do. Even if you do find drivers to increase the screen size, it will
still be slow and use 80% of both cores. Even on my 3ghz dual core.  

[Klinux]

I think you'll find that Virtualbox does support Win98

And I think you'll find that Win98 in Virtualbox without Guest Additions is something
you'll not want to do. Even if you do find drivers to increase the screen size, it will
still be slow and use 80% of both cores. Even on my 3ghz dual core.  

Let me partially disagree. I haven't used Win98 much in VBOX, but for the less time I have used it, it was fine. Never saw that 80% u are talking about. I suggest the guy to give it a try, in case he will have lost only 1 hours of his life, nothing more.

[Nish]

if i remember correctly the retail disc doesn't work to install from clean but if you say that you have done that way, that is ok
about windows security, there is still routers, web browsers and lots of plugins to use it on internet, with all the updates and using it wisely(not clicking on everything) it is almost the same as xp
about buying vmware, first give virtualbox a go
if successful you will have one of the most simple and stable virtual machines existing and if unsuccessful all you do is learn how to use it for another windows os 

Most definitely the retail 98 upgrade does contain the whole OS.  The qualifier is that the older OS (95) be on the machine or it asks you for the older one's CD during install.  I have done it on three mobos as I upgraded my hardware.  Not sure, I may have shoved one of my 3.11 floppys in there although that could have been a work job LOL Now THAT would be some job for a VM, an OS on floppies!

I think I may have a go with that VM converter. Now if it can do OVF, and the VBox can import that OVF, hey whoopee yippee mebee work.  I will report back though like all things such as this, it could be awhile.

[Hootiegibbon]

Folks,

Win98 will not run well in Vbox Read this!

It may work better unedr Bochs or Qemu

Jase

[Nish]

Folks,

Win98 will not run well in Vbox Read this!

It may work better unedr Bochs or Qemu

Jase

thank you for the excellent link, though I don't see anything there that will put me off much.  Don't forget, I have spent about five years nursing 98SE on ever newer hardware (and its machine actually has two gigs of ram, there is a hack you have to do to win.ini when you have more than 512 installed - the deal killer is it is two 1GB sticks so I can't get it under the 512 for install, forget how I did get it to install it but obviously I did- sure it will come to me) for a handful of games and stinking spreadsheet :-) I might give it a go. I can hold on to the box one more weekend probably, will try the VM converter.