RE: [Xen-users] puting a running win98 installation under control of xen - hvm

["Petersson, Mats" <Mats.Petersson@xxxxxxx>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: xen-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
> [mailto:xen-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of 
> Thilo Riessner
> Sent: 17 April 2007 18:20
> To: xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [Xen-users] puting a running win98 installation 
> under control of xen - hvm
> 
> I am trying to run win98 under xen with intel VT technology. 
> I made a hard 
> disk image from a working installation (which runs a software 
> I don't want to 
> install again) an configured xen to use this image, using 
> stdvga=0 and sdl=1. 
> It starts booting and shows the windows screen, but hangs up 
> very soon. When 
> switching to the confirmation mode (pressing F8 to get the 
> menu and then 
> select the confirmation mode), where you have to confirm 
> every loading of the 
> next driver, it hangs when loading the himem.sys driver. 

The "himem.sys" driver is a driver that allows real-mode applications to
access "high memory", i.e. memory above 1MB. This requires transitions
between protected mode and real-mode, which is a known problem-area for
Intel processors. There is work ongoing to fix this, but at present,
this is "difficult code" for the Intel processor, as it doesn't support
real-mode in virtual machines. Instead, real-mode is run in vm86-mode
(same as a "dos-box" in Windows uses - but try loading "himem.sys" in a
dos-box, and you'll see that that doesn't work either, although the
exact problem may appear slightly differently). 

> Is 
> it possible to 
> get win98 running under xen-hvm, if yes is it possible to 
> convert a running 
> installation to run under xen (as I described above)?

It appears that some people are successfully running Win98(SE) on HVM. 

As to taking an existing installation, that is the same as "changing
motherboard" on an existing windows installation, something that for
example Win98 is notorious for not happily tolerating. There are things
you can do, which involves setting the registry to "I've not yet
discovered what PnP devices there are". I doubt this will fix the
"himem.sys" issue described above tho', and as far as I know, himem.sys
is needed for booting Win98. 

--
Mats
> Thanks for any help 
> Thilo
> 
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