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#1 ispy

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Posted 26 March 2008 - 01:14 PM

Hi all :tabletalk: ,

First of all appologies to Mikorist for posting this concept here but just wanted to stimulate some interest & discussion with regards to a "Scatty Idea" I have been thinking about.

It's a "bit off the wall" but I thought I would just share it anyway!

Background Details:
I have been scouting around the net looking for a small light & preferably fast operating system that is capable of loading Qemu to in turn load other operating systems within a virtualised enviroment like Virtual hardware drivers NIC etc. I know that it is impossible to get away entirely from hardware driver detection etc & the candidate needed to be preferably freeware. I have tentativly looked at linux (as there are lots of mini systems available as well as Winimize, however Win98se would require a CD key as it is not open source or freeware.

One idea I have had is to use a very small operating system called MenuetOS (32bit), it is very small (Fits on a floppy disk or could be loaded from Grub4dos from an image file, it incidently is written entirely in ASM hence its very small size) & as luck turns out might be able to load Qemu. One drawback I have found is there is no Dos or CMD.exe which is used to run Qemu, I think? So at the first hurdle, it seemed that MenuetOS could not run Qemu?

However, I have visited the MenuetOS Forum, specifically the 32Bit GPL section found here (My posting):
http://menuet.2.foru...?showtopic=1261
& posted a question. A very helpful moderator there called "Villemt" has posted a link which takes you to some library files that will permit Qemu to run in MenuetOS
http://sourceforge.n...?group_id=85213
I think it is used for gamers etc. Anyway I have posted a reply in respect of these library files to try to determine which ones are required to run Qemu & this was the reply:

You need to convert the system calls which Qemu uses to Menuet system calls. The library has many already available. Also, you need to use the Menuet header in Qemu executable file.

This answer floored me, as my technical skills are not advanced enough to interpret what this means really!!!

My thoughts are centred not on running games but running other Os's (possibly the lot run in Ram) loaded from a very small fast OS like MenuetOS (Front loaded) that will load Qemu then load the presribed OS within Qemu? Can anyone tell me would this setup be possible & further benefits that could be derived from an emulated system run in this way.

I hope I have not confused anyone with this posting, it is deemed appropriate, & is not to controvershal. The benefits at a first glance may not be "glaringly" apparent but may provide some spin off benefits due to fast load time combined with Emulation on old systems maybe with minimal resources & obsolete drivers etc?
Ideas/thoughts from those with the prerequiste skill & knowledge, would be welcomed!

Regards & Best Wishes,

ispy :D :thumbsup:

#2 Brito

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Posted 26 March 2008 - 01:55 PM

Not sure about support for hardware acceleration so it might be a slow emulation as it is.


On the other hand, I don't know I already mentioned that you can also run qemu from within FreeDOS using a project called HX-DOS which allows to run win32 console apps under plain DOS prompt.

Running ReactOS inside QEMU under DOS for example: http://qemu-forum.ip...pic.php?p=10730


It might be easier to build and test, I've tried something like this some time ago for 7zip and it sure was fun to see the result.

HX-DOS (works good): http://www.japheth.de/HX.html
DosWin32 (not tested yet): http://www.doswin32.com/

FreeDOS: http://www.freedos.org/

Maybe you could also add a nifty DOS GUI such as this: http://www.flox.at.tf

:thumbsup:

#3 ispy

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Posted 26 March 2008 - 03:04 PM

Hi Nuno :D ,

Many thanks for the reply,

Not sure about support for hardware acceleration so it might be a slow emulation as it is.

So you think it would be very slow if it was to attempt to run a Gui type operating system, I suppose its one thing running a game in emulation & another to run an operating system, maybe I am getting too ambiscious for my own good?

However it would be kewl if it did LOL!!!

In respect of your reply the further considerations are appreciated, the dos Gui looks good have not seen that one before, wonder if it is LFN aware?

By the way & aside from the queries in this posting can I compliment you on Boot-lands new appearance, it gives it the appearance of sophistication very nice.

Presumeably you use Media Portal in the designing of the web-site, very good indeed was it with AEF or Without?
![/
:thumbsup:

Regards as always,

ispy :tabletalk:

#4 Brito

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Posted 26 March 2008 - 04:32 PM

Glad you liked it.

This skin was based on a php portal created by invision called "Nexus". I just modified and added transparency to the default images that comes with the IPB Pro skin because they looked better than the original ones that came with this theme. It was time to change the looks a bit.. :thumbsup:

wonder if it is LFN aware?

Probably not, don't really now for sure.

-------

Regarding the emulation, your results shouldn't be too happy for running games since they require 2D/3D animation and qemu is not famous for the graphics performance nor DOS has a framework to handle directx/openGL like "bigger" OS's.

On the other hand - you can also try out and have some fun trying and posting back your results.

Very few people ever tried stuff like this so it would be good to read back your experience trying different solutions.

:tabletalk:




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