Virtual Box / DOS expert wanted.

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2017, August 5 - 6:08pm

noway

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Joined: 2011 Sep 14

Virtual Box / DOS expert wanted.

Tinkering with Fusion again, I found that the emulator does work pretty good in Oracle´s Virtual Box.
I uploaded the VBOX instance here: http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/fusion-pc
- sixth DL.

If you import the DOS setup into VBOX and start it, it will take you to the setup screen of Fusion 3.0. Setup opens a 1024x766 Mac screen with Mac OS 7.5 after klicking "Launch Emulator".
Mouse is working good, CD and CD images can be mounted via VBOX as well as floppy images.
Not working is the real floppy on my side.
The biggest issue, as you may have guessed, is sound.
Fusion seems to find something sound wise, as it does not quit with the usual error.
VBOX offers a SB16 emulation as it seems, but I´m kind of lost how to configure - it its possible at all.
If Blaster is enabled in Setup, Fusion seems to hang at a Mac screen.

Maybe somebody is willing to try and have a look what might be wrong?
I forgot the small knowledge about DOS I had a while ago.

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2017, August 6 - 12:01pm

24bit

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Joined: 2010 Nov 19

The Soundblaster 16 emulation seems to be hardly documented in Oracle´s Virtual Box sadly.
Users filed bug tickets about this feature over time.
It may be that sound with virtualisation of a 16bit OS on a 64bit host is not possible.
One user got sound working (sort of) however for his game:

Re: Sound Blaster 16 Emulation Failure
by cunha17 » 20. Mar 2010, 17:31
WORKING!

Actually, I got it to work by changing that BLASTER line to SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 T6 H7 P330.
I got Super Street Fight 2 Turbo (GAMETEK) running on MSDOS 6.22, but only the special effects(voices, lightning, etc.). When I activate the music the game freezes.
Primary OS: MS Windows Vista
VBox Version: OSE other
Guest OSses: DOS,WINDOWS

No dice with the above settings on a Sierra host on my side.
Without sound, Fusion PC 3.0 seems to be quite usable.
Some more RAM may be assigned to the emulator, compared to DOSBox, screen size and resolution switching seems to work fine too.
Managing ISO and img hardfiles via the Virtual Box wrapper looks promising too.

2017, August 6 - 4:12pm

MacTouch

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Joined: 2016 Mar 19

Hi there,

I've found a way to activate the sounds for Fusion in Virtual Box. The settings are "CoreAudio" & "SoundBlaster 16" in Virtual Box. In Fusion, the settings are "BLASTER" with "Port 220", "IRQ" 5, "DMA8" 1 & "DMA16" 0. It works, but the sound looks weird there. The sounds plays with echo...

2017, August 6 - 7:51pm

24bit

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Joined: 2010 Nov 19

Thanks for looking!
Is your mouse slow and jumpy too with sound enabled?
I did grab headphones for better listening and sound is "working" as you said. About twenty echoes for a system beep. Too bad that sound is unusable that way.

I´ll try with a 32bit guest OS soon, I still have 10.6 (32) and W10 (32) available, but I´m afraid we have to live without sound in Fusion/Virtual Box. Too many changes happened from the good old ISA Soundblaster beasts to AC97 and even worse HD Audio.

2017, August 7 - 3:41pm

MacTouch

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Joined: 2016 Mar 19

Yep, the mouse is slow, but Virtual Box is, too. That's why I don't use it anymore. About the sound, the startup chime is very bad. But apart the echoes, sound is usable in my system. I'm using an old version of Virtual Box, so I have not tested on more recents versions, nor the very latest version...

2017, August 8 - 5:33pm

24bit

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Joined: 2010 Nov 19

I tried the virtualisation with an older VirtualBox from here: http://www.oldapps.com/virtualbox.php?system=Windows_XP
Settings for Sound are "Windows Direct Sound" and "Soundblaster 16".
On a 32 bit host OS sound on the Mac side is working better but not flawlessly.
System sounds like Wlld Eeep do play almost normal and simple game sounds are bearable for me.
The startup sound is best disabled at the Settings screen unless someone wants a full orchestra feeling.

On my side neither mouse nor Fusion seem to lag, my testing ground is rather old though,
Optiplex 745 with a X3210. Newer hardware may have its own issues.
With the 32bit XP host OS Fusion is a bit slower than with my W7-64 guest.
Fusion is only 26 times faster than a Centris 605, compared to 28 times - nothing one would really notice on the Mac side.

If someone could figure out enabling USB in DOS and could route the device to Fusion, we might finally be able to attach a USB thumb drive to a 68k MacOS.