Virtual PC and VMware Workstation DOS memory management \ VOGONS

Virtual PC and VMware Workstation DOS memory management

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First post, by valnar

Posted on 2008-08-30, 15:15

valnar Offline

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In addition to DOSBox, I keep a running collection of DOS 6.22 + Windows 3.1 images for MS Virtual PC 2007 and VMware 6.x. Since these are known, unchanging machines, I am posting my DOS boot files below for everyone to use or critique. (I've also played with QEMU, Parallels and VirtualBox, but none of them are as compatible or stable as VPC & VMware Workstation.)

While both Microsoft and VMware emulate the 440BX chipset, they are not fully compatible with real machines. This is most evident in alternate memory managers and disk caching programs. Quarterdeck's QEMM386 and Qualitas 386Max flat out don't work. They will crash the VM. I've had good luck with UMBPCI, which is a great way to create UMB's without forcing the processor into protected mode like EMM386. Nevertheless, I use both in my boot files since in some cases I want to use expanded memory.

I use a combination of native Microsoft files (like himem.sys) and freeware alternatives that have been proven to be reliable and consume less memory. As for disk caching programs, just use Smartdrv - period. All the others have various problems that I stopped documenting awhile ago. I also use the latest versions when possible. ie. HIMEM.SYS, EMM386.EXE and SMARTDRV.EXE are all from Win98SE. (Windows ME does not exist to me)

I used to be pretty good at configuring boot files back in the day, but AXCEL216 is even better, so to give credit where its due, I got a lot of info from here: http://www.mdgx.com/umb.htm
Note that I couldn't take verbatim what he wrote since both VM's have their own peculiarities. These are tried and tested configs. If it looks like I left out some things AXCEL216 recommends or arranged them in a different order, it was done on purpose.

I also took some of the VPC specific info from here: http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/ … /21/246136.aspx

My VPC image uses DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.1. Since VPC comes with their fshare program, I can use that to transfer files between the VM and host. With VMware Workstation, I use WFWG 3.11 and do it through Windows file sharing. I don't care that I "only" use Windows 3.1 with VPC since I don't surf the Internet with either VM. That would just be an exercise in torture.

Edit: The VMware Workstation image is a 5.x compatible image, not 6.x

Below are the config.sys and autoexec.bat files I use for each VM, and a MEM /C/P output.

Last edited by valnar on 2008-08-30, 18:26. Edited 5 times in total.

Reply 1 of 11, by valnar

Posted on 2008-08-30, 15:22

valnar Offline

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Virtual PC config.sys

1DEVICE=C:\VMADD\VMADD386.SYS
2
3[COMMON]
4DOS=HIGH,UMB
5FILES=50
6BUFFERS=12,6
7LASTDRIVE=M
8STACKS=9,256
9FCBS=1,0
10
11[MENU]
12MENUCOLOR=7,0
13MENUDEFAULT=UMBPCI,5
14MENUITEM=UMBPCI,HIMEM.SYS + UMBPCI.SYS
15MENUITEM=EMM386,HIMEM.SYS + EMM386.EXE
16
17[UMBPCI]
18DEVICE=C:\UTIL\HIMEM.SYS /NUMHANDLES=64 /TESTMEM:OFF
19DEVICE=C:\UTIL\UMBPCI.SYS
20DEVICE=C:\UTIL\LOWDMA.SYS
21DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\NANSI.SYS /K /X
22DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\QCDROM.SYS /D:IDECD1 /L /X /SM
23INCLUDE=END
24SET CONFIG=UMBPCI
25
26[EMM386]
27DEVICE=C:\UTIL\HIMEM.SYS /NUMHANDLES=64 /TESTMEM:OFF
28DEVICE=C:\UTIL\EMM386.EXE RAM I=B100-B7FF I=C600-C7FF I=CC00-CFFF I=E600-EFFF FRAME=D000 A=32 D=128 NOTR
29DEVICEHIGH=/L:2 C:\UTIL\NANSI.SYS /K /X
30DEVICEHIGH=/L:2 C:\UTIL\QCDROM.SYS /D:IDECD1 /X /SM
31INCLUDE=END
32SET CONFIG=EMM386
33
34[END]
35DEVICE=C:\UTIL\DOSMAX.EXE N+ P- R-
36SHELL=C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM /E:640 /P

Virtual PC autoexec.bat

1@ECHO OFF
2PATH=C:\UTIL;C:\DOS;C:\WINDOWS;C:\PKZIP;
3PROMPT $P$G
4SET DOSVMADD13=INSTALLED
5SET TEMP=C:\TEMP
6SET TMP=C:\TEMP
7SET WINDIR=C:\WINDOWS
8SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 T6
9GOTO %CONFIG%
10
11:EMM386
12C:\UTIL\EMM386.EXE AUTO
13GOTO END
14
15:UMBPCI
16GOTO END
17
18:END
19C:\UTIL\ENVIMAX.COM
20C:\UTIL\SHCDX33C.COM /D:IDECD1 /L:E /~+
21C:\UTIL\SMARTDRV.EXE 4096 4096 /B:8192
22LH C:\DOS\DOSKEY
23LH C:\VMADD\IDLE.COM
24LH C:\VMADD\MOUSE.COM
25rem C:\VMADD\FSHARE.EXE

UMBPCI memory

1Modules using memory below 1 MB:
2
3  Name           Total       =   Conventional   +   Upper Memory
4  --------  ----------------   ----------------   ----------------
5  MSDOS        9,517    (9K)      9,517    (9K)          0    (0K)
6  HIMEM        1,120    (1K)      1,120    (1K)          0    (0K)
7  UMBPCI         176    (0K)        176    (0K)          0    (0K)
8  LOWDMA         688    (1K)        688    (1K)          0    (0K)
9  DOSMAX         416    (0K)        416    (0K)          0    (0K)
10  COMMAND      3,376    (3K)      2,720    (3K)        656    (1K)
11  NANSI        3,344    (3K)          0    (0K)      3,344    (3K)
12  QCDROM       2,080    (2K)          0    (0K)      2,080    (2K)
13  FILES        2,688    (3K)          0    (0K)      2,688    (3K)
14  FCBS            96    (0K)          0    (0K)         96    (0K)
15  WKBUFFER     3,600    (4K)          0    (0K)      3,600    (4K)
16  LASTDRIV     1,168    (1K)          0    (0K)      1,168    (1K)
17  STACKS       3,024    (3K)          0    (0K)      3,024    (3K)
18  INSTALL        160    (0K)          0    (0K)        160    (0K)
19  SHCDX33C     6,336    (6K)          0    (0K)      6,336    (6K)
20  SMARTDRV    24,000   (23K)          0    (0K)     24,000   (23K)
21  IDLE           624    (1K)          0    (0K)        624    (1K)
22  DOSKEY       4,144    (4K)          0    (0K)      4,144    (4K)
23  MOUSE        8,976    (9K)          0    (0K)      8,976    (9K)
24  Free       644,192  (629K)    639,520  (625K)      4,672    (5K)
25
26Memory Summary:
27
28  Type of Memory       Total   =    Used    +    Free
29  ----------------  ----------   ----------   ----------
30  Conventional         654,336       14,816      639,520
31  Upper                 65,568       60,896        4,672
32  Reserved                   0            0            0
33  Extended (XMS)    32,440,288    4,325,344   28,114,944
34  ----------------  ----------   ----------   ----------
35  Total memory      33,160,192    4,401,056   28,759,136
36
37  Total under 1 MB     719,904       75,712      644,192
38
39  Largest executable program size        639,504   (625K)
40  Largest free upper memory block          4,624     (5K)
41  MS-DOS is resident in the high memory area.

EMM386 memory

1Modules using memory below 1 MB:
2
3  Name           Total       =   Conventional   +   Upper Memory
4  --------  ----------------   ----------------   ----------------
5  MSDOS        9,517    (9K)      9,517    (9K)          0    (0K)
6  HIMEM        1,120    (1K)      1,120    (1K)          0    (0K)
7  EMM386       5,488    (5K)      5,488    (5K)          0    (0K)
8  COMMAND      3,376    (3K)      2,720    (3K)        656    (1K)
9  DOSMAX         240    (0K)          0    (0K)        240    (0K)
10  FILES        2,688    (3K)          0    (0K)      2,688    (3K)
11  FCBS            96    (0K)          0    (0K)         96    (0K)
12  WKBUFFER     3,600    (4K)          0    (0K)      3,600    (4K)
13  LASTDRIV     1,168    (1K)          0    (0K)      1,168    (1K)
14  STACKS       3,024    (3K)          0    (0K)      3,024    (3K)
15  INSTALL        160    (0K)          0    (0K)        160    (0K)
16  SHCDX33C     6,336    (6K)          0    (0K)      6,336    (6K)
17  IDLE           624    (1K)          0    (0K)        624    (1K)
18  MOUSE        8,976    (9K)          0    (0K)      8,976    (9K)
19  NANSI        3,376    (3K)          0    (0K)      3,376    (3K)
20  QCDROM       2,064    (2K)          0    (0K)      2,064    (2K)
21  SMARTDRV    24,000   (23K)          0    (0K)     24,000   (23K)
22  DOSKEY       4,144    (4K)          0    (0K)      4,144    (4K)
23  Free       663,680  (648K)    636,304  (621K)     27,376   (27K)
24
25Memory Summary:
26
27  Type of Memory       Total   =    Used    +    Free
28  ----------------  ----------   ----------   ----------
29  Conventional         655,360       19,056      636,304
30  Upper                 88,528       61,152       27,376
31  Reserved             393,216      393,216            0
32  Extended (XMS)*   32,417,328    5,072,432   27,344,896
33  ----------------  ----------   ----------   ----------
34  Total memory      33,554,432    5,545,856   28,008,576
35
36  Total under 1 MB     743,888       80,208      663,680
37
38  Total Expanded (EMS)                32,833,536 (32,064K
39  Free Expanded (EMS)*                27,590,656 (26,944K
40
41  * EMM386 is using XMS memory to simulate EMS memory as needed.
42    Free EMS memory may change as free XMS memory changes.
43
44  Largest executable program size        636,288   (621K)
45  Largest free upper memory block         12,800    (13K)
46  MS-DOS is resident in the high memory area.

Reply 2 of 11, by valnar

Posted on 2008-08-30, 15:26

valnar Offline

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Joined: 2002-07-17, 13:50

VMware config.sys

1[COMMON]
2DOS=HIGH,UMB
3FILES=50
4BUFFERS=12,6
5LASTDRIVE=M
6STACKS=9,256
7FCBS=1,0
8
9[MENU]
10MENUCOLOR=7,0
11MENUDEFAULT=UMBPCI,5
12MENUITEM=UMBPCI,HIMEM.SYS + UMBPCI.SYS
13MENUITEM=EMM386,HIMEM.SYS + EMM386.EXE
14
15[UMBPCI]
16DEVICE=C:\UTIL\UMBPCI.SYS /I=C800-DFFF
17DEVICE=C:\UTIL\HIRAM.EXE
18DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\HIMEM.SYS /NUMHANDLES=64 /TESTMEM:OFF
19DEVICE=C:\UTIL\LOWDMA.SYS
20DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\NANSI.SYS /K /X
21DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\QCDROM.SYS /D:IDECD1 /L /X /SM
22DEVICEHIGH=C:\WINDOWS\IFSHLP.SYS
23INCLUDE=END
24SET CONFIG=UMBPCI
25
26[EMM386]
27DEVICE=C:\UTIL\HIMEM.SYS /NUMHANDLES=64 /TESTMEM:OFF
28DEVICE=C:\UTIL\EMM386.EXE RAM /I=B000-B7FF A=32 D=128 NOTR
29DEVICEHIGH=/L:2 C:\UTIL\NANSI.SYS /K /X
30DEVICEHIGH=/L:2 C:\UTIL\QCDROM.SYS /D:IDECD1 /X /SM
31DEVICEHIGH=/L:3 C:\WINDOWS\IFSHLP.SYS
32INCLUDE=END
33SET CONFIG=EMM386
34
35[END]
36DEVICE=C:\UTIL\DOSMAX.EXE N+ P- R-
37SHELL=C:\UTIL\SHELLMAX.COM /N+ /P- /R- /S+ C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM /E:640 /P

VMware autoexec.bat

1@ECHO OFF
2C:\WINDOWS\net start
3SET WINDIR=C:\WINDOWS
4SET SOUND=C:\SB16
5SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H7 P330 T6
6SET MIDI=SYNTH:1 MAP:E
7C:\SB16\DIAGNOSE /S
8C:\SB16\MIXERSET /P /Q
9PATH=C:\UTIL;C:\WINDOWS;C:\DOS;C:\PKZIP
10PROMPT $P$G
11SET TEMP=C:\TEMP
12SET TMP=C:\TEMP
13GOTO %CONFIG%
14
15:EMM386
16C:\UTIL\EMM386.EXE AUTO
17LH /L:3 C:\DOS\DOSKEY.COM
18LH /L:2 C:\UTIL\MOUSE.COM
19GOTO END
20
21:UMBPCI
22LH C:\DOS\DOSKEY.COM
23LH C:\UTIL\MOUSE.COM
24GOTO END
25
26:END
27C:\UTIL\ENVIMAX.COM
28C:\UTIL\SHCDX33C.COM /D:IDECD1 /L:E /~+
29C:\UTIL\SMARTDRV.EXE 4096 4096 /B:8192
30LH C:\UTIL\IDLE.COM

UMBPCI memory

1Modules using memory below 1 MB:
2
3  Name           Total       =   Conventional   +   Upper Memory
4  --------  ----------------   ----------------   ----------------
5  MSDOS        9,645    (9K)      9,645    (9K)          0    (0K)
6  LOWDMA         688    (1K)        688    (1K)          0    (0K)
7  DOSMAX         384    (0K)        384    (0K)          0    (0K)
8  COMMAND        272    (0K)        272    (0K)          0    (0K)
9  HIMEM        1,120    (1K)          0    (0K)      1,120    (1K)
10  NANSI        3,344    (3K)          0    (0K)      3,344    (3K)
11  QCDROM       2,032    (2K)          0    (0K)      2,032    (2K)
12  IFSHLP       3,952    (4K)          0    (0K)      3,952    (4K)
13  FILES        2,688    (3K)          0    (0K)      2,688    (3K)
14  FCBS            96    (0K)          0    (0K)         96    (0K)
15  WKBUFFER     3,600    (4K)          0    (0K)      3,600    (4K)
16  LASTDRIV     1,168    (1K)          0    (0K)      1,168    (1K)
17  STACKS       3,024    (3K)          0    (0K)      3,024    (3K)
18  INSTALL        160    (0K)          0    (0K)        160    (0K)
19  COMMAND      3,312    (3K)          0    (0K)      3,312    (3K)
20  MOUSE        8,992    (9K)          0    (0K)      8,992    (9K)
21  DOSKEY       4,144    (4K)          0    (0K)      4,144    (4K)
22  SHCDX33C     6,336    (6K)          0    (0K)      6,336    (6K)
23  SMARTDRV    24,000   (23K)          0    (0K)     24,000   (23K)
24  IDLE           640    (1K)          0    (0K)        640    (1K)
25  Free       671,840  (656K)    642,096  (627K)     29,744   (29K)
26
27Memory Summary:
28
29  Type of Memory       Total   =    Used    +    Free
30  ----------------  ----------   ----------   ----------
31  Conventional         653,312       11,216      642,096
32  Upper                 98,352       68,608       29,744
33  Reserved                   0            0            0
34  Extended (XMS)    31,293,392    4,292,560   27,000,832
35  ----------------  ----------   ----------   ----------
36  Total memory      32,045,056    4,372,384   27,672,672
37
38  Total under 1 MB     751,664       79,824      671,840
39
40  Largest executable program size        642,080   (627K)
41  Largest free upper memory block         29,696    (29K)
42  MS-DOS is resident in the high memory area.

EMM386 memory

1Modules using memory below 1 MB:
2
3  Name           Total       =   Conventional   +   Upper Memory
4  --------  ----------------   ----------------   ----------------
5  MSDOS        9,645    (9K)      9,645    (9K)          0    (0K)
6  HIMEM        1,120    (1K)      1,120    (1K)          0    (0K)
7  EMM386       4,464    (4K)      4,464    (4K)          0    (0K)
8  COMMAND      3,312    (3K)      2,656    (3K)        656    (1K)
9  SMARTDRV    24,016   (23K)     15,808   (15K)      8,208    (8K)
10  DOSMAX         240    (0K)          0    (0K)        240    (0K)
11  FILES        2,688    (3K)          0    (0K)      2,688    (3K)
12  FCBS            96    (0K)          0    (0K)         96    (0K)
13  WKBUFFER     3,600    (4K)          0    (0K)      3,600    (4K)
14  LASTDRIV     1,168    (1K)          0    (0K)      1,168    (1K)
15  STACKS       3,024    (3K)          0    (0K)      3,024    (3K)
16  INSTALL        160    (0K)          0    (0K)        160    (0K)
17  SHCDX33C     6,336    (6K)          0    (0K)      6,336    (6K)
18  IDLE           640    (1K)          0    (0K)        640    (1K)
19  NANSI        3,376    (3K)          0    (0K)      3,376    (3K)
20  QCDROM       2,064    (2K)          0    (0K)      2,064    (2K)
21  MOUSE        8,992    (9K)          0    (0K)      8,992    (9K)
22  IFSHLP       3,904    (4K)          0    (0K)      3,904    (4K)
23  DOSKEY       4,144    (4K)          0    (0K)      4,144    (4K)
24  Free       625,920  (611K)    619,392  (605K)      6,528    (6K)
25
26Memory Summary:
27
28  Type of Memory       Total   =    Used    +    Free
29  ----------------  ----------   ----------   ----------
30  Conventional         653,312       33,920      619,392
31  Upper                 55,824       49,296        6,528
32  Reserved                   0            0            0
33  Extended (XMS)*   32,384,496    5,072,368   27,312,128
34  ----------------  ----------   ----------   ----------
35  Total memory      33,093,632    5,155,584   27,938,048
36
37  Total under 1 MB     709,136       83,216      625,920
38
39  Total Expanded (EMS)                32,768,000 (32,000K
40  Free Expanded (EMS)*                27,541,504 (26,896K
41
42  * EMM386 is using XMS memory to simulate EMS memory as needed.
43    Free EMS memory may change as free XMS memory changes.
44
45  Largest executable program size        619,232   (605K)
46  Largest free upper memory block          3,600     (4K)
47  MS-DOS is resident in the high memory area.

Reply 3 of 11, by GL1zdA

Posted on 2008-08-30, 17:16

GL1zdA Offline

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It would be nice, if you would make your config.sys and autoexec.bat more 'verbose' - add comments to settings. I, and probably many other people, who don't know a lot about DOS configuration files, would benefit a lot from these, since we wouldn't have to look up the meaning of all settings. I learn usually faster using examples and borrowing from them and modifying them than using a reference manual and building everything from scratch.

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Reply 4 of 11, by valnar

Posted on 2008-08-30, 18:21

valnar Offline

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Joined: 2002-07-17, 13:50

All those programs come with instructions detailing the command parameters. It would be too much to write them all here. If you search out DOSMAX, HIRAM, UMBPCI.SYS, SCHDX33.EXE, etc, you'll get the instructions with them.

I will note that mouse driver I use is Microsoft version 1.01. It takes little memory. VPC supports the Sound Blaster 16 as a non-PnP card. VMware requires the use of Creative's mixerset, etc.

While I didn't state it above, all my choices were selected to optimize conventional memory, in addition to make the VM's stable. In a tie I chose stability over an extra 1-2K memory.

Virtual PC is very stable. My VMware image is stable in DOS, but sometimes has problems exiting out of WFWG 3.11. I believe when I used plain Windows 3.1 in VMware it was much better, but I like the WFWG option. In either case, I really don't use Windows 3.1x in VMware since there is no native video driver. It's just there to be there.

Obviously both VMware and VPC excel in Windows 98 or better, but that's not as much fun. 😁 If I had the choice of one or the other *for DOS and Windows 3.x*, I would choose Virtual PC. It's currently the best emulator outside of DOSBox for that environment. It has been since the Connectix days. The S3 video and SB audio emulation help.

Reply 5 of 11, by swaaye

Posted on 2008-09-02, 17:30

swaaye Offline

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I am disappointed that the Crusader games won't work in Virtual PC. I think that VirtualPC might have a speed advantage over DOSBOX because it does less emulation and more virtualization. Since I've been playing with an EeePC and the 900 MHz Celeron M is rather iffy for the SVGA DOS games within DOSBOX, I wanted to give VPC a try.

The Crusader games are very picky. I have only been able to get them to run in DOSBOX or on a real DOS machine. No NTVDM, Win9x, or VirtualPC w/ DOS 6.22. The game is based on an Ultima Underworld engine and it does some things with its memory management that are rather ugly apparently and easy to break.

Reply 6 of 11, by wd

Posted on 2008-09-02, 18:25

wd Offline

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1because it does less emulation and more virtualization

That's not always a speed advantage. Especially when it comes to games that
use self-page modifying code. Try duke3d under qemu or vpc for example.

vmware does a much better job for those games, and in my experience it
runs some of the trickier games, too.

Reply 7 of 11, by DosFreak

Posted on 2008-09-02, 18:46

DosFreak Offline

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IIRC, Crusader worked in Connectix VPC v5.1 and v5.2 and possibly Microsoft VPC 2004....but I think I remember Crusader stopped working when VPC 2004 came out.

Re: Virtual PC 5 oddity
Re: Problems with sound in Crusader using Virtual PC 5.2
Re: DOSbox and Virtual PC 2004

V5.1 and V5.2 should still work fine in XP but your still better off with DOSBox if you like sound quality in your games.

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Reply 8 of 11, by valnar

Posted on 2010-09-27, 17:23

valnar Offline

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I loaded up Qemu Manager 7.0 which comes with QEMU 0.11.1 and tried a DOS 6.22/Win3.1 installation that I had not used in awhile. It seems a lot better now, although Windows is still not as stable as VPC or Vmware. But as an added bonus, I can install 386MAX 7.02 and it doesn't crash the VM!! This is quite an improvement since last time.

It allows for a lot of free UMB compared to other emulators. With UMBPCI I can get 628K conventional memory free and my new 386Max installation gives me an even 625K. Very nice.