Vista - Using QEMM in a virtual machine

Hi, all:

I have DOS 6.22 and WFWG running in a VM and I wanted to experiment with
wringing the last bit of conventional memory out of the configuration by
using one of my favorite memory managers of that era, Quarterdeck QEMM 7.5.
Has anyone been able to get this to work successfully under VPC? During the
optimization part of the install, I get a GPF during the optimization,
followed by an invalid opcode fault (06).

Although this question is specific to VPC2007, I've tried this under other
virtual machine technologies (like Parallels) and QEMM doesn't work there
either. What about QEMM do the VMs not like? Does VPC not emulate every type
of CPU instruction?

Thanks for the info!

On Sat, 25 Oct 2008 10:31:01 -0700, Rich Cini <Rich
Cini@xxxxxx> wrote:
As far as I know the CPU is *not* emulated, it is virtualized. This
means that the host CPU is actually running the code in your virtual
machine at full speed during the time slices it gets to use it.
Maybe QEMM is not compatible with today's CPU:s???

--

Bo Berglund (Sweden)

"Bo Berglund" wrote:Yes, I forgot that distinction since I'm running DOS within the virtual
environment. I'm used to real CPU emulation (since I work on cross-platform
stuff more frequently). I wonder if something in Intel's virtualization
hardware creates a subtle, but incompatible change to some aspect of the
instruction set that causes problems for these older programs?

I wonder if disabling host CPU virtualization support will change anything?
I may also have a closer look at the faulting instruction and see if that
provides any clues.

Thanks.

On Sat, 25 Oct 2008 10:31:01 -0700, Rich Cini <Rich
Cini@xxxxxx> wrote:
With VPC there are specific address ranges you need to exclude in
QEMM. I have no idea what they are any more, unfortunately.
I'll look through my old CNTX stuff and see if I have a reference
anywhere.

--
Cheers,
Steve Jain, Virtual Machine MVP
http://vpc.essjae.com/

"Steve Jain [MVP]" wrote:
Steve:

Oh, yes, I remember those! I actually found the solution, and it didn't
involve manual range excludes (see below). The success of using QEMM depends
on the version of QEMM you use. I had been trying to use QEMM 7.5 which
clearly didn't work. I found a copy of QEMM8 and that worked perfectly -- no
special incantations necessary. The install completed fine, as did the
automatic "optimize" function. When it was done, the command line included an
aweful lot of include/exclude ranges.

I did not try to use QEMM97 (the final version before Quarterdeck Office
Systems went bye-bye), but I would imagine that it would work as well.

Your comment about the range excludes reminded me of all of the manual
tweaking required back then. I remember spending hours trying to squeeze one
last driver into the configuration. Ah, those were the days.

Regards,
Rich

In message <7A7C74A5-16F6-4283-B99E-BA6B464789C9@xxxxxx> Rich
Cini <RichCini@xxxxxx> was claimed to have wrote:
Forget one last driver, even then, there was always the nagging
suspicion that you could get another KB of free memory by reorganizing
too, or changing the load order.

Whether the fact that kids these days never get to learn that is a
blessing or a curse, I don't know.

"DevilsPGD" wrote:
We sound so much like our parents :-)

Seriously, this kind of hand optimization turned into an art that is lost on
kids these days. Also, having two kids in grammar school, I think there is a
big missing opportunity in teaching BASIC. I learned a lot about logical
thinking and breaking problems down into smaller and easier parts. Now, don't
get me wrong -- the computer classes they take are pretty good, but they are
task-oriented classes: how to make graphs using Excel, that kind of stuff.

Regards,
Rich

"DevilsPGD" <spam_narf_spam@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:hpf7g4h6l17dg9kektr1rm41qvhh0t0lqg@xxxxxxKids these days (meaning the younger generation of IT workers and
programmers in general) don't know squat about computers in general it
seems. I remember Qemm very well, along with Tems and a few others that
didn't work so well. That last few versions of Qemm were quite good - the
6.x versions were pure crap. And I remember very well juggling drivers to
get the cursed thing to load! I remember having 3 or 4 different boot
floppies for different tasks LOL. Ahhh...the good old days. Ask kids these
days what extended or expanded memory is. You get blank stares.

Rich Cini <RichCini@xxxxxx> wrote:
Thanks for the memories and the flashback to the red box with the logo
on it. I wrote an article or two on these for an IBM midrange
magazine (IBM AS/400) on this topic back in about 1990 or so.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/

In message <C1371B29-2F74-4058-97C4-6B1446749A66@xxxxxx> Rich
Cini <RichCini@xxxxxx> was claimed to have wrote:
I blame The MTV and The Rap Music for giving all the kids ADD.

(Okay seriously, I was a Much Music fan when I was a kid too, whereas my
kids probably haven't watched 30 minutes of MM/MTV in their lives)
And worse, they not only don't encourage students to tinker, some even
forbid kids from going into Tools --> Options and rearranging toolbars
or similar personalization. (And yes, said school board does have
per-user accounts, and the machines are properly configured so that one
kids' changes won't impact the next user of the machine)

It's no wonder that when these kids hit the work force they're totally
unprepared for anything other then the specific activity which they were
taught.