+ CrossPosted in: WIN95
 + CrossPosted in: WINDOWS

Hi! Bob,

In a msg of Sun, 28 Apr 13, I wrote to you:

 BK>> I was just thinking of adding ram to an old laptop, and got to
 BK>> thinking about linux distros that run in ram. I was wondering
 BK>> about running Win 98 in ram, and if it would run much faster.

 PQ> For running Win98 you just need to have plenty of HDD space.  It runs
 PQ> fine in just 128Mb, in a vBox.  (I'm not sure about a laptop,
 PQ> though.)

On further reflection, I'd recommend that you consider something later than Win98.

There are a few gotcha's to running it.  It has to be installed with
forcing ACPI by using the "/p j" setup switch, otherwise a vBox
just blasts away at the CPU at warp-8.  *This* vBox also uses Rain 2.0 to
smooth its operation, BTW.  The other vBox didn't need Rain.  Go figure.

The next tough bit is finding the best SVGA display adapter driver to use. 
Win98 installs with just 800x600x16 colours VGA, which is woefully
inadequate.  I've managed to dig up a couple of SVGA drivers by reading
through the vBox support forum(s).  Both provide 1024x768x32-bit SVGA,
however one of the drivers (VBE Mini-port by Anapa Corp.) absolutely
crashes if I try to run any DOS apps; luckily (by good planning on my part
[adjusting halo] it doesn't need to).

*This* vBox uses the 'SciTech Display Doctor' and runs everything, nearly
perfectly; the driver is a beta IIRC which has had some wobbly moments, a
few times requiring me to shut-down the Radius mailer by using a semaphore
file from another vBox, and, then a three-finger salute... twice.

All of this is _not_ required for XP.  Also, the vBox "Guest
Additions" (not available for Win9x) make operating XP a real charmer.

If you want to try Linux distros from time to time, then I can suggest
something similar to my Linux tester vBox.  It has 512Mb defined (which can
be changed, if required) along with a 2.1Gb HDD.  The HDD allows for a
permanent swap partition which Linux distros l-o-v-e to have available,
along with some storage for anything I want to save during a session.

Have fun!

Cheers,
Paul.

... I'm not a pessimest, just an optimist with a lot of experience.
--- Paul's Win98SE VirtualBox