Tech/HowTo/QEMU MS Windows 98
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I got a box of old software at an auction and wanted to play. I have an installer disk for MS Windows 98 and wanted to try in QEMU on Linux
Notes
- Microsoft Windows 98 has maximums that can cause trouble
- CPU should be less than 2ghz
- Ram should be 512mb or less and can be configured to use up to 1gb after install
- There will be crashes for no reason, it will be frustrating
- Even with NVME and SSDs the install took many many many minutes
Installation
I had more than a few attempts at installation and reading the docs.
TL;DR;
$ qemu-system-i386 --version QEMU emulator version 7.2.9 (Debian 1:7.2+dfsg-7+deb12u5) Copyright (c) 2003-2022 Fabrice Bellard and the QEMU Project developers mkdir -p virtual_machines/drives virtual_machines/iso dd if=/dev/cdrom of=virtual_machines/iso/win98se.iso cd virtual_machines/ qemu-img create -f qcow2 drives/mswin98se.qcow2 1512M qemu-system-i386 -hda drives/mswin98se.qcow2 -cdrom iso/win98se.iso -boot,once=d,menu=on -cpu pentium3,kvm=off -m 384 -display sdl -vga cirrus -device sb16 -net nic,model=pcnet -netdev user,id=eno1
- Command Breakdown
- hda the storeage drive (IDE)
- cdrom Install media
- boot drive D aka CDROM once with a boot menu enabled
- cpu the CPU with a modifier to disable KVM to address the 2ghz limiter
- m or memeory in MB
- display the UI to use like GTK or SDL (Simple DirectMedia Layer)
- vga or what graphics card to use (defaults vary, sometimes the default is cirrus)
- device adds a device to the system in this case a Sound Blaster 16
- net for network stuffs (not working as of this writing)
- netdev the method to connect to the host network (untested as of writing)
Post Installation
- Restarts do not work well. I need to read more
- Networking is still not working as the drivers for pcnet expect plug and play
Qemu Notes
- List possible network interface cards
qemu-system-i386 -nic model=help
- List possible CPUs
qemu-system-i386 -cpu help