joncampbell123 / dosbox-x

DOSBox-X fork of the DOSBox project
GNU General Public License v2.0
2.66k stars 378 forks source link

Windows NT, 2000, XP - how to install them as guest? #3538

Open Torinde opened 2 years ago

Torinde commented 2 years ago

Question

Version 0.84.0 among other things "fixes problems with the IDE driver in Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, and Windows XP and allows them to boot properly"

At NOTES there are mentioned:

My attempts with 0.84.0 are unsuccessful so far. Following the NOTES files, after first installing MS-DOS 6.22 I ran "WINNT.EXE /b" from an NT4 ISO and setup finished properly - but on first boot I got a crash: image

From what I see floppy emulation is still missing (#3436), correct? So, it's either via MSDOS and WINNT.EXE /b - or via CD.ISO boot, correct?

I get "El Torito bootable floppy not found" when trying "imgmount a -bootcd d" - for ISOs of NT4, 2000, ReactOS, Vista. Strangely OS/2 4.52 ISO was accepted as bootable, but crashes: image

Haven't tried NT3.1, NT3.5 and XP yet.

After mounting some of the CDs and looking inside DOSbox finds only a README.TXT file stating 'your OS needs to support UDF', 'your OS needs to support Joliet' - not sure if I do something wrong? would be nice if DOSbox-X can read those directly.

Will there be guide(s) added to the wiki about those? @rderooy

Have you checked that no similar question(s) exist?

Code of Conduct & Contributing Guidelines

joncampbell123 commented 1 year ago

it doesn't seem like you can install Windows Vista (or later) in DOSBox.

What are the problems?

It's worth to try:

* install XP per your process so far

* turn ACPI on in .conf, the equivalent of [turn ACPI on in BIOS](https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/how-do-i-turn-on-acpi/7f2c6b57-2da8-45c8-9981-5db0040e8a92)

* Repair install Windows XP (from the same link)

* upgrade from XP ACPI to Vista

Or actually, turn on ACPI before installing Win98SE, then install 98SE, upgrade it to 2000, upgrade that to XP, upgrade that to Vista.

"ACPI support" at this time is a stub that isn't implemented yet though.

Torinde commented 1 year ago

Clear, then there is no point in trying Vista or Server 2008. Latest NT versions to try:

herrnst commented 1 year ago

@herrnst It seems that I have to set all the serial and parallel values ​​to disabled in order for the Windows NTs to remember the last changes. That's what I did, and Windows 2000 remembered that I set the display to the S3 Trio 64V+, something it does to this day. I'm not sure if the dongle needs to be disabled or not, I haven't tested that yet.

Hm, no dice here so far. Also disabled all serial and parallel ports along with the dongle option, but both NT4 and W2K seem to forget any hardware changes, though the "Press SPACE, press S for Standard HW profile, boot" "tweak" makes it apply the changes, which are then permanently saved to the system configuration, ie. they are still there on further "regular" boots. Though, NT4 keeps bugging with "an old configuration was loaded" upon logon, which W2K doesn't do.

Another question that comes to mind: How can I make both NT4 and W2K accept harddisk images larger than 2GB? Whenever I mount anything larger than 2GB, the installer (DOS -> winnt.exe) bugs out in different ways, up to the preboot installer being unable to boot at all. I also tried creating the pre-installer on a <=2GB drive and mounted another image with a larger size (ie. IMGMOUNT 4 -2m), though upon choosing the drive to install the OS to, only the 2GB drive is shown. While 2GB might be enough for NT4 to play around with, W2K easily gets into issues even when installing any service packs...

BridgeHeadland commented 1 year ago

@herrnst Now I don't know if the dongle needs to be disabled in Windows NT or not, because I haven't taken the chance to run Windows 2000 and XP with the dongle before, I don't even know what the dongle value is, other than that it is parallel related. I at least know that printer and/or dummy make NT goof and around in the DOSBox, but either printer or dummy might be enabled while NT is running without going crazy, without me even knowing, because I haven't tried it yet. @joncampbell123 I understand that getting Vista to run in DOSBox-X is not the goal, nor do I think it can be done, because I don't think any of the Windows Vista installation CDs contain the setup file that is DOS compatible . It's possible I'm wrong, as I've never installed Windows Vista myself before, nor Windows 7, both of which came pre-installed when I got the PCs with those operating systems. Should it be possible to install Windows Vista in a real DOS PC, either from MS-DOS or from Windows XP, which in turn is run from MS-DOS as a shell, I would not be surprised by the request to be able to run Vista in DOSBox-X may increase over time. Today, in any case, I want to be able to run Windows XP without problems, as well as XP-compatible software in DOSBox-X, one day.

joncampbell123 commented 1 year ago

I think by the time they removed the ability to install from MS-DOS they made the CD/DVD-ROM images El Torito "no emulation" bootable, which isn't supported by DOSBox-X yet (only the floppy emulation boot mode is supported at this time).

"No emulation" boot means the BIOS loads and executes the boot code but does not attempt to emulate any floppy drive from it. Your boot code is expected to know how to use INT 13h to read the rest of yourself from the CD-ROM drive in 2048 byte sectors.

From experience the bootloader for CD-ROM booting is a tiny 2048-byte loader that is able to load the rest of the bootloader, including the part that detects if Windows is already there and presents the "press a key to install Windows" prompt if so.

Torinde commented 1 year ago

@joncampbell123, it would help greatly for experimenting with 2000/XP (and other obscure operating systems from the period) if all ISO images can be booted, including "no emulation" and HDD-emulation ones...

Currently I just can't try some scenarios (different setup conditions, image files, etc.)

BridgeHeadland commented 1 year ago

image Proof that it is impossible to install Windows Vista in DOSBox-X. That is where the limit is - as of today, at least.

BridgeHeadland commented 1 year ago

I now realize that being able to run NT exclusive software in Windows 2000/XP, which in turn is run in DOSBox-X, is not possible, as long as it is not possible to run Windows NTs with Pentium 2 and 3 as CPU type value, and at least not with Pentium 4, since it is not one of the value options yet.

Torinde commented 1 year ago

What happens if you install NT/2K/XP with Pentium 2 or 3? Those are supported.

Which software you have in mind that requires Pentium 4 (#4185)?

BridgeHeadland commented 1 year ago

@Torinde I think ppro_slow is the most NT friendly, especially against 2000 and XP, as far as I know. Booting to 2000 hung in Pentium 3, I know, and the DOSBox crashed after booting to XP, in both Pentium 2 and 3. The games I had in mind for Pentium 4 are Asterix & Obelix XXL 2: Mission Las Vegum, Asterix at the Olympic Game, Doom 3 and Wolfenstein (2009), these are actually XP compatible.

Torinde commented 1 year ago

For 2000/XP issues with Pentium II/III emulation - maybe better to make an issue, where you can attach info about the crash (error message, logs, etc.) Did you try dynamic or normal core, etc.?

For the games - all of those are listed as DirectX9 games - I'm not sure they can work in "DirectX software mode" and DOSbox-X doesn't have 3D driver yet (JHRobotics/softgpu/issues/22). Official requirements for those games mention for CPU: 1GHz, specific models (up to SSE, so Pentium III should be OK), Wolfenstein 2009 specific CPU models also have SSE2 (but it's not clear if the game uses that). Even Pentium Pro emulation may work - if it runs fast enough (so, your host needs to be able to provide a lot of cycles).

BridgeHeadland commented 12 months ago

Now I have decided to install Windows NT 3.1 in DOSBox-X, but I don't know how to do it. Does anyone here know how?

joncampbell123 commented 12 months ago

Now I have decided to install Windows NT 3.1 in DOSBox-X, but I don't know how to do it. Does anyone here know how?

Copy the files to a folder on the hard drive and then install from there. Make sure the hard drive is a disk image, not a local folder. You cannot install from a CD-ROM because when Windows NT 3.1 came out, IDE ATAPI CD-ROM drives did not exist yet. Make sure the disk image is smaller than 500MB just to make sure you don't hit legacy IDE/INT13 limits.

If you want a 640x480 256-color mode desktop, I suggest machine=svga_s3 or machine=svga_et4000 while installing. Windows NT 3.1 appears to have working ET4000 and early ISA/EISA S3 chipset support.

BridgeHeadland commented 12 months ago

@joncampbell123 My disk image is a VHDX file of 32768MB, I don't know if that matters. I've tried both 32768 and 500, with no luck. It appears that the executable, which appears to be win.com, is in the folder called $win_nt$.~ls, which I renamed to WINNT. When I typed "win.com" in the command line, then enter, nothing happened except that the underscore kept flashing. I tried to reconfigure, not even knowing what configuration setup I should have.

joncampbell123 commented 12 months ago

Windows NT/2000/XP install files have a WINNT.EXE that you can run from MS-DOS.

Mount the disk image as C: , create a directory like \WININST and copy the install files in the ISO image from the I386 folder into that.

Then type C: to go the C drive, CD into your \WININST\I386 directory, and run WINNT.EXE.

Make sure your disk image is 500MB or less and the flesystem is FAT16, not FAT32.

BridgeHeadland commented 12 months ago

@joncampbell123 Which config settings should I use for WNT31 to run?

BridgeHeadland commented 11 months ago

I figured it out eventually, by myself. :) What I did was create an image file of 500MB. Anyway, I created a VHDX file of 500MB, but I don't think it matters much which kind of image file you use, as long as it is in FAT16 format. I transferred everything from the installation CD onto the virtual hard drive, as well as mounting an empty IMG file (mine is 1440KB) as an A floppy drive. In the command prompt I opened the i386 folder, typed "WINNT.EXE", installed everything in the empty IMG file. After the installation finished, I booted the A drive to run setup, and then transferred everything to drive C. I'm writing this over-detailed tutorial so that others will also know how to do it, considering those who want to install Windows NT 3.1, but don't know how. :)

Here's my config:

[sdl]
autolock=true
[dosbox]
machine=svga_s3et4000
memsize=256
[video]
vmemsize=16 (I don't know why i choosed this value)
vesa modelist width limit=0
vesa modelist height limit=0
[vsync]
vsyncmode=on (I don't know why i choosed this value)
[cpu]
core=normal
cputype=pentium_mmx
[voodoo]
voodoo_card=true (I don't know why i choosed this value)
[sblaster]
sbtype=sb16vibra
[dos]
ver=8.0
[ide, primary]
enable=true
int13fakeio=true
int13fakev86io=false
[fdc, primary]
enable=true
int13fakev86io=false
herrnst commented 11 months ago

After getting an issue notification with the discussion regarding Windows NT 3.1, I gave that one another try and unfortunately quickly found out that even that old NT is affected by the "lost configuration" issue I mentioned in the NT4/2K discussion. In any case, after logon, I'm greeted with

Screenshot NT3.1

(Translation: [..] An old configuration is used)

which is the same as with NT4, and any hardware configuration changes are lost and even the FAT/NTFS conversion is still executed.

This never happened on earlier versions of DOSBox-X, but apparently seems to be a problem with 2023.09.01 SDL2 (happens on the brew macOS arm64 build aswell as on Linux x86_64).

BridgeHeadland commented 11 months ago

I have realized that NTLDR is supposed to be somehow missed if the image file (IMG or VHD) is larger than a certain number of megabytes (number unknown to me; I used 32768MB), making it impossible to install Windows 2000, and possibly Windows XP too, in so many megabytes.

http://www.resoo.org/docs/ntldr/ntldrismissing.htm I have tried this method (from what I understand) but for me it seems it ended up that the DOSBox will take ages to Boot the C drive (whatever I do) after running "winnt.exe /s:c:\i386" in the I386 folder of the Windows 2000 Datacenter Server, in said drive, I don't know if it works when it comes to too much storage space in the hard drive. Could it have something to do with the fact that Windows ME is already installed? I know that you can run both WME and W2K in the same hard drive (and WXP too). It says nothing about how to fix NTLDR in DOSBox. It is possible that the difference between real hardware and DOSBox is not too big, in terms of NTLDR fixing.

joncampbell123 commented 11 months ago

I have realized that NTLDR is supposed to be somehow missed if the image file (IMG or VHD) is larger than a certain number of megabytes (number unknown to me; I used 32768MB), making it impossible to install Windows 2000, and possibly Windows XP too, in so many megabytes.

http://www.resoo.org/docs/ntldr/ntldrismissing.htm I have tried this method (from what I understand) but for me it seems it ended up that the DOSBox will take ages to Boot the C drive (whatever I do) after running "winnt.exe /s:c:\i386" in the I386 folder of the Windows 2000 Datacenter Server, in said drive, I don't know if it works when it comes to too much storage space in the hard drive. Could it have something to do with the fact that Windows ME is already installed? I know that you can run both WME and W2K in the same hard drive (and WXP too). It says nothing about how to fix NTLDR in DOSBox. It is possible that the difference between real hardware and DOSBox is not too big, in terms of NTLDR fixing.

WINNT.EXE often fails to install NTLDR if the partition is FAT32 and the version of Windows is too old to support FAT32.

BridgeHeadland commented 11 months ago

@joncampbell123 It works if the IMG/VHD file is 16384MB, and then the file system is FAT32.

BridgeHeadland commented 11 months ago

image I have now installed Windows 2000 Datacenter Service to a 16384MB VHD file, I ran OnePiece_Windows_2000_Post-SP4_UpdatePack_v5.0.3_FINAL_ENU_5C5A9F6FC2C3AF17DCCDF18CA0A2C962.7z before transferring everything from windows2000-kb891861-x86-enu.exe to C:\WINNT>, I got not to w2ksp4_en.exe. When I tried to install all the add-on components, I got the message that the Setup Library TsOc.dll could not be loaded, or that the function HydraOc could not be found. I've downloaded TsOc.dll and moved it over to C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32>, to no avail, so the problem also applies to HydraOc, apparently. I don't know how to fix the HydraOc problem, but hopefully someone else here does. The sound doesn't work either.

Here are my configuration files: dosbox-x.txt dosbox-x.reference.txt dosbox-x.reference.full.txt

BridgeHeadland commented 11 months ago

It's been a while since such things have been mentioned regarding Windows 3.51, so I just wanted to mention what I experienced recently: Today I tried to install Windows NT 3.51 Workstation with the current Development Build. When I got to the part where I was supposed to run floppy disk 2, this message came up. I don't know what all this means. I have managed to install Windows NT 3.51 Server before (under a slightly earlier build). image

joncampbell123 commented 11 months ago

It's been a while since such things have been mentioned regarding Windows 3.51, so I just wanted to mention what I experienced recently: Today I tried to install Windows NT 3.51 Workstation with the current Development Build. When I got to the part where I was supposed to run floppy disk 2, this message came up. I don't know what all this means. I have managed to install Windows NT 3.51 Server before (under a slightly earlier build). image

INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE means you probably didn't mount your drive C: to the IDE emulation where Windows NT can find it.

Pierrestro commented 11 months ago

it should be possible to install windows2000/xp on dosbox x using virtualbox because dosbox x seems to support booting from vhd like virtualbox meaning if i/we install windows or linux on virtualbox and open the vhd in dosbox x it should boot up I should help I will update my comment when i discover other possibilities image update: formating drive to fat with less than 2gb size and reinstall windows should work will that try https://mega.nz/file/iVIBTKKD#RkJSuoEt4lmNUC6361vC75_LLgFJAspBmMQM-K_puHE

Pierrestro commented 11 months ago

i tried to trick dosbox x and think and actual windows pe iso as a bootable dos image sadly windows pe tries to load and crash image after this screen

Pierrestro commented 11 months ago

i got windows neptune installed with is based on a higher nt version than windows XP I will be giving a link to this in less than a minute https://drive.google.com/file/d/12kgDNNkpOGw_XLV-qLv7vTphUb5LfxW2/view?usp=sharing

MatthewCroughan commented 10 months ago

@Pierrestro what is the required dosbox.conf for booting that image?

Pierrestro commented 10 months ago

@MatthewCroughan You will need 256 of ram in dosbox x and pentium II CPU pentium III won't work

Pierrestro commented 10 months ago

@Pierrestro what is the required dosbox.conf for booting that image?

256mb of ram and pentium II not III

maxpat78 commented 10 months ago

What is the right video adapter for NT 4.0?

NT chooses an S3 764 compatible driver, but I have random problems with full background painting, esepcially at login (see below) and shutdown screens.

guest os_001

maxpat78 commented 10 months ago

Moreover, a BSOD pops up rebooting after SP6a install...

image

maxpat78 commented 10 months ago

@Torinde @joncampbell123 Windows 2000 SP4 gets installed, but a "COM+ Setup Error" window appears during installation:

image

At reboot, Windows 2000 starts, but Explorer does not work properly (Start menu does not appear, can't double-click icons - but right menu pops up!):

image

maxpat78 commented 10 months ago

I've tried to follow https://fabulous.systems/posts/2023/07/installing-windows-2000-in-dosbox-x/ but kb891861 "slipstreaming" into SP4 setup medium is not possible.

So I manually installed kb891861 (and kb835732), then I executed WINNT32 tool to refresh the installation.

There was no COM+ error this time: but my issues ("barred" login screen, no Start menu) were unchanged.

At least it is true that Internet Explorer can explore the filesystem...

Pierrestro commented 10 months ago

let's break the limits even more https://fabulous.systems/posts/2023/07/installing-windows-xp-in-dosbox-x/ if any one who a working windows xp should upload so we can try it.

Pierrestro commented 10 months ago

I have finally succeeded to installing Windows XP in DOSBox-X. I used nathanpbutler's config, plus I set the version value to 8.0, the machine value to svga_s3trio64v+, all the serial and parallel values ​​to disabled, and the dongle value to false. The ISO file I used is https://archive.org/details/windows.-xp.-pro.u-sp-5.x-86.-all-in-one.-oem.-iso, and the Windows I installed is very troubled, as if it has a life of its own, following its own strange patterns. I don't know if it is DOSBox or Windows that is the problem, but if it is DOSBox that is the problem, there is still hope that sooner or later we can run Windows XP flawlessly in DOSBox. 99% of the time, when I start Windows XP, I find that explorer.exe have a problem, which means I can't get started. The way I see it, all the serial and parallel values ​​must be set to disabled while running Windows XP, but I don't know why. image

can you upload it pls

Pierrestro commented 10 months ago

for some reason windows xp will deny to boot/install when a pentium II or III is used and will drop a BSOD with error: irql_not_less_or_equal 😒

Pierrestro commented 10 months ago

great news i install windows xp on dosbox-x and it works dont use pentium II or later it will crash i recommend the pentium mmx you can download it here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1P3kxQzNd5mtZ2TyMLnCwPmN6vMh7MeUI/view?usp=sharing

BridgeHeadland commented 10 months ago

It's been a while since such things have been mentioned regarding Windows 3.51, so I just wanted to mention what I experienced recently: Today I tried to install Windows NT 3.51 Workstation with the current Development Build. When I got to the part where I was supposed to run floppy disk 2, this message came up. I don't know what all this means. I have managed to install Windows NT 3.51 Server before (under a slightly earlier build). image

INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE means you probably didn't mount your drive C: to the IDE emulation where Windows NT can find it.

Sorry for the late reply. I actually mounted the C drive to the IDE emulation. For some reason it seems that as of today it is only possible to install the server version of WNT351, and not the workstation version.

Pierrestro commented 10 months ago

It's been a while since such things have been mentioned regarding Windows 3.51, so I just wanted to mention what I experienced recently: Today I tried to install Windows NT 3.51 Workstation with the current Development Build. When I got to the part where I was supposed to run floppy disk 2, this message came up. I don't know what all this means. I have managed to install Windows NT 3.51 Server before (under a slightly earlier build). image

INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE means you probably didn't mount your drive C: to the IDE emulation where Windows NT can find it.

Sorry for the late reply. I actually mounted the C drive to the IDE emulation. For some reason it seems that as of today it is only possible to install the server version of WNT351, and not the workstation version.

You can try this xp install https://drive.google.com/file/d/1P3kxQzNd5mtZ2TyMLnCwPmN6vMh7MeUI/view?usp=sharing

BridgeHeadland commented 10 months ago

@maxpat78 What configuration setting did you use to even manage to install Windows NT 4.0 Workstation?

maxpat78 commented 10 months ago

@BridgeHeadland This is the config I used to setup NT4/2000:

# N.B.
#
# - Windows NT 4.0 DEVE essere installato su un'immagine di disco rigido
# - l'installazione DEVE partire da un'unità FAT avviabile (i.e. da DOS),
#   sulla quale copiare i file di setup con "WINNT /B".
# - MOUNTare una cartella come unità manderà in crash NT durante l'avvio
# - se il setup manda in crash il PC con uno schermo nero dopo l'impostazione
#   dell'ora, provare a NON esplicitare machine=svga_s3
# - il sistema va in crash con il Service Pack 6A (inaccessible boot device)
# - spostare il focus dal sistema emulato a un'altra finestra genera un BSOD (solo SDL1)
# - glitch mouse login/logout, sfondo a righe alterne?

[dosbox]
language=it_IT
title=Windows NT
memsize=64
machine=svga_s3 # installa comunque un driver per S3 764 8MB, "scheda compatibile"

[video]
vmemsize=4
vesa modelist width limit=0
vesa modelist height limit=0

[dos]
biosps2=true
lfn=auto
hard drive data rate limit=0
floppy drive data rate limit=0

[keyboard]
aux=true

[cpu]
cputype = pentium_ii
core    = dynamic_x86 # dopo il setup
cycles  = max

[sblaster]
sbtype=sb16

[fdc, primary]
int13fakev86io=true

[ide, primary]
int13fakeio=true
int13fakev86io=true

[ide, secondary]
int13fakeio=true
int13fakev86io=true
cd-rom insertion delay=4000

[sdl]
autolock=true

[render]
scaler=none

[autoexec]
@echo off
REM GOTO END
IMGMOUNT C C:\Bin\DOSBox-X\nt-1.vhd -ide 1m
REM IMGMOUNT A C:\Bin\DOSBox-X\BOOT\D622-1.IMG
IMGMOUNT D C:\Bin\DOSBox-X\SWSETUP\NT\NTWKS40IOEM.iso -ide 2m
REM IMGMOUNT D C:\Bin\DOSBox-X\NTSP.ISO -ide 2m -t cdrom
BOOT C:
:END

# El Torito boot emulation
#IMGMOUNT A -bootcd D
#BOOT A:
BridgeHeadland commented 10 months ago

@maxpat78 Where did you find this IMG file and these ISO files?

BridgeHeadland commented 10 months ago

@maxpat78 image It didn't work for me, as you can see. I don't know how it works for you, but it doesn't work for me, for some reason I don't understand. Maybe I'm using the wrong IMG file and/or ISO files? Maybe I shouldn't use the 64-bit MinGW builds (for 7+) after all?

p.s. I tried my hand at both English and Italian.

maxpat78 commented 10 months ago

@maxpat78 Where did you find this IMG file and these ISO files?

@BridgeHeadland D622-1.IMG is a simple shortcut for "MS-DOS 6.22 Setup Disk 1", NTWKS40IOEM.ISO is the Windows NT 4.0 Workstation OEM bootable CD-ROM: all old glories from '90, when I used them!

To setup NT 4 you have to follow what @joncampbell123 explained before: 1) setup an MS-DOS bootable partition (you need at least FDISK and FORMAT to prepare an MBR partition, activate it and format with FAT16: the MS-DOS Setup Disk is the simplest choice to easily obtain a disk with the right boot code, both in MBR & Boot Sector); 2) mount such partition as C: in the DOXBox-X shell, and then mount the Windows NT CD-ROM as D: or whatever; 3) run WINNT /B from such CD-ROM (typically: D:\I386\WINNT.EXE) to copy the setup files from NT CD-ROM to C: (DOSBox-X is actually unable to boot CDs in El Torito "No-Emulation" mode); 4) BOOT C: to start the NT part of the Setup... and voilà !

Just to be sure, use a plain IMG disk file; or, if you want VHD format, download the latest GitHub dev build (with my latest patches to VHD MBR geometry).

The same to setup Windows 2000.

Torinde commented 10 months ago

@maxpat78, El-Torito spec is at #182 if you are interested in implementing that.

It would help for those operating systems (or ISO variants thereof) where I would like to try installing from CD instead of from DOS or other Windows.

maxpat78 commented 10 months ago

@maxpat78, El-Torito spec is at #182 if you are interested in implementing that.

It would help for those operating systems (or ISO variants thereof) where I would like to try installing from CD instead of from DOS or other Windows.

@Torinde I know, in fact I was studying how to integrate "BootNoEmul" support in BOOT or elsewhere... perhaps it isn't necessary a deep integration (i.e. "BIOS-side", at INT level): but a loading with INT13:42H would suffice.

maxpat78 commented 10 months ago

@Torinde @joncampbell123 Things are in fact more complicated than it seems.

Some notes.

NT bootable CD-ROMs with "No Emulation" El Torito boot sectors have the bootstrap code in 7C00H as usual, and then perform INT13:42H calls to load the CD root directory sectors and search for NTLDR and/or I386\SETUPLDR.BIN.

I've tried a patch to DosBox-X BOOT and INT13:42H handler, and got the Win2K SETUPLDR.BIN loaded: but Setup locks at disk detection phase due to INT13:15H problems.

More in general, DOSBox-X maintain two different arrays of mounted images (imageDiskList[] and Drives[]) and, since a CD-ROM is in the latter only, every time something has to check for CD presence, it has also to examine both.

Actually, I don't know if and how perform such changes to code, since I haven't a general perspective on DOSBox-X deep functioning.

BridgeHeadland commented 10 months ago

To those of you who don't know, with this you can activate general 32-bit versions of Windows XP, today. xp_activate32.zip

BridgeHeadland commented 10 months ago

100th comment in this issue! I would like to use that opportunity to say that I have managed to install at least one edition of every Windows NT operating system up to Windows XP. As of today, I have not been able to complete the installation of Windows Server 2003, in my case I tried to install the Datacenter edition (32-bit, of course). I was going to install this server operating system on a VHD file of 4096MB. After copying the files from the CD to the C drive, I typed "Boot C:" and got this message.

WS2K3Problem

Here is the boot file. boot.zip