Windows 95!
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Windows 95 can run ok. Don't expect anything speedy. Due to new changes in DosBox windows 98 will not install. Maybe this will be fixed in a later update.
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In regards to your questions. I mount the .vhd disk image file on a NTFS drive on either my laptop or desktop computer. The raspberry pi like fat drives but the ability to right-click and mount the .vhd in windows 10 requires the drive to be on the NTFS format. I have had to do ALOT of copying but I tinker with the windows image on my computers hard drive and then copy it wholesale onto the SD card that I will be using. I use retropie 4.0 and 4.2. I have like 3 SD cards with windows on them now and I just switch them up at will. I have not noticed a difference between the versions. I think I installed dosbox from source. I always tend to go with the first option down on the menu and if I remember correctly then that is source. Do you mean resolution on a monitor or resolution in windows? In windows I have to initially have it at 16 color and 648X480 or whatever the lowest is. The drivers off my google drive will hard-set the resolution and colors when you install them. This will change the settings permanently until you reinstall the drivers and select a different choice. I never change the name of the disks I create. Once they are created I change the command line code instead on dosbox.conf. Dosbox on my pi has an option to run it. I just hit that and my mount codes are applied from the config file. On some of my sd cards I have to type
boot -l c
after I boot dosbox. Typing boot -l c automatically starts the windows start-up. I often get a screen with weird green lines but when I hit enter it starts scandisk. Scandisk proceeds to work and then it boots Windows. I haven't seen a difference either way if I automatically boot or manually boot windows.
edit - I agree that we need to get it working for you. Would it be helpful for me to do a build, write down my complete steps, post it here and see if it works for you? I mean a complete from scratch build re-downloading everything?
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@tyreal90 you can mount a fat vhd. You just have to do it in disk management. How are you putting the vhd in ntfs instead of fat 16?
Edit: can you tell me which version of retropie you are using?
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I apologize if i wasnt specific about which drive was ntfs. So I make the disk fat16 like it says to do through the tutorial, but i make it on a disk drive on my computer that is ntfs. then i open it while it is on the drive by right clicking it in exporer and choosing the 'mount' command
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@tyreal90 strange. My pc is windows 10 with ntfs and i do t have the mount option. I have to go into disk management and mount it.
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@tyreal90 to tell go into retropie setup and dont update retropie setup. At the top it should tell you.
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I still couldn't find which it was so I will be testing both. : ) How are things on your end? Still not working? I lost count but I think I've installed windows95 like 10 times and copy/pasted the VHD onto the pi about 100 times.
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@tyreal90 still the same thing. However i dont think 256 colors is supposed to be an issue for you either. The s3 driver loads and displays in 256 colors when i go into safe mode i even installed the trio64 driver and still the same issue. I tried setting it to every single color pallet and rebooting out of safe mode and back into regular mode and still nothing. I am going to try an older copy of dosbox and see if it changes any. If you do find out what version of retropie you are using let me know.
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the image I have in now is 4.2.1 and it works ok. I'm trying the dosbox off of source but I had been using binaries in the past. I uninstalled the binaries and just installed source.
edit- the source install works for me as well
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@tyreal90 i copied my rom folder and my and my opt folder to my pc. I am going to make a backup image of my 64gb sd card and then update. There might be an update like an sdl or something that makes it work on the 4.2.xx retropie. I am going to try an update. Then i will try a fresh install if that doesnt work.
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Sounds good. Good luck and let me know how it goes!
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I just had an epiphany for why im having an easier time moving files into my .vhd's. i have daemons tools lite installed for .iso files and the like on my computer. i just realized (after googling) it mounts .vhd files as well. install it (you can google for the latest version) and see if it works! I'm sorry I didn't think of this sooner.
p.s. just be careful to not let daemons tools install any crud during its installation (the newer versions always ask if you want a searchbar or some other mess)
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on another note - there are two versions of the windows 95 b (2 and 2.1) I am almost a 100% sure that I have 2 because when I manually install the USB drivers that come with 2.1, my image stops booting properly. Make sure that your windows 95B cd has no USB drivers because our version of dosbox is unstable with them.
I just had to put a new operating system on my wife's laptop (win 8.1) and so I am going to try to start from scratch and replicate again the results I'm having. Will post soon.
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@tyreal90 i was using 2.0 not 2.1. I am going to mess around with a as i got further with that one than any others.
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Good. When I create a 3rd set tonight on my wife's computer I am going to download and try both versions of windows 95 from another source. The only reason why I am pretty sure that 2.1 is non-working, is because on my working windows images it always says missing usb supplemental drivers when I attempt to install certain programs that require them. When I install drivers called the USB supplemental drivers which add USB support, my system completely stops working properly. On my source for windows 95 info (I can't post it because it also hosts the disks as well) it says that the only change from 2 to 2.1 was the addition of USB drivers. So that is why I'm 99% sure but I just wanted to let you know how I am sure and why it is not 100%.
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@tyreal90 my disks are from the same source. i am redownloading 95a osr1 because i got further than the other 2 and i think i know how to fix the issue it had when configuring windows. then if i get it working i am going to install service pack 1. that should give me fat32 support i think.
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when downloaded osr 2.0 it had the same errors you mentioned where it would re-initialize setup. i will try 2.1 tommorow and the other versions if that doesnt work. It makes me feel very lucky that the first image i downloaded happened to work and now i very much realize your frustration and how we have to narrow down what works before creating any documentation.
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@tyreal90 yup i tried with 95a and same old black screen. Changing to any color, resolution and different s3 drivers, its the same old thing. I would love to know which image you used. I have spent enough time to have worked a 40 hour week trying to get this working. I have created about 50 images in my attempt.
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so we have
rtm = unknown
osvr 1 or win95a = no go
osvr 2.0 = no go
osvr 2.1 = unknown
osvr 2.5 = unknown
my unlabeled iso = worksdid i miss anything? i may try to pull the image type out of the files on my iso but our other plan would be to try each type. ill check in the morning.
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@tyreal90 2.5 was a no go as well. What you should do on only one of your working sd card images, copy one of the other versions named the same as the version that is working on it. Dosbox is weird how it remembers stuff based on the image you loaded previously using the same name. So if you had a 95b image that you didnt shutdown properly so it would need to do scandisk when windows started booting then if you put a good image on using the same filename, that one would run scandisk on boot.
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