If you have a Windows 98 installation disc, you can install the operating system to a QEMU virtual machine. The CD should be for generic systems. If you got your copy from an OEM (like HP or Dell), they may not have included drivers that QEMU may need.
QEMU on OS X (macOS) hosts. While QEMU's main host platform is Linux, it is also supported on operating systems for Apple's Mac computers (known as OS X or macOS).The official support policy covers the last two released versions of OSX; QEMU might work on older versions, but it is not guaranteed and it might not even compile on older versions. The last version of QEMU I have been able to run Windows 95 or Windows 98 on was 2.7 or 2.8. Recent versions since then even up to 3.1 will either not install or will not run 95 or 98 at all. I have tried every combination of options like isapc or no isapc, cpu pentium or cpu as 486. Tried different memory configurations, but they just don't work anymore. $./qemu-screamer/qemu-img create -f qcow2 macos92.img 5G Get a Mac OS 9 Installer. If you have an ISO of a Mac OS 9 install disc (a Mac OS X classic install disc won't work), then you can use that in the next step. If you don't have one, you can download one from Mac OS 9 Lives: Mac OS 9.2.2 Universal Install. Install Mac OS 9. Install vmware tools, and lets you build and reconfigure your own VM's. Windows will be slow until you install VMware tools onto your VM. Those are the Windows drivers for the simulated machine. In VMware server there's a menu option to install them. Instructions for installing VMware server in Ubuntu and installing Windows XP in a VM.
Computing: Software: Qemu: hosting Win98
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This page is about installing and running Windows 98SE inside the Qemu hardware emulator.
Notes
Install Windows 98 On Qemu Mac Install Windows
I did the actual setup some time ago and have not yet found any notes I might have made, so documenting that will have to wait. What I did want to do is take notes on fine-tuning.
Supposedly, Win98 leaves the CPU in an infinite loop when it is not busy, rather than using the x86 HLT instruction. This has no visible effect when Win98 is running on real hardware (not sure if it affects power usage), but when running in an emulator it means that the (real) CPU is always 0% idle.
This is supposedly a patch to fix Win98 so it will not do that, but I was not able to get Win98 to boot after installing it. It's basically a .vxd file, a .reg file which adds a single reference in the registry so the .vxd file will load at startup, and a .bat file which supposedly copies the .vxd file to c:windowssystem and updates the registry from the .reg file. The registry update worked, but the .vxd file did not copy. When the file is not present, I get a text message from Windows saying it can't find the file; after copying the file, I get a text message from Windows saying that the file is damaged or not working or something like that.
The User-Mode Network
The qemu documentation often mentions a 'user-mode' network ability, but doesn't really explain in a nutshell what can be done with it.
- Allows internet access (ping is blocked because that would apparently require root privileges, but you can still use ping for DNS lookup)
- Does not share your virtual machine in Network Neighborhood
- Does allow your virtual machine to access a selected folder on your real machine via Network Neighborhood (see the -smb option)
Install Windows 98 On Qemu
(Although the user-mode network is also useful for guest operating systems besides Windows, this explanation is in here because of its Windows-specific details. If anyone knows how other OSs are affected, please feel free to document.)
Sound Emulation
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Windows did not notice that I had enabled the SB16 emulation. It did notice the 'ENSONIQ AudioPCI ES1370' emulation, but could not find a driver for it. I found a driver at DriverGuide, and was able to use BugMeNot to bypass the free compulsory signup process. I allowed Windows to re-detect the device, then used the 'have disk...' button, rather than running the setup program included with the driver. As soon as installation finished, I heard the Windows 98 startup sound – no reboot necessary.
This seems like a pretty common subject from the number of posts about it, but for the life of me I can't find a simple, working set of instructions that is either complete or understandable. The instructions I have found vary widely about which Linux distribution to use, what emulator to use, how to set it up to install Win95 or Win98, etc. Can someone please help?