From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1DLtIB-0006aV-BP for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Wed, 13 Apr 2005 21:37:17 -0400 Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1DLtI4-0006Wm-Dq for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Wed, 13 Apr 2005 21:37:09 -0400 Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1DLtI4-0006WL-60 for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Wed, 13 Apr 2005 21:37:08 -0400 Received: from [209.55.4.210] (helo=mxo1.broadbandsupport.net) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.34) id 1DLtIA-0002m3-Uo for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Wed, 13 Apr 2005 21:37:15 -0400 Received: from atmail2.ibbsonline.com (atmail2.ibbsonline.com [209.55.3.51]) by mxo1.broadbandsupport.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id EE5134FE99 for ; Wed, 13 Apr 2005 21:36:10 -0400 (EDT) Received: from [209.33.77.51] (helo=computername) by atmail2.ibbsonline.com with smtp (Exim 4.43) id 1DLtFt-0005zq-Q8 for Qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Wed, 13 Apr 2005 21:34:53 -0400 Message-ID: <001001c54092$47cfa2c0$334d21d1@computername> From: Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2005 20:35:24 -0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Subject: [Qemu-devel] Win on Win successes and problems Reply-To: qemu-devel@nongnu.org List-Id: qemu-devel.nongnu.org List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , To: Qemu-devel@nongnu.org As some of you may remember, I've posted several comments in here about = how poorly the Windows version of qemu works. It wont boot any Windows = guest, and even DOS has some problems. Since the previous versions wouldn't install Win9x or XP under a XP = host, I decided to try it again with the latest april 11th build from = FreeOSZoo. All I did was install. I didn't run any major tests to see if things = work right. Just installed and booted. 1) Win98 installs! Finally! I didn't try going beyond booting it, but = at least it now gets that far. Who knows, it may crash the instant I = try to do anything. 2) WinXP Pro: Fails. I tried twice and both time it stopped in the = black "Please wait..." screen at the end of the install. I do have a = slower computer, so either I didn't wait long enough (2+ hours on an old = P3), or it locks up. The first time, there was no disk I/O after an = hour and my system went into standby mode, so I suspect it is hanging. = (The second time I disabled standby, in case that had caused a problem.) But at least Win98 installs. That's a major advance for Windows hosts! = Before, we could barely boot DOS. I haven't yet had time to run any other tests. I did notice a few other issues, though... 1) Qemu changes the mouse movement rate and acceleration anytime qemu is = in the foreground or when the qemu window changes sizes (even if qemu is = in the background.) It should only do that when qemu is in the = foreground and has captured the mouse. 2) There were a couple times during testing that the qemu screen image = became corrupted. (Usually when a XP window happened to open over it.) = Switching to/from the command window didn't restore the screen. Perhaps = a command could be added to force the redrawing of the guest window? 3) For Windows users, it sure would be nice if you could have the = command screen as a seperate, always visible screen, instead of = switching back and forth. Perhaps a command line switch could enable = that? 4) When XP Pro asked if I wanted it to switch from 640x480 to 800x600, = the screen image looked rather odd. Lines across it, etc. Perhaps a = bug in the qemu VGA video card? And a couple of items from the qemu-user forum. (Just in case the = developers aren't paying too much attention to what gets said there...) 1) Add scroll bars to the qemu window. Like vmware does. That way you = can do a qemu screen larger than your physical screen. 1024x768 on an = 800x600 screen, for example. Or for that matter, even an 800x600 on an = 800x600 screen, since windows has the task bar taking up some screen = area, and the qemu title bar takes up a little more. 2) qemu-image can't create a raw disk image larger than 2g, even on = NTFS. This is due to 32 bit integers etc., of course. This should = either be fixed or changed to a default disk format of qcow, instead of = raw. (Or better yet, both fix and make the change.) I don't know if = qemu itself would have a similar problem reading large raw disks under = XP. (Are there any disadvantages to qcow images? If so, perhaps make = them default only at 2g and larger, and keep raw and <2g?) (Also, the = qemu-image program needs to list the image formats available in the = online help.) Also, I didn't get around to testing to see if the cd change problem had = been fixed. If not, then that needs to be worked on, because otherwise = you might not even be able to install an OS, much less actually do = anything with it. So the Windows port is improving, but it still needs work to reach the = same level of usability as the Linux version.