Feedback on x86 emulator

[Dan East]

Are any of you familiar with Bochs? I mean, have you used it in a linux box, or in Windows, Mac, etc? I can find little documentation about it. Specifically, how to move files into and out of a hard drive image file. One of the docs make mention of using a command line argument to copy files, but I can find nothing else. There are several documentation files which somehow manage to skirt around anything of real importance directly related to using Bochs.<br><br>It looks like this is going to work on Pocket PC. The problem is that this emulator, unlike others (UAE specifically), only supports drive images. This is a proprietary large file on your Pocket PC that represents the hard drive or floppy that the emulator accesses. Other emulators (UAE) allow you to just choose a directory, which then is accessed as the harddrive in emulation. That allows you to very easily get files in and out of the emulation, and not require the up-front allocation of the amount of space the hard drive will consume. So some other technique would have to be rigged up to install software in the emulation environment. In my case I could do this on my laptop and copy it directly onto the CF card, which is probably not an option for most people.<br>So, if anyone has experience with this emulator, or can dredge up a real FAQ and docs, please let me know!<br><br>Dan East

[Dan East]

I need a DOS-based benchmark program. Specifically, one that will calculate the mhz and MIPS acheived by the machine.<br><br>Thanks!<br><br>Dan East

[Dan East]

Okay, I found a precompiled version of Win32 Bochs. It came with "mtools" which can be used to manage the drive images. Anyone whose serious about using this emulator on their Pocket PC will need to have it running on their desktop machine as well. I downloaded it from:<br>ftp://ftp.v.nu/Bochs/BochsWin32-991114a.zip<br><br>This version is not the most recent. The Pocket PC version will be based on newer source. If anyone finds the newer win32 version (2000-0325a) please let me know.<br><br>Yeah, I know. Emulating a Pentium machine on your Pentium machine doesn't accomplish much. But it will be much easier to install and test apps / games on your PC. I doubt any of you have a floppy drive attached to your Pocket PC. <br><br>Dan East

[Moose or Chuck]

sounds good, but is it feasible, i mean are we gonna get good speed, i can deal with the imager thing, thats cool. It'll give me somethin to make a site for, i can release games already in the image format but if its not gonna run a good speed then i'll be depressed

[Dan East]

Does anyone know of a util to dump the contents of a floppy into a single raw data file on your HDD? It would be particularly useful if it were like XCopy on the Amiga, where you could "nibble copy" a floppy and avoid any copy protection that used a non-standard FAT filesystem for copy protection.<br><br>Dan East

[Moose or Chuck]

i know they are out, but i wouldn't know where to look, they used to use them for games on apple and whatnot for ripping them

[Jaybot]

Sorry I haven't been around  for awhile, I've actually been doing productive things for a change, I'll see what I kind of info I can dredge up tommorrow and post it here.

[Dan East]

I've got Bochs figured out and working, so I don't need any more docs. The main things I need at this point are:<br>A way of dumping an entire floppy to a raw image file.<br>A good DOS-based benchmark program.<br>Also, if you guys have some test programs (games, etc) to try, let me know.<br><br>Thanks!<br><br>Dan East

[Dan East]

Here's a few very preliminary screenshots off my iPaq.<br><br>Booting Pragma Linux:<br><br><br>Booting FreeDOS:<br><br><br>Another FreeDOS shot:<br><br><br>Dan East<br><br>Last modification: Dan East - 04/25/01 at 09:34:47

[Paul]

Is that Linux one emulating a Pentium?

[Dan East]

No, it's my Ipaq emulating a Pentium, which is running Linux built for x86 processors.<br><br>Dan East

[Paul]

Yeah thats what i meant

[Moose or Chuck]

Sure it is...

[Paul]

well i looked at the pic and noticed it said 'pentium' so i just wanted to check

[Moose or Chuck]

test commander keen 4, its shareware and its a good benchmarking game, see if it runs playable