shwake@raysnec.UUCP (Ray Shwake) (10/22/90)
It's been my understanding that earlier versions of Windows were runnable under VP/ix. Though I'm running a little low on memory (4 MB) on this platform, decided to fire it up from a mounted filesystem (/dos). Upon startup, confronted the error: General protection fault, cannot emulate instruction While I work out my upgrade option, can anyone offer any comments or suggestions?
mju@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us (Marc Unangst) (10/22/90)
shwake@raysnec.UUCP (Ray Shwake) writes: > It's been my understanding that earlier versions of Windows were > runnable under VP/ix. Though I'm running a little low on memory (4 MB) on > this platform, decided to fire it up from a mounted filesystem (/dos). > Upon startup, confronted the error: > > General protection fault, cannot emulate instruction Well, I haven't actually done any testing or anything, but I'd bet the problem goes something like this: Unix is an OS that runs in the 386's protected mode. Windows 3.0, usually, is an OS that runs in the 386's protected mode. When you start up a VP/ix session under Unix, you're creating a virtual 8086, not a virtual 80386. So, when Windows 3.0 tries to execute its 386 instructions, it fails the same way it would if you tried to run it on a regular XT clone -- with an "illegal instruction" error. (Except, on the XT, you'd get a nice system crash. On the 80386, you get a core dump.) The solution to this is to run Windows in "real mode". There should be a command-line switch for this, but I don't have Windows 3.0 so I can't check. Either that, or wait for the 80686, which will hopefully have a virtual 80386 mode. -- Marc Unangst | mju@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us | "Bus error: passengers dumped" ...!umich!leebai!mudos!mju |
bent@lccinc.UUCP (Ben Taylor) (10/22/90)
shwake@raysnec.UUCP (Ray Shwake) writes: > It's been my understanding that earlier versions of Windows were >runnable under VP/ix. Though I'm running a little low on memory (4 MB) on >this platform, decided to fire it up from a mounted filesystem (/dos). >Upon startup, confronted the error: > General protection fault, cannot emulate instruction > While I work out my upgrade option, can anyone offer any comments >or suggestions? We too have tried various approaches with Windows 3.0 and had no success. Upon calling microsoft and discussing the problem with a technical support representative, he shed some light on the Windows 3.0 product. Essentially, Windows 3.0 is an operating system itself. Even if you try to run in real mode (win/r) it still tries to allocate the system resources like memory and devices and this is where the problem occurs. Unless microsoft comes out with a Windows which does not try to be an operating system, it is unlikely that any dos emulation under unix/xenix will work with Windows 3.0 any time soon. I even tried setting up Windows 3.0 on an 8086, and a 80286 to see if it would fix the problem. It didn't. It is a shame, Windows 3.0 is a nice product. Would've been a lot nice if I didn't have to shut down Xenix to get it to run right. Ben Taylor Systems Administator uunet!lccinc!bent LCC, Inc. (202) 828-5550, x642