I'll try to keep all this short and to the point.
I have labored over making windows xp run like a bat out of hell using bochs.

Here are some not so well known bochs faqs (I am working with the port author):

NOTE: mouse release keys are option+applelogo!

1) He had never run anything but windows 95 on this.
2) He cannot get pci to work on his system so the default config file has pci turned off.
3) Amiga file systems have file size limits. The windows version of bochs supports large hard drives. The mos version supports only 2gb hard drives.
4) A lot of the plugins were not compiled with bochs 2.6 (I am working on that).

Quirks during install of xp:
1) You should set the ram for the guest and the host to the same before installing. If bochs has to dynamically allocate ram you could lock up and most likely will. Preallocate all ram.
2) Going to 1024x768 resolution after installing will lock you up UNLESS you first turn on the 440fx intel pci chipset in the config.
3) If you install with ISA emulation only expect your hard drives to run in PIO mode only with no dma. The gui will seem fast but apps will take forever to load.
4) Turn that PCI stuff ON!!!! Its the difference between night and day!
5) There is a Vesa pci driver for xp that tops off the emulation by making your video update lightening fast:
http://www.navozhdeniye.narod.ru/vbemp.htm

I use the stable release version for 2007.10.19 for xp.


6) When installing set the ram for both guest and host to 128.
7) When installing copy your install CD into your ram disk and point the config file to it. Once again, the author warns the .iso image cdrom emulation is touchy., You need max speed to avoid delays and lockups.
8) Buy a morph os license. Your not getting this all done on the demo. You can't halt this and start over every 30 minutes.
9) Networking is not functional yet, but with the introduction of MorphOS 3.2 it can now be made to work with some code changes.

ok, here is the exact config I use:

NOTE: I turn off serial, gameport, and other stuff to get speed. Make sure there is a iso image in your ram disk named cd.iso. Only one hard drive controller is emulated.


#------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
plugin_ctrl: unmapped=0, serial=0, gameport=0
display_library: amigaos
romimage: file=bios/BIOS-bochs-latest
cpu: count=1, ips=25000000, reset_on_triple_fault=1, ignore_bad_msrs=1, msrs="msrs.def"
cpu: cpuid_limit_winnt=0
memory: guest=128, host=128
vgaromimage: file=bios/VGABIOS-lgpl-latest
vga:extension=vbe, update_freq=30
ata0: enabled=1, ioaddr1=0x1f0, ioaddr2=0x3f0, irq=14
ata0-master: type=disk, path="c.img", mode=flat, cylinders=4161, heads=16, spt=63
ata0-slave: type=cdrom, path="ram:cd.iso", status=inserted, biosdetect=auto, model="Generic 1234"
boot: cdrom,disk
floppy_bootsig_check: disabled=0
log: bochsout.txt
panic: action=ask
error: action=report
info: action=report
#debug: action=ignore, pci=report # report BX_DEBUG from module 'pci'
debugger_log: -
parport1: enabled = 0
mouse: enabled=0
private_colormap: enabled=0
pci: enabled=1, chipset=i440fx
#----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The line that says ata0-master must be replaced with your hard drive specs.
Run the bximage tool from the shell and answer all the questions.
Do NOT give the hard drive more than 2048 mb or the bios will reject it as having bad geometry.
After bximage is done creating the drive it will give you the proper ata0-master line.




NOTE: I do NOT turn on pcivideo till after the install. Causes some sort of issue.
After install I change the last line to:

pci: enabled=1, chipset=i440fx, slot1=pcivga

Start up again and xp will find the pci video.

Download the video driver from above and unzip it.
Point it to the vbemp folder under vesa 3.0\pnp folder (or something close to that).



Right now to get software over to windows xp I am using ImgBurn (its free) to convert folders on my windows machine into an iso image. I then rename the iso image to cd.iso, copy to the ram disk, and boot. Once again, the cd tends to lock up if the iso image is not in your ramdisk. The emulation has some sort of timing issue and needs max speed to read iso images.


I am currently starting to recomiple bochs to allow for all the other plugins.
BTW: It runs well on a powerbook g4, but amazingly well on a powermac g5.

NOTE:Tuning:
Don't forget to bump the ram when your done to whatever your apps will need like 512mb.
If you optimize xp after your done by turning off all unecessary services and setting the OS for best performace (turn off themes and special effects) you can get xp down to using 45mb on boot and it will be quite fast.
Also, when your done with cds, create a second hard drive and replace the cd entry in the config with the second hard drive (bochs is limited to 2 drives, you cannot have two hard drives and a cdrom) and then tell xp to use the second hard drive for a page file and turn off the page file for drive C.


l8r



[ Edited by bash64 13.01.2015 - 13:24 ]