Comments on: Venix/86 Challenge

By: tenox

tenox — Fri, 26 Nov 2021 09:40:30 +0000

In reply to YesterGearPC. WOW! Thank you so much for this. I think the challenge is long over for Venix/86 but this definitely deserves a gold medal of some kind! :) I will see if I can install it on Qemu or 86box. Thanks again!!!

By: YesterGearPC

YesterGearPC — Thu, 25 Nov 2021 00:13:34 +0000

It’s the next version, and ~7 years later, but I just found, imaged, and archived Venix/386 – installable on actual or virtual hardware. Not sure if that qualifies for your bounty, but still 😉 I have it up and running on a 386 with 8mb ram and a 256mb CF card for HDD.

https://archive.org/details/venix-386

By: tenox

tenox — Fri, 14 Aug 2015 04:05:06 +0000

Guys I’d like to thank you for your participation and great response. Again congratulations to Jim. I will be posting detailed install instructions in a follow up post.

By: Mihai

Mihai — Thu, 13 Aug 2015 12:44:17 +0000

In reply to Alexnader U.

On PCEM generic 386 with ~33MB HDD (CHS = 512,8,17) it doesn’t have any trouble there. On real 286 with 80MB Caviar I partitioned it without trouble (during my experiments; I did not yet install it on the real HW).
It seems that VENIX uses BIOS for HDD access, so unless you go crazy with disk size (30MB is quite enough) there shouldn’t be any problems on that side. Indeed, on QEMU it doesn’t work, but on PCEM it works fine. I have not tested other emulators.
As I said, CGA was just because I didn’t bother to download VGA roms at that time; it’s not relevant. You do need an AT-class computer (real or emulated) because the BACKUP disks are 1.2MB and XT didn’t have 1.2MB drives.

By: neozeed

neozeed — Thu, 13 Aug 2015 12:10:44 +0000

In reply to Alexnader U. Probably the hard disk controller type, maybe CGA 286 with an XTIDE controller?

By: Alexnader U

Alexnader U — Thu, 13 Aug 2015 07:15:56 +0000

In reply to Mihai.

Unfortunately, after “Part I” I always get this message (on PCEM, on real XT, AT…):
“Are the default winchester partitions acceptable? Yes
System = 64776 blocks
Swap = 750 blocks
Temp = 0 blocks
User = 0 blocks
AT Timeout waiting for 80 to be 0
At drive failed to go not busy

Error on the Winchester, unit 7
AT Drive never went ready
while writing block number 0. Status 00
“

By: Mihai

Mihai — Thu, 13 Aug 2015 05:38:21 +0000

No installation kit is required. All that was needed was in the original archive. It did require some small modifications, though.
A small hint is here:
http://hawk.ro/stories/pcem/pcem1.png
(not the fact that it’s CGA; by the way, an AT class computer is required for restoring – backup floppies are 1.2MB and XT didn’t have that)

By: neozeed

neozeed — Wed, 12 Aug 2015 23:12:19 +0000

In reply to calvin. You can always talk to ESXi without vcenter, but a client that doesn't need flash?!? Now we're talking! Too bad the site is down, maybe it'll be fixed later.

By: superpete

superpete — Wed, 12 Aug 2015 21:30:24 +0000

In reply to Jim Carpenter. Nice work! How'd you do it?

By: Alexander U

Alexander U — Wed, 12 Aug 2015 16:10:19 +0000

In reply to Jim Carpenter. Can you tell, how you did this? Do you have full installation kit of Venix? Maybe you can share it (for me or for all)?