Running OS/2 in a Virtual Machine
Running OS/2, and especially old versions of OS/2, on contemporary
hardware is increasingly difficult. Especially large hard drives and
modern disk controllers pose a perennial problem. Running OS/2 in a
virtual machine is an attractive alternative. The following paragraphs
will examine several widely available x86 virtualization solutions and
assess their suitability for running OS/2.
VMware
Let's get VMware out of the way first, because this part is going to be
brief. After testing with VMware Server 1.0.4, my suggestion is not to
waste time with VMware if you're trying to run OS/2. I attempted to
boot numerous versions of OS/2, from very old to recent, and none of
them worked. In all cases the VM froze or OS/2 crashed during the boot
sequence. There may be ways to run some versions of OS/2 after tweaking
VMware in various unsupported way, but that is pointless because there
are better solutions available.
Virtual PC
Now Virtual PC is a completely different story. In VPC 2007, OS/2 Warp
4 FP15 and Convenience Pack 1 and 2 are officially supported guest
operating systems. A quick test indicates that OS/2 2.0 and 2.1 also
work in Virtual PC. For running 32-bit versions of OS/2, Virtual PC is
a good choice, especially because guest additions improving the
integration of OS/2 VMs with the host operating system are available.
The story is somewhat different with OS/2 1.x. Virtual PC was unable to
boot the install floppy of any OS/2 1.x version I tried. VPC can boot
and run OS/2 from a pre-installed disk image, but transferring an OS/2
1.x disk image to Virtual PC is difficult at best.
VirtualBox
Disclaimer: I currently work
for the company making VirtualBox
OS/2 and VirtualBox is something of a mixed bag. All
32-bit versions of OS/2 run to a greater or lesser degree under
VirtualBox, but at this point only when hardware-assisted
virtualization is used. On the upside, nearly all CPUs sold in the last
few years support this feature.
Like Virtual PC, VirtualBox offers OS/2 guest additions with features
like mouse integration and better graphics support. Networking also
works quite well in OS/2 guests, using the emulated AMD PCnet NIC. On
top of that, VirtualBox is free for personal use.
Things get more interesting with 16-bit OS/2 versions. Starting with
VirtualBox version 1.6, it is possible to run unmodified
OS/2 1.3, either the SE or EE version from IBM or the Microsoft
edition, although there may be problems with installing the OS. OS/2
1.2 may be installed with some tweaking and versions 1.0
and 1.1 currently do not work at all. More about that below.
Problems and Solutions
Running OS/2 inside a virtual machine is more similar to running OS/2
on a real PC than it is different. That means the same sort of problems
and solutions apply.
The number one source of problems that OS/2 users (but not just OS/2
users) have faced over the years is storage devices. Growing capacity
and performance requirements have resulted in a slow but steady stream
of changes. Older operating systems are unable to access storage beyond
certain limits, or fail to detect the attached disks altogether.
Fortunately, this is where virtualization solutions can significantly
help. Virtual disks can be as small as needed and any 512MB or 2GB or
8GB or other barriers can be neatly sidestepped. Also, virtual machines
typically emulate standard ST506/WD1003/IDE/ATA disks, which just about
every x86 operating system under the sun can use (OS/2 certainly can).
Another, considerably more difficult problem is CPU speed. This isn't
much of a problem for 32-bit versions of OS/2, but it is an issue for
OS/2 1.x. Except for the last releases of OS/2 1.3, there are various
issues with fast CPUs, typically resulting in traps (SCREEN$ device and
others). This happens on real hardware and it happens in virtual
machines as well, because they are typically trying to run as fast as
possible. It is usually not possible to slow down VM execution so the
only resort is patching the offending code.
Yet another source of troubles are device drivers in general. As with
storage devices, virtual machines improve things. The guest operating
system sees for example standard PS/2 keyboard and mouse regardless of
what sort of fancy USB keyboard might be attached to the host machine.
Likewise the network adapters emulated by VMs are fairly standard, even
though OS/2 1.x is still liable to run into trouble with them just
because it's so ancient. Emulated graphics chips provide VBE support,
which achieves surprisingly good results with recent versions of OS/2,
although old versions are still limited to VGA.
The final source of problems is somewhat - but not exclusively -
specific to virtual machine, and that is compatibility with "legacy"
hardware standards, although the term "standards" may be a bit
misleading here. For example, the oldest versions of OS/2 (1.0 and 1.1)
use triple faults as a method to reset the CPU and switch from
protected mode back to real mode, a mildly bizarre (or hellishly
clever, depending on one's point of view) technique necessitated by the
design of Intel's 286 CPU. Neither Virtual PC nor VirtualBox support
this, although in theory they could. As an aside, OS/2 1.2 and later
prefer to use a 386-specific method to switch from protected to real
mode, which is much faster and works well in virtual machines.
The Future Meets the Past
Running OS/2 - and other old operating systems - inside virtual
machines is an increasingly attractive option, and in many cases the
only option available. Virtualization is getting better (not to mention
cheaper) every year and allows users to experience operating systems
they might otherwise be unable to even install on their hardware.