| Title | Creation of a virtual machine to run "old/deprecated" software |
| Detailed description | This solution uses virtualization to recreate the original conditions (windows 95, in this case) needed to run the software. To achieve this, both an original windows 95 cd-rom (provided by  Birgit Plietzsch) and an open source virtualization software from Oracle (VirtualBox) was used. |
| Solution Champion | Hélder Silva |
| Corresponding Issue(s) | [Emulation - software deployment] [Emulation - potential use in multi-platform environment] [Emulation - compatibility with current OSs] |
| Tool/code link | Not applicable |
Tool Registry Link |
VirtualBox website |
| Evaluation | Video tutorial found on youtube (accessed on 2012-04-18): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYukg4rxybM Bunch of notes taken while trying to achieve success on virtualizing and running the "A Tu Lengua" software through Windows 95: 1) Create a virtual image with VirtualBox and set it to Windows 95 (name it, choose new disc, choose the size of the disc, and it's basically it) 2) Get boot image for windows 95 (win95 doesn't bring boot image). Visit http://www.allbootdisks.com/download/95.html 3) Deactivate any hardware acceleration so you don't get into troubles running win95 (settings > acceleration > unselect "Enable VT-x/AMD-V" 4) Add a floppy-disc with the win95 boot disc (settings > storage > add new controller > floppy-disc > choose … 5) Also select the drive containing the win95 cd-rom 6) Start the machine 7) Enter "fdisk" command 8) Give some enters until a restart is prompted 9) Restart the machine 10) Enter "format c:" 11) Say yes to data lost 12) Enter "md Win95" 13) Copy the contents of the Win95 from the cd-rom to the newly created directory "copy R:\Win95 C:\Win95" 14) Enter "cd Win95" 15) Enter "setup /is" 16) Click "yes", again, then click "next", again, again, then enter the win95 key, then enter some computer related information, then check the "sound, midi,…" option, hit "next", again, the select "No, I do not want a startup disk" and hit "next", next again, hit "finish". You must remove the cd-rom from the machine. Go to devices > cd/dvd devices or floppy devices > remove disk from virtual device. 17) Setup data/time properties, then some ok/next/finish. After creating and booting up the virtual machine, the next problem was how to put the "A Tu Lengua" software inside the virtual machine in order to proceed to the installation process. As mounting the pen drive wasn't working, the workaround was to create a disc image that could this way be mounted into a cd-rom drive and put available inside the virtual machine. Then, the installation process from the "A Tu Lengua" failed as there was some .dll (libraries) missing. Bottom line: it's more or less obvious that virtualization can be both a solution and a problem. A solution because it can be an easy way to run "stuff" on several different operating systems and to deploy it across a campus as it requires very little configuration. But in the other hand, it can be a problem as it can be really hard to achieve a working solution when dealing with very old software/operating systems. |