[Qemu-devel] Win on Win successes and problems

[jeebs]

As some of you may remember, I've posted several comments in here about how 
poorly the Windows version of qemu works.  It wont boot any Windows guest, and 
even DOS has some problems.

Since the previous versions wouldn't install Win9x or XP under a XP host, I 
decided to try it again with the latest april 11th build from FreeOSZoo.

All I did was install.  I didn't run any major tests to see if things work 
right.  Just installed and booted.

1) Win98 installs!  Finally!  I didn't try going beyond booting it, but at 
least it now gets that far.  Who knows, it may crash the instant I try to do 
anything.

2) WinXP Pro:   Fails.  I tried twice and both time it stopped in the black 
"Please wait..." screen at the end of the install.  I do have a slower 
computer, so either I didn't wait long enough (2+ hours on an old P3), or it 
locks up.  The first time, there was no disk I/O after an hour and my system 
went into standby mode, so I suspect it is hanging.  (The second time I 
disabled standby, in case that had caused a problem.)



But at least Win98 installs.  That's a major advance for Windows hosts!  
Before, we could barely boot DOS.

I haven't yet had time to run any other tests.


I did notice a few other issues, though...

1) Qemu changes the mouse movement rate and acceleration anytime qemu is in the 
foreground or when the qemu window changes sizes (even if qemu is in the 
background.)  It should only do that when qemu is in the foreground and has 
captured the mouse.

2) There were a couple times during testing that the qemu screen image became 
corrupted.  (Usually when a XP window happened to open over it.)  Switching 
to/from the command window didn't restore the screen.  Perhaps a command could 
be added to force the redrawing of the guest window?

3) For Windows users, it sure would be nice if you could have the command 
screen as a seperate, always visible screen, instead of switching back and 
forth.  Perhaps a command line switch could enable that?

4) When XP Pro asked if I wanted it to switch from 640x480 to 800x600, the 
screen image looked rather odd.  Lines across it, etc.  Perhaps a bug in the 
qemu VGA video card?


And a couple of items from the qemu-user forum.  (Just in case the developers 
aren't paying too much attention to what gets said there...)

1) Add scroll bars to the qemu window.  Like vmware does.  That way you can do 
a qemu screen larger than your physical screen.  1024x768 on an 800x600 screen, 
for example.  Or for that matter, even an 800x600 on an 800x600 screen, since 
windows has the task bar taking up some screen area, and the qemu title bar 
takes up a little more.

2) qemu-image can't create a raw disk image larger than 2g, even on NTFS.  This 
is due to 32 bit integers etc., of course.  This should either be fixed or 
changed to a default disk format of qcow, instead of raw.  (Or better yet, both 
fix and make the change.)  I don't know if qemu itself would have a similar 
problem reading large raw disks under XP.  (Are there any disadvantages to qcow 
images?  If so, perhaps make them default only at 2g and larger, and keep raw 
and <2g?)  (Also, the qemu-image program needs to list the image formats 
available in the online help.)


Also, I didn't get around to testing to see if the cd change problem had been 
fixed.  If not, then that needs to be worked on, because otherwise you might 
not even be able to install an OS, much less actually do anything with it.



So the Windows port is improving, but it still needs work to reach the same 
level of usability as the Linux version.