At 04:51 AM 5/20/2012, Bertho Grandpied wrote: >Jack, if I may chime in... I think you're now contemplating the >right step. I can understand your frustration with VB in this >instance, BUT imho your previous approach has been to ignore a few >facts, that have nothing to do with that or another emulator or virtualiser : > >On REAL (old) PC hardware, the existence of floppy disk changelines >is not guaranteed; even if the line is present AND properly >connected it MIGHT be flaky or not work at all; or the BIOS might >not update the bits you expect. MS-DOS (and, I presume, good DOS >clones as well) will use alternate means and kluges to check for >media change in the absence of a (credible) change line. Your DOS >drivers could have been relying on DOS for checking media change, >not on the BIOS or direct HW interrogation in the 1st place ! Sorry but "REAL OLD" would have to mean "pre-IBM AT", as every 1.2MB 5.25" drive and all 3.5" drives available in those machines and newer did support the disk change line/signal. There were only very few systems (really cheap clones) where the BIOS did not support this and those kludges you were referring to "like the disk volume label" check had to be used.
Anyway you slice it, that Virtual Box (and probably a few other VMs) are not properly supporting this is rather due to the ignorance of those VM developers and the stupid attitude of "nobody is using floppy disks anymore". It is a very well known function, relatively easy to implement, so it should be up to the VM developers to do so... just my 2c, Ralf ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Live Security Virtual Conference Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
