VirtualBox for eCS (OS/2)

VirtualBox for eCS (OS/2) is a project to port the latest VirtualBox to OS/2 and eComStation and provide a current, usable virtualization solution. VirtualBox is a powerful x86 and AMD64/Intel64 virtualization product for enterprise as well as home use. Not only is VirtualBox an extremely feature rich, high performance product for enterprise customers, it is also the only professional solution that is freely available as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL). See ​About VirtualBox for an introduction.

Early versions of VirtualBox had already been ported to OS/2 but these efforts had been suspended due to technical problems and lack of the Qt 4 library for the GUI. With the Qt 4 library and the lastest GCC compiler available, basic obstacles have been removed.

The project team has several developers. Funding has to be provided by the OS/2 and eComStation community.

Sponsoring

We do have some money in the queue but it's not enough yet. If you would like to contribute to this port, you are welcome to buy a sponsoring unit for that at bww bitwise works GmbH onlineshop. 100% of that money will be used to port VirtualBox.

The bww bitwise works GmbH sponsor link is: ​http://www.bitwiseworks.com/shop

Partnership

XEU.com and bww bitwise works GmbH are pleased to announce to have a partnership in developing the VirtualBox virtual machine and it's configuration GUI. This will enable users to run VirtualBox on an eComStation or OS/2 host and adds to the versatility of the operating system.

Current Status

The project is in beta stage at the moment.

Latest Version

A first binary release can be found at
​https://www.dropbox.com/s/qs01cwnmga9c3bu/vbox506-beta-os2-r141-20161011.zip?dl=0

The VirtualBox additions version 5.0.6 can be downloaded from
​http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/5.0.6/VBoxGuestAdditions_5.0.6.iso.
They will be the same for every 5.0.6 release and are therefore not included.

If you want to play with the latest development version, you can check it out directly from the SVN repository. In order to do so you need to download and install the subversion client for eCS (OS/2). Use the following command to check out the full source tree to a <local_directory>:

svn checkout http://svn.netlabs.org/repos/vbox/trunk <local_directory>

Build instructions

This current version of the configure script requires the RPM/YUM environment and the following develompent setup:

1. yum install ash which kbuild gcc gcc-wlink gcc-wrc gettext-devel pthread-devel libxml2-devel libxslt-devel openssl-devel libcurl-devel zlib-devel libpng-devel libqt4-devel libidl-devel libvncserver-devel nasm libpoll-devel libaio-devel SDL-devel glib2-devel libcx-devel
2. mkisofs.exe from ​​http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/apps/mmedia/cd/cd-r/cdrecord-2_00_os2.zip in PATH
3. OpenWatcom? 1.9 (from here I believe: ​​ftp://ftp.openwatcom.org/pub/open-watcom-c-os2-1.9.exe)
4. ash from RPM as the current shell

The configure script from the root of the source tree should be run as follows (under ash):

    export WATCOM=<path_to_OpenWatcom>

    ./configure --with-ow-dir=$WATCOM --enable-vnc --disable-docs

You may also want to add an optional --out-path=DIR so that all build results will go to DIR instead of polluting the source tree.

For older build instructions see ​https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/OS/2%20build%20instructions

IRC chat for developers

Developers needing help, please use our support channel on IRC, as creating tickets for development or building questions usually leads to nothing. Please note that all of the listed fields are mandatory for a successful login and all other fields (like login name, real name) are optional and not used by our IRC server.

IRC Server: bitwiseworks.irc.slack.com
IRC Server port: 6667 (SSL)
IRC Server password: bitwiseworks.PdFBTY95R7R3V3w8dc4m
IRC Nickname: guest
IRC Channel: #general

Please note that this chat is not meant for user support and also don't expect immediate answers as the developers are usually rather busy doing their jobs.

Install instructions

This instructions are a rough how to. It might be they are not complete. (If you find something not right or not complete, please report it)

• Create a directory like: VboXOs2
• Copy all files to that directory
• Copy vboxdrv.sys to X:\os2\boot\vboxdrv.sys (Where X is your driveletter)
• Add DEVICE=X:\OS2\BOOT\vboxdrv.sys to you're config.sys
• Check if you have all dependencies with:
  • yum install libc libgcc1
  • yum install libstdc++6 libstdc++
  • yum install libsupc++6 libsupc++
  • yum install libgcc-fwd
  • yum install libqt4
  • yum install zlib
  • yum install pthread
  • yum install libaio
  • yum install libvpx
  • yum install libvncserver
  • yum install libpng libjpeg
  • yum install libidl
  • yum install mmap urpo
  • yum install libxml2 expat curl
  • yum install openssl
  • yum install SDL
  • yum install glib2
  • yum install libcx
• Check with pmdll virtualbox.exe if all dll are loadable (pmdll is found on hobbes)
• Start Virtualbox.exe and you see the Qt Gui (note: not all features work so far, like the mouse integration)
• If you want the mouse integration you better use the SDL interface

For the SDL interface you need to create an image first and then start it:

• VBoxManage.exe createvm --name Example --register
• VBoxManage.exe storagectl Example --name IDE --add ide --controller PIIX3 --portcount 2
• VBoxManage.exe storageattach Example --storagectl IDE --port 0 --device 1 --type dvddrive --medium Example.iso
• VBoxSDL.exe -s Example

Please replace Example by you're needs. But be aware that the name is case sensitive. So example is not like Example and will give you an error.

Reporting Bugs

Reporting bugs and requesting new features is done through the ticket system. You can view existing tickets, add comments to them and create new tickets using the corresponding buttons at the top of every page. If you want to submit a new bug or request a feature, please use the Search function first to make sure there is no ticket for this task already created.

Anonymous access to the ticket system has been restricted due to multiple attacks of stupid spammers we've been suffering from lately. In order to create a new ticket or comment the existing one, you need to login with your Netlabs login id. If you do not have a login id, you can request one at ​http://www.netlabs.org/en/site/member/member.xml. We are sorry for inconvenience, but at the present time this is the only way to avoid extremely annoying spam.

Mailing Lists

Project discussion is done through mailing list conversations. Currently, the following mailing lists are available:

• none right now

Credits

• bww bitwise works GmbH (management/development)
• XEU.com financial support
• several developers

• netlabs.org (hosting)

• VirtualBox.org

We also want to thank all individuals and organizations who made donations to this project and helped to make it happen.

Screenshots