VirtualBox for OS/2 and OS/2 based systems

VirtualBox for OS/2 and OS/2 based systems is a project to port the latest VirtualBox to OS/2 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 latest GCC compiler available, basic obstacles have been removed.

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

Sponsoring

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

Partnership

Right now there is no active partnership. The development contract with XEU has ended already several month ago. And it will not be renewed. If some company wants a faster development, feel free to ​contact us

Partnership history

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

Component	Package	Version	Description
VirtualBox Beta Release	​ZIP	5.0.51 Beta	This is the binary version of the Beta release.
VirtualBox Guest Additions	​ZIP	5.0.51 r215	Built for version 5.0.51, but tested well with VBox versions up to 6.0.8

VBox builds archive: ​ftp://osfree.org/upload/vbox/ OS/2 additions build archive: ​ftp://osfree.org/upload/vbox/additions/

Note that these OS/2 additions are different version, than supplied by Oracle. Our version is based on an early Oracle version, which contained only stubs for IFS entry points. So, shared folders IFS entry points implementation is very different. Our version contains some features missing from Oracle version (for example, drive letter pinning feature). ​Here is the support thread for OS/2 additions at os2world forum.

Source Code

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 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 development 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 libvpx-devel libaio-devel SDL-devel glib2-devel libcx-devel gsoap-devel uclip-devel bison flex awk
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: ​​https://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/openwatcom/open-watcom-1.9/open-watcom-c-os2-1.9.exe?r=&ts=1495836828&use_mirror=ayera)
4. dash from RPM as the current shell
5. mapsym.exe from the os2tk45 needs to be found in your path

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

    export WATCOM=<path_to_OpenWatcom>
    export MKISOFS=<path to mkisofs>

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

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

Note that Slack has been shut down their IRC and Jabber gateways. So, for now you must use Slack web client: ​https://bitwiseworks.slack.com. But you need to get an invitation from BWW team first. For an invitation, please ask at #netlabs channel @ FreeNode.

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 drive letter)
• Add DEVICE=X:\OS2\BOOT\vboxdrv.sys to you're config.sys
• Check if you have all dependencies with: yum install libc libgcc1 libstdc++6 libstdc++ libsupc++6 libsupc++ libgcc-fwd libqt4 zlib pthread libaio libvpx libvncserver libpng libjpeg libidl mmap urpo libxml2 expat curl openssl SDL glib2 libcx uclip gsoap
• 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 clipboard integration)

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.

Credits

• bww bitwise works GmbH (management/development)
• XEU.com initial project funding
• 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

More Screenshots