Windows 3.0 bombs on startup under VP/ix 1.1 (ISC 2.2)

[Ben Taylor]

shwake at raysnec.UUCP (Ray Shwake) writes:


>	It's been my understanding that earlier versions of Windows were
>runnable under VP/ix. Though I'm running a little low on memory (4 MB) on
>this platform, decided to fire it up from a mounted filesystem (/dos).
>Upon startup, confronted the error:

>		General protection fault, cannot emulate instruction

>	While I work out my upgrade option, can anyone offer any comments
>or suggestions?

We too have tried various approaches with Windows 3.0 and had no success.
Upon calling microsoft and discussing the problem with a technical support
representative, he shed some light on the Windows 3.0 product. 

Essentially, Windows 3.0 is an operating system itself.  Even if you try
to run in real mode (win/r) it still tries to allocate the system resources
like memory and devices and this is where the problem occurs.  Unless 
microsoft comes out with a Windows which does not try to be an operating
system, it is unlikely that any dos emulation under unix/xenix will work
with Windows 3.0 any time soon.  I even tried setting up Windows 3.0 
on an 8086, and a 80286 to see if it would fix the problem.  It didn't.

It is a shame, Windows 3.0 is a nice product.  Would've been a lot nice
if I didn't have to shut down Xenix to get it to run right.

Ben Taylor
Systems Administator		uunet!lccinc!bent
LCC, Inc.
(202) 828-5550, x642