Has anyone gotten VBBS (or any other DOS-based BBS software) running in a VM on a Mac? reddit / bbs ---------------------------------------------------------------------- shawncberg · 2020-08-22 19:55 Trying to get a BBS running that has a serial/TCP bridge so people can connect over TCP/IP instead of a modem. But first, has anyone had success getting this software to work properly in a VM on Mac? Any pointers? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- bumnt · 2020-08-22 21:57 Oh god, VBBS on a Mac. This sounds like a challenge! 6.14 or Virtual Advanced? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- shawncberg · 2020-08-22 23:20 Lol. 6.14, not Advanced. I only use Macs now. Thought maybe I could get it working on a VM of some sort. Even if just to run it locally and not allow outside connections. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- analog_potatoes · 2020-08-22 23:51 Freedos via VMWare Fusion. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- shawncberg · 2020-08-22 23:54 Do DOS apps work real well in FreeDOS? Do you have any experience with TCP/IP -> Serial bridges to emulate modem connections of TCP/IP for Internet connectivity to BBSes? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- analog_potatoes · 2020-08-23 00:02 Not in dos on a Mac. But I do have a ton of experience emulating serial bridges with QEMU and Dos in Linux via Tap adapters. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- shawncberg · 2020-08-23 00:08 Hmmm. Maybe I should create a Linux VM that hosts the DOS VM. Might be a bit complex to get all those layers to cooperate. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- bumnt · 2020-08-23 04:08 Well, I could dig out a copy of 6.14 for DOS and toss it on a VM through VMware or Parallels and see what happens... Damn, I wonder if I still have my registration information somewhere. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- analog_potatoes · 2020-08-23 12:37 That’s what I do all the time. If you dig into the BBS community, most of us are hosting within Linux. Even if it’s Dos or other. You might try Dosemu2 since it now supports DPMI properly. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- twitch757 · 2020-08-23 14:29 Have you thought about trying DOSBox? It should have TCP/IP -> Serial stuff built in and wouldn't be as chunky as using VMWare Fusion or VirtualBox. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- dmine45 · 2020-08-23 16:22 I'd say install a 32-bit Windows 10 VM in VirtualBox, then set up VirtualBox to run in Bridged mode. Then you can use VADV32 from Aspect Technologies to be the Telnet front-end. I used to use it with VADV, it may work with old VBBS as well. Good luck! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- shawncberg · 2020-08-23 19:07 I've thought about this, but DOSBox doesn't work well on Mac Catalina apparently. There's a 64-bit build of it I found somewhere but I haven't tried it yet. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- shawncberg · 2020-08-23 19:09 What Linux distribution is most of the community using? Maybe I'll build a quick Linux VM to host the DOS VM. Do you recommend a standard MS-DOS VM, FreeDOS, DOSEMU2, DOSBox? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- analog_potatoes · 2020-08-23 21:05 Ubuntu 18.04+ will get you going. W.r.t. Dos, each one has nuances. FreeDos is the best if you want to run a full dos suite. Dosemu1/2 use the freedos kernel if I’m not mistaken. You can do most anything textual in Dosemu. I think you can even run fairly well with higher resolution graphics like for a VGA game. You’ll have to just start down the road of learning and testing. If you haven’t done it before it can be daunting. There are a lot of things to consider when using a telnet connection piped to the serial port of the emulator.