Doubts about PCEM possibilities with COM ports

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KeiDash
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue 12 Jul, 2022 12:21 pm

Doubts about PCEM possibilities with COM ports

Post by KeiDash »

Hello! I'm new here and I've registered because an old hardware issue that I have. The reason of my question it's because I don't know if is possible to do that I want.

I'm try to read something about it in PCEM but I'm not found anything about this (meybe because It doesn't exists or I'm not able to find that)

The main question is:

It's possible with PCEM use a COM PORT in the host hardware?

I have an old hardware that only works on Windows 98 using the mother board parallel port. I tried to use this hardware with Virtual Machines like VMWare or Virtual Box. This softwares recognices my host COM ports but when I try to use the sofware in this VM that connect with my old hardware, they doesn't found the hardware, so, when my friend told me about PCEM, I thought that "maybe here is possible"

At this momment I solved it using a real hardware with Windows 98 but this is a little uncomfortable because I must have change between computers to read and write data in this old hardware.

So, it's possible? In this case, exists any documentation to read how to do that?

Thanks!!
UPerschke
Posts: 72
Joined: Wed 25 May, 2016 7:43 pm

Re: Doubts about PCEM possibilities with COM ports

Post by UPerschke »

Not sure if PCem is what you should aim for, since you seem to mix up parallel (LPT) and serial (COM).

I have used physical COM ports with vanilla DosBox to quite a degree of success, regardless if the host bus was ISA, PCI, PCIe or USB.
https://www.dosbox.com/wiki/Configuration:SerialPort

If you think to go down that route it's likely better to reach out in more dense communities like Vogons.
https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=6181
https://dosbox-x.com/wiki/Guide%3AInstalling-Windows-98

In contrast access to physical parallel ports in virtual environments is fairly tricky.

Parallel port access in DosBox-X is doable, at least.
https://dosbox-x.com/wiki/Guide%3ASetti ... t_method_2

Both VMware and Virtual Box are officially capable of it, but frankly I've never used it with Win9x guests.

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Works ... F4BA4.html
https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=54187

But of course your hardware needs to be able to run the Hypervisor, maybe with an older version.
I would consider the chance for success higher with VMware.
KeiDash
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue 12 Jul, 2022 12:21 pm

Re: Doubts about PCEM possibilities with COM ports

Post by KeiDash »

Hi again,

As I see, DosBox-X not works with PCI or PCIe parallel ports boards and this is my case, I use a PCI pcb to has parallel port on my "modern" motherboard, because it doesn't has from base.

You comment, DosBox works with PCI COM ports right? so I'll try with this base version. I had to many problems with VMWare and Virtual Box in this case, so I'll try Hyver-V ultimately with this guide that I found

Many many thanks for your reply, It has been very usefull
UPerschke
Posts: 72
Joined: Wed 25 May, 2016 7:43 pm

Re: Doubts about PCEM possibilities with COM ports

Post by UPerschke »

KeiDash wrote: Wed 13 Jul, 2022 10:25 am DosBox-X not works with PCI or PCIe parallel ports boards
PortTalk to the rescue, at least up to WinXP hosts.
KeiDash wrote: Wed 13 Jul, 2022 10:25 am Many many thanks for your reply, It has been very usefull
You're welcome.
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