Bochs User Manual
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# FAQ

Q: Is Bochs Open Source?
Q: How do you pronounce "Bochs"?
Q: Who is the author of Bochs?
Q: Who maintains Bochs now?
Q: Tell me about performance when running Bochs.
Q: Does Bochs use a disk partition to install the OS?
Q: Why can't I use Bochs with my current Win95 installation?
Q: Is there a developer's email list for Bochs?
Q: Is there an IRC channel for Bochs?
Q: Do you know of any snapshots of Bochs running Win95?
Q: Does Bochs support a CD-ROM?
Q: Does Bochs support a sound device?
Q: Does Bochs support a network card?
Q: What applications are known to run inside of Bochs?
Q: I am new to Bochs, how do I start?

Q: Is Bochs Open Source?

A: Yes! Bochs is released under the GNU LGPL, much thanks to MandrakeSoft, makers of the Linux-Mandrake distribution.

Q: How do you pronounce "Bochs"?

A: Phonetically the same as the English word "box". It's just a play on the word "box", since techies like to call their machines a "Linux box", "Windows box", ... Bochs emulates a box inside a box.

Q: Who is the author of Bochs?

A: Kevin Lawton is the primary author of Bochs. There have been bug fixes, enhancements, and code contributions from some few hundred people, so it is not possible to list them all. Recently, Kevin has been working on a PC virtualization project called plex86. In Fall 2002, he made contributed some major CPU speedups and helped with integration and debugging of the x86-64 emulation code.

Q: Who maintains Bochs now?

A: With Kevin's help, in April 2001, the members of the bochs-developers mailing list set up a new official Bochs site hosted by Source Forge. The admins on this project are Greg Alexander, Don Becker, Christophe Bothamy, and Bryce Denney.

Q: Tell me about performance when running Bochs.

A: Because Bochs emulates every x86 instruction and all the devices in a PC system, it does not reach high emulation speeds. Kevin reported approximately 1.5MIPS using Bochs on a 400MHz PII Linux machine. Users who have an x86 processor and want the highest emulation speeds may want to consider PC virtualization software such as plex86 (free software) or VMware (proprietary and commercial). Another related project is QEMU.

Q: Does Bochs use a disk partition to install the OS?

A: No. It uses a disk image file, which is simply a large file, like any other file, on your platform's disk.

Q: Why can't I use Bochs with my current Win95 installation?

A: Think about this. If you had two different PC's, they would require different hardware drivers. So you may not be able to safely move a disk drive with Win95 on it, from one to the other. Bochs is no different. It emulates a certain set of hardware devices, and requires each OS be configured for those devices.

Q: Is there a developer's email list for Bochs?

A: Yes. For instructions on joining, refer to the Chapter called Mailing Lists.

Q: Is there an IRC channel for Bochs?

A: Yes. You will usually find Bochs developers and users on IRC at irc.freenode.net:6667, channel #bochs.

Q: Do you know of any snapshots of Bochs running Win95?

A: Yes! Look for "screen shots" on bochs.sourceforge.net or on other Bochs sites.

Q: Does Bochs support a CD-ROM?

A: Yes, a CD-ROM is supported in Linux, Windows, BeOS, and most BSDs. The CD-ROM drivers for Bochs allow the guest operating system to access the host operating system's CD-ROM data directly.

Q: Does Bochs support a sound device?

A: Yes, there is Sound Blaster emulation support for most common operation systems, see the Section called Sound Blaster 16 Emulation in the Chapter called Setup for details.

Q: Does Bochs support a network card?

A: Yes. Bochs contains a model of an NE2000 compatible network card. Networking is not supported on all platforms. See the Section called Features for details.

Q: What applications are known to run inside of Bochs?

A: Well, lot's of different OS's run inside of Bochs, so thousands. I'm assuming you are asking about Windows programs. To give you a few, the following ones from the Winstone'98 tests worked: Access 97, CorelDRAW! 7, Excel 97, Lotus 1-2-3 97, Word 97, PowerPoint 97, Quattro Pro 7, WordPerfect 7.

Also, I've compiled an entire OS kernel inside Bochs before. Not to mention, running DOOM, though at then-pathetic speeds.

Q: I am new to Bochs, how do I start?

A: You should read the Chapter called Setup first. Next, you can check the Chapter called Guest operating systems if there are already instructions on how to install your (guest) OS inside of Bochs.

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