Hi Hal, I did a bit of testing: 1) On Linux I created an empty floppy image (.img) file, downloaded the FreeDOS-Fractint.ova that is on the fractint website, created a new vm in VirtualBox using the .ova , changed the settings in the floppy drive section to point to the .img file I created (it will be the A: drive in DOS), started the VM and booted up FreeDos. Then from the c: prompt I did Format a: It formated the image as a DOS diskette I then copied a fractal (xxx.GIF) to the A: drive and shut down the DOS vm. I then mounted the .IMG file in Linux and the xxx.GIF file is visible and can be copied to the host OS --- so the Diskette method works albeit kind of a round about way :) ---------------------------------------------- 2) I fired up a Windows XP VM on the same Linux box and installed both the DOS and WinXP versions of Fractint Both worked great and of course you can transfer files using standard Windows file system / networking to the host. So if you can find someone with an old XP machine with a valid lic. for XP ... this is a great way to go. (as an aside, once the VM XP machine has been patched and activated you can clone it and both version will be usable, I have lots of old XP machines that I have placed into VMs to protect them and I only had to create one VM appliance to do this with ... I have lic. for all of them but I did not need to activate each one with a separate ID.) ------------------------------------------------ --- RE Questions about VirtualBox VirtualBox will allow you to run as many guest machines as you have memory and CPU resources to accommodate ... I have host machines running a dozen or so WinXP vm service machines doing various things ... you are limited by memory mostly and your disk space is limited to the amount you actually use which is dynamically allocated, memory is the only hard constraint as it is not shared between VMs ... for DOS I don't know the limit but I would guess you could run dozens (maybe hundreds) of copies on a modern workstation. They can all run independent of each other under the single hyper-visor. I have a machine with newer xeon processors and it has 64 cores of CPU and I have never come close to maxing it out. The console of the virtual box will let see the status (in a thumb nail) of each VM in real time. (there is a better way to do this if you have Win XP machines and you want to monitor them from a single Windows 10 machine ... see this link https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=44989 ) I use this to monitor and control all my XP machines from a single Win 10 machine. (This will work for both real XP computers and for VM XP computers and also for other versions of Windows) You may need to change settings in your BIOS to enable Visualization I have not tried to open a VDI (VirtualBox dynamic disk image) of a VM but it is just a container with a standard disk image in it so I don't see why that method for getting to the Fractals you created would not work ... worth an experiment :) ----RE: batch files ... one for networking / one for creating fractals ... those would be .bat files in the VM so you could boot the DOS to one version when you are creating fractals and the network version when you want to transfer the images to the outside. The .bat could be choices in the autoexec.bat file that is on the C: drive in the VM (There is a menu and choice in there now to how you want to boot the DOS for memory management now) ------------------------------------------------ Networking Note: If you are going to try and get networking to work in your FreeDOS vm ... be sure you set it up to be in the same workgroup as your Win10 machine Also you will need to change the Networking setting in the Setting tab of VirtualBox from NAT to Bridged (so it will be on the same network as your host) On 06/11/2017 03:45 PM, Harold Lane wrote:

David, Thanks for your prompt, detailed reply. I see that using the FreeDOS as the Guest OS has DOS-like memory problems (which running Win XP's built-in DOS would not have.)

I'm pleased to learn that: "the newer machines are so much faster ... that they will perform faster than [Fractint used to on older] bare hardware."

I'm going to reread and think about what option I want to try first. I had hoped to use the FreeDOS, as my Win XP version is a factory install disk for a specific PC. And I don't have the Win XP service packs saved.

Your option #2: "create two batch files to boot the FreeDOS: one for creating the Fractals that maximizes resources (mostly memory) for Fractint, and one for networking (which loads the network drivers and uses a bit more memory for that function.)" seems potentially attractive to me.

Q: Would those two batch file versions of FreeDOS each be a separate Guest image in VirtualBox? <== <==

I saw in the FreeDOS docs: http://wiki.freedos.org/wiki/index.php/VirtualBox_-_Chapter_6 that one can "Mount the FreeDOS image to transfer files." They show screencaps where they mount the entire (not currently running!) Guest image file as a drive letter in Windows, and claim that "you can see all FreeDOS files in Windows Explorer." Sounds like another way to move files between OS's...

They note: "...take care to eject the image before you start up the FreeDOS guest in VirtualBox."

I may want to communicate with you again...

Thanks again!

P. S.: I forgot to ask you, do you know if one can run two VMs at the same time -- perhaps two instances of VirtualBox, each with a guest? <== <== I ask because I have lots of RAM and CPU cores, and would like to be able to run more than one instance of Fractint at the same time. The last time I was able to do that successfully was under Win 98!

- Hal Lane

######################## # hallane@earthlink.net ########################

-----Original Message----- From: Fractint [mailto:fractint-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of David W Riccio Sent: Sunday, June 11, 2017 5:05 PM To: fractint@mailman.xmission.com Subject: Re: [Fractint] VirtualBox version of FreeDos with Fractint

Hal, There a couple of options for moving files into and out of the FreeDOS machine.

1) You can map a diskette drive (or an image file of a diskette drive to the VM) and copy files into it or out of the diskette image.

(There are tools that will create (or mount) a diskette .img file available for most OS ... I know I tested something that worked in Win10 but these days I am mostly using Linux as my base / host OS and that function is built into Linux. I have been using Win10 for things like Photoshop and software that will only run in Windows but I have been running it in a VM under Linux)

2) You can start networking in FreeDOS (I think the virtual machine I posted has networking tools included, if not, you can download the FreeDOS CD image that does contain them and move them into the Fractal VM from the CD image.) There is a guide to setting up a small and limited FTP server in the FreeDOS environment. You can then point any FTP client at the FreeDOS VM and just copy files into and out of the VM ... You should create two batch files to boot the FreeDOS one for creating the Fractals that maximizes resources (mostly memory) for Fractint and one for networking (which loads the network drivers and uses a bit more memory for that function.)

3) I think the networking software in FreeDOS will talk to a standard windows SMB share or any server running SMB (like a Linux machine with Samba or a Windows Share on Win 10, 7, XP.) You can map the remote drive to a drive letter in the FreeDOS machine and it will look like a disk drive to both Win10 and FreeDOS. This requires you setup networking in FreeDOS (see the FreeDOS site for details) ... I know I had this working but I am not sure I included it in the VM that is on the Fractint site.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By the way, it is possible to run Windows XP in a VM on Windows 10 (but you need install disks for Windows XP and the Service packs to bring it up to the last version Microsoft patched before they stop sending out patches) ... the advantage to this is you can run Fractint directly in XP's "DOS" environment (or in DOSBOX if you prefer) ... And you have all the networking to built in that will share drives between Fractint and the host Windows 10 machine.

I do this so I can still use Photoshop CS2 on my Windows 10 Photoshop machine. It works without any issues. The only disadvantage of doing this is you must own a copy of Windows XP and a valid XP activation key ... (it is also the reason we can't post/share a VM with with all the software pre-configured ) I can confirm that this will work on Windows 10 and Windows XP in a VM under the most recent version of VirtualBox on that Windows 10 host. (This gives you back the Virtual XP machine that was part of Windows 7)

While there is a hit to performance by running a guest OS on a Host machine the newer machines are so much faster than any old base hardware available to DOS or XP that they will perform faster than they did on bare hardware. And you don't have to go looking for drivers for graphics cards etc. They are built into VirtualBox.

For XP guest machines there are extensions in VirtualBOX that will provide a wonderful video driver that you can configure as a display equal to or larger than your Windows 10 machine. It also provides for USB pass-thru so you can access most of your USB devices. (these guest extensions do not work in a DOS guest machine but work fine in a XP guest machine)

On 06/11/2017 10:01 AM, Harold Lane wrote:

...

David, Many thanks for your links to the VirtualBox version of FreeDos with Fractint included/embedded! I'm going to give this a try on my Win 10 computer.

You said: "it's isolated from the rest of your system." I have a question: If Fractint writes its images to an isolated virtual hard drive, what methods can one use to get the Images from there to the Windows environment in order to share?

- Hal Lane

######################## # hallane@earthlink.net ########################

-----Original Message----- From: Fractint [mailto:fractint-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of David W Riccio Sent: Friday, June 9, 2017 8:09 PM To: fractint@mailman.xmission.com Subject: Re: [Fractint] JunoCam fractal video

There is a VirtualBox version on https://fractint.net/ that works on Windows 10 (any Op Sys that will run VirtualBox)

It is running in FreeDOS in a VM so it isolated from the rest of your system.

Look at this link https://fractint.net/ftp/virtual_environments/

_______________________________________________ Fractint mailing list Fractint@mailman.xmission.com https://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fractint

--- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

-- -David Lemon Creek Digital www.lemoncreekdigital.com

I am using the VM from the Fractint site on Linux Mint 18.1 Cinnamon 64-bit on VirtualBox 5.0.40_Ubuntu r115130 Settings for the VM: 32MB memory with Floppy, Optical, and Hard Disk, PIIX3, PS/2 Mouse 1 CPU, Parvirt... = Legqcy, Enable VT-x/AMD-V, Enable Nested Paging Dispay 24MB Network Adapter = NAT ------------------------------ Not having any issues (what version of Debian are you using?) This host is an HP Z210 xeon 16GB ... it is my test machine. Cinnamon ver 3.2.7 Kernel 4.4.0-generic Xeon E31230 @ 3.2 GHz x 4 15.6 GiB Nvidia GT216GL Quadro 400 ------------------------------ I have not tried creating a VirtualBox Folder ... but I think you need to have quest extensions in the guest machine to see those kind of shares and I don't believe that FreeDOS supports the extensions On 06/11/2017 06:07 PM, david wrote:

IIRC, with VirtualBox, you can share a folder on the host machine with the virtual machine. I don't know how that could be accessed from the FreeDOS VM, though.

Unfortunately for me, the FreeDOS Fractint appliance just hangs on my Debian systems here.

I also have DOS Fractint running under DOSBox emulator. I believe that has a command (to run in the DOSBox) that maps a Linux folder to a drive letter in the DOSBox. Then you can read and write files from DOS Fractint while having easy access to them from Linux.

I prefer XFractint even if it does lack color cycling.

-- -David Lemon Creek Digital www.lemoncreekdigital.com

Wow!  Even more ideas and options for Fractint in a VM!  I feel like a kid
in a candy store...

> find someone with an old XP machine with a valid lic. for XP 
I have exactly those two things.  

> I have lots of old XP machines that I have placed into VMs to protect them
I don't know how to take the installed Win XP OS off the currently
still-booting Win XP computer and put it into the VM on my Win 10 computer.

Q:
Or would I just use the manufacturer-specific install CD and license key to
do an install in the VM?  <== <== 

 If I do that, I'd still be missing the Service Packs...

Q:
> old XP machines ... placed into VMs to protect them
Does that protect:
 -  just the license key, or 
 - the entire lot of installed programs and the C:\ drive's data on the
"protected" Win XP computer?  <== <== 

> open a VDI (VirtualBox dynamic disk image) of a VM 
If I can get VirtualBox and the FreeDOS/Fractint image installed and
running, I'll try that and let you know what happens.
I kind of like that this takes place outside the VM and FreeDOS, and doesn't
need any modification of either of those envronments -- e.g.: network
installation.

Your replies come back so quickly -- and with so many new ideas, I'm not
able to advance very far in my head scratching, research and reading on
FreeDOS and VirtualBox!

Thanks again for your info!

Q:
P. S.  One last Q.:  Am I correct in thinking that:  
"Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-5.1.22-115126.vbox-extpack"
assumes an OS with more capability than FreeDOS for some of its features to
work?

P. P. S.  I just chanced across this in the VirtualBox docs:
"Set up a DOS VM with networking (and shared folders)"
https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Sharing_files_with_DOS 
Excerpt: "Now I can read from and write to my host's drive from the
VirtualBox DOS machine!"
I realize that the described procedure might be no longer be needed if
networking features are built into newer VM versions or the Extension
Pack...
Also, this might method take too much memory away from DOS for Fractint to
run.

- Hal Lane

########################
# hallane@earthlink.net
########################

-----Original Message------
From: Fractint [mailto:fractint-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of
David W Riccio
Sent: Sunday, June 11, 2017 8:45 PM
To: Harold Lane <hallane@earthlink.net>; 'Fractint and General Fractals
Discussion' <fractint@mailman.xmission.com>
Subject: Re: [Fractint] VirtualBox version of FreeDos with Fractint

Hi Hal,

I did a bit of testing:

1) On Linux I created an empty floppy image (.img) file, downloaded the
FreeDOS-Fractint.ova that is on the fractint website, created a new vm in
VirtualBox using the .ova , changed the settings in the floppy drive section
to point to the .img file I created (it will be the A: drive in DOS),
started the VM and booted up FreeDos.  Then from the c: prompt I did

Format a:

It formated the image as a DOS diskette

I then copied a fractal (xxx.GIF) to the A: drive and shut down the DOS vm.

I then mounted the .IMG file in Linux and the xxx.GIF file is visible and
can be copied to the host OS

--- so the Diskette method works albeit kind of a round about way :)

----------------------------------------------

2) I fired up a Windows XP VM on the same Linux box and installed both the
DOS and WinXP versions of Fractint

Both worked great and of course you can transfer files using standard
Windows file system / networking to the host.

So if you can find someone with an old XP machine with a valid lic. for 
XP ... this is a great way to go.   (as an aside, once the VM XP machine 
has been patched and activated you can clone it and both version will be
usable, I have lots of old XP machines that I have placed into VMs to
protect them and I only had to create one VM appliance to do this with ... I
have lic. for all of them but I did not need to activate each one with a
separate ID.)

------------------------------------------------

--- RE Questions about VirtualBox

VirtualBox will allow you to run as many guest machines as you have memory
and CPU resources to accommodate ... I have host machines running a dozen or
so  WinXP vm service machines doing various things ... you are limited by
memory mostly and your disk space is limited to the amount you actually use
which is dynamically allocated, memory is the only hard constraint as it is
not shared between VMs ... for DOS I don't know the limit but I would guess
you could run dozens (maybe hundreds) of copies on a modern workstation.
They can all run independent of each other under the single hyper-visor.  I
have a machine with newer xeon processors and it has 64 cores of CPU and I
have never come close to maxing it out.

The console of the virtual box will let see the status (in a thumb nail) of
each VM in real time.  (there is a better way to do this if you have Win XP
machines and you want to monitor them from a single Windows 10 machine ...
see this link
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=44989 ) I use this
to monitor and control all my XP machines from a single Win 10 machine.
(This will work for both real XP computers and for VM XP computers and also
for other versions of Windows)

You may need to change settings in your BIOS to enable Visualization

I have not tried to open a VDI (VirtualBox dynamic disk image) of a VM but
it is just a container with a standard disk image in it so I don't see why
that method for getting to the Fractals you created would not work ... worth
an experiment :)

----RE: batch files

... one for networking / one for creating fractals ... those would be .bat
files in the VM so you could boot the DOS to one version when you are
creating fractals and the network version when you want to transfer 
the images to the outside.   The .bat could be choices in the 
autoexec.bat file that is on the C: drive in the VM (There is a menu and
choice in there now to how you want to boot the DOS for memory management
now)

------------------------------------------------

Networking Note:

If you are going to try and get networking to work in your FreeDOS vm ... be
sure you set it up to be in the same workgroup as your Win10 machine

Also you will need to change the Networking setting in the Setting tab of
VirtualBox from NAT to Bridged (so it will be on the same network as your
host)




On 06/11/2017 03:45 PM, Harold Lane wrote:
> David,
> Thanks for your prompt, detailed reply.
> I see that using the FreeDOS as the Guest OS has DOS-like memory 
> problems (which running Win XP's built-in DOS would not have.)
>
> I'm pleased to learn that:  "the newer machines are so much faster ...
that they will perform faster than [Fractint used to on older] bare
hardware."
>
> I'm going to reread and think about what option I want to try first.  I
had hoped to use the FreeDOS, as my Win XP version is a factory install disk
for a specific PC.  And I don't have the Win XP service packs saved.
>
> Your option #2:
>    "create two batch files to boot the FreeDOS: one for creating the
Fractals that
>    maximizes resources (mostly memory) for Fractint, and one for
networking (which
>    loads the network drivers and uses a bit more memory for that
function.)"
> seems potentially attractive to me.
>
> Q:
> Would those two batch file versions of FreeDOS each be a separate 
> Guest image in VirtualBox?  <== <==
>
> I saw in the FreeDOS docs:
> http://wiki.freedos.org/wiki/index.php/VirtualBox_-_Chapter_6
> that one can "Mount the FreeDOS image to transfer files."  They show
screencaps where they mount the entire (not currently running!) Guest image
file as a drive letter in Windows, and claim that "you can see all FreeDOS
files in Windows Explorer."  Sounds like another way to move files between
OS's...
>
> They note: "...take care to eject the image before you start up the
FreeDOS guest in VirtualBox."
>
> I may want to communicate with you again...
>
> Thanks again!
>
> P. S.:  I forgot to ask you, do you know if one can run two VMs at the 
> same time -- perhaps two instances of VirtualBox, each with a guest? <==
<== I ask because I have lots of RAM and CPU cores, and would like to be
able to run more than one instance of Fractint at the same time.  The last
time I was able to do that successfully was under Win 98!
>
> - Hal Lane
>
> ########################
> # hallane@earthlink.net
> ########################
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Fractint [mailto:fractint-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On 
> Behalf Of David W Riccio
> Sent: Sunday, June 11, 2017 5:05 PM
> To: fractint@mailman.xmission.com
> Subject: Re: [Fractint] VirtualBox version of FreeDos with Fractint
>
> Hal, There a couple of options for moving files into and out of the
FreeDOS machine.
>
> 1) You can map a diskette drive (or an image file of a diskette drive to
the VM) and copy files into it or out of the diskette image.
>
>      (There are tools that will create (or mount) a diskette .img file 
> available for most OS ... I know I tested something that worked in 
> Win10 but these days I am mostly using Linux as my base / host OS and 
> that function is built into Linux.  I have been using Win10 for things 
> like Photoshop and software that will only run in Windows but I have 
> been running it in a VM under Linux)
>
> 2) You can start networking in FreeDOS (I think the virtual machine I 
> posted has networking tools included, if not, you can download the 
> FreeDOS CD image that does contain them and move them into the Fractal 
> VM from the CD image.)  There is a guide to setting up a small and 
> limited FTP server in the FreeDOS environment.  You can then point any 
> FTP client at the FreeDOS VM and just copy files into and out of the 
> VM ... You should create two batch files to boot the FreeDOS one for 
> creating the Fractals that maximizes resources (mostly memory) for 
> Fractint and one for networking (which loads the network drivers and 
> uses a bit more memory for that function.)
>
> 3) I think the networking software in FreeDOS will talk to a standard
windows SMB share or any server running SMB (like a Linux machine with Samba
or a Windows Share on Win 10, 7, XP.)  You can map the remote drive to a
drive letter in the FreeDOS machine and it will look like a disk drive to
both Win10 and FreeDOS.  This requires you setup networking in FreeDOS (see
the FreeDOS site for details) ... I know I had this working but I am not
sure I included it in the VM that is on the Fractint site.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ----
>
> By the way, it is possible to run Windows XP in a VM on Windows 10 
> (but you need install disks for Windows XP and the Service packs to 
> bring it up to the last version Microsoft patched before they stop 
> sending out
> patches) ... the advantage to this is you can run Fractint directly in
XP's "DOS" environment (or in DOSBOX if you prefer) ... And you have all the
networking to built in that will share drives between Fractint and the host
Windows 10 machine.
>
> I do this so I can still use Photoshop CS2 on my Windows 10 Photoshop
> machine.   It works without any issues.   The only disadvantage of doing
> this is you must own a copy of Windows XP and a valid XP activation 
> key ... (it is also the reason we can't post/share a VM with with all 
> the software pre-configured )  I can confirm that this will work on 
> Windows
> 10 and Windows XP in a VM under the most recent version of VirtualBox 
> on that Windows 10 host.  (This gives you back the Virtual XP machine 
> that was part of Windows 7)
>
> While there is a hit to performance by running a guest OS on a Host
machine the newer machines are so much faster than any old base hardware
available to DOS or XP that they will perform faster than they did on bare
hardware.  And you don't have to go looking for drivers for graphics cards
etc.  They are built into VirtualBox.
>
> For XP guest machines there are extensions in VirtualBOX that will 
> provide a wonderful video driver that you can configure as a display 
> equal to or larger than your Windows 10 machine.  It also provides for 
> USB pass-thru so you can access most of your USB devices.  (these 
> guest extensions do not work in a DOS guest machine but work fine in a 
> XP guest machine)
>
>
>
> On 06/11/2017 10:01 AM, Harold Lane wrote:
>> David,
>> Many thanks for your links to the VirtualBox version of FreeDos with
Fractint included/embedded!
>> I'm going to give this a try on my Win 10 computer.
>>
>> You said:  "it's isolated from the rest of your system."
>> I have a question:  If Fractint writes its images to an isolated virtual
hard drive, what methods can one use to get the Images from there to the
Windows environment in order to share?
>>
>> - Hal Lane
>>
>> ########################
>> # hallane@earthlink.net
>> ########################
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Fractint [mailto:fractint-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On 
>> Behalf Of David W Riccio
>> Sent: Friday, June 9, 2017 8:09 PM
>> To: fractint@mailman.xmission.com
>> Subject: Re: [Fractint] JunoCam fractal video
>>
>> There is a VirtualBox version on https://fractint.net/ that works on 
>> Windows 10 (any Op Sys that will run VirtualBox)
>>
>> It is running in FreeDOS in a VM so it isolated from the rest of your
system.
>>
>> Look at this link https://fractint.net/ftp/virtual_environments/
>>
> _______________________________________________
> Fractint mailing list
> Fractint@mailman.xmission.com
> https://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fractint
>
>
> ---
> This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
> https://www.avast.com/antivirus
>

-- 

-David

Lemon Creek Digital
www.lemoncreekdigital.com


_______________________________________________
Fractint mailing list
Fractint@mailman.xmission.com
https://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fractint

David [Riccio],
I just chanced across this (unsupported) procedure:
"How to migrate existing Windows installations to VirtualBox"
https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Migrate_Windows
Excerpt:  (*Highlight* is mine.)
-----
 Windows installations, unlike Linux, cannot easily be moved from one
hardware to another. This is not just due to Microsoft's activation
mechanism but the fact that the installed kernel and drivers depend on the
actual hardware.

This document explains the common pitfalls and how to work around these. We
assume that either a *physical* Windows installation or a VMware image is
the source of migration. 
-----

They give "Step By Step Instructions For Windows XP", but it's unsupported.


Thanks again for your answers to my questions.

I'm going to sleep on this and plunge ahead -- in some direction -- tomorrow
when I'm fresh.

- Hal Lane

########################
# hallane@earthlink.net
########################

-----Original Message-----
From: Fractint [mailto:fractint-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of
David W Riccio
Sent: Sunday, June 11, 2017 11:16 PM
To: Harold Lane <hallane@earthlink.net>; 'Fractint and General Fractals
Discussion' <fractint@mailman.xmission.com>
Subject: Re: [Fractint] VirtualBox version of FreeDos with Fractint

-Hal
> I don't know how to take the installed Win XP OS off the currently 
> still-booting Win XP computer and put it into the VM on my Win 10
computer.
>
> Q:
> Or would I just use the manufacturer-specific install CD and license 
> key to do an install in the VM?  <== <==
>
>   If I do that, I'd still be missing the Service Packs...

When I created my XP VM I used a non OEM version of XP ... I have not tried
an OEM version in a long while I know if you have the install that is pre
SP3 it will work for OEM
(Dell) disks ... I think you can still download the Service Packs from
Microsoft catalog site.
You do need a valid key.


> Q:
>> old XP machines ... placed into VMs to protect them
> Does that protect:
>   -  just the license key, or
>   - the entire lot of installed programs and the C:\ drive's data on 
> the "protected" Win XP computer?  <== <==

I just reinstalled the software I needed on the new VMs after I got the XP
OS installed and patched.
I looked into this program that will clone a bare metal OS to a VM ... 
but it is tailored for VMware (not Virtual Box) ... but it might work for
your machine.
https://www.vmware.com/products/converter.html

The whole XP machine is protected ... as long as you don't use it for the
Internet you are mostly safe (There is a patch for the SMB hole, Microsoft
published a special patch for XP because there are still so many of those
machines running in dedicated machines like ATMs and Hospital machines
(think MRI machines) )

>> open a VDI (VirtualBox dynamic disk image) of a VM
> If I can get VirtualBox and the FreeDOS/Fractint image installed and 
> running, I'll try that and let you know what happens.
> I kind of like that this takes place outside the VM and FreeDOS, and 
> doesn't need any modification of either of those envronments -- e.g.: 
> network installation.

It looks like there are drivers for Win 10 that will let you open and access
a virtual disk.  There are a number of Win10 options ... You 
might want to look at ImDisk or the 7-Zip suite.   I have not done this. 
There is also a utility from VMWare that will do this.
> Q:
> P. S.  One last Q.:  Am I correct in thinking that:
> "Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-5.1.22-115126.vbox-extpack"
> assumes an OS with more capability than FreeDOS for some of its 
> features to work?

Yes ... no FreeDOS or DOS support for the extensions

> P. P. S.  I just chanced across this in the VirtualBox docs:
> "Set up a DOS VM with networking (and shared folders)"
> https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Sharing_files_with_DOS
> Excerpt: "Now I can read from and write to my host's drive from the 
> VirtualBox DOS machine!"
> I realize that the described procedure might be no longer be needed if 
> networking features are built into newer VM versions or the Extension 
> Pack...
> Also, this might method take too much memory away from DOS for 
> Fractint to run.
>
This will work but as you say it takes a lot of memory away from Fractint
... the extensions are not an option in DOS but will work on an XP machine.

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