[NTLK] Trying to get Vista, NCU, and Virtual Box to play together

[DB]

Well I am pleased to announce I did get it working (mostly).  The issue
was mainly that Virtual box has bugs in its serial port method and it
just is not reliable enough.  Although with the last update it has
vastly improved to the point that you can get some packages installed
and do short backups.  This is the method I used:

Host system:
-Running Vista
-Key Span serial adapter, its settings on Com 1 (can be changed to a
different port if needed) and FIFO buffers on 8 (the default is 16).

Guest system:
-Windows 2000 (98 is not supported in virtual box very well and no guest
additions at all)
-Turn on the serial port in the Virtual Box settings for your windows
2000 virtual machine and set it to Com 1 (or whatever you set your
keyspan to, but I suggest Com 1).
-Start the windows 2000 virtual machine, and go to add remove programs
and add the serial port.  Generally it won't detect it at first but will
give you a list of options (eventually) and one will be the serial port.
-Go to controlpanel/system/manage devices/serial port right click and
bring up its properties, set the speed to 38400 (you can try 57600 but I
haven't as of yet).  FIFO buffers one notch above the lowest setting
(receive 4, transmit 6).
-Start NCU and point it to the Com 1, it should find the newton and be
able to do some/short backups.  I also needed 2 instances of slowdown or
it would give me -1 errors.


I suspect they will get the bugs out of the serial port eventually.  I
did try to use the Keyspan directly with the driver installed in the
windows 2000 guest and using the USB capture, and while it would work
for a minute, it was far less stable.  And even this is not really
enough but ALMOST is.

What I ended up finding working far better was Microsofts Virutal PC
2007.  I had looked into it a few months back but everything said no
vista support and when I tried to install it such a error came up and
would not allow the install.  You had to buy the latest version to use
it with Vista or Windows 7.  But apparently they changed their mind and
allow it now (thanks to   tony who mentioned it and send me the link
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=04d26402-3199-48a3-afa2-2dc0b40a73b6&displaylang=en
TinyURL: <http://tinyurl.com/39ng3rz ).

It still gives a warning error but does work.  My configuration for this
 is:

Host system:
-Running Vista
-Key Span serial adapter, its settings on Com 1 (can be changed to a
different port if needed) and FIFO buffers on 8 (the default is 16).

Guest system:
-Windows98 and guest additions installed (after everything else is set up)
-turn on the serial port in the preferences of the virtual machine
before starting it
-start virtual machine and go
controlpanel/system/devicemanager/serialport  you should see it here
already and right click on it and set the speed to 38400 or 57600.  Set
the FIFO buffers one notch above the lowest setting.  Flow control
should be none
-Start NCU and connect to your newton

This setup is much more stable and does not even require slowdown.
However be sure to adjust your power management and set your screen not
to power off.  My screen powered down during a newton backup and the
whole host system blue screened.  I did several backups and installs
afterwards making sure the screen didn't turn off and no problems.
Still I wouldn't be do anything important at the time you are doing this
as a precaution.

I never blue screened with VirtualBox, and I hope they get the serial
bugs worked out.  But regardless at least I do have a working method
now.  Hopefully someone else finds this useful that is in need of
connecting their newton to a newer computer system.

-Dan