From: muta...@gmail.com   
      
   On Saturday, March 25, 2023 at 1:19:38 AM UTC+8, wolfgang kern wrote:   
      
   > > What options do you see for a virtual hard disk?   
      
   > Never tried because there are about 20 new HDs on my shelf.   
      
   > > I just went to create a virtual hard disk as above.    
   > > I made it fixed size (500 MB).    
   > > I initialized it as MBR.    
   > > I created a new simple volume and the formatting    
   > > options included FAT (which means 12/16), FAT32    
   > > and NTFS.   
      
   > I wont fool myself with fake virtualization.   
      
   It's not fake. After you burn the VHD to a real USB   
   stick, you have a non-fake OS on the hardware.   
      
   > > Unless there is a glitch in the Matrix that makes Windows 10    
   > > work for me (in the Philippines), but not you (in Germany?),    
   > > it should be simple.   
      
   > my win10 is restricted because of several hardware changes.    
      
   Ok, that's an interesting restriction. But you still haven't   
   proven that it applies here.   
      
   And even if it does - there is no way to create a FAT(12/16)   
   or FAT32 VHD or USB stick, there is still another option.   
      
   There are a number of VHDs available on my website   
   (pdos.org).   
      
   If you are able to run Win32 disk imager, then burning   
   any of them to USB stick will give you a FAT disk.   
      
   You will then be able to use Windows to create the   
   EFI\BOOT and plonk in the bootx64.efi   
      
   Alternatively you own OS may be capable of doing the   
   same thing - reading a VHD on some sort of hard disk   
   that you are able to get to work, and writing sectors to   
   a USB stick.   
      
   Do you own a smartphone? They can format a USB   
   disk as FAT too. I bought a tablet for 999 pesos that   
   can do that too. New. An old model of course. That's   
   under US$20.   
      
   > ".at" isn't Germany.    
      
   Your email address isn't visible to me on google groups,   
   just your name.   
      
   > why test a non present Serial port, even if one exists there is no    
   > indication if your code work or not.   
      
   No, it will be an indication that your replacement code is   
   running in ring 0 or whatever such that it can write to an   
   I/O port.   
      
   > >>> I don't suppose you can switch the num lock key    
   > >>> on or something via direct hardware manipulation?    
   > >> yes of course I can. My OS is as hardware near as the CPU is :)    
   > > Ok, so maybe you can do it within the space available.   
      
   > you got something wrong here :)    
   > I'm still in the phase of collecting information rather than gadget    
   > around in the wild yet.   
      
   This is information. How much assembler code is   
   required to switch on num lock? Does switching on   
   num lock require ring 0? Are you thus in ring 0?   
      
   BFN. Paul.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)