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SheepShaver for Windows installer

Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2017 5:02 am
by emendelson
Here is a first attempt at a SheepShaver for Windows installer:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/dyag85kv94gl6 ... r.exe?dl=1
(Edit: Link updated on request of the OP)

When you run it, it offers to create a SheepShaver folder in your user folder (but you can choose to put it elsewhere). It then installs the latest SheepShaver build into that folder, with SDL.dll, the SheepShaverGUI app, and a local copy of the GTK runtime. If no copy of the GTK runtime is in your path, it adds this new copy to the path. (I don't yet check whether an existing copy in the path actually exists; that will come later.)

It then prompts you to select a ROM file from your disk, then to create a blank disk image file on which to install Mac OS, and then to select an ISO (or Toast, etc.) file made from a Mac OS installation CD. If necessary, it marks the ISO as read-only so that Mac OS will install from it.

The installer then launches SheepShaver, and (in the background) removes the installer CD image file from the volumes list so that it won't try to boot from the CD image next time.

It's probably got a lot of problems, but it seems to work. So far, I've tested it under 32-bit Windows, but it should work under 64-bit Windows also. It can't do any harm to your system, and it includes an uninstaller (which will leave behind a few files that are easy to remove).

EDIT: More details: It tests the ROM file for the three file sizes that I believe are the only ones that work with SheepShaver. It does not test the installer disk image, though I should probably test for at least a minimum size. It allows creation of a hard disk image of 64-4096MB. I'm just guessing that anything larger won't work and that anything smaller is impractical, but I can fix that if anyone has better advice. Also, is there any way to test whether an install disk is likely to be what the user thinks it is? Perhaps test for the presence of some bytes near the start of the file?

EDIT: New link for corrected version that works correctly under Windows 10.

Re: SheepShaver for Windows installer

Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2017 10:16 am
by 24bit
Thanks for your work!
I´ll give it a go for sure. Last time I tried SS on a W10-64 box,
the "create new volume" only made zero k hard files.
A self content installer package will sure help many newcomers.

Re: SheepShaver for Windows installer

Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2017 2:59 pm
by emendelson
Wait - if you downloaded this yesterday, it won't work under Windows 10. The current (slightly revised) version works perfectly under Windows 10, as far as I can tell. The current download link is the one in the first post.

EDIT: See next post.

Re: SheepShaver for Windows installer

Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2017 3:38 pm
by emendelson
I've now fixed a few remaining problems, and the current version should run correctly under Windows 10, and one or two other mistakes are fixed. At least I hope they are. This is, I think, in good shape for testing. Apologies to anyone who wasted bandwidth on earlier downloads.

Download link is in the first post.

EDIT: And now recognizes an additional valid ROM size. I think I may need to modify the program to recognize other valid sizes. The ones I know about are these:

1949186
1948761
1945746
1945332

Are there others?

Re: SheepShaver for Windows installer

Posted: Sun Mar 05, 2017 11:01 pm
by emendelson
I just noticed (thanks to Cat_7's message in another post) that this created a prefs file with JIT disabled. I've updated the installer so that the defaults prefs file has JIT on.

Re: SheepShaver for Windows installer

Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2017 1:14 am
by emendelson
And the current version includes and installs keycodes file that works correctlly with the Windows keyboard.

Re: SheepShaver for Windows installer

Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2017 5:37 pm
by adespoton
There is some content near the head of the 9.0-9.0.4 install CD that could be checked for; my time near my disks is limited right now; on a Mac, I just run strings|grep to check for the appropriate bits, but this isn't available by default on Windows. There should be an easy way to check for the presence of a string or other sequence of bytes near the top though.

Re: SheepShaver for Windows installer

Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2017 7:33 pm
by emendelson
adespoton wrote:There is some content near the head of the 9.0-9.0.4 install CD that could be checked for; my time near my disks is limited right now; on a Mac, I just run strings|grep to check for the appropriate bits, but this isn't available by default on Windows. There should be an easy way to check for the presence of a string or other sequence of bytes near the top though.
My installer is built in AutoIt, which can easily test for the presence of strings. I may check this out. Thanks for the suggestion.

Of course I wonder if anyone is ever going to use something like this - but I'm getting some enjoyment out of working on it.

Re: SheepShaver for Windows installer

Posted: Sun Mar 12, 2017 5:03 pm
by emendelson
New download link (Moderator: could you kindly replace the link the first post? Thank you!)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/sn5zcrw0broc0 ... r.exe?dl=1

Re: SheepShaver for Windows installer

Posted: Sun Mar 12, 2017 6:27 pm
by Cat_7
Done,

Cat_7

Re: SheepShaver for Windows installer

Posted: Sun Mar 12, 2017 7:02 pm
by emendelson
Thank you. While we're on the subject, I've adapted a system I created for the Windows version of DOSBox a while ago, and built a more elaborate launcher for SheepShaver that makes it easy to print to the default Windows printer (or any other Windows printer, if you want to choose from a menu), or create a PDF file in Windows. It's already possible to print to a network printer from SheepShaver, but this method works with any printer installed in Windows

I think most people who run SheepShaver in Windows use it for games, but if anyone uses it for applications that need to print, etc., send me a PM and I'll let you know when this is ready for further testing. At the moment, it's only practical to distribute it with a ROM and installed copy of Mac OS, so I can't post a link here.

Re: SheepShaver for Windows installer

Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2017 12:57 pm
by emendelson
Apologies to the moderators, but the download link got changed again (thanks to my incompetence).

It's now:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/dyag85kv94gl6 ... r.exe?dl=1

Re: SheepShaver for Windows installer

Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2017 1:54 pm
by Cat_7
done again,

Cat_7

Re: SheepShaver for Windows installer

Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2017 2:01 pm
by emendelson
And I won't need to ask again, I hope. I fiinally figured out how to avoid changing the download address...

Re: SheepShaver for Windows installer

Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2017 8:41 pm
by adespoton
one way is to use a uri shortener that you can redirect when you push a new release.

Re: SheepShaver for Windows installer

Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2017 10:03 pm
by emendelson
Meanwhile, I think most people should ignore this until I figure out how to fix it. It works perfectly on two or three systems that I tried it on, but on one, it gives the dreaded "Cannot map second Kernel Data area: 487" error. I've tried the various fixes proposed elsewhere in the forum, but none work. When I find a build or prefs that work, I'll post a report of progress here.

Re: SheepShaver for Windows installer

Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2017 3:50 pm
by emendelson
OK, I've fixed this by adding a second SheepShaver build to the installer, named SheepShaver-JIT.exe. If the standard version produces an error on startup, just rename SheepShaver.exe to SheepShaver-old.exe and rename SheepShaver-noJIT.exe to SheepShaver.exe, and the problem shouldn't occur.

The alternate build is the one I made by following dadreamer's instructions in another thread. JIT is not enabled, but at least it runs.

Same download link as in the first post.

Re: SheepShaver for Windows installer

Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2018 10:14 pm
by emendelson
Updated with a minor fix in the launcher. Also codesigned. Same link as in the first post.