Cheat Engine

[mezzo]

I found a lot of different links to updated dbvm in this section, was wondering which is the most up to date one?

Just wondering because that one (main page) boots on my macbook but not on my i7..

Any chance of having that dbvm debug version so I can hook up a serial cable and see what is going wrong ?

[Dark Byte]

The dbvm version in this archive is the most up to date (v7, main difference is ultimap support)
http://cheatengine.org/temp/CheatEngine62Alpha3.rar
(burn the .img to a bootable usb, or create a bootable cd with the .img and that bootable emulation thingy, forgot the name, or launch it using the about screen when the system is as idle as possible)

But if you like to help debug and find what's going wrong then sure, I'll build one when I get back tomorrow.
Just a question. Is this a build in serial port? And if so, default port or custom ?
If it's a pci one, tell me the vendorid and deviceid so I can add in detection and automated port lookup for it (assuming it can work without a specific driver to init and the default boot state is usable as it is)

Also, when you boot from it on your i7? How far does it get? To the press 0 to launch etc... menu or does it even crash before that?
And when you press 0, does the text at the top left change to "BOOT" or to "RAAAAAH"
And if you have multiple harddisks, have you entered the correct harddisk ID? (it's not always 80)

Oh yes, what are the specifics of your CPU? Does it support more than 8 processors ? (4 cores, hyperthreaded )
(I don't think DBVM allocates enough memory for more than 8 stacks)

[mezzo]

Thanks for the update, Dark Byte !

I tried this version, but still same results. It boots into the menu on my macbook and also in virtualbox. When I boot the CD on my i7 I get no screen output at all.

I also tried loading the image on my i7 by using syslinux + memdisk.
Doing it this way it boots (there is screen output), but as soon as it printed "DBVM BS" it hangs.

Could it be that your bootloader doesn't like my single pcb permanent sli video card (gtx 295) ?

As for the serial port, I wrongly assumed that I still had COM header pins on my motherboard, but apparently I don't anymore. I have a usb-to-serial cable, but I assume your tiny image doesn't support USB in that stage of the boot. I will see if I can find myself a PCI serial card.

My cpu is a 4 core one, 8 with hyperthreading (i7 920)
There are 2 harddisks on this system, 1 internal SSD and 1 external USB.
(Intel AHCI Bios is enabled, don't know if that makes a difference?)

[Dark Byte]

Looks like a read problem of the dbvm stage1 loader (512 byte realmode bootsector->realmode basic setup)

Can you configure your bios so the bootable usb is emulated as a floppy?

I'll see about building a version with some extra on screen debug info, but 512 bytes doesn't leave much room for detailed messages

[Dark Byte]

http://cheatengine.org/vmcd.iso

That should be a bootable CD with floppy emulation (and built in debug mode)
It should at least get past the DBVM BS part

also, since it's build in debug mode, make sure your system doesn't have another device on port 0x3f8 to 0x3ff that freaks out when it receives COM commands

[mezzo]

Hey DB, good and bad news

The bad news is that the above iso does the same as before.

The good news is I figured out what is causing this.
As I thought, the "ICH SATA CONTROL MODE" setting in the BIOS when set to AHCI will not boot your img.
When I change it to IDE it does work.

I booted into the menu just fine, tried a few tests and they provide output.
I also tried option 0 to boot into the OS, which failed because turning off AHCI apparently changed my drive boot order too, but at this point I'm assuming even that will work if I set the correct boot drive.

While changing that BIOS setting is an option, I would hate to go through
all that trouble every time I want to fire up CE with dbvm support.

Any ideas ? oh and cheers for putting up with me

[Dark Byte]

Can you set your CD/DVD/BR to IDE but leave the harddisk in AHCI mode? or is it an option that affects ALL attached ide devices ?

I have my system set to AHCI too but never had a problem with this.

Also, the boot into OS option(0) won't work with the debug build as it waits for a secondary confirm command from the serial port before it continues (and after that each time an break event occurs it pauses and asks what to do (handle normally, log, inspect, etc...)

Edit:
Describe what happens when you boot in AHCI mode. (and confirm that the CD is one of the first bootable devices)
Does the screen stay black?
Or doesn't it continue after the DBVM BS ?

Edit2:
If you have linux, try using "dd" to write the vmdisk.img to the usb (so if it's /dev/sdc dd it to there (even if you have /dev/sdc1, write it to /dec/sdc))

And if possible, if you're one of the few people left, use dd on a 3.5" disk and boot of that. (use the vmdisk* .img from ce 6.2 or the one in this iso, the older versions don't boot nicely)

[mezzo]

When I boot with AHCI on, as soon as the BIOS has printed the PCI device listing and "Verifying DMI Pool Data...." it flashes the DVD drive light twice and then completely locks up (keyboard and all).

As far as I know once the AHCI BIOS is installed it takes care of all the SATA connectors, no way to tell it to make a distinction between cd/dvd and hd.

I have however found another setting that would allow SATA port 0to3
to operate either in Legacy IDE mode or in NATIVE mode.
Does this mean I can attach my dvd-drive to port 0 and my ssd to port 5
and still have AHCI ? Motherboard manual isn't too technical unfortunately.

Since your AHCI works, I figure either you're using this "SATA PORT 0-3 NATIVE mode" setting or some similar feature and perhaps have your sata ports configured accordingly.

Hmm, the mrs has gone to bed, I might swap some sata cables in a bit.

EDIT: ye I have some linux servers here, I'll dd a stick in a couple.

EDIT2:
OKay, I dd'd the image from 6.2alpha3 to an usb stick, not the first partition
just straight to the device. Boot hangs after "Verifying DMI Pool data".
The usb stick light flashes once and that's it.. freeze + hard reset needed.

I disabled native mode and thus enabled legacy ide mode on sata ports 0 to 3 and hooked the DVD up, keeping the SSD on port 5 still with an activated ahci bios.
But same result, freeze after "Verifying DMI pool data." bios message

So far I have only managed to get it to work with the AHCI bios unloaded.

Last thing I can think of to try is write the img to a CF and use a cf2ide adapter to plug that directly into an old IDE port (assuming this mobo still has those).
I'll give that a shot tomorrow, too tired to bust open yet another case in search of the cf2ide's.

(thanks for your patience and help DB !)

[Dark Byte]

Just wondering, does a bootable linux DVD work on your system ?
And why don't you try the runtime offloading option in the about screen? (besides the anoyance of pressing f8 before windows boots) It's specifically there for people where the boot sequence isn't stable (Even if it boots, there is still a manual part where I need to emulate the realmode execution part of your bios and os-loader in the cases that are not supported by the hardware visualization, and I may not have emulated every possible situation that could come up. But once the system has loaded, it's fully automated and stable)

[mezzo]

I boot backtrack DVD quite often, so yes linux DVD's do work.

Problem I have with runtime offloading is that unsigned driver support does something to my vista boot.

normal vista 64 boot = less then 40 seconds
F8 vista 64 unsigned boot = more then 5 minutes

And even if I go through the waiting and I try the offloading through the
about screen, It shows me the warning message and then remains in a
weird frozen state. I can still move the mouse pointer, but all the windows
seem 'paused'. Keyboard doesn't respond. Best I can describe it is like I'm looking at a screenshot of my desktop.

I found the cf2ide adapter this morning, will try booting a CF tonight.

[Dark Byte]

When you say it hangs and nothing else is happening are you sure there is nothing in the top left? (Overwriting the text that is usually there)
The first thing the bootsecter does is write the boot bs string to 0xb8000 in wite(top left)
Even before it does any disk access it does that

(Doesn't need to get blanked first)

This may indicate a bios bug(I use a custom designed file descriptor and perhaps the bios tries to recognize it)
E.g:One of my systems completely crashes if a usb stick with a specific version of dbvm is plugged in when the system has already booted up

[mezzo]

I know what type of output you mean in the top left corner.
Yet the only time I actually get to that point in the bootup with AHCI
is when I boot a syslinux bootloader, followed by the memdisk kernel and your image as initial ramdisk.

Then I get what you describe above; the "DBVM BS" string overwrites part of the syslinux message and starts printing some dots but then stops and hangs.

Nothing of a kind happens when I do the cdrom/usb boot with just dbvm.
Neither do I see any sort of activity when trying the offloading in windows.

As for testing DBVM on a cf, it appears my legacy IDE port is located on the side of my mobo, behind my videocard, so no go

In a week or so my QX6850 will be free from being an ESXi server
and I will give DBVM a try on that one instead.

[sidomulyo]

im new on dbvm & im try burn this


cheatengine.org/vmcd.iso

but seem error

Only "DBVM Bootsector ..."ang freeze

i cant post image

_flickr.co_/photos/73221436@N04/6693954593/

my system support DBVM

[Dark Byte]

Hmm, the cdimage tends to be the most stable one for me. (perhaps I broke it, I havn't tested this image myself)

Tried raw writing the .IMG from that cd to a USB stick or floppy disk adn boot off that ?

[Dark Byte]

This one probably still won't boot for your systems (haven't changed one bit there) but try the runtime offloading again

http://cheatengine.org/temp/CheatEngine62Beta4.rar