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A comment on How Quake.exe got its TCP/IP stack. Parent comment

Re:How Quake.exe got its TCP/IP stack by oso2k on Tuesday November 18, 2025 @11:41PM (#45975929)
Only if they never call DOS or the BIOS or execute a Real Mode Software Interrupt. When they do, they ask the DPMI server (which could be an OS like Windows 9x or CWSDPIM) to make the call on their behalf. In doing so, the DPMI server will temporarily enter into a VM86 Virtual Machine to do execute the Real Mode code being requested.

http://www.delorie.com/djgpp//doc/libc-2.02/libc_220.html

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Re:How Quake.exe got its TCP/IP stack by trollbridge on Thursday November 20, 2025 @01:47PM (#45996151)
But that's not the DPMI client running in a VM. That's the host ending up running in a VM.

Note that in a machine with EMM386, the machine is normally running DOS inside an 8086 VM... and the only reason it would switch out of that VM is when you fire up a DPMI client.

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