If the Fractint window isn't active when I use Ctrl-1, everything is fine.
This potential workaround might or might not help: Running DOS Fractint under WinXP and using <alt><Enter> to switch between: - full screen Fractint and - Fractint in a window, I sometimes lost my Windows cursor. I found that if I always had Fractint showing a text window -- instead of an image, that I would never lose my cursor. Maybe trying this could help with the problem you describe. My usage of Fractint is such that I typically find a zoom into a fractal I want to calculate at a resolution that requires a Disk Video Mode -- so after I start that I have a text screen -- and I can switch Fractint from full screen to a window knowing that I'm not risking losing my cursor. I guess you could use (or define in Fractint.cfg) Disk Video Modes for normal viewable resolutions and switch away while still doing 'investigations' at a low resolution. When you came back to Fractint you would save the completed image and (R)estore it in a viewable video mode... It's called a WORKaround for a reason, I guess... - Hal Lane (\__/) ######################## (='.'=) # hallane@earthlink.net (")_(") ######################## =========================================== Author: david Date: 2015-02-04 04:31 -500 To: Fractint and General Fractals Discussion Subject: Re: [Fractint] Which OS does Fractint like best? Just downloaded it again and tried it again. Here's what happens: For a few seconds, I see a menu, I think of 3 or 4 items? Doesn't stay up long enough for me to read or pick anything from it. Then it goes to the bad or missing command interpreter message, and the VM hangs. Tried again. By hitting a cursor key, I got to select menu item 1 (the JEMEX one?). That gives me the bad or missing command interpreter message. Picking option #2 got me to a DOS prompt. CDed to fractint and started Fractint. Let it render a mandelambda at 1280x1024x256 and zoomed in. Then, while it was rendering, I switched away using Ctrl-1 (to switch to my primary XFCE desktop, I was running it on my 3rd desktop) and the Fractint window turned into a blank "text size" window that didn't respond to keyboard or mouse input. Had to kill it from the VM manager. (The 1280x1024 mode is the Chips & Tech one, maybe it doesn't get along with the virtual video card.) If the Fractint window isn't active when I use Ctrl-1, everything is fine. So I guess it goes back to the keymapper ... So: menu option 1 doesn't work at all for me. #2 and 3 work. #4 works but attempting to zoom using the mouse gets not response, it doesn't include the mouse driver. After it got working, I tweaked the appliance settings. I loathe and don't use PulseAudio, so I switched the audio to use ALSA. I may disable audio support since I don't use it in Fractint, anyway. Is there a reason why you give the VM 32MB of memory? That seems to be way beyond what any version of DOS ever supported. Suggestion re the menu: can you make it stop there so the user has to pick something? Or stop there longer? It seems to only wait a second or two on this 2.4GHz i7 laptop here. My old DOS days are long ago or I'd poke around in AUTOEXEC.BAT, where I guess it's happening? I have LinuxMint17 Cinnamon running on a VM here, but I'm also using the XFCE desktop there, not Cinnamon. Thanks for the appliance, now just need to figure out how to get a 1920x1080x256 display mode that isn't distorted. ======================================= --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. http://www.avast.com