VM86(2)

NAME
vm86old, vm86 - enter virtual 8086 mode

SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/vm86.h>

int vm86old(struct vm86_struct *info);

int vm86(unsigned long fn, struct vm86plus_struct *v86);

DESCRIPTION
The system call vm86() was introduced in Linux 0.97p2. In Linux 2.1.15 and 2.0.28 it was renamed to vm86old(), and a new vm86() was introduced. The definition of struct vm86_struct was changed in 1.1.8 and 1.1.9.

These calls cause the process to enter VM86 mode (virtual-8086 in Intel literature), and are used by dosemu.

VM86 mode is an emulation of real mode within a protected mode task.

RETURN VALUE
On success, zero is returned. On error, -1 is returned, and errno is set appropriately.

ERRORS

EFAULT
    This return value is specific to i386 and indicates a problem with getting userspace data.

ENOSYS
    This return value indicates the call is not implemented on the present architecture.

EPERM
    Saved kernel stack exists. (This is a kernel sanity check; the saved stack should only exist within vm86 mode itself.)

CONFORMING TO
This call is specific to Linux on Intel processors, and should not be used in programs intended to be portable.

COLOPHON
This page is part of release 3.09 of the Linux man-pages project. A description of the project, and information about reporting documentation bugs, can be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.