Author Topic: VirtualBox Easy OS/2 Setup  (Read 11998 times)

Valery Sedletski

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Re: VirtualBox Easy OS/2 Setup
« Reply #15 on: November 10, 2018, 08:21:29 am »
2Bogdan Szmalcownik: Yes, I completely forgot about ddinstall.exe. But the required things are not only add
device=... and ifs=... lines to config.sys, but also comment out some other unneeded lines. I'm not sure
if ddinstall can add "set" lines, and replace some lines with another lines. Also, possibly, in the future, modification
of os2.ini will be required, to add some DLL to SYS_DLLS list. AFAIK, ddinstall cannot modify INI files, but this
could be done from REXX. (I plan to move shared clipboard code to a DLL loadable from SYS_DLLS, so VBoxService
no more contains PM-related code, so I could move VBoxService.exe from startup.cmd to a run=... line in
config.sys).

Bogdan

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Re: VirtualBox Easy OS/2 Setup
« Reply #16 on: November 10, 2018, 12:43:12 pm »
AFAIK, ddinstall cannot modify INI files,
This should be possible by adding a section :OS2INI to the DDP.

Quote
but this could be done from REXX.
REXX has to be installed first. So it will not work early at installation time. But an option for OS/2 <2.1.

Quote
(I plan to move shared clipboard code to a DLL loadable from SYS_DLLS, so VBoxService
no more contains PM-related code, so I could move VBoxService.exe from startup.cmd to a run=... line in
config.sys).
There are enough other solutions for clipboard sharing that will work with a wider range of virtualized OS/2 products. The current additions require files that are simply not available on a fresh install and do not work under most versions of OS/2.

Valery Sedletski

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Re: VirtualBox Easy OS/2 Setup
« Reply #17 on: November 10, 2018, 02:09:08 pm »
AFAIK, ddinstall cannot modify INI files,
This should be possible by adding a section :OS2INI to the DDP.

Oh, that's good. So, it looks like everything can be installed with ddinstall only.

Quote
Quote
but this could be done from REXX.
REXX has to be installed first. So it will not work early at installation time. But an option for OS/2 <2.1.

Why do you need it early at installation time? It can be installed after the completion of installation,
and it is done always this way. Why OS/2 < 2.1 ??? Do OS/2 versions older that 2.1 miss ddinstall?
But yes, ddinstall can be used at any time -- so you're right

Quote
Quote
(I plan to move shared clipboard code to a DLL loadable from SYS_DLLS, so VBoxService
no more contains PM-related code, so I could move VBoxService.exe from startup.cmd to a run=... line in
config.sys).
There are enough other solutions for clipboard sharing that will work with a wider range of virtualized OS/2 products. The current additions require files that are simply not available on a fresh install and do not work under most versions of OS/2.

Other solutions for clipboard sharing? What do you mean? I know only about one program
written by dink, it has versions for OS/2 and win32, only. But what to do in case of Linux or
any other less widely used OS?

Current VBox Additions use KEE API's, that's why they require Aurora-level kernel. So yes, it will
not work with Merlin, or older OS'es. I don't like this too. But that's how VBox works. The drivers
from OS/2 additions are built with GCC and should be 32-bit. Writing 32-bit drivers for older OS-es
has big issues. Drivers from the additions use VBox runtime. It's problematic to use VBox runtime
in 16-bit drivers. So, no way.

Which files that are not available at fresh install are used by the Additions? Do you mean, kLIBC/libcx/
gcc runtime? Yes, of course, they are required, as VBox (including the additions) is built with GCC+NASM.
So, these files are required. But this cannot be avoided. No way to build the Additions with Watcom,
currently. Anyway, it's easy to install kLIBC/libcx/libgcc in a freshly-installed system. The additions
depend on a small number of libs, indeed. Here's the list:

Quote
libc066.dll
gcc1.dll
libcx0.dll

Nothing more is required, I only omitted standard OS/2 DLL's like tcpip32.dll, pmwin.dll, doscalls.dll.
« Last Edit: November 10, 2018, 02:11:30 pm by Valery Sedletski »

Valery Sedletski

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Re: VirtualBox Easy OS/2 Setup
« Reply #18 on: November 13, 2018, 03:28:09 pm »
2Bogdan Szmalcownik: I have read about ddinstall in pddref.inf from IBM DDK. As far as I can see,
:SYSINI option allows to modify INI entries. Though, I don't see an option to get a current value
of an INI entry, and modify it (I need to add one DLL to the end of SYS_DLLS list, not only replace
the all existing entries to my entry).

And :SYSINI seems to be only for adding PM video drivers.

Also, I need an option to comment some "set" and "device=..." lines out in config.sys, and replace
them by my lines. But I only see :CONFIG option which appears to ignore existing config.sys lines
and leave them as is.

And I don't see any option to modify startup.cmd file from an .ddp profile. So, it seems, the
possibilities offered by ddinstall are limited. So, I think, it's better to provide two options:

1) Create an .rpm package for additions, so it could be automatically installed to the guest
system from network. This option is very convenient if you have UNIX ports installed, like
in newer eCS 2.2 and ArcaOS systems.

2) Create an usual Additions ISO, with all required files, including the kLIBC DLL's, plus a
REXX script to automate installation. Also, it's possible to use a WarpIN package, instead of
a REXX script, and put it to Additions ISO too.
« Last Edit: November 13, 2018, 03:32:46 pm by Valery Sedletski »