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SIO.SYS

Started by neozeed, 2011.06.02, 20:04:58

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neozeed

I've started to play more with OS/2 and I want (NEED!) a registered copy of SIO.sys for the vmodem support.  Gwinn seems to be completely offline, and I'm hoping that... SIO is transferable, and someone doesn't use/need it anymore...

Please, NO WAREZ!  I'm not interested in "Mr URBAN" bullshit.. Naturally if I could just register with Gwinn I would but.. well that's not an option...

Or if someone know's Mr Gwinn's email and I could just beg him directly....!!! (much better option!).

Thanks!

Pete

Hi neozeed

How old is the build of com.sys on your system?

I ask because I seem to recall - sorry, ages since I needed com port drivers - that later builds of com.sys had the same functionality as sio.sys

Maybe someone else can confirm this?

Regards

Pete

neozeed

Quote from: Pete on 2011.06.03, 00:31:47
Hi neozeed

How old is the build of com.sys on your system?

I ask because I seem to recall - sorry, ages since I needed com port drivers - that later builds of com.sys had the same functionality as sio.sys

Maybe someone else can confirm this?

Regards

Pete


Well the one thing I need/want is vmodem which... isn't an IBM thing sadly.  I had started to put together an OS/2 VM and synchronet and it's working but now I just got the banner of pretty much pay up or get out...  Not that I have to reboot much at all but I'd rather no wait 30sec plus...  And I've heard about 16 port versions which would be awesome as well...

Andi

Wasn't there a SIO version shipped with eCS1.0/1.1 ? If you do not find it on your eCS CDs maybe you will ask Roderick at Mensys....

DougB

QuoteAnd I've heard about 16 port versions which would be awesome as well...

SIO2K is available from HOBBES: http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/system/drivers/serial/s2kv202.zip. I believe that is the one that has the support for 16 ports. I don't know how you could register it though. The license doesn't mention anything about transferring from one user to another. There may also be some serious side effects to trying to use it with modern hardware (specifically with ACPI). The license also says:
====================
Registration grants the registered user a license to use SIO2K only on a
single computer; a registered user may use the program on a different
computer, but may not use the program on more than one computer at the same
time.
====================
which means that you need to register a new copy for each system that you want to use it on.

Personally, I think I would be looking for another solution. What, exactly, are you trying to do?

neozeed

Quote from: DougB on 2011.06.04, 19:09:38
QuoteAnd I've heard about 16 port versions which would be awesome as well...

SIO2K is available from HOBBES: http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/system/drivers/serial/s2kv202.zip. I believe that is the one that has the support for 16 ports. I don't know how you could register it though. The license doesn't mention anything about transferring from one user to another. There may also be some serious side effects to trying to use it with modern hardware (specifically with ACPI). The license also says:
====================
Registration grants the registered user a license to use SIO2K only on a
single computer; a registered user may use the program on a different
computer, but may not use the program on more than one computer at the same
time.
====================
which means that you need to register a new copy for each system that you want to use it on.

Personally, I think I would be looking for another solution. What, exactly, are you trying to do?

I'll give that one a shot.... I know it's "silly" but I've been playing BBS right now with synchronet on OS/2 (on Qemu) and it's been really cool with vmodem.  Since well it acts just like a normal modem would.  I liked the idea of OS/2 as it'd run the door stuff smoother then NTVDM on any flavor of NT, not to mention the 'stability' of Windows 9x.  Not to mention vmodem 'pools' itself quite nicely, it's not like I have to setup say 16 copies of MS-DOS & Synchronet as 'nodes' then put a load balancing firewall to front it so people can connect...

Granted synchronet 3.x does run on NT, and is TCP/IP only but I still like the retro feel of OS/2.

I also purchased a copy of WildCat for MS-DOS (I have the windows version but ... ugh. windows) And I may want to load that up into a second VM, or maybe even split the primary OS/2 VM 50/50.  I donno...

I'm trying to do the legit thing but I guess I'm like WAY too late to the party.  I had hope after finding that interview with Gwinn that there'd be something beyond 404's or... nothing.

Oh well.




DougB

All that I can suggest, is to keep trying to contact Ray Gwinn. He may be feeling in a generous mood, and sell you a license, or two. I have no idea how to contact him, but, as suggested earlier, Roderick Klein (Mensys) might know. He may also know how to register it, without bothering Ray.

If Ray would repackage VMODEM to run stand alone, he might make some more sales, but I think the days of BBS access are very limited, and it is actually easier to maintain a normal web site.

neozeed

Quote from: DougB on 2011.06.04, 22:11:03
I think the days of BBS access are very limited, and it is actually easier to maintain a normal web site.

That's the truth I just blew 3 hours trying to find a better way to run X/Y/Z modem through vmodem's fossil driver.. zsx2 is awesome for people downloading, but uploads... it gets the data too fast and panics.. lol who'd ever think that a modem could be too fast?!??

Oh well at least with fast downloads it's somewhat cool...

Thanks for the pointer on the version 2 SIO I'll load that as it's at least the latest version.

Fahrvenugen

#8
Hi,

I've been using SIO2K for years (I've got a registered copy, and sorry - I'm not willing to part with it as I still use it).

It will actually support a lot more virtual serial ports then 16.  Years ago when Ray was still developing and supporting the driver I seem to recall asking him that question - what was the max number of ports that could be supported.  If my memory is correct (although I can't confirm this as I seem to no longer be able to find that email) it had been set to a 256 serial port limit in the base driver, although other aspects of OS/2 would have trouble supporting this.

I just ran a test, first setting the vmodem port number to 50, rebooted, and sure enough - when starting up vmodem.exe I got 50 ports available.

I tried the same thing with 100 ports, but got a resource.sys trapd crash upon boot.  So it looks like there could be a limitation not in the driver itself, but perhaps resource.sys (which I'm sure was never coded with the expectation that you'd have that many com ports!)

I will mention - if you're going to try using something like 50 virtual ports, it is worth noting that each virtual port uses up around 10 threads on the system.  If your maximum thread count is low (look for threads= line in your config.sys) you may have to increase this.

Give the copy from Hobbes a try - as I recall the main difference between the one that is on Hobbes and the one that is registered is the "unregistered copy" nag screen.  While I fully support that the software really should be registered and have supported Ray's work in the past, I'm not sure what other options might be out there (unless someone wants to sell /give you their registered copy)


Fahrvenugen

#9
Quote from: neozeed on 2011.06.04, 20:37:13

I'll give that one a shot.... I know it's "silly" but I've been playing BBS right now with synchronet on OS/2 (on Qemu) and it's been really cool with vmodem.  Since well it acts just like a normal modem would.  I liked the idea of OS/2 as it'd run the door stuff smoother then NTVDM on any flavor of NT, not to mention the 'stability' of Windows 9x.  Not to mention vmodem 'pools' itself quite nicely, it's not like I have to setup say 16 copies of MS-DOS & Synchronet as 'nodes' then put a load balancing firewall to front it so people can connect...

Granted synchronet 3.x does run on NT, and is TCP/IP only but I still like the retro feel of OS/2.

I also purchased a copy of WildCat for MS-DOS (I have the windows version but ... ugh. windows) And I may want to load that up into a second VM, or maybe even split the primary OS/2 VM 50/50.  I donno...

I'm trying to do the legit thing but I guess I'm like WAY too late to the party.  I had hope after finding that interview with Gwinn that there'd be something beyond 404's or... nothing.

Oh well.





Hi,

Another favourite OS/2 BBS (and there is also a DOS and Win32 version, although just about everyone who has run it agrees that it runs best on OS/2) is Maximus.  It offers multiple lines, doors, and at one point there was even a web to message-base interface out there.  It used to be commercial / shareware software, however a number of years ago the author released it for free, also open sourced the code on Sourceforge (although admittedly not much has happened with that source code).

One place you can grab it is:

http://www.filegate.net/maxfdn/maxbbs/

Of course if you do set up a Maximus install, I also suggest replacing the default chat module with TOP Chat (The Online Pub). I never much liked the default Maximus chat. While a Version 3.0 of TOP was released, version 3.0 only came out for Dos and Win32.  The last OS/2 Version of TOP Chat that was released was 2.0, which is on Hobbes (although if you want to try and compile the latest available source, it is also on Hobbes, requires Borland Turbo C++.  Sadly this source is at the older 2.01 level as the source for Version 3 was apparently deleted)

http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/h-search.php?key=the+online+pub&pushbutton=Search

Anyways, just some thoughts.  Have fun with it!

neozeed

Quote from: Fahrvenugen on 2011.06.06, 06:19:01
Hi,

Another favourite OS/2 BBS (and there is also a DOS and Win32 version, although just about everyone who has run it agrees that it runs best on OS/2) is Maximus.  It offers multiple lines, doors, and at one point there was even a web to message-base interface out there.  It used to be commercial / shareware software, however a number of years ago the author released it for free, also open sourced the code on Sourceforge (although admittedly not much has happened with that source code).

One place you can grab it is:

http://www.filegate.net/maxfdn/maxbbs/

Of course if you do set up a Maximus install, I also suggest replacing the default chat module with TOP Chat (The Online Pub). I never much liked the default Maximus chat. While a Version 3.0 of TOP was released, version 3.0 only came out for Dos and Win32.  The last OS/2 Version of TOP Chat that was released was 2.0, which is on Hobbes (although if you want to try and compile the latest available source, it is also on Hobbes, requires Borland Turbo C++.  Sadly this source is at the older 2.01 level as the source for Version 3 was apparently deleted)

http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/h-search.php?key=the+online+pub&pushbutton=Search

Anyways, just some thoughts.  Have fun with it!

Wow thanks!  I was caught up in a fit of rage, and I bought a copy of Mustang Wildcat for DOS! (what was I thinking?!).  It should be here in a few days... Although I guess the one thing that synchro has going strong for it is dovenet.  by being able to use ftp to slap data between sites, it's a snap to hub/spoke a network.. KISS, right?

At the same time I really really like vmodem.  It's a shame I never knew it was part of SIO I'd probably use it back even in the early 1990's as I was one of those silly kids without slip, but would actually run xmodem on a unix machine on the internet (no direct shell access) and send files to my home pc.... Not to mention when Warp came out that was the big thing no 'server' software... if I'd known about it, it would have been cool to 1: telnet into my OS/2 machine, and two run 'door'ified programs... sure it's not unix & telnet, but OS/2 didn't have to 100% pretend.

Oh well I guess that is what it comes down to, I had all the solutions around me, I just didn't realize I could plug them together....

And then there was linux.

miturbide

I talked to Ray Gwinn like a year ago and he sayit was ok to open source his driver. But it was a big job to remove some depencies of the source code that cant be opened.

He was ok to send the source code to steve, but Im not sure if it was completed. If there is other person out there willing to help and code/compile the driver maybe we can try out to contact Ray again and continue this.
Martín Itúrbide
OS2World.com NewsMaster
Open Source Advocate

Skype - martiniturbide
Google Talk - martiniturbide@gmail.com

DougB

If Ray is willing to open source SIO, perhaps he would also be willing to change the current package to be freeware, by releasing a free key for general use. It is obvious that he is not making any money off it as it is, and I suspect that there are not a lot of people who would find a use for the package anyway. The COM port (real) support has not been needed for many years, but there may still be the odd person who could make use of VModem. Some of the tools could also be useful. Whether further development would be useful, or not, is probably a moot point. I would hate to see one of the better developers wasting time on SIO, when they could be working on more important things. I also don't see where further development would actually be useful, unless it could be turned into a replacement for the COM port support that PEER networking has, so that it can be used by SAMBA. Of course, COM port support is not nearly as important as it was in the past.

QuoteAnother favourite OS/2 BBS

I used Maximus for a while (MANY years ago - 1992 or so). It always worked well. I probably used it with VModem too, but never seriously.

digimaus

I am running a BBS under OS/2 Warp 4.52 (Telegard/2).  I have been running an OS/2-based BBS since around 1996.  If you are not running SIO/VMODEM, you will not be able to run DOS BBS doors as OS/2 will only allow one application to use a com port at a time.  SIO gets around this using the '-' parameter.

There is no way to register SIO/VMODEM, so unless you crack it yourself, you're SOL.  SIO is abandonware, even though there's been talk about open sourcing it, but it seems that something always comes up about open sourcing SIO/VMODEM, so I'll believe it when I see it.

--Sean


Mike

Quote from: miturbide on 2011.06.06, 14:08:38
I talked to Ray Gwinn like a year ago and he sayit was ok to open source his driver. But it was a big job to remove some depencies of the source code that cant be opened.

He was ok to send the source code to steve, but Im not sure if it was completed. If there is other person out there willing to help and code/compile the driver maybe we can try out to contact Ray again and continue this.

iWould be nice when its possible to grant one required license and to make some progress with the source. The 3rd party code there sounds interesting, i hope its not the IBM way of telling too much work with the code to remove these parts.