Author Topic: Problems with Windowed DOS sessions  (Read 17410 times)

Kevin Nunn

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Problems with Windowed DOS sessions
« on: June 11, 2017, 02:36:26 am »
I originally posted this in the Hardware section, but it looks like it might not be hardware after all.

I am testing Arca on a newish HP desktop computer and everything pretty much works fine. Except when I try to open a windowed DOS session, I get a pop message stating "the system does not support this session's video mode in a window".

The Arca installed the Panorama driver, the monitor is a AOC brand running 1680 x 1050. OS/2 prompt windows work fine. And the system has no other issues that I can tell. I just can't run DOS sessions in a window. They do open fine full screen.

*update* - I have reinstalled with each of the 4 video driver packages and I have the same issue with all of them, so I don't think it's a video driver related issue.

Any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks,

Kev

Dariusz Piatkowski

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Re: Problems with Windowed DOS sessions
« Reply #1 on: June 11, 2017, 03:57:41 am »
Just a shot in the dark here, but isn't this a "known" issue which affects certain video chipsets???

...and just to clarify, by "known" I mean I have read/seen this type of issue being described in numerous forum posts in the past...

On a personal note, here is what I'm seeing with ATI X850 XT PE video card (yesss....some old stuff here, ha ha...): Windows DOS simply does NOT work, the frame pops up, but no command prompt ever appears, switching to full-page results in a blank full-screen. I normally have to kill the session.

Doug Bissett

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Re: Problems with Windowed DOS sessions
« Reply #2 on: June 11, 2017, 04:31:48 am »
This is an old problem. I think there is a section in the README that addresses the problem.

Daniel

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Re: Problems with Windowed DOS sessions
« Reply #3 on: June 11, 2017, 05:02:55 am »
I have the same video card. To get a (full screen) Windows session it is also necessary to have win.com as the "path and filename" in the properties and the session be a full screen DOS session. The regular Windows sessions don't work, and of course you can't have a windowed Windows session by any means.

Dave Yeo

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Re: Problems with Windowed DOS sessions
« Reply #4 on: June 11, 2017, 07:06:57 am »
My understanding is that we currently depend on the VESA extensions in the video's BIOS and recent computers have a crappy/incomplete VESA implementation in their BIOS. This causes problems with DOS windowed sessions. As Doug mentioned, there are workarounds that help.
I also understand that things are getting worse when it comes to the VESA implementations and eventually Panorama etc will no longer work on new computers.

Kevin Nunn

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Re: Problems with Windowed DOS sessions
« Reply #5 on: June 11, 2017, 01:08:38 pm »
This is an old problem. I think there is a section in the README that addresses the problem.

Thanks Doug and everyone else! Which README file should I be finding this in?

Kev

Dave Yeo

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Re: Problems with Windowed DOS sessions
« Reply #6 on: June 11, 2017, 06:51:56 pm »
The one in the root of the installation DVD. Section 5.9.2 says,
Quote
- Attempting to start a windowed DOS session, you may be notified that the
session may not be opened in a window. A possible workaround reported for some
systems is to modify the VSVGA.SYS line in CONFIG.SYS to include the following
parameter:

    DEVICE=N:\OS2\MDOS\VSVGA.SYS /int10textgrfxsafe

Additionally, it may be necessary to create or append the following to
AUTOEXEC.BAT (located either in the root directory of the boot volume or where
specified for the DOS session object):

    mode co80
    cls

Kevin Nunn

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Re: Problems with Windowed DOS sessions
« Reply #7 on: June 11, 2017, 09:39:43 pm »
Thanks Dave, I should have checked there first, I was looking in the OS2 directory :P

I did try this and now the dos session will open, but it doesn't display anything. I know it is working because I can type in exit and it closes. So, the session is opening and operates, but there is no display.

I'll mess with it some more and see if I can figure anything out.

** edit - I did get it to work, I had put the mode co80 command, but at the start of the autoexec.bat and it wasn't working. Putting it at the end did work.

Kev
« Last Edit: June 11, 2017, 09:44:52 pm by Kevin Nunn »

Rich Walsh

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Re: Problems with Windowed DOS sessions
« Reply #8 on: June 12, 2017, 03:38:40 am »
I just wanted to add a further confirmation that '/int10textgrfxsafe' combined with 'mode co80' as described above (and in the readme) does work (at least for my low-end Intel integrated graphics). And, not only for DOS (which I never, ever use) but for windowed WinOS/2 sessions as well (which I use when in need of a hexadecimal-capable calculator). My thanks to Dave and Kevin!

Dave Yeo

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Re: Problems with Windowed DOS sessions
« Reply #9 on: June 12, 2017, 04:16:39 am »
I use the source calculator for hexadecimal, http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/h-search.php?button=Search&key=scalc&dir=%2F. Seems there is a newer one then I have installed as well.

xynixme

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Re: Problems with Windowed DOS sessions
« Reply #10 on: June 12, 2017, 09:44:03 am »
I use the source calculator for hexadecimal

DECalc 3.44 supports hex I/O too.

Daniel

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Re: Problems with Windowed DOS sessions
« Reply #11 on: June 13, 2017, 04:26:23 am »
Another option that does hex (and octal) is HPcalc 41C, which is a non-programmable HP41-C with extensions.

ftp://cyberia.dnsalias.com/pub/filebase/gfd/app/misc/hpclc098.zip

Of course that means RPN and all of its advantages... unless you never learned.  ;)

Dariusz Piatkowski

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Re: Problems with Windowed DOS sessions
« Reply #12 on: June 13, 2017, 06:10:38 am »
Interesting that '/int10textgrfxsafe' combined with 'mode co80' gets you some results, for me there is no difference. Although....if I start with an actual DOS program object, such as my old trusty Borland C++ IDE, that object must be set to FULL SCREEN, however, once it is started I can successfully switch to WINDOWED option by hitting ALT-HOME combo.

Sooo...for some reason I can't go directly to that window mode, but can get there in a round-about sort of a way.

Kevin Nunn

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Re: Problems with Windowed DOS sessions
« Reply #13 on: June 13, 2017, 12:57:15 pm »
Sooo...for some reason I can't go directly to that window mode, but can get there in a round-about sort of a way.

That is interesting. I never tried to do that.

90% of my DOS sessions are related to a my BBS, so it would mainly be door games. I could have set them up to run full screen I guess. Glad the fix worked for me though.

Kev