OS/4 kernel and extended KEE

[Doug Bissett]

Fixed As minor effect - JFS now works too

Yes, it does. However, it seems that FORMAT will not run until after boot is finished. That causes a problem, because I want to set the usual %TEMP% entries in CONFIG.SYS, to point to the RAMDISK. You need to set the %TEMP% stuff in CONFIG.SYS, so it is permanent, and you cannot set them if the disk does not exist (or is not formatted). The solution is to let QSINIT create the disk as FAT, or FAT32, and set the %TEMP% stuff to point to it, with a directory (R:\TEMP). The directory does not need to exist at this point. Then, add this to the beginning of STARTUP.CMD:

Code: [Select]

FORMAT.COM R: /FS:JFS /V:RAMDISK < RAMFMTRESP.TXT
MD R:\TEMP
<anything else>(I am using R: for the drive address). RAMFMTRESP.TXT is a file that contains the required responses for the FORMAT command. It contains the letter "Y" in the first position of line 1, followed by a blank line.

After the disk is formatted (takes a fraction of a second), you can do what you want with it. In the above example, I simply create the TEMP directory. You could put whatever you want to start with (including the TEMP directory), in a ZIP file, and unzip it.

[Doug Bissett]

I also see that some changes have been made to SysView. It works as it should on the T510, and works, most of the time, on the L530. The changes to the bottom line also helps, as does alternate ways to do things (like close).

A good improvement.  Thanks...   

[walking_x]

I should be able to do "RAMDISK /MIN=800 R:" and it should take some memory from below the 4 GB mark, and give me a total size of 800 MB. This works on the T510 (using MIN=1200), but on the L530, it tells me that there is no memory available (or something like that).

I added the LOG command, so you can send me log of this story

Something like:
ramdisk r: min=800
ramdisk r:
log save c:\log.txt

c:\ is internal QSINIT's drive letter, FAT format mounts disk to it (first available),  so after "ramdisk r:" FAT formatted R: will be mounted to QSINIT C:

You can create temp in this way:
ramdisk r:
md c:\temp

[Doug Bissett]

I added the LOG command, so you can send me log of this story

Okay. I created a log, using your suggested commands (I did RAMDISK DELETE first). I will email it to the address in the readme.

You can create temp in this way:
ramdisk r:
md c:\temp

Hmmm. Lots of new tricks to learn. 

It looks like a zipped file could be unzipped to it, before the system boots, if there is a way to feed it the zipped file.

[walking_x]

Okay. I created a log, using your suggested commands (I did RAMDISK DELETE first). I will email it to the address in the readme.

I have not PCs with odd number of pages, so I'm missed this bug
Fixed now.

[gamba]

Doug,

how did you enable OS2APIC? I added it as PSD=OS2APIC.PSD in config.sys, but boot hangs at CLOCK01.SYS, both with standard loader and QSINIT. Any parameter required?

Bye
Gabriele

[Doug Bissett]

I have not PCs with odd number of pages, so I'm missed this bug
Fixed now.

I will download, and test, shortly.

Doug,

how did you enable OS2APIC? I added it as PSD=OS2APIC.PSD in config.sys, but boot hangs at CLOCK01.SYS, both with standard loader and QSINIT. Any parameter required?

Bye
Gabriele

I have tried OS2APIC.PSD on every SMP machine that I have ever owned. It has always worked, with no parameters. I doubt if the loader would have anything to do with that. It is possible, that you need to have it in an appropriate place in your CONFIG.SYS, and you do need to REM all of the ACPI parts (2 or 3 lines).

I have always used it with eCS, if you have something else, there may be missing updates. You also need to have the full SMP support properly installed (that also works in a single processor machine).

[Doug Bissett]

I will download, and test, shortly.

YES! that works.

I still have a lot of testing to do, but that will have to wait for a while. It is about -25C (-15F), and I need to go outside to move some snow. 

[walking_x]

I still have a lot of testing to do, but that will have to wait for a while. It is about -25C (-15F), and I need to go outside to move some snow. 

And we have here +3°C (instead of -7..-12) and no snow. Winter is migrating to Canada, may be?

[Doug Bissett]

Winter is migrating to Canada, may be?

We always have winter, especially where I live. This year, it seems that the "polar vortex" has slipped further south than normal (at least that is what the weather people are saying), but that is affecting the eastern part of North America more than the west.

You can have it back, if you want it.   

I have done a bit more testing. The RAMDISK performs well, and the memory, that was unusable before, is making itself useful too. SysView is definitely more usable, but still shows a couple of strange things on the L530 (with UEFI). Interestingly, the new boot manager (Air Boot) has a feature where it will power off the machine, by pressing DEL at the menu. That works on all of my systems, except the L530, where it does nothing. I expect that it is related to the oddities found in QSINIT.

I hope the ACPI problem can be resolved.

[Lars]

Doug,

how did you enable OS2APIC? I added it as PSD=OS2APIC.PSD in config.sys, but boot hangs at CLOCK01.SYS, both with standard loader and QSINIT. Any parameter required?

Bye
Gabriele

Why would you want to use OS2APIC.PSD ?  If you use the OS/4 kernel you might as well use OS4APIC.PSD which is contained in the OS/4 zip file. Or is there any good reason not to do so ?

OS2APIC.PSD is rather limited in that it does not support IRQs > 15 which I believe is equivalent to the /PIC (or maybe /VW) mode of David's ACPI.PSD. Also OS2APIC.PSD has not worked on my system. My system seems to have broken MP tables. It only works properly in symmetric mode (using the IOAPIC instead of the old-fashioned PIC).
I believe the /APIC switch of OS2APIC.PSD was never completely implemented. It just does nothing on my system.

Lars

[OS4User]

Why would you want to use OS2APIC.PSD ?  If you use the OS/4 kernel you might as well use OS4APIC.PSD which is contained in the OS/4 zip file. Or is there any good reason not to do so ?

OS2APIC.PSD is rather limited in that it does not support IRQs > 15 which I believe is equivalent to the /PIC (or maybe /VW) mode of David's ACPI.PSD. Also OS2APIC.PSD has not worked on my system. My system seems to have broken MP tables. It only works properly in symmetric mode (using the IOAPIC instead of the old-fashioned PIC).
I believe the /APIC switch of OS2APIC.PSD was never completely implemented. It just does nothing on my system.

Lars

os/4 kernel loads CLOCK03a.SYS instead of CLOCK01.SYS   so I suspect that os/2 kernel is in use.

and I agree with you   -  it is almost impossible to find a comp where os2apic.psd could work with IOAPIC (it would work if  IRQ <=15)

[gamba]

Why would you want to use OS2APIC.PSD ?  If you use the OS/4 kernel you might as well use OS4APIC.PSD which is contained in the OS/4 zip file. Or is there any good reason not to do so ?

Hi Lars,

any time I tried OS/4 kernel on this laptop, it always hanged at boot, while QSINIT loader worked fine at the first shot. Anyway, it was just for test purpose: until a driver for the Intel Centrino Wireless-N 1000 appears, eCS here works better in Virtualbox.

[gamba]

Following Doug's suggestion, I tried ACPI.PSD /VW instead of OS2APIC: now I have 3,5 Gb of RAM, 2 processors running and APM. A full boot to WPS takes less than 30 seconds... if just a wireless driver existed :-(

[Doug Bissett]

Following Doug's suggestion, I tried ACPI.PSD /VW instead of OS2APIC: now I have 3,5 Gb of RAM, 2 processors running and APM. A full boot to WPS takes less than 30 seconds...

Actually, I think that /VW was Lars' suggestion, but it was a good suggestion. ACPI does seem to work okay, with the /VW parameter. That probably means that the problem has something to do with IRQs above 15, which is a very minor thing compared to power control.

Now, both of my laptops are running with full memory, a RAMDISK that is using memory that is otherwise useless, and I have power control.

Using IRQs above 15 is "kind of nice", but totally unnecessary in almost all cases. There is probably a very small performance hit, but nothing that a user would ever notice. Hopefully, walking_x can look at his code, and spot a problem, but I think that /VW does a few other things too. Just for the record, I was NOT trying to use /APIC with OS2APIC.PSD.

if just a wireless driver existed :-(

You said you have an Intel device. Apparently, Intel will be the first on the list when Multimac gets around to producing a WiFi driver. Meanwhile, there are a LOT of people waiting for that (including me).