Author Topic: eCS 2.2 clone for X200t and X230t - Questions and observations  (Read 22469 times)

Sigurd Fastenrath

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Hi,

I am working on tailored eCS 2.2 clones for the

- Lenovo X200t Tablet
- Lenovo X230t Tablet

at the moment.

I do have some questions and observations, that may have been noticed by others before but I would like to ask/state them here once again. Help is appreciated!

1. Observation: WLAN and GENMAC installation failed to work -> Reason: the eCs 2.2 beta config.sys is sorted, the 'helperw.exe' file needed for the GENMAC is placed in the middle of config.sys, once I moved it to the beginning of config.sys it started to work

2. Question: I do want to change the "ecs.ru" sheme for desktop icons as I prefer the "usual" one - changing it via "Appearance, Icon Theme" failed, there are still the icons. How to change them?

3. Observation: while on the X200t 'DOS Window' and 'WIN-OS2 Window' both need time to start for the first time, on the X230t both do not start at all (both Laptops installed with Panorama). Will give SNAP a try on X230t, on X200t it is working, but I still leave 'Panorama' as this is the prefered one by the developers; and I do expect SNAP not to work with the X230t

4. Observation: Adjusting the Panellight works on X200t via FN keys, on X230t not

5. Observation: Sound on the X200t works, on the X230t it does not (producing some kind of noise) -> I may have to ask Paul for help ;-)

6. Observation: USB 2.0 on X200t works great, on X230t as well (the USB 3.0 of the X230t are not supported, as expected - but one have at least ONE USB 2.0 there)

7. Question: once I shut down or reboot eCS 2.2 on the X200t I get a beep, on the X230t not. Someone with the same experience?

8. Observation: It is really nice to have the Keyboard Backlight with the x230t, the X200t does not offer this functionality


!! IMPORTANT NOTICE: ecomstation.ru is not allowed to use or link the attached picture, those are copyright by Sigurd Fastenrath only!!
« Last Edit: August 19, 2013, 01:45:05 pm by Sigurd Fastenrath »

Pete

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Re: eCS 2.2 clone for X200t and X230t - Questions and observations
« Reply #1 on: August 19, 2013, 04:30:40 pm »
Hi Sigurd

Nice to see that you are getting eCS working on fairly current tablets  :-)

I'll try to respond to your points:-

1] My experience is that eCS 2.2 Beta installation mangles genmac installation. I never tried to discover the cause I simply installed genmac again when I found it was not working. I did report the problem to eCS and understand that they found the cause and it should work fine for the GA.

2] Not sure what "ecs.ru" desktop icon scheme is... but I did not install any of the "Sunny icons" so had "eComStation Classic" as my desktop icon scheme.
Of interest is that I just changed the icon theme to "Manilla Envelopes" and rebooted. On reboot I see that the Desktop icons have not been changed at all but the folders displayed when I open a drive are "Manilla Envelopes". Obviously another glitch in this Beta; Guess I should report it.

3] I never install DOS/Win16 support as I only really use DOS for games. DOSBox does that much better - and with Sound.

4] Cannot comment

5] Add a pause line to config.sys immediately after the uniaud drivers to check that uniaud has identified hardware correctly. I use this:-
DEVICE=F:\OS2\BOOT\PAUSEIT.SYS
The boot stops to display a message like "driver not found, press a key to continue booting" which means you get as much time as you want to note down details.
If the hardware is identified correctly then you need to check the output of unimix to make sure that all options are set correctly. Use this line to generate a file with the current mixer settings:-
unimix -list > sound.txt
Unimix should be in the [BootDrive]:\MMOS2 directory.

6] It seems that eCS is always "playing catchup" - we have nearly got a fully working USB1/USB2 stack for most systems but USB3 is already here. I wonder if Lars is going to be looking into USB3 sometime in the near future...

7] I have had the "shutdown beep" on a Desktop system. This was finally fixed by an updated version of ACPI that worked fine on that Desktop. I think there has been an ACPI update since 2.2 Beta was released so you may want to investigate.

8] Guess it helps you to see what keys you are pressing when using the hardware in a dark room  :-)


Have Fun  ;-)

Pete


Sigurd Fastenrath

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Re: eCS 2.2 clone for X200t and X230t - Questions and observations
« Reply #2 on: August 19, 2013, 08:09:16 pm »
Hi Pete,

thanks for answering, I am still not able to use the quote functionality as it ought to, so I just write my answers following the numbers.

Yeah, I want to have the eCs 2.2 clones ready for the meeting in Cologne end of November this year :-) so I still have some time left ;-)

1. I installed GENMAC 2.2 once again manually after the initial installation,  but it did not work for me again. Then I found the hint in Lantran.log. I guess the manual installation did found helperw.exe in config.sys but did not "realize" that it was at the wrong position.

2. Yes, these are the so called Sunny icons. But I want to have the option to use them with the clone but all the attempts to change to other icon sets failed. At may have to deinstall Sunny icons at least.

3. Yes, DOSBOX is better in this case, it was just for information

4. -

5. Yes, I did try this as well, sound with the X230t did only start to work at all (even with no result) once I used a tailored startup.cmd with the unimix parameters. I did exam unimix -list and all the possible parameters, but ....

6. at least 2.0 seems to get better and better

7. I already updated the ACPi to 3.22.02, AHCI 1.30, latest USB. ;-) Sorry, did not mention it.

8. or lying in bed. :-) I did not know how usable this feature is till I used the X200t again after using the X230t :-)

Danke!

Sigurd
« Last Edit: August 19, 2013, 08:12:42 pm by Sigurd Fastenrath »

Doug Bissett

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Re: eCS 2.2 clone for X200t and X230t - Questions and observations
« Reply #3 on: August 19, 2013, 11:46:01 pm »
Hi Sigurd. Interesting project...

1. It would be interesting to see if GENMAC 2.1 (from the eCS 2.1 install CD) would do it right (probably not, since it seems to be a config.sys sort problem). It would also be interesting to know what happens if you use my Logical ConfigSys Sort program (LCSS) on those machines. It is at HOBBES: http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/util/config/LCSS-0-4-4.wpi You may need an updated DAT file from: http://www3.telus.net/public/bissett1/LCSS.dat.

2. I have decided that the Sunny Icons feature causes too many problems, so I simply don't install it (I will try again, with the GA version). There is a selection in the desktop properties to turn that off (Display-> turn off Default, and select Normal). It doesn't seem to prevent other annoyances that I have seen with that feature.

3. I have quit installing DOS and WinOS2 support. It seems to be pretty useless these days. I agree that DOSBOX does a reasonable job, for the few times that I find a need.

4. I have same problem on my T510, and my L530, and I do miss it, on the few occasions when I would like to use it.

5. Sound works well, on my T510 (if you don't count the terrible speakers), using UNIAUD from UniaudUpdate1.09.06-2.02.01.zip. I get sound from the L530, using the same driver, but it is not right. Earlier versions of UNIAUD won't even load. So far, I haven't bothered trying to get it fixed, since there are other problems on that machine.

6. USB works well on the T510, using Lars' versions. The T510 has two EHCI adapters, and no others. USB also works well, on the L530. The L530 has a USB 3.0 adapter (which doesn't work, of course - even in windows, until you turn it on), as well as two EHCI adapters. Lars' driver works, and I can use all of the USB ports, including the USB 3.0 port, with USB 1.0, 1.1, and 2.0, devices.

7. That may have something to do with sound support (just a guess).

8. I haven't seen that feature...

I will add an observation, and question:
9. My L530 has a UEFI BIOS, set to "legacy" mode. It runs eCS 2.x okay, but there is a 4K memory hole at the 512 meg mark (cause unknown). That prevents eCS from "seeing" more than 512 meg of memory. From what I have been able to determine, some devices also cause memory holes, but the rest of them are above the 3 GB mark, so they wouldn't cause a real problem. Does your X230T have the same thing? FWIW, the L530 does run well, with only 512 Meg of memory.

Sigurd Fastenrath

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Re: eCS 2.2 clone for X200t and X230t - Questions and observations
« Reply #4 on: August 20, 2013, 08:08:32 am »
Hi Doug,

thanks, sorry for my short replies!

1. I will try your suggestions later today and report

2. Thanks, will try this later as well as I do have the X230t not at hand now

3. -

4. -

5. I am already in contact with Paul and may make progress today

6. Thats a very good point! I in fact did not try to use the 3.0 Ports because I thought those are not "backward compatible" on OS/2 :-). For Windows: with 7 or 8 I do not have to switch them on manually, they are allways "on". Maybe something in your Windows "Power scheme" is changed?

7. -

8. If you watch may latest video with the X230t I tried to show that it is working right at the beginning, but it is not to be recognized very good as I just made a quickshot and it was during daylight. It is really something I do appriciate!

9. Yes, the same with the X230t and this memory hole. I guess this is so since the Sandy/IVY Bridge generation. I was able to get rid of it using OS4LOADER instead of the eCS OS2LOADER on the Samsung Slate with Sandy Bridge. There I had the full 4GB of RAM (minus some for the onboard graphic). But on the X230t OS4LOADER fails to boot (even the latest edition - so far), maybe because I have 8GB of RAM there. The same with the other LOADER - QSLOADER, that is around. In addition it seems to me that those both loaders make a better job at all than the one from eCS. AFAIR I pointed Mensys to this QSLOADER and they might want to merge some things from it to overcome the memory whole as i.e. the QS Loader is written from scratch - the file is about double as big as the "usual" OS2LOADER. So maybe with the next eCS 2.2 beta there are some news (do not know as I do not get much information from there -> close to zero.) Even though I will reduce RAM to 4GB and give OS4LOADER a try with eCS 2.2 again later on.

Cheers

Sigurd

« Last Edit: August 20, 2013, 11:26:23 am by Sigurd Fastenrath »

Jan-Erik Lärka

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Re: eCS 2.2 clone for X200t and X230t - Questions and observations
« Reply #5 on: August 20, 2013, 09:32:25 am »
Hello Sigurd,

1. Genmac used to work well with a sorted config.sys on my main machine (eCS 2.0). Can't tell now as I have the new native Realtek driver with this Sony Vaio laptop, but no wireless access there since there's no support for that by the current driver.

2. As mentioned, but you can also rename a dll to turn off sunny icons. I prefer a good looking desktop, especially if it will include all desktop objects, something that is lacking with standard icons since Warp 4. We do however need a suitable drawing application.

3. The fonts in textmode DosBox seem a bit jagged. Panorama and ATI graphics card have problems with WinOS2 sessions.

4. -

5. I found out that my machine have a sound chip from Conexant. They wrote code for ALSA 1.0.23 that is included and available as a beta at netlabs, but only the OS/2 Volume control can adjust the volume. It seems like you have a Conexant chip as well.

6. USB seem resonably fast with eCS v2.2 and the 2TB Seagate external disk I bought.

7. Mine beep at startup when eCenter load and then again if it doesn't/can't power off at shutdown.

8. -

//Jan-Erik

Sigurd Fastenrath

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Re: eCS 2.2 clone for X200t and X230t - Questions and observations
« Reply #6 on: August 20, 2013, 01:03:00 pm »


2. I have decided that the Sunny Icons feature causes too many problems, so I simply don't install it (I will try again, with the GA version). There is a selection in the desktop properties to turn that off (Display-> turn off Default, and select Normal). It doesn't seem to prevent other annoyances that I have seen with that feature.


Thanks, I found it :

Desktop/Properties/view/Page2of4/

Disable Default
change "Icon Display" from "Big Size" to "Normal Size"

Doug Bissett

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Re: eCS 2.2 clone for X200t and X230t - Questions and observations
« Reply #7 on: August 20, 2013, 06:36:44 pm »
Sigurd:

1, What, exactly, is the device? If there is a Multimac driver for it, use that.

5. Great!

6. It appears that the USB 3.0 port (on my L530) is, by default, attached to one of the EHCI controllers. It also seems that the machine was shipped with the Win7 (Pro 64) driver disabled, so I had to turn it on to get USB 3.0 support (I suspect that they aren't too sure that USB 3.0 support is really working). I don't, yet, have a USB 3.0 device, so all I can do is assume that it works in windows. I can still use the port in eCS, it seems to detect that the device is not USB 3.0, and connects the port to the EHCI controller. I have no idea what it might do if I had a USB 3.0 device. It should use it as a USB 2.0 device, but the dead USB 3.0 controller might mess that up. It should work okay when it is connected to a USB 2.0 controller.

8. It may work, until ACPI gets loaded (still under BIOS control). Then ACPI would take control, and there is no interface to ACPI for those functions. There is a Linux thing for ThinkPads (I don't remember the name), to add those functions, that may be possible to port to OS/2.

9. I tried the OS4loader (haven't tried the latest), but didn't find a way to work around the hole. I also tried the QSloader, which supplied the information that it is a 4K hole, at the 512 meg mark. I couldn't get it to work either. Apparently, somebody is working on the OS2loader, but that is all that I have heard. I suspect that it won't be in eCS 2.2 GA.

Jan-Erik:

5. The sound in my L530 seems to be some sort of hybrid between an Intel device, and a Realtek device (at least that is what windows indicates, in the device manager). The mentioned UniAud does make sound, but each sound seems to be echoed about 20 times, before it stops playing it. Any new sound starts it's own echo, which very quickly becomes a "noise", that eventually tapers off to no sound.

7. A beep at eCenter load is probably caused by one of the widgets. The "fixed" USB widget beeps when it starts, and when it stops (most annoying, but that is supposed to go away for the GA version).

Sigurd Fastenrath

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Re: eCS 2.2 clone for X200t and X230t - Questions and observations
« Reply #8 on: August 20, 2013, 08:51:52 pm »
Hi Doug, Jan, Pete etc,

it is great to have such a quick and rich in content discussion!

1. Hm, I do have a patched BIOS for the X200t that diables the WLAN Blacklist. So I installed the Intel WLAN 4965 mini PCI Express card. Ecs 2.2 detected it right at the initial installation process, but it started to work as I wrote once I changed Helperw.exe to the top of the config.sys.  But - unfortunately there is still some weird behaviour here - a problem you have a couple of times about, IIRC, I can scan and see all the routers here, but it failed to connect using WPA2. Using WPA instead worked, but only for some times, mostly not. I am still not able to figure out what does prevent it to do so. Mostly the "TCPIP Interface" option of xwlan is greyed out, and I can not ping to the router, please do see attached pictures. Id did work two years ago with my first X200t, I guess I have to take a closer look at the BIOS Energy options.
Please see pictures WLAN and WLAN3

EDIT: Once I changed in BIOS to "Balanced" as energy scheme in BIOS it did work - at least for some moments... -> see picture WLAN3, but I am to tired to test more for today, more tomorrow

6. I will look into the BIOS of the X230t AFAIR there are some options for the USB 3.0 behaviour...

EDIT: Please see picture X230tBIOS2 -> with that BIOS option "Disabled" I can use the 3.0 USB Devices as USB Devices 2.0 with eCS! Before I had the setting: "Auto". I do like USB 3.0 very much, especially with USB Sticks under Windows 8 -> so fast!

That you adressed to Jan:

5. Yes, the same constallation here, Intel Display Audio and Realtek -> the same as with the Samsung Serie 7 Slate. I have to wait what Paul might offer on ideas.

7. At least the "Shutdown beep" went away once I disabled USB widget (that caused some very serious boot hangs and hard hangs while using in the past).
« Last Edit: August 21, 2013, 07:43:07 am by Sigurd Fastenrath »

Doug Bissett

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Re: eCS 2.2 clone for X200t and X230t - Questions and observations
« Reply #9 on: August 21, 2013, 06:47:14 am »
Hi Sigurd.

1. I found that I needed to turn off all power control for the wireless NIC, in windows, on my T43, or it would run for a while, then quit. It seems that what windows sets, gets remembered in eCS.  I found a setting in the NIC settings to do that so it was set separately from the windows system power controls. I don't have access to the T43 any more (my brother has it). It also has the problem where it would not work with WPA2, but did work with WPA (WPA2 worked in winXP, of course). I think there is a problem in the GENMAC interface between the windows driver, and XWLAN, which means that it will not get fixed. WPA seems to be reasonably secure. Hopefully, Multimac, for wireless devices, will sho up sooner, rather than later.

6. USB 3.0 will, finally, make USB useful for large media storage. USB 2.0 is usable, but far too slow when you start doing gigabyte data transfers. A better interface is eSATA. I have one hard disk enclosure with that feature. It only runs at SATA I speeds, but that is pretty acceptable. Unfortunately, it seems that eSATA has not gained much support, and I don't see it on newer systems, for some reason. I am able to leave the USB 3.0 BIOS setting at AUTO on the L530, and it seems to work okay.

7. I think the USB widget will work okay, once they finish fixing it. The interim version, that I have, seems to be okay, so far (a couple of weeks now).

Sigurd Fastenrath

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Re: eCS 2.2 clone for X200t and X230t - Questions and observations
« Reply #10 on: August 21, 2013, 07:51:17 am »
Hi Sigurd.

1. I found that I needed to turn off all power control for the wireless NIC, in windows, on my T43, or it would run for a while, then quit. It seems that what windows sets, gets remembered in eCS.  I found a setting in the NIC settings to do that so it was set separately from the windows system power controls. I don't have access to the T43 any more (my brother has it). It also has the problem where it would not work with WPA2, but did work with WPA (WPA2 worked in winXP, of course). I think there is a problem in the GENMAC interface between the windows driver, and XWLAN, which means that it will not get fixed. WPA seems to be reasonably secure. Hopefully, Multimac, for wireless devices, will sho up sooner, rather than later.


Hi Doug,

1. One more observation here: Late at night Yesterday I did play around with XWLAN just to see what happen -> one was to try

->right Mouse Button click on XWLAN widget -> Public Hotspot -> connect to hotspot

even if I do not have a hot spot around. For a second in the eCenter "DHCPSTRT.COM" was visible and the XWLAN widget icon changed to the one with the small TCPIP icon in it, saying "Public Hotspot - 16%; IP Interface is being configured: lan1"
and the "TCPIP Interface" is not greyed out anymore.

That leads me to assume, that using my "Profile 'Zu Hause' " does not start the DHCP process ?!

Might this information be of help as I do not have much clue about this?

Andi B.

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Re: eCS 2.2 clone for X200t and X230t - Questions and observations
« Reply #11 on: August 21, 2013, 11:06:33 am »
Quote
That leads me to assume, that using my "Profile 'Zu Hause' " does not start the DHCP process ?!

dhcstrt.cmd is only called when the new interface is set for 'TCPIP automatic configuration' in XWLAN. Every time when you switch between profiles or disable/enable wireless and the new interface is set for automatic config, dhcmon /t is called to stop dhcpcd.exe (DHCP daemon). XWLAN even tries to kills the deamon if it refuses to stop with dhcmon /t. Afterwards XWLAN start it again with dhcstrt.cmd. At least this is the case with the current XWLAN code.

Doug Bissett

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Re: eCS 2.2 clone for X200t and X230t - Questions and observations
« Reply #12 on: August 21, 2013, 05:44:44 pm »
Hi Sigurd.

1. I think that Andi has it right (or, very close to right). XWLAN triggers DHCP activity after it gets connected. Think of it as plugging in the cable on a wired NIC. Nothing can happen, until the cable is connected. The same is true of wireless. Nothing happens until it is connected. XWLAN is the tool that is used to "plug in the cable", then it starts the configuration for TCPIP. If it cannot get connected, it will not attempt to start the DHCP configuration tool.

The power setup seems to be stored in the device (at least in Intel devices). If you do not turn off all power control to the device (only possible in windows, AFAIK, and it is in the device setup, not the system power controls), it remembers that it is supposed to reduce power consumption after a while. The first power reduction thing that seems to happen, is to turn off the radio, which effectively disconnects the cable (possibly only in one direction). It seems that GENMAC doesn't (or doesn't know how to) reset the timer, so the radio gets turned off at some random point, and it will stay off, until something turns it back on (usually reboot).

A "public" hotspot usually has no security (known as an "Open access point"), so XWLAN doesn't really need to do anything special to connect (no password, and no encryption negotiation), so it is more likely to succeed.

You may also want to try an updated SUPPLICANT (the part of XWLAN that actually does the connection). The last one that I tried is http://smedley.id.au/wpa_supplicant-2.0-devel-os2-2012-02-25.zip. You can also use the XWLAN menu to make the supplicant visible, so you can see what it has to say, when it attempts to connect. From memory (I haven't got XWLAN installed, at the moment), RMB on the widget, and select Supplicant (or whatever it is - third from the bottom???), and click Visible. A window will open. The contents usually make a bit of sense, and may indicate what the problem is.

Sigurd Fastenrath

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Re: eCS 2.2 clone for X200t and X230t - Questions and observations
« Reply #13 on: August 23, 2013, 11:30:51 am »
Hi Doug,

thanks - I will try it during the weekend (but Saturday I am off). Wim Brul is so kind to help out with Stylus and Touch support for the X230T right now - we concentrate on this for now.

EDIT: Stylus is already up and running !!!! Thanks to Wim Bruls tremendous work!!!
« Last Edit: August 23, 2013, 12:20:22 pm by Sigurd Fastenrath »

Sigurd Fastenrath

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Re: eCS 2.2 clone for X200t and X230t - Questions and observations
« Reply #14 on: September 12, 2013, 08:27:42 am »
Hi,

some news here:

Sound on the X230T: as I played around a while with the X230T I discovered something really strange:

-> The reason for the problems seem to me to be that there a two soundcards or interfaces, one with the Intel "Display" (HDMI or Displayport I guess) and one with the Realtek

-> I still have got repeating loops and crashing sound with WPS applications (like System sound and PM123 and and and) - if I have sound at all

-> but what is working mostly is the sound with Youtube videos inside Firefox!
-> in addition: when I play m3u Internet radio stream (starting in Firefox, opening than in PM123) it works better than before (but still repeating - but "only" for 2 or three times) BUT: as soon as I close Firefox the sound repeats in PM123 like before and is totally unusable (partly crash) -> still not really usable, but a small step

Is there a logical reason for this? May this help to find the problem?

Can someone confirm this ?


-> WLAN with the X200T (Intel 4965 and patched BIOS) : Well, this is working very well now! The problem here did seat right in front of the screen  ;)  . It did not connect to the Router at home as I did allways write the wrong WLAN name there, once I find out the right one (FRITZ!Box WLAN 3170) (-> I had to take care of upper and lower caracters and the blanks!! Allways missed the blank between WLAN and 3170!) it works with WPA key. It works with WPA2 key as well but has some frequently drops out). At my office the WPA2 key works without any issues :-)

So with the X200T I do have LAN, WLAN and UMTS/WWAN running right now, so the written on "ULTRA CONNECT" does fit with eCS 2.2 now :-)

Thanks,



« Last Edit: September 12, 2013, 09:05:25 am by Sigurd Fastenrath »