Author Topic: Report: ArcaOS on Natcomp @note (2001)  (Read 6418 times)

Mathias

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Report: ArcaOS on Natcomp @note (2001)
« on: November 24, 2019, 10:30:24 pm »
Cloned from a preinstalled VM onto that notebook.
It`s mainly using SIS chipsets, including SIS900 for network. Processor is a Pentium III (regular, not mobile), RAM: 512 MB

So far it`s working fine, JUST between the ArcaOS logo and the SNAP Graphics logo, where CONFIG.SYS messages are displayed, it`s displaying dissorted and scrolls through over and over (like on an old CRT TV), so reading anything is rather hard...
But after the SNAP logo everything works as usual and totally nice.

Does anybody know, how graphics modes can be controlled in that section above?

Martin Iturbide

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Re: Report: ArcaOS on Natcomp @note (2001)
« Reply #1 on: November 25, 2019, 12:44:43 pm »
Hi Mathias.

It is a nice experiment what you are doing. Can you provide me the PCI.exe report and possible  the lsusb report, so I can include it on the OS2World wiki?

Regards
Martin Iturbide
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Mathias

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Re: Report: ArcaOS on Natcomp @note (2001)
« Reply #2 on: November 25, 2019, 10:48:31 pm »
Hi Martin : ))

Sure thiny, I`ll start with pci.exe --> Please find the attached txt file.

Got a weird problem on this machine: The SIS900 LAN driver loads fine, it broadcasts it`s DHCP (I can see the broadcast on the switch!!), but the DHCPCLIENT request times out for some reaso, and it does not recieve an IP, weirdly.
And if I set a static IP (either by ifconfig command or by GUI), it all loads fine, but I can not ping anything or reach anything with it.  -Even if I set the routes my own via route add. Totally weird, and looks like a challenge! :D Until now I`ve always beaten the network driver and made it work, regardless of the operating system. Grrr.. ; )

Doug Bissett

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Re: Report: ArcaOS on Natcomp @note (2001)
« Reply #3 on: November 26, 2019, 05:48:15 am »
Quote
Got a weird problem on this machine: The SIS900 LAN driver loads fine, it broadcasts it`s DHCP (I can see the broadcast on the switch!!), but the DHCPCLIENT request times out for some reaso, and it does not recieve an IP, weirdly.

It is a 1039:0900 device. It is possibly one of those devices that gets a mac address of all zeros. There is a procedure, somewhere, that gives you a method to give it a proper mac address (preferably the one that it actually has). You could also try giving it a fixed IP address.

If that doesn't work, and you have a win XP driver for it, see: ftp://genmac@ftp.os2voice.org/ (use the word "unsupported", no quotes and lower case, as a password, if it asks). Read one of the READMEs, about how to modify GENMAC, or send me the information (address in the readme), and I will attempt to make an unsupported GENMAC driver for it (no guarantees).

Sigurd Fastenrath

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Re: Report: ArcaOS on Natcomp @note (2001)
« Reply #4 on: November 26, 2019, 08:45:25 am »
Ich hatte mal dieses Mainboard (irgendwann in den 90ern :-)  ) , auch mit SiS 900 Chipsatz. War ein sehr schönes Board!

https://soggi.org/motherboards/ecs-elitegroup/K7S5A.htm

Ich kann mich nicht mehr erinnern ob der Onboard Netzwerkchip mit OS/2 funktioniert hat oder nicht.

Jedenfalls steht auf der Homepage, unter LAN, auch ein Hinweis auf RTL8201 PHY, vielleicht hilft ja auch ein "Modernerer" oder "älterer" Realtek Treiber.

Viel Erfolg.

Mathias

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Re: Report: ArcaOS on Natcomp @note (2001)
« Reply #5 on: November 26, 2019, 09:22:59 am »
Doug, very interesting approach; I like this driver "creation" idea!
But first I'll test the MAC address thingy. Didn't pay attention to the MAC. - And yup, even with static IP, no traffic goes to or comes from the network. - I'll check the MAC address, as you've said.

ArcaOS comes with (in theory therefore should work) an SIS 900 driver in the NIC list. But that's of course of no use if indeed the MAC adress is zero'ed. - Can't wait to find out after work. : )


Sigurd, I'd rather guess this mainboard was shipped with either the Realtek chip OR the SIS one, depending on the main board's revision. When remembering correctly, SIS chips always were problematic with (atleast) Warp 3.
But, thanks for the hint; Always welcome! : ))

Lars

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Re: Report: ArcaOS on Natcomp @note (2001)
« Reply #6 on: November 26, 2019, 04:28:52 pm »
The only SIS900 MAC driver that ever worked for me (I no longer have this board) is the MAC driver from Willibald Meyer (I guess that is GENMAC but I never had to modify that driver, it worked right out of the box for the 1039:900 device).
By the way, maybe it IS something different from the GENMAC: the driver I am talking about did not require a WinXP driver. Instead it came with an ELF library (NETVLIB.O) that contained all functionality and that was loaded by a OS/2 MAC stub driver. I remember that that was illegal to use as the NETVLIB.O module was not open source ...
But I DO know it worked perfectly well ...
« Last Edit: November 26, 2019, 04:32:01 pm by Lars »

Mathias

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Re: Report: ArcaOS on Natcomp @note (2001)
« Reply #7 on: November 26, 2019, 10:53:39 pm »
Tested! MAC is indeed 0000000000 according to netstat -n|head

Forced the MAC address to it`s default value (checked with ifconfig on linux) --> 0040d01a1a75
Then rebooted, and once up checked the MAC again.. still 12x 0, but after running dhclient eth0, the MAC was indeed set to the forced value. But still, broadcast packets only went out, no incoming traffic was recieved at all, according to netstat once again.

On the DHCPd`s log I`ve seen in live time, the DHCP requests were recieved for this forced MAC 0040d01a1a75, and an IP was sent back to this MAC address.... but the notebook never recieved any traffic, and no IP also :/

--> Lars, WOW, that`s going to be checked out too! I`ll give this a try! : )


Andi B.

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Re: Report: ArcaOS on Natcomp @note (2001)
« Reply #8 on: November 27, 2019, 12:40:14 pm »
IIRC I once had to enable ROM for the NIC in BIOS to get it working. But I pretty sure it wasn't a SIS so maybe totally irrelevant for your problme. Usually I disable all network related ROM settings in BIOS as I do not want to boot via LAN. But maybe worth to test for you.

Mathias

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Re: Report: ArcaOS on Natcomp @note (2001)
« Reply #9 on: November 27, 2019, 10:02:39 pm »
Good idea! - But the notebook BIOS is not that detailled, unfortunately. I`d wish for more options..
I wonder why notebook BIOSes always are that shy of options.. while PC BIOSes are overflowing of all kinds of weird settings.. (most of the time)

I`ll test the other drivers next. - That sounded most promising to me. : )

Dave Yeo

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Re: Report: ArcaOS on Natcomp @note (2001)
« Reply #10 on: November 28, 2019, 12:34:18 am »
Perhaps enabling boot from network would enable it?