patched PmMerge

[Bernhard Pöttinger]

I have installed it on my W520 and my X1 Carbon notebook. Both with ArcaOS 5.0.6. No problems so far.

best regards
Bernhard

[Mikhail]

Works well on AOS 5.06 kernel-2.02 & OS/4
I didn't find any problems!
Thank OS4USER. bip-bip-bip

[OS4User]

So during the boot the normal BLUE screen right before transition to WPS happens is missing, the displays actually go black as if the video signal is cut off, then by the time both displays come back I go straight into the WPS Desktop. Normally this only happens after the BLUE screen pops up, a little clock-icon after and than WPS is up.

Weird, but OK so far.

I also recognized  some improvement during the boot.

The problem is that attempting to run Lucide right after (repeated this twice) gives me a non-responsive WPS. Only CAD-Helper gets me out of the problem, the Re-boot option that is.

It is not necessarily  a bug in pmmerge.  It is hard to say.

I haven't tried any other apps yet since I figured I would report this first and test any other specifics you might be interested in?

Nothing special, just observe  what has improved  and what has degraded.

[Mike Kölling]

I just realized that my Thunderbird doesn't crashes anymore. Usually I start Firefox and Thunderbird in the morning. After some time (an hour or so) Thunderbird freezes and must be killed using C-A-D or TOP. Since the new pmmerge.dll Thunderbird stopped freezing, which is quite nice.
I don't know if the new pmmerge.dll solved the issue or if I am just being biased  .

Greetings,
Mike

[Dariusz Piatkowski]

...

I haven't tried any other apps yet since I figured I would report this first and test any other specifics you might be interested in?

Nothing special, just observe  what has improved  and what has degraded.

Well, what my report was intended to convey is the fact that using the patched pmmerge.dll no longer provides a working system. So that in my book would be a major degradation.

My follow-up question was asking how else you think we could track down what's causing the problem?

[OS4User]

My follow-up question was asking how else you think we could track down what's causing the problem?

pls suggest  what  should I do to repeat you case on my comp ?

[Dariusz Piatkowski]

My follow-up question was asking how else you think we could track down what's causing the problem?

pls suggest  what  should I do to repeat you case on my comp ?

Honestly I wish I could provide a suggestion, but given that I'm running a dual-screen setup here with SNAP drivers, whatever PMMERGE DLL is managing, which I believe is the majority of the Presentation Manager calls that are most likely closely interacting with the display drivers, I suspect can only be debugged on my specific hardware.

So is there a possibility for us to do some kind of a TRACE on this?

I am at a loss, but you had asked for feedback, so I provided my results. I will have a little more time later today so let me re-deploy that DLL and see if any other applications cause the same issue.

[OS4User]

So is there a possibility for us to do some kind of a TRACE on this?

I have no idea how to do that.  In archive sub dir  you  can find previous ver  of pmmerge   -  you can try to find last good for your system.

[Dariusz Piatkowski]

So is there a possibility for us to do some kind of a TRACE on this?

I have no idea how to do that.  In archive sub dir  you  can find previous ver  of pmmerge   -  you can try to find last good for your system.

I understand and can appreciate that. Thank you!

FYI, I repeated my tests with other applications, found out that each time I opened a PM app the WPS become frozen. CAD Pop-up followed by a Re-boot got me out.

[Lars]

kernel W4, 14.201_a, eCS 2.2 beta, running with 1 core unter Virtualbox:

directly traps with a Ring 0 trap on boot. The trap triggers in DOSCALL1.DLL, but the actual Ring 0 trap happens in PMDD.SYS:

 Slot  Pid  Ppid Csid Ord  Sta Pri  pTSD     pPTDA    pTCB     Disp SG Name
*0019# 0015 0014 0015 0001 run 0300 f9f9f000 fefb59e0 feef840c 0ee8 00 DHCPSTRT
 
eax=7cd00047 ebx=0000efc0 ecx=00000007 edx=00000020 esi=0004a338 edi=26cb0000
eip=0000c541 esp=0008ef98 ebp=0004a30c iopl=2 -- -- -- nv up ei pl nz na pe nc
cs=ffef ss=0047 ds=0053 es=0053 fs=150b gs=0000  cr2=00000000  cr3=00200000
ffef:0000c541 66ea6477fc1f5b00 jmp       005b:1ffc7764


# ln ffef:c541
 
ffef:0000c53c DOSCALL1 UT32_TARGET + 5


# ln %1ffc7764
 
%1ffc7764 DOSCALL1 UT32_RETURN

The instruction directly before the "jmp" is an (indirect) call to DOSDEVIOCTL, in case that matters. But I would think it is a IOCTL call into PMDD.SYS.
 



# .maamc ffef:c541
 
 
*har     par      cpg        va    flg next prev link hash hob   hal
 0119 %feb98830 00000010 %1ffd0000 3d9 0118 011a 0000 0000 0132 0000  hco=00164
 hob   har hobnxt flgs own  hmte  sown,cnt lt st xf
 0132  0119 0000  0838 012a 012a  0000 00  00 00 00 shared    c:doscall1.dll
 hco=00164 pco=ffe0970f  hconext=00130 hptda=0531 f=1c  pid=0016 c:dhcpcd.exe
 hco=00130 pco=ffe0960b  hconext=000e3 hptda=0469 f=1c  pid=0015 c:dhcpstrt.exe
 hco=000e3 pco=ffe0948a  hconext=00107 hptda=0459 f=1c  pid=0014 c:dhcpstrt.com
...


#
                        TRAP SCREEN INFORMATION
OS/2 Kernel Revision 14.201_W4
Exception in module: PMDD   
 TRAP 000d       ERRCD=0000  ERACC=****  ERLIM=********
EAX=7cd00000  EBX=f9f902f2  ECX=00000020  EDX=0000005b
ESI=feef0000  EDI=26cb0010  EBP=00045bf8  FLG=00012292
CS:EIP=0d00:00000a8b  CSACC=009b  CSLIM=00000d10
SS:ESP=0030:00005b8c  SSACC=1097  SSLIM=00004ebf
DS=0cf8  DSACC=0093  DSLIM=000000d0  CR0=8001003b
ES=0000  ESACC=****  ESLIM=********  CR2=1fec9b80
FS=0000  FSACC=****  FSLIM=********
GS=0000  GSACC=****  GSLIM=********

I have a full trap dump, in case that helps.

[OS4User]

kernel W4, 14.201_a, eCS 2.2 beta, running with 1 core unter Virtualbox:

Is  anything  in comport ?  Try  SMP/UNI kernel  or OS/4 kernel.

[Igor]

Everything works great on two different computers. One of them is a server in constant uptime.

[Igor]

I offer two tests. Both of me freeze any system. I wonder how it will be with you?
http://ru2.halfos.ru/1/teststart.zip
http://ru2.halfos.ru/1/teststart2.zip

Tests go through 10 000 cycles and stop in a good case and freeze earlier in a bad one.

[Lars]

With the already mentioned config and with the ORIGINAL pmmerge, I do not get a hang on either testcase.
However, teststart2 eventually reports this:

SYS0008: There is not enough memory available to process this command.
All available memory is in use.

However, I cannot see memory depleting, therefore I think the root cause if something else. In any case, this seems to be a bug in the REXX interpreter.

What I can also see for testcase2 is that the initial window does not properly draw which might be a PM problem.
If this stuff crashes for you then there might be an SMP issue with PM (as I am only running on one core). I wouldn't be surprised.

[Lars]

Actually, it might indeed be a memory problem: a couple of secondary windows are created (and closed with exit) until I get a bunch of memory error messages, obviously one error message per attempt to open an additional window.

It's possible that PM (including the PM drivers) has some problem allocating memory. Potentially, because they have to allocate from some limited memory pool or region.