Public Discussions > General Discussion
Retro Machine - DOS VDM - OpenOffice
ivan:
I have a suggestion that might work for you.
First let me describe my setup. I have 5 computers around my desk all connected to my keyboard, monitor and track ball via a multiport hdmi switch. This allows me to use my OS/2 Warp, Arcaos, linux mint, win 7 and have one available with provision to plug in one of several hard disks as needed for backup. The win 7 machine I salvaged when a neighbour threw it out.
My suggestion is for you to decide what are the main programs you want to use and setup a computer to do that then look for a salvage computer to run the rest and also run as a NAS,
Roderick Klein:
--- Quote from: Doug Clark on September 02, 2024, 05:14:05 pm ---Andrew,
In my experience eCS, and earlier versions of AOS, run windows and dos applications better than 5.1 on some machines. Depends on the machine. I am running AOS v 5.1 on three different machines (Ryzen R5/MSI motherboard, Thinkpad T530 and HP EliteDesk 800 G4). The Thinkpad runs Win-OS/2 and Dos programs perfectly on AOS v 5.1 but would not run Win-OS/2 with earlier version of AOS. The EliteDesk runs Win-OS/2 but in full screen mode only. The Ryzen appears to run all Win-OS/2 programs in full screen, but some programs will freeze the machine in seamless mode - QuattroPro for Windows being the worst. I also have problems with ReportSmith - and sometimes FrameMaker v 5.1 will freeze after awhile in seamless. But again they all appear to run fine in full screen - many programs run fine in seamless mode.
I think it is both hardware and software. I had a couple of earlier AMD (FX4350 socket AM3+/ASUS motherboard) machines, one with eCS installed and one with AOS 5.02 installed. Windows and Dos programs ran fine in on both machines. When I upgraded the AMD AOS from v 5.02 to v 5.06 I started to have problems with Win-OS/2.
To test the theory I did a fresh install of AOS v 5.02 on a new hard drive on the AMD machine and transferred it to the Ryzen machine. (AOS v 5.02 will not install in the Ryzen machine). To get it to work I had to switch to a serial mouse and PS/2 keyboard because USB would not work and the network card stopped working - but the problematic windows programs (like Quattro Pro for Windows) ran fine. So I think it is both the version of AOS and the hardware it is running on.
To run Win-OS/2 programs on the Thinkpad (before AOS v 5.1 came out) I ran my windows programs in a WIndows XP virtual machine running in VBOX on AOS. That worked pretty good for me - although there is a trick to getting vbox to start without a hitch.
--- End quote ---
"When I upgraded the AMD AOS from v 5.02 to v 5.06 I started to have problems with Win-OS/2." So did you open a ticket at Arca Noae for this ?
Having worked on all versions of eCS at Mensys the changes in regard to ArcaOS and eCS 1.2R and 2.x. is well close 0. To be specific this means the core code is the WIN/OS2 code, the VDD drivers and the kernel code for VDM support is mostly the same. What can change the stuff is timing in code, if a bug exists is unknown. Until there is bug that Arca Noae so they can look at the issue.
Also for everybody reading this! With ArcaoS 5.1.0, if you run your system in UEFI mode a new video handler is used called VEFI.SYS that replaces VSVGA.SYS!
For WIN/OS2 this driver I understand does not do that much. But it can never be ruled out there are bugs in that driver.
However what I understand from the testing and what I picked up at Warpstock most of the code in VEFI.SYS is for the DOS sessions.
But as with any bug if it can be reproduced generate a testlog generic and open a ticket at Arca Noae on https://mantis.arcanoae.com.
I know from my Mensys days that debugging VDM stuff can be pretty complex. About 25% of the OS2 kernel its code is for the VDM support (DOS and Windows 3.1.).
Most of this DOS/VDM code has not been altered for decades. But again open a bug if you have time.
That might help to debug the stuff.
Roderick Klein
Doug Clark:
Roderick,
I am guessing the issue is somewhere in APCI, and/or maybe usb in because I see the problem with both SNAP and Panorama. I do have a ticket opened for this. I can only imagine how difficult this will be to track down because I am guessing AOS will have to have copy of the actual machine having the problem to track it down.
I will say how amazed I am that ArcaNoae got AOS to run on UEFI machines, and that I can run 32 year old 16 bit software that is important to me on modern hardware - even if some of those programs have to be run in full screen.
Ivan - excellent suggestion - I also have multiple machines for compatibilty reasons - and that was the main reason for switching to thin-client type machines: much smaller size and much less power consumption.
Andrew Stephenson:
Thank you, everyone who made suggestions. And other thanks to those who are patiently sitting through this chatter...
--- Quote from: Dave Yeo on September 02, 2024, 07:11:43 pm ---You might want to test with only one cpu enabled. Add /MAXCPU=1 to the PSD=ACPI.PSD line in config.sys.
As for LibreOffice, one of the first things they did when they forked from OpenOffice was remove the OS/2 stuff and since then so much development has happened that re-adding it would be very hard. Even building OpenOffice is next to impossible without the right environment which I understand only one person has.
--- End quote ---
* MAXCPU:- Sounds a solid idea; cannot do it at once but soon as possible.
* LibreOffice:- Pity. Well, we'll see whether my WS setup can be rescued. As a side-thought: does OS/2 have a text-editor subset of OpenOffice? I mean a program that is aware of the other \OO functions like spreadsheet, so it can skip references to them, but does only text editing? Being able to work with the ODF file format sounds attractive, for portability if nothing else.
--- Quote from: Pete on September 02, 2024, 07:45:11 pm ---[...]
Open Editor (e.exe) and Save As [BootDrive]H:\OS2\BOOT\ALTF2ON.$$$- Yes, an empty "dummy" file.
This reports every driver that it has loaded during boot which seems to help with timing issues. Also useful if boot gets stuck at some point as you can see how far booting got before failing.
--- End quote ---
* Dummy file:- I'll give it a go, though I'm managing okay(ish) by being nimble with my Alt+F2 pressing.
* Roderick & ivan:- Fair points. Given my lowly User status, I'd best see what happens with suggestions covered above and hope some bright SMOC discovers how to put things right. Tickets: as appropriate.
Will feed back what I learn. Thanks again.
Andrew Stephenson:
--- Quote from: Andrew Stephenson on September 03, 2024, 05:34:57 pm ---
--- Quote from: Dave Yeo on September 02, 2024, 07:11:43 pm ---You might want to test with only one cpu enabled. Add /MAXCPU=1 to the PSD=ACPI.PSD line in config.sys.
--- End quote ---
* MAXCPU:- Sounds a solid idea; cannot do it at once but soon as possible.
--- End quote ---
I got to this sooner than expected. Sadly, there was no sign of it doing much, though (if I recall right) key combo Ctl+Alt+Del allowed me to use the Reboot option after a DOS session crash, where (if I recall right) I used to have to use the Reset button on the Lenovo m/c. (But I may not be recalling right.)
Nice idea, though. Thanks again.
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