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Messages - Doug Clark

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31
Applications / Re: AOS disk size limitation?
« on: June 04, 2024, 06:29:23 pm »
Thanks Dave - the format routine is clever.

32
Applications / Re: AOS disk size limitation?
« on: June 04, 2024, 06:26:45 pm »
Thanks Dave for the info.

Sorry I posted this twice - I thought the first post had disappeared and so I re-posted.

What drove me to JFS from HPFS was the difference in CHKDSK times.  CHKDSK on HPFS takes forever on large volumes.   Since a RAM disk  gets thrown away on reboot CHKDSK is a non-issue.  And the "thrown away on reboot" is, for me, one of the advantages of a RAM disk.   Fits right in with my lazy, never get around to it,  disk  housekeeping tendencies.

33
Applications / Re: AOS RAM Disk
« on: June 04, 2024, 07:39:38 am »
Is the AOS RAM disk bound by the same limitations as file systems on "normal" disks,
or is there some magic going on in this app?

Without thinking I set my machine up some months ago with an 8GB HPFS RAM disk and have
been operating that way for months - although I don't think I have ever copied more that
2 GB to the RAM disk.

But what would happen if I did?

If I remove the line
IFS=C:\OS2\HPFS.IFS /CACHE:2048 /CRECL:4 /AUTOCHECK:*
from CONFIG.SYS I get the error

The specified disk or diskette cannot be accessed
C:\MPTN\BIN\VDOSCTL.EXE

The help for RAM disk says, in part
"The AOS loader can format the drive(s) it creates using FAT, FAT32, or HPFS; it can also leave them unformatted. Both drives will be formatted the same way. Note that if you choose FAT, any drive over 2gb will be left unformatted."
but it doesn't say anything about other file system types.

I tried using FAT32 but that makes the RAM drive VERY SLOW when copying files to and from the disk.

Finally - I tried setting the "Format partitions using" to none and using the WPS disk object
to format the RAM disk as JFS, and the application I was running (VLC) that was reading files
from the RAM disk started behaving badly.

And the final question:  If I don't have any other partitions, other than the RAM disk,
formatted as HPFS, do I really need the /CACHE:2048 clause the IFS statement in CONFIG.SYS?
Doesn't seem to make sense to cache a RAM disk in RAM.

34
Applications / AOS disk size limitation?
« on: June 04, 2024, 07:19:59 am »
Is the AOS RAM disk bound by the same file system limitations as "normal" disks?

Meaning - is an AOS HPFS formatted to HPFS limited to 2GB - as is normal for HPFS?  Or does the RAM do something "special" that allows it to transcend regular file system limitations?

Without thinking about this I set the RAM disk up to use 8gb of high memory format as HPFS and have been booting that way for months.  I don't think I have ever copied more than 2 GBs to the RAM drive - but what would happen if I did?

The help says is "The AOS loader can format the drive(s) it creates using FAT, FAT32, or HPFS; it can also leave them unformatted. Both drives will be formatted the same way. Note that if you choose FAT, any drive over 2gb will be left unformatted."

Since JFS is not an option on the RAM disk setup dialog I switched to FAT32 - but that makes the drive VERY SLOW.

I also tried reformatting the drive as JFS using the WPS drive object but the application I was running using files on the RAM disk (VLC) started behaving very strangely.

I seem to remember having to put IFS=HPFS

35
Programming / Re: REXX IDE recommendations?
« on: March 28, 2024, 06:20:14 pm »
I know that both NEPM and LxPM do syntax highighting.  Standard EPM may also.  NEPMD will also do syntax completion for multiple languages, including Rexx

LxPM will highlight certain syntax errors as well - including with Rexx.

I believe both allow you to modify the syntax file/language file where you define what elements there are in the language.

LxPM comes in VisualAge C++ version 4.   There is an LxPM in VisualAge C++ v 3 but I don't believe it works on later versions of OS/2.

NEPMD is available from NetLabs

36
Programming / Wdsibyl crash
« on: March 07, 2024, 10:14:30 pm »
Anyone know the solution to this crash when opening a previously saved project?

I also get error messages that major components are not available when trying to build a new application, such as TMain1 can't be found.


37
Programming / Re: SQL running total
« on: February 25, 2024, 01:30:57 am »
Oops - I realize that some of the entries in ODBCINST.INI still had the path to my Lotus SmartSuite install.   Which will cause an error of not being able to find the driver or setup routines.

These new files have the paths removed - because you really don't need to put them in either ODBC.INI or ODBCINST.INI.  ODBC can find them on the LIBPATH.

Sorry.

38
Hardware / Re: Netbios network speed pci-pcie adapter
« on: February 25, 2024, 01:25:56 am »
The connection between the card that plugs into the PCIe slot and the circuit board that contains the two PCI slots is actually a special cable that can only be plugged in to those two cards even though it uses a USB connector.  It cannot be plugged into a regular USB connector on the motherboard.  If it is it will ruin the motherboard and the expansion card - according to the vendor.

The vendor says it does not need a driver, but the instructions with the adapter say to plug the card into the PCIe slot first and wait until the blue light comes on the card/adapter, then plug in the PCI card into the adapter - you need to wait until Windows loads a driver for the adapter.  The tech support forums indicate that on some machines you have to make change to bios settings so that Windows will recognize the adapter.  So I am guessing they built it to use some driver that Microsoft distributes with Windows.

Strangely enough, when I tested it the Intel driver appears to recognize the Intel NIC on boot up  but I cannot connect to my server or transfer any data.

The other issue with this adapter is that they located the power connector right at the back of the PCI connectors, which means you cannot physically plug in any PCI card that is longer than the connector itself, because any power connector you plug in will stick up far enough to block the card from fully plugging into the slot.  The StarTech adapter uses a pig tail for the power connector so that you can fit a card into its slot without any clearance issues.

When I did my test with the Trotwei Blue two connector adapter I did not plug power into the adapter because the power connector would not fit with a PCI card plugged in.  And even then I could not use the same Intel NIC that I used with the StarTech, because of the location of the power connector.  So it is possible there was an incompatibility between the Intel NIC I used with the Trotwei Blue and that adapter.  I used a different Intel NIC with the StarTech.

The Intel Pro 1000 MT that I used in the StarTech is a PCI/PCI-X  card that fits in either a 32 bit or 64 bit PCI slot.  The extra "fingers"  on the card are for when it is plugged into a 64 bit PCI slot. (The card automatically detects which kind of slot it is plugged into.)  But those fingers will not allow it to fit in the Trotwei Blue adapter, even without power connected to the adapter.





39
Hardware / Netbios network speed pci-pcie adapter
« on: February 24, 2024, 05:39:43 pm »
I have an ECS machine acting as a file server and database server using both WSeB and SAMBA 3.6.12.  I have ECS, AOS, WinXP, Win7, and various Macs as clients - some of those are dictated by the driver requirements of various hardware I use.

The OS/2 machines use Netbios, the others use SAMBA to talk to the client.

When I installed AOS 5.1 on a new MSI Pro B550-VS/Ryzen 5600X I ran into a netbios speed issue with the RealTek 8111H gigabit LAN controller.  The netbios speeds are about 200 times slower than FTP or Samba speeds.  I have run into this speed issue with this chip set on other motherboards so I assume it is a driver issue.  This means, for example, the transfer time for a 1.5GB file goes from 50 seconds to more than 2.5 hours.  It also means that VLC cannot play a movie located on the server because the transfer speed is so slow.

I could not connect with the new ArcaMapper to Samba 3.6.12 on my server.  I have connected other OS/2 machines using Samba 3.6 to the server but I could not connect on AOS 5.1 with ArcaMapper.

So I tried FTPIFS on the AOS 5.1 machine and installed Peter Molyan's FTP server on the server.  That works pretty well, but some applications, like VLC, will not work with FPTIFS.

I know from past experience that Intel network drivers work very will with OS/2.  But it appears that the newer Intel chipsets - like the ones used on their PCIe adapters -  will not work with the older OS/2 drivers.  And my motherboard does not have any PCI slots.

So the solution was to use an older PCI Intel Pro 1000 NIC in a PCI to PCIe adapter. 

This PCI to PCIe adapter does NOT work:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BYWLVYL4?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

But this one does:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0024CV3SA?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

It plugs into a PCIe x 1 slot.

You just plug the adapter into the slot on the motherboard, and the PCI card into the adapter.  The only downside is I have to modify the bracket to fit the case since the combination adapter/NIC is taller than a standard full height card.

All the slots on my motherboard are PCIe x16 slots, two of those will support mode x1.  I have the adapter plugged into one of the x1 mode supported slots.  I do not know if the adapter will with in slots that do not support mode x1.

This required no changes in BIOS settings - just plug and play.

I have attached the speed of Win7 to ECS via Samba just for comparison.

40
Programming / Re: SQL running total
« on: February 23, 2024, 08:15:57 pm »
I have attached the program we talked about.

This is an app that I first wrote years ago to handle some specific database needs.  It is not complete and probably never will be.  But while it was a number of warts and is missing some features, it will run SQL queries against dDbase files using version 3 ODBC drivers.  Which means it will handle your SQL statement, and the version 3 driver supports renaming of columns in the result set with AS

To get line numbers for your results (what you call sequence numbers) type
SET SHELL ROWNUMBERS=YES before you execute your query.  They will appear on the left instead of the right as you show.


41
Programming / Re: SQL running total
« on: February 23, 2024, 08:00:13 pm »
Per,

Try the the ODBC drivers attached.  You need both files. 

Unzip ODBCINIFILES.ZIP in C:\OS2

Unzip ODBCFILES.ZIP in C:\

These will work with you Approach and other Lotus applications.  It contains all the drivers that I know about, including PostgreSQL, SQLite, etc. as well as dBase at ODBC version 3, as well as version 3 and version 3.5 ODBC Driver Managers.

You can use this installation to switch between your Intersolv drivers licensed for Lotus SmartSuite and other drivers including version 3.5 without rebooting.  Instructions are in the ReadMe.Txt in ODBCFILES.ZIP

If you want ODBC version 3 files that are evaluation license get ODBC_3-01.zip from hobbes.


42
Setup & Installation / Re: Install - screen goes blank when pmshell starts
« on: February 08, 2024, 06:47:33 am »
Rich:
Quote
You are booting UEFI using CSM base video drivers:
  SET VIO_SVGA=DEVICE(BVHVGA,BVHSVGA)
vs.
  SET VIO_SVGA=DEVICE(BVHEFI)
This turned out to be the magic info I needed. 

If
 SET VIO_SVGA=DEVICE(BVHVGA,BVHSVGA)
and I boot CSM then SNAP works correctly and I don't get the weird triangles  durning boot.

If
SET VIO_SVGA=DEVICE(BVHEFI)
and I boot UEFI I also don't get the weird triangles but DOS sessions do not work.

Dave:
I have given up booting directly, CSM mode, to AOS.  I have to press F11 on startup and select the drive from the menu.

I did try reFind (eEFInd), and used SCANFOR and UEFI_DEEP_LEGACY_SCAN options in refind.conf.  reFind will find the hard drive and will boot to it in CSM mode, but it requires an additional boot.  The sequence is :
1)  initial boot goes to reFind menu
2) on reFind menu select hard drive, press enter
3)  refind reboots the machine and this reboot goes directly into the drive I selected.

So I am pleased and impressed that reFind will boot to a drive in CSM mode, which its documentation says it won't do.
But since that requires an additional reboot (albeit automated), what's the point.

The good news is once I am in AOS and reboot the enhanced shutdown dialog lists the boot volume and selecting that allows a reboot to go directly into AOS.
So I am stuck with F11 on initial boot and reset.  Still worth it to get SNAP working.

Thanks again everyone for your help and suggestions.  I really appreciate it.

[edit/modify]
Correction - turns out I can boot directly to a MBR disk in CSM mode on initial boot.  Just had to move the hard drive to a different SATA socket (lower SATA number, i.e. from SATA 7 to SATA 1).  This then allows the drive to appear as an available drive in the boot priority list.  Putting it as the first drive in the priority list has it booting correctly.
[end edit modify]




43
Setup & Installation / Re: Install - screen goes blank when pmshell starts
« on: February 03, 2024, 12:55:17 am »
Afterthought... you say you installed AirBoot on the NVME. Did you _really_ reformat the drive as MBR? Argggh...

Naahh - it was always formatted MBR.  I figured life was complex enough without adding GPT to the mix.

 I used MiniLVM - Boot Menu - Remove to remove the UEFI boot "manager" and then Boot Menu - Install and selected AirBoot.  However the mouse doesn't work when booting through AirBoot, so I went back to MiniLVM to remove AirBoot and create the ESP partition and realized it was still there - the MiniLVM remove option doesn't actually delete the partition.

You keep making it worse for yourself.

With this experience I think I am going to adopt that as my motto.  I know my wife would agree.

You know this UEFI, UEFI/CSM  - boot stuff may not be rocket science but is still pretty complex.  There is quite good documentation with rEFINd that  goes into great detail about the booting - stuff I did not know.  I was pretty happy under my rock until I had to get a new machine.  Boy things have certainly changed in the last 10 years.

Thanks again Rich for your help - and everyone else.

[edit]
 I forgot to ask.  Does anyone recognize the boot menu/manager in the attachment?  After going back to UEFI boot on the first drive, and installing reFind, when I boot os2ldr.efi with reFind the OS/2 boot blob appears in the upper left corner of the screen and then this boot menu.  Which I think means this is coming from OS/2-AOS rather than the bios or reFind.
[/edit]

44
Thanks Rich.  I was just about to ask whether something like this existed and I saw your post.  I need it because I think I got rid of the files in the ESP.

Update on the install.  The AN installer will run with VisonTek Radeon HD 5450 video card installed. So I installed AOS to the NVME drive (drive c:).  Then installed AOS v 5.1 on a SATA SSD installed on an old, legacy only, Asus/AMD machine with the Radeo x600 and SNAP - as drive U:

Put the x600 in the new machine, along with the SATA SSD (drive u:) to use as a maintenance partition/drive so I can boot with the x600 installed.  Then installed SNAP on the  C: drive (NVME)

As for booting in CSM(legacy) or UEFI mode
It appears the BIOS setting "Boot mode select" (UEFI or LEGACY+UEF) does not determine the mode used when booting.  All Boot mode select does is change the devices that are listed as Fixed Boot Order Priorities (see attached screen shot).  If the boot mode select = UEFI the only devices listed are those with names that begin (in the list) with UEFI.  If boot mode select = Legacy+UEFI then the whole list appears - as shown in the screen shot.

What determine whether you boot in UEFI mode or legacy mode is whether the device name begins with UEFI in the Fixed Boot Order Priorities list.  If it begins with UEFI the system boots in UEFI mode.  If the name does not begin with UEFI the system boots in legacy or CSM mode (the terms are used interchangably in the bios)

SNAP works whether it is booted in UEFI mode or legacy mode - however when booted in UEFI mode the screen blanks and then shows static arranged as triangles spread across the screen for about 10 seconds - and then the desktop comes up normal as it should.  Weird.  When booted in legacy mode the desktop just comes up without the weird temporary static stuff.

The SATA SSD (containing drive u:)  does not show up in the Fixed Boot Order Priorities list and cannot be put in that list.  The only way to boot to that drive/partition is to use the BIOS boot menu (press F11 on startup)  AirBoot installed on the SATA SSD shows all the drives with primary paritions - including drive C: - and will boot to drive C:

So to avoid having to use the bios boot menu to get a legacy boot on my main drive (drive c:) I removed the ESP and installed AirBoot on the NVME.  Big mistake - because now the mouse doesn't work.   Hopefully I can fix this with Rich's CSMtoUEFI utility.

Thanks again to everyone for your help.

45
It is so painful being ignorant.

You were right Dave,
Quote
One other idea, can you fiddle with the PCI settings in the BIOS? Mine allows changing it from X3 to X2 or X1 or similar, slowing it down might be a workaround.

When the x600 video card is in slot 4 SNAP works correctly and is fast - see attachment one: multihead, 3840x1080.  When it is in slot 1 the WPS  Screen object shows the chipset as Vesa v 2.1 and the resolutions are limited to VGA and it is SLOW.    Apparently two of the slots support x1 and the other two don't - see attached excerpts from the manual.  And apparently x1, x4, x16 mean either the size of the connector, the number of PCIe lanes, or the speed.

When running the AOS install the video still goes blank before I get to the screen where I can pick System Management or Install.  Which I think means I can't create an install.log or test.log for AN.

You will notice from the screen shot that Win-OS/2 appears to work - although it takes 10 - 15 seconds from clicking on the icon before Program Manager shows up.  Once it is running it is fast. 

I say "appears to work" because I think something happened between AOS v 5.0 and v 5.06 that makes Win-OS/2 funky.  Funky meaning some apps freeze after being used awhile.  I was starting to try and track down what caused that when my motherboard crapped out - which set me down this path of a new machine.

If the install wont run it appears my work-around is to convert my v 5.1 legacy install from the crapped out motherboard into a UEFI install on the new machine.  BTW - getting the legacy install to boot is interesting.  It has Airboot on the hard drive.  If I touch the USB attached keyboard Airboot freezes - as in the clock count down stops and you can't move the cursor.  If I attach a keyboard to the PS/2 port on the motherboard Airboot works fine - and once AOS is up and running the USB attached keyboard works ok.


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