OS2 World Community Forum

OS/2, eCS & ArcaOS - Technical => Storage => Topic started by: David Hart on April 29, 2020, 02:30:35 am

Title: WinOS2 hangs on File Manager and a FAT32 drive
Post by: David Hart on April 29, 2020, 02:30:35 am
I have noticed that the File Manager on WinOS2 on ArcaOS 5.0.2 hangs and I could not figure out why.  I have never seen this issue before but I began to wonder if the reason was the size of the drive (12 Gig - not big by today's standards) but it only hangs when using WinOS2 File Manger.  Opening documents from WinOS2 Applications does not hang.

Today I thought I would hide that FAT32 drive and then try to open the file manager and no hang.

Has anyone seen that?

I set up the FAT32 drive and it is the 3rd partition with WinXP first with 50 Gig, then ArcaOS (JFS) with 14 Gig then Fat32 at 12 Gig.

thanks
Title: Re: WinOS2 hangs on File Manager and a FAT32 drive
Post by: Doug Bissett on April 29, 2020, 04:12:34 am
The problem is, that DOS, and by extension Win/OS2, only know about 2 GB partitions. That is the reason why later versions of ArcaOS have the 2GBfix package installed. It is at HOBBES: https://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/dos/2gbfix.zip (https://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/dos/2gbfix.zip). That package is further modified by a patch; https://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/dos/2GBFIXPA.ZIP (https://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/dos/2GBFIXPA.ZIP). When you use that, DOS and Win/OS2 only see 2 GB drives, even though there is a lot more there.
Title: Re: WinOS2 hangs on File Manager and a FAT32 drive
Post by: Dave Yeo on April 29, 2020, 04:22:19 am
Works fine here, even displays a 2.8GB file which kind of surprised me. FAT32 volume is 31GBs.
Perhaps there is a broken short name? Winos2 does display the 8.3 short names for long names, which is nice as they just don't show up with a JFS or HPFS volume.
Could be the version of the fat32 driver as well, I'm using the latest which may not have been released yet.
I do have the patch that Doug mentioned installed and DOS sees,
Code: [Select]
O:\>dir q:

The volume label in drive Q is FAT32.
The Volume Serial Number is 1709:2826.
Directory of Q:\

MOZPRO~1 ZIP 2828406809   1-22-20  6:04p
LIBCX    ZIP    931741   3-30-20 10:17a
QTWEBE~1     <DIR>       4-01-20  2:21a
LOCALE   TXT        52   4-06-20  6:18p
      ~2            20   4-07-20  9:13p
      ~1            20   4-07-20  9:13p
492~1    PAT      4950   3-29-20 11:14p
VERSIO~1 DIF      2394   3-29-20  2:09p
FOO                  0   4-11-20  3:50p
49~1     2           0   4-11-20  3:50p
      10 file(s) 2829345986 bytes used
                 2147155968 bytes free

You could try a dir at a DOS prompt
Title: Re: WinOS2 hangs on File Manager and a FAT32 drive
Post by: David Graser on April 29, 2020, 08:51:13 pm
Did not ArcaOS 5.04 come with the https://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/dos/2GBFIXPA.ZIP fix?  Previous versions did not.  The original was

https://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/dos/2gbfix.zip
Title: Re: WinOS2 hangs on File Manager and a FAT32 drive
Post by: Dave Yeo on April 30, 2020, 12:12:57 am
Did not ArcaOS 5.04 come with the https://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/dos/2GBFIXPA.ZIP fix?  Previous versions did not.  The original was

https://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/dos/2gbfix.zip

IIRC, it is first included in 5.0.5
Title: Re: WinOS2 hangs on File Manager and a FAT32 drive
Post by: Roderick Klein on April 30, 2020, 12:24:58 pm
If you still have a valid ArcaOS subscription, get the latest FAT 32 driver from Arca Noae. This hang you describes opening the Windows 3.1 File manager hangs the system.
That is not an issue with not having that 2 GB file size fix installed. It hangs because the driver in ArcaOS has a bug.

So update to the latest FAT 32 driver from Arca Noae, that should resolve your hang.

Best regards,

Roderick Klein
Title: Re: WinOS2 hangs on File Manager and a FAT32 drive
Post by: mauro on April 30, 2020, 08:51:10 pm
The problem is, that DOS, and by extension Win/OS2, only know about 2 GB partitions. That is the reason why later versions of ArcaOS have the 2GBfix package installed. It is at HOBBES: https://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/dos/2gbfix.zip (https://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/dos/2gbfix.zip). That package is further modified by a patch; https://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/dos/2GBFIXPA.ZIP (https://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/dos/2GBFIXPA.ZIP). When you use that, DOS and Win/OS2 only see 2 GB drives, even though there is a lot more there.

do you know if this fix works also in OS2 Warp for the "not enough space" issue on windows installer running in Odin, which I learned it is due the 2Gb space limit ?
Title: Re: WinOS2 hangs on File Manager and a FAT32 drive
Post by: Doug Bissett on May 01, 2020, 03:07:18 am
Quote
do you know if this fix works also in OS2 Warp for the "not enough space" issue on windows installer running in Odin, which I learned it is due the 2Gb space limit ?

No. it is for DOS and Win/OS2 only.

There was a tweaked windows installer, somewhere. I have no idea how well it works (and 2 GB doesn't sound right). The other way around that, is to add enough files to the drive, to change the number wrap, so the installer thinks it has about 2 GB (or whatever the number is) free.
Title: Re: WinOS2 hangs on File Manager and a FAT32 drive
Post by: Dave Yeo on May 01, 2020, 08:12:37 am
There is https://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/windows/win32inst.zip (https://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/windows/win32inst.zip) which replaced the 16 bit installer with 32 bit files, but this was for Win32 programs that came with a 16 bit installer which didn't run under Odin.
Funny enough, I also remember the opposite in the Win95 days, 16 bit Windows programs that would run fine under WinOS2 (or Win 3.1) that came with a 32 bit installer which needed Win95+ to install.
Title: Re: WinOS2 hangs on File Manager and a FAT32 drive
Post by: mauro on May 01, 2020, 06:44:38 pm
Quote
do you know if this fix works also in OS2 Warp for the "not enough space" issue on windows installer running in Odin, which I learned it is due the 2Gb space limit ?

No. it is for DOS and Win/OS2 only.

There was a tweaked windows installer, somewhere. I have no idea how well it works (and 2 GB doesn't sound right). The other way around that, is to add enough files to the drive, to change the number wrap, so the installer thinks it has about 2 GB (or whatever the number is) free.

ok I had already tried with this workaround (learned here of course) of filling the empty volume space with a giant file to make the remaining free space become little more than 1 Gb, but it hasn't worked
Title: Re: WinOS2 hangs on File Manager and a FAT32 drive
Post by: Doug Bissett on May 02, 2020, 06:34:29 am
Quote
ok I had already tried with this workaround (learned here of course) of filling the empty volume space with a giant file to make the remaining free space become little more than 1 Gb, but it hasn't worked

I remember that there is, at least, one windows installer that just won't work. Try Dave's suggestion, and replace the installer with the one that is known to work (no guarantees though).
Title: Re: WinOS2 hangs on File Manager and a FAT32 drive
Post by: mauro on May 02, 2020, 04:20:06 pm
Quote
ok I had already tried with this workaround (learned here of course) of filling the empty volume space with a giant file to make the remaining free space become little more than 1 Gb, but it hasn't worked

I remember that there is, at least, one windows installer that just won't work. Try Dave's suggestion, and replace the installer with the one that is known to work (no guarantees though).

thank you, I read it should be used replacing se setup.exe file in the installation directory containing all necessary files, but I could not use it with a standalone installation package with all files in it, unless in such situation I use an "unpacker" which deploy all files contained in it.
Title: Re: WinOS2 hangs on File Manager and a FAT32 drive
Post by: Doug Bissett on May 02, 2020, 04:59:56 pm
Quote
thank you, I read it should be used replacing se setup.exe file in the installation directory containing all necessary files, but I could not use it with a standalone installation package with all files in it, unless in such situation I use an "unpacker" which deploy all files contained in it.

That sounds about right.

ODIN is not really used any more, other than as DLL support for ported programs. What, exactly, are you trying to install? Somebody may have tried it, or suggestions about alternate programs can be made.
Title: Re: WinOS2 hangs on File Manager and a FAT32 drive
Post by: mauro on May 02, 2020, 08:38:07 pm
Quote
thank you, I read it should be used replacing se setup.exe file in the installation directory containing all necessary files, but I could not use it with a standalone installation package with all files in it, unless in such situation I use an "unpacker" which deploy all files contained in it.

That sounds about right.

ODIN is not really used any more, other than as DLL support for ported programs. What, exactly, are you trying to install? Somebody may have tried it, or suggestions about alternate programs can be made.

nothing to be considered a matter of "life or death" , it was Paint Shop Pro 7.  I've recently discovered in Joop's Java applications page a good similar one, Java Image Editor