Topics

1

Hardware / Observations on intel vs AMD

« on: November 08, 2024, 03:24:30 pm »

I am current running AOS 5.1 on three machines:

Lenovo T530 laptop with an 2.8-GHz dual-core Intel Core i5-3360M (circa late 2012) with SATA SSD

HP EliteDesk 800 G4 65 watt  mini desktop with an Intel i5 8500 (circa early 2018) with very fast NVMe SSDs,

A desktop Ryzen 5 5600x on MSI PROB500-VC (circa late 2020) with very fast NVMe SSD and spinning hard drive.  The Ryzen 5 5600x and MSI PROB550-VC can still be purchased new as of this writing (Nov 2024). 

I offer my very unscientific observations in hope that anyone considering a machine replacement for AOS may find them useful.  My observations center on two areas: performance and compatibility - although my own personal priorities are compatibility and then performance.

Performance
-----------------
Graphical: I am not gaming on any machine so for me graphical performance on all three are basically the same. The machines are running both panorama (T530) and SNAP in both accelerated (Ryzen) and non-accelerated mode (EliteDesk 800), and for me there is no noticeable difference in graphical performance.  This includes text mode scrolling in editors and command line prompts, as well as graphical performance in VLC while playing movies.

Boot up time: Boot time, from power on to desktop ready is.  T530 - 31 seconds, EliteDesk - 31 seconds, Ryzen 5 - 72 seconds.  All machines are running MBR disks and all go through Airboot - so the times include me hitting Enter as fast as possible in Airboot.  All are running CSM/legacy mode.  All machines have UEFI bios.  The relative differences between the machines stays the same when re-booting, i.e. a warm boot.  The longer boot time for the Ryzen is almost all in the "what the hell are you doing in there" bios setup time, that is the time between turning on the machine and getting the Airboot prompt. For a warm re-boot on the Ryzen there is a multi-second delay between clicking the Shut Down menu item in the Desktop pop-up menu and the display of the extended shutdown prompt.  I have to point out that the Ryzen is running xWorkplace and the two Intel machines are running AOS Enhanced Desktop.

Desktop restart time:  Here I am timing how long it takes for the Restart Desktop prompt to show after clicking on the Restart Desktop prompt in the Desktop popup menu. T530 and EliteDesk are essentially instantaneous, Ryzen 5 is 7 seconds.  The actual desktop restart process, once you hit OK at the Restart Desktop prompt is essentially the same.

The bottom line is the T530 with a SATA SSD and slowest CPU boots as fast as the EliteDesk with the fast NVMe SSD, and twice as fast as the Ryzen with the fastest NVMe SSD I could buy plugged in to PCIe gen 4 socket.  For boot times it appears Intel has a significant edge.

General Performance:  It is hard to directly compare the performance of the machines because they are used for different tasks.  The EliteDesk is used as a file and database server (WSeB). The Ryzen and T530 are used as general purpose machines and do a lot of compling.
 
Once I (finally) get the Ryzen booted it is the fastest of the three machines, which is mainly noticeable in application startup time and compile times.  I suspect this is mostly due to the speed of drive access.  The Ryzen is running PCIe gen 4 with a very fast NVMe SSD.  The EliteDesk is running PCIe gen 3 with the fastest NVMe SSDs I could buy.  The T530 is running a SATA SSD.   

Compatibility
------------------
I have significantly more money invested in software then I ever will have in hardware, so compatibility is very important to me.  I run, on a regular basis,  both OS2 and Win-OS/2 software (both Win16 and Win32s), some of which was released in 1992.  Software compatibility is generally not a problem with OS/2 software.  I have a couple of applications from 1992 that run on OS/2 - they have a few issues but run.  The compatibility issues mostly arise in Win-OS/2 and here things get complicated.

The T530 is more compatible with Win-OS/2 software than either the EliteDesk or the Ryzen - in most ways.  It will run applications in seamless mode that will not run in seamless mode on the Ryzen or the EliteDesk;. the EliteDesk will not run Win-OS/2 or DOS in anything other than full screen mode.

On the other hand, I can install some Win-OS/2 applications on the Ryzen that won't install on the other two machines - even though the Ryzen has problems running some applications in seamless mode.

The bottom line is that for compatibility  it appears there is more of a difference in how old the machine is than there is between Intel and AMD processors.  With older generally being better.

Versions of AOS
-----------------------
The T530 will run earlier versions of AOS than 5.1, but Win-OS/2 will not run on that machine until AOS version 5.1.  You cannot install any version earlier than AOS v 5.1 on the Ryzen - the installer will not work.  You can install an earlier version of AOS on a different machine and move the drive over to the Ryzen but USB,  and perhaps networking, will not work.

I didn't try to install an earlier version than 5.1 on the EliteDesk but I suspect an earlier version would not install.

This is not unique to AOS.  By way of comparison you cannot install Win7 on the EliteDesk without heroic efforts and strange incantations.  The fact that you can install and run AOS on the latest hardware is truly an accomplishment.

Hope this is helpful to someone.

2

Setup & Installation / Dynamic Icons help

« on: September 06, 2024, 06:36:59 am »

Is there documentation somewhere for Dynamic icons - like how it works, what the Reset Icon button does and when it should be used, how to uninstall Dynamic Icons, etc.?

Thanks in advance

3

Programming / Increasing MDOS Environment limit

« on: August 17, 2024, 12:56:28 am »

I believe the maximum for all environment variables in DOS, and hence Win-OS/2, is 160 characters.

Is there some setting that I am missing to increase this limit in DOS and Win-OS/2 sessions?

4

Applications / VLC v 3.0.21 not starting

« on: August 05, 2024, 12:15:27 am »

I can run vlc 3.0.18 just fine, but I cannot run any version of VLC past 3.0.18

Some type of window flashes on the screen and then goes away.

I suspect that some new library, or change in a library, has happened since 3.0.18 but I cannot figure out what.

Anyone have any ideas?  Thanks in advance

5

Networking / Samba groups are broken

« on: July 22, 2024, 12:53:55 am »

I am trying to get samba server 3.6.25 installed on a new machine.

I am getting the message

Samba groups are broken, only 0 instead of 9 groups found.


Any ideas for how to get past / fix this?

Thanks in advance

6

Networking / OS/2 extended attributes, the NSA and Wanna Cry on Youtube

« on: July 07, 2024, 05:53:24 am »

OS/2 extended attributes, SMBv1, mismatched variable sizes, the NSA and Wanna cry.

Interesting little video (2 actually) that mentions OS/2 extended attributes -
while describing some microsoft vulnerabilities located around SMB.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KfY1hlibZ0

While the vulnerability was patched with software updates, even for
Windows XP, I have stopped applying updates to my Win7 machine because one (or more) of
the updates break my scanners.  I guess I COULD apply each update individually and then test
all my applications to see if any of them are broken - or not.

FWIW: I also had an Apple update to my wife's iPhone 6 disable the speaker you hold up to your ear.  I bought a new 
speaker and installed but it didn't fix the problem.  It was only when my wife bought a replacement iPhone
and I was talking to the Apple Store people about trading in the iPhone 6 that the Apple rep
told me a software update disabled the ear speaker.  And Apple only gives you a limited time to downgrade to a previous IOS version after updating; I was way beyond that limited time.

If you have a windows machine and are concerned, this might be of interest
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/file-server/troubleshoot/detect-enable-and-disable-smbv1-v2-v3?tabs=server

This SMBv1 vulnerability appears to be specific to Windows Windows platforms running SMBv1.

7

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

8

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.

9

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.

10

Setup & Installation / Install - screen goes blank when pmshell starts

« on: January 26, 2024, 07:08:12 am »

Trying to install on a MSI Pro B550-VC motherboard with a Ryzen 5 5600X and Radeon X600 video card.  The Ryzen 5600x processor has no graphics built into the CPU.   CSM is turned on in the bios.

I created a USB stick for the install.  I get the AOS boot menu where it asks if I want to boot from the hard drive or Install/Maintain AOS.  I pick install/maintain.  The AOS logo shows up for a while and then the screen goes blank.

Tried setting AOS install/boot option to turn on showing the loading of drivers (e.g. Alt-F2)  The screen goes blank right after it says PMSHELL.

As a note:  when I turned on the computer for the very first time the screen was blank for a long time (a couple of minutes) and then I got a message to the effect that video was not UEFI compatible and was switching to CSM.

Anyone got any ideas?

11

Setup & Installation / Are there any 8GB Nvme compatiable motherboard

« on: January 20, 2024, 05:54:57 pm »

Anyone aware of a motherboard that handles nvme and provides os/2 access to the full 8gb of main memory?

I don't see one on the wiki and was hoping someone has experience with building such a system.

12

Applications / Drive drop-down empty in Win-OS/2 apps

« on: January 15, 2024, 12:02:11 am »

When I pick Save-as from the file menu in Win-OS/2 apps the "standard" file dialog box has a drop down list for drive letters in the lower right part of the dialog.  That drop down is always empty for all the apps that I have tried.

I can manually specify a drive in the path name of the file I am saving as, but I cannot use the drive drop down list to select a drive letter and see the directories in that drive.

This happens in AOS as well as ECS.

Anyone else have this issue, and/or know how to fix it?

13

Setup & Installation / AOS 5.1 and Windows 7 EFI and legacy - how to dual boot

« on: November 29, 2023, 11:13:47 pm »

I have a laptop (thinkpad 530) which had AOS 5.0x and Windows 7 installed with Air Boot for switching between the two.  They are both installed on a MBR drive and using legacy bios.  The problem was Win-OS/2 programs did not run in AOS on this machine.

So I "upgraded" to v AOS 5.1. My BIOS has a setting for: UEFI, Legacy, or Both.  I first tried switching the BIOS to both, and installing AOS v 5.1 as an upgrade to my existing system.  That did not fix the Win-OS/2 issue.  So I switched the bios to UEFI only, and performed a new install of AOS 5.1 on top of my existing C: partition - which contained the old AOS 5.0x.  The install program wants a EFI partition and complained about not enough primary partitions - I already had 3: one for the AOS v 5.0x, one I assume for Win 7, and a third for who knows what.  So I deleted the smallest partition (300mb), created an EFI partition and the installation was able to continue.  I did not change the drive from MBR.

And Win-OS/2 now works.  Yeah.

I would like to now be able to boot into my already existing Win7 partition/system.  I am assuming it is the 93MB primary partition that shows up in Simple LVM.

Anybody have any ideas?

14

Programming / WPS dragged object handle

« on: September 29, 2023, 12:18:52 am »

When you drag a WPS object (or anything actually) a _DRAGITEM is created to store data about the item being dragged, the structure of DRAGITEM shown below
-------------------------------
typedef struct _DRAGITEM {
  HWND       hwndItem;           /*  Window handle of the source of the drag operation. */
  ULONG      ulItemID;           /*  Information used by the source to identify the object being dragged. */
  HSTR       hstrType;           /*  String handle of the object type. */
  HSTR       hstrRMF;            /*  String handle of the rendering mechanism and format. */
  HSTR       hstrContainerName;  /*  String handle of the name of the container holding the source object. */
  HSTR       hstrSourceName;     /*  String handle of the name of the source object. */
  HSTR       hstrTargetName;     /*  String handle of the suggested name of the object at the target. */
  SHORT      cxOffset;           /*  X-offset from the pointer hot spot to the origin of the image that represents this object. */
  SHORT      cyOffset;           /*  Y-offset from the pointer hot spot to the origin of the image that represents this object. */
  USHORT     fsControl;          /*  Source-object control flags. */
  USHORT     fsSupportedOps;     /*  Direct manipulation operations supported by the source object. */
} DRAGITEM;
--------------------------------

I am trying to identify the object that is being dragged over my window - either the class of the object or the specific object itself.  Is there someway of translating the hwndItem  or ulItemID  value into a WPS object handle?  I am hoping to avoid searching the source container for the source name in order to find the object being dragged.

There is a value in ulItemID, put there either by the WPS or xWorkplaceShell when a WPProgram type object is being dragged.  Anyone know what that value is?

I only want to accept dragged WPObjects of a certain type being dropped, and disallow everything else.

Thanks in advance

15

Setup & Installation / USB to Serial adapter setup

« on: July 18, 2023, 10:46:22 pm »

I have a serial device that I have working when connected to a real serial port.

I would now like to get it working through a USB to Serial adapter.  The one that I am using is a Belkin fsu116 hub thingy - which plugs into usb and provides 2 serial, 1 parallel and 2 usb ports.  It is shown as working with os/2 in the wiki.

Do I need to add something to my CONFIG.SYS to get the ports working?  Can I assign a comm port number to a specific port on the belkin?

Is there documentation somewhere that describes how you setup usb-serial adapters?

Thanks