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Messages - Lars

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1261
1) STRACE is something different than TRACE. STRACE performance tracing is not all that important. But ordinary tracing via TRACE is important.

2) getting COM output via serial port is not a viable replacement for tracing. How will I get output from an end customer's system ? Asking the customer to create a COM port log ? He is just going to show me the stiff little finger ...


Why do you think did I add tracing to the USB drivers ?



Lars

1262
OS/4 kernel does not support the TRACE and TRACEBUF statements. It displays that these statements are not valid and continues to boot (the same holds true for VIRTUALADDRESSLIMIT but I guess that was intentional).
This is even true with the OS/4 debug as well as retail kernels.
This is a serious limitation because for example it's the only way for David's / my USB drivers to log operational info on a user's end machine. Without any tracing, it's impossible to determine why a driver won't work on a user's machine (except for flat HW traps which can be located by other means).
Again, this renders the OS/4 kernel incompatible with the existing OS/2 kernels.

Lars

1263
Programming / Re: OS/4 kernel - my first impressions
« on: January 12, 2014, 02:09:22 pm »
1) When I use the debug kernel, I always use ICAT via UDP (I don't have the need to debug INIT or INIT_COMPLETE). Unfortunately my host machine does not have a serial interface (only the MUT does). I am thinking about buying a USB to serial converter cable.

2) I cannot try without the PSD driver. Unfortunately, either my ACPI or my MP tables or the HW layout is broken to the extent that all interrupt lines only work properly when I am running the box in symmetric mode (IOAPIC instead of PIC) but the BIOS sets up virtual wire mode initially.
This is also true if I use ACPI.PSD: it will only work without any switch set. I guess this is due to the fact that this machine had WinXP installed initially and WinXP also runs in symmetric mode (provided the machine has an IOAPIC but this has now been so for a long,long time). And this HW was most likely not tested with anything else.

But ACPI.PSD does not work with the OS/4 kernel as ACPI.PSD needs to patch some places in the in memory copy of the kernel so that setting CPU offline and halting CPU will work properly (it injects its own processing).
Unfortunately, IBM did not export the relevant entry points into the kernel and that's why ACPI.PSD has to patch the in memory copy.
These patch points are obviously tied to specific addresses and ACPI.PSD only supports these kernels: 14.104a SMP debug, 14.104a SMP retail, 14.105 SMP retail, 14.106 SMP retail.

1264
Programming / OS4APIC.PSD - /APIC switch does not work
« on: January 08, 2014, 11:12:17 am »
Ok,

I could eventually attribute the OS/4 kernel hang to OS4APIC.PSD when I use the /APIC switch (and I did have "preload=1" set in OS2LDR.INI).
Apparently this switch is supposed to bring the system into "symmetric mode", that is, using the IOAPIC instead of the good old PIC controller of stoneage PCs and support > IRQ 15.

Unfortunately, on my system because of either broken MP tables or IRQ router chip incorrectly set up by BIOS, this is the ONLY mode I can run this system.
Therefore "PIC mode" or "virtual wire mode" (/PIC and /VW switches for ACPI.PSD) do not work for me.

When I tried to use ACPI.PSD (with no switches / in "symmetric mode") it would again lead to a hung system, much like using OS4APIC.PSD /APIC.
But I think problems with ACPI.PSD could be expected as ACPI.PSD patches the kernel in memory (for reasons I forgot) and therefore only supports a handful of kernels (I don't know what it does if it finds it cannot patch a kernel). Certainly not the OS/4 kernels.
In short: ACPI.PSD with no switches (in "symmetric mode") is the only thing that works for me. And that precludes use of the OS/4 kernel.

I would believe that OS4APIC.PSD does not properly enable symmetric mode when using /APIC switch.

Note: at one point in time I read the MP tables and "translated" the contents regarding interrrupt assignment into a documentation text file. If any developer is interested ...
I could also dump the MP configuration table from Theseus in binary form ...


Lars

1265
Programming / OS/4 kernel - my first impressions
« on: January 08, 2014, 10:29:15 am »
Hallo,

ok I went through it. I tried SVN revision 4160. I copied OS4APIC.PSD and CLOCK03b.SYS to \OS2\boot. I created a custom CONFIG.OS4 file to load OS4APIC.PSD with the /APIC switch.
I enabled "preload=1" in os2ldr.ini

1) both, the OS/4 debug and also retail kernel trapped when they encountered valid CONFIG.SYS statements. In my case, that was the STRACE statement. It's the statement to control performance tracing in OS/2, see \OS2\BOOK\STRACE.INF.
That leads me to believe that the kernel will also trap on other statements it does not recognize and therefore it is incompatible with the existing kernel.
It should also be stated that with the performance tracing, IBM added a bit array to control which strace codes will be active or not (much like the bit array that exists for the trace codes) to the global info segment. I wonder if the OS/4 kernel also has this addition ...

2) I then removed the STRACE statements. The kernel would start to load showing it has initialized 1 CPU at "stage 2". Then it would sit there doing nothing. This was true for both, the debug and retail kernel. I had to power down the system.

3) I then stripped down CONFIG.SYS to the bare minimum. This time the kernel would start to load drivers but would hang when loading IBMKBD.SYS. Again, I had to power down the system.

I had the boot logo turned off via os2ldr.ini but I doubt that that would make a difference.

I have a pretty old box, about 5 to 7 years old, nothing fancy. It has only 1 (Intel) core. It's with MMX and SSE.

From what I can say, I would think that the new loader OS2LDR is ok (this was also true for QSINIT) but the OS/4 kernel is not.


This is my os2ldr.ini (beware of messed up line breaks):
[config]
; Kernel number from kernel list section to be loaded by default
default=1

; Waiting time (in seconds) after which kernel mentioned in "default"
; will be loaded
timeout=15

; Debug options
;dbflags=0x11
dbflags=0

; Debug port
; com port address
; no debug output if statment is omited (but log still accessible
; through copy from oemhlp$ - see below)
;dbport=0x3f8
;dbport=0xEC00

; Enable Ctrl-C check for kernel debugger. This is optional for kernels
; beginning from revision 2970. Older kernels always have this check enabled.
; This option ignored if no debug port specified.
; Ctrl-C check allows KDB popup when Ctrl-C is passed via serial link but
; adds two problems:
; - frequent serial port reads cause overall performance degradation
; - the serial port can't be used for something else except KDB because these
;   reads destroy data which are received by the port
;ctrlc=1

; You have full COM port link cable (with hardware flow control support)
fullcable=1

; Show PC memory table as it reported by BIOS, do nothing if absent
; or defined as 0.
; Warning: this option will make PAUSE on boot!
;showmem=1

; Hide from OS/2 one of memory blocks from list above.
; Block specified by start address (>1Mb, block at 1Mb required for OS/2
; boot).
; You can add up to five such keys into [config] section.
; note: OS2LDR ignore too small blocks (<64k) by itself.
;removemem=0x20000000

; Color values for the startup menu
; byte 0 - text color
; byte 1 - color of selected row
; byte 2 - background color
; byte 3 - border color
; defauls are:
;menupalette=0x0F070F01

; Show b/w tty style menu with ugly kernel selection by numeric key ;)
; It use BIOS text output only, so suitable for some strange reasons.
;ttymenu = 1

; Reset video mode to default 80x25, before menu output (fix for some
; strange BIOS bugs too)
;resetmode=1

; OS/4 kernel only (rev>=2075)
; Turn on memory files. Kernel will preload all files, located in:
; - BASEDEV and PSD statements of config.sys
; - os4krnl.ini
; - snoop.lst
; - and predefined list of files: PREVIOUS.DAT, ISAPNP.SYS, ISAPNP.SNP,
;   RESOURCE.SYS, CLOCK01.SYS, SCREEN01.SYS, KBDBASE.SYS, SNOOP.LST,
;   PNP.SYS, ACPI.CFG, IBMKBD.SNP, PCIBUS.SNP, PREVIOUS.ACP, PCIDEV.TBL
;
preload = 1

[kernel]
os2ldr.ibm   =  IBM OS2LDR,RESTART
os4krnl      =  OS/4 dbg kernel,LOGSIZE=4096,PRELOAD,CFGEXT=OS4,DBPORT=0,LOADSYM,CTRLC,ALTF2
os4krnlr     =  OS/4 retail kernel,LOGSIZE=4096,PRELOAD,CFGEXT=OS4,DBPORT=-1,ALTF2



Lars

1266
Programming / Re: OS/4 kernel and extended KEE
« on: January 07, 2014, 09:42:38 am »
Forgot to say:
1) I have IBM bootmanager installed as I have 2 OS/2 installations on this machine: 1 for debugging, 1 for normal use, both of which use the SMP kernel (debug and retail respectively). I replaced OS2LDR on the debugging partition.

2) the debugging partition where I tried to run OS/4 kernel is formatted to HPFS

1267
Programming / Re: OS/4 kernel and extended KEE
« on: January 07, 2014, 09:17:58 am »

By the way, does the debug kernel (os4krnl) support:
1) the full KDB command set ?
2) also work with UDP instead of serial interface ?

1) yes

2) I do not know if anybody test it.


It would be great if you can show comport log.

I do have a com port on this machine, unfortunately I don't have a com port on any other of my machines available. Therefore I cannot create a log.
That's why I am using ICAT via UDP and not via serial interface ...
ICAT via UDP DOES have a window to capture all KDB output, unfortunately it is limited in the way that the system must be fully up and running (network driver loaded, netbind.exe loaded ...)

Lars

1268
Programming / Re: OS/4 kernel and extended KEE
« on: January 07, 2014, 08:26:00 am »
I got the SVN revision 4160 (assuming it's the most available up to date). I started off with a system that had the 14.104a_SMP debug kernel running (and therefore the SMP version of DOSCALL1.DLL installed) and also ACPI.PSD installed:

1) I copied OS4LOGO, OS4KRNL, OS4KRNLR, OS4KRNL.SYM, OS4KRNL.INI, OS2LDR, OS2LDR.INI to root directory

2) I copied CLOCK03B.SY? to \OS2\BOOT

3) I copied OS4APIC.PSD and OS4APIC.SYM to \OS2\BOOT

4) initially I did not copy DOSCALL1.DLL to \OS2\DLL but I tried later

5) I modified OS2LDR.INI (only the changed parts):
;dbport=0x3f8
;ctrlc=1
;fullcable=1
preload = 1
[kernel]
os2krnl      =  OS/2 debug,ALTF2
os4krnl      =  OS/4 debug using config.os4,LOGSIZE=4096,PRELOAD,CFGEXT=OS4,ALTF2,CTRLC
os4krnlr     =  OS/4 retail using config.os4,LOGSIZE=4096,PRELOAD,CFGEXT=OS4,ALTF2

6) in root dir I created a CONFIG.OS4, I removed all of ACPI.PSD, added OS4APIC.PSD /APIC, removed TIMER01.SYS, added BASEDEV=CLOCK03B.SYS

The result was an IPE for os4krnl as well as os4krnlr and a hang for os2krnl. It was the very same after I also replaced DOSCALL1.DLL with the one from the OS4 zip file.

What am I doing wrong ? I took a dump when the IPE for the os4krnlr happened (I have TRAPDUMP=R0,X: set in config.sys or config.os4, however this did not work for the os4krnl) but PMDF will not even let me read the created dump. Looks like PMDF cannot find a proper kernel revision string in the dump, after looking into the dump I identified it to be 15.1_SMP.4160 but I am not sure about that either.
Not being able to read a dump file is a severe limitation for me, I use this system as a MUT for device driver debugging.
By the way, does the debug kernel (os4krnl) support:
1) the full KDB command set ?
2) also work with UDP instead of serial interface ?


Lars

1269
Programming / Re: OS/4 ? QSINIT ?
« on: January 06, 2014, 08:48:44 pm »
Veit's PCIBUS.SNP causes problems with QSINIT, not OS/4. Ok, I can contact Veit or fix it in available code. But who will replace current version in ALL eCS installations?

I could always address this to Roderick Klein from Mensys. I once wrote a REXX script to patch a (minor) problem in OS2LDR. They took it and eventually ran it against all copies of OS2LDR on the installation CD-ROM. The patched OS2LDR became part of the build tree for the CD-ROM.

For updates of drivers like PCIBUS.SNP: a WPI could be created from it and then installed via the eCS Update utility that was written by Chuck McKinnis. That is exactly what it was created for.


Lars

1270
Programming / Re: OS/4 ? QSINIT ?
« on: January 06, 2014, 08:41:38 pm »
2) from the website, it's completely unobvious of what the latest version is for the OS4 core project. I'd go with the SVN revision numbers but I could never be sure. It's also not clear what version was reasonably stable and what version was not. I would also think it would be a good idea to remove all versions that proved to be too unstable for most testers.

3) it's completely unobvious in how far the QSINIT project relates to the OS4 project. Does QSINIT "overwrite" the OS2LDR contained in the OS/4 zips ? What would be the benefit to use QSINIT in favor of the OS2LDR that comes with the OS/4 kernel zip ? Is that the same group of developers of these 2 projects ?

4) there is no FAQ that would collect common problems or such. Also there is about no documentation. All the information is contained in the few postings floating around on the os2world website. Who is going to bother and go through the effort to test the OS/4 kernel if he is more or less completely on his own ? Not too many people I would think ...

For me, 2) and 3) and 4) are the most pressing problems

2) latest ver is here http://ru2.halfos.ru/core/downloads/

3) you can use QSINIT instead of OS2LDR contained in the OS/4 zips

4) if os2word  wants,   it is possible to do a kind of wiki

Why does the QSINIT kernel not become part of OS/4 and replaces the one from the OS/4 package ?


Lars

1271
Programming / Re: OS/4 kernel and extended KEE
« on: January 06, 2014, 08:34:53 pm »
Doug,

how did you enable OS2APIC? I added it as PSD=OS2APIC.PSD in config.sys, but boot hangs at CLOCK01.SYS, both with standard loader and QSINIT. Any parameter required?

Bye
Gabriele

Why would you want to use OS2APIC.PSD ?  If you use the OS/4 kernel you might as well use OS4APIC.PSD which is contained in the OS/4 zip file. Or is there any good reason not to do so ?

OS2APIC.PSD is rather limited in that it does not support IRQs > 15 which I believe is equivalent to the /PIC (or maybe /VW) mode of David's ACPI.PSD. Also OS2APIC.PSD has not worked on my system. My system seems to have broken MP tables. It only works properly in symmetric mode (using the IOAPIC instead of the old-fashioned PIC).
I believe the /APIC switch of OS2APIC.PSD was never completely implemented. It just does nothing on my system.

Lars

1272
Programming / Re: OS/4 ? QSINIT ?
« on: January 06, 2014, 01:21:35 pm »
About the problems with Veit's PCIBUS.SNP, see:

http://www.os2world.com/forum/index.php/topic,176.msg1453.html#msg1453

Lars

1273
Programming / Re: OS/4 ? QSINIT ?
« on: January 06, 2014, 01:10:18 pm »
Another point for my original 5):

somewhere in one of these discussion groups here I read that there is some bug in Veit Kannegieser's PCIBUS.SNP that causes problems with the OS/4 kernel. Why was Veit not contacted ? I have contacted him in the past and while he is obviously pretty busy with his "real life" job he is certainly going to help where he can. While the OS/4 team doesn't like the idea of "closed source" they tend towards the very same behaviour:
1) do it all yourself
2) don't talk to anybody else
3) keep everything to yourself, not the binaries but the knowledge
4) don't document anything

I think I am qualified to utter these statements. I have put considerable work in fixing the OS/2 USB stack. And I am doing it for free as I have my own "real life" job. David cannot do it for free. He is doing it for a living.
The OS/2 source code is freely available from the netlabs SVN server. We (David and I) don't hide anything from anybody.
One just need to ask Adrian Gschwend for getting an account.

About the binaries not being freely delivered: who is going to pay David if everything is given away for free ? You DO HAVE the option to build the updated USB drivers yourself (but you need to know how to run a compiler, assembler, linker, make utility).
What Mensys does is keeping the strings together and making sure that all updates and necessary fixes and also new stuff go into a common distribution. That is quite some work and not everybody can do this work for free.


Lars

1274
Programming / OS/4 ? QSINIT ?
« on: January 05, 2014, 02:32:06 pm »
I don't doubt that the developers are skilled people. However I doubt that this project will be of any relevance if it continues in the current way. I just want to state my opinions here and I won't go into the "legal/illegal" issue.
I am open to any comment, good or bad:

1) I would have never found the website. Fortunately, one of Martin's comments pointed to it. The project needs more promotion. A good way would be to be present in the most frequented OS/2 newsgroups

2) from the website, it's completely unobvious of what the latest version is for the OS4 core project. I'd go with the SVN revision numbers but I could never be sure. It's also not clear what version was reasonably stable and what version was not. I would also think it would be a good idea to remove all versions that proved to be too unstable for most testers.

3) it's completely unobvious in how far the QSINIT project relates to the OS4 project. Does QSINIT "overwrite" the OS2LDR contained in the OS/4 zips ? What would be the benefit to use QSINIT in favor of the OS2LDR that comes with the OS/4 kernel zip ? Is that the same group of developers of these 2 projects ?

4) there is no FAQ that would collect common problems or such. Also there is about no documentation. All the information is contained in the few postings floating around on the os2world website. Who is going to bother and go through the effort to test the OS/4 kernel if he is more or less completely on his own ? Not too many people I would think ...

5) there is too little feedback back into the developer community. One of the topics has already been addressed: David as the ACPI developer should be taken into the loop. Me might not be inclined to support the OS4 kernel but I'd say it's the OS/4 people's job to get in touch with him. At least that would make sense ...

6) all of the website is in cyrillic (russian, anyway). I know it might be not that easy but at least a bit of english would be helpful (we are not talking about perfect english here). It's just a major hinderance in attracting anybody to try and test and support development of the OS/4 kernel.

For me, 2) and 3) and 4) are the most pressing problems. And they surely have no relation to the "legal" / "illegal" question.


Ok, let the shitstrom begin ...


Lars

1275
Setup & Installation / Re: Strange and annoying problem with printing.
« on: December 28, 2013, 04:51:39 pm »
1) What happens if you unplug and plug back in the Printer ? Does that help ?
2) use Version 11.06 of the Drivers. It has just been released and is available via Betazone.

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