Messages

1

Hardware / Re: Monitor suggestions

« on: November 15, 2024, 04:13:11 am »

I find it strange that there is so much problems with OS/2 video.  I have a dell 30inch 2560x1600 monitor that runs without any problem.  No problem with video cards, I don't have one, it runs from the built in video of the Ryzen 3 processor.

I observe different problems with OS/2 video output nowadays.

1) The BIOS decides which output is to be uses or not. Not used are sometimes switched off here. F.i. when  at boot the HDMI output is attached on my RX550 (?) the Display Port output is switched off. And vice versa. When both are attached I think DP is used and HDMI is switched off. But when something is attached to the internal Intel GPU (DP or HDMI or VGA) in parallel to the outputs of the extra graphic card, things go to complicated to describe very fast.
 
2) Integrated Intel GPU on my system does work but not with 4k. So it's kind of useless on my 3840x2160 Monitor. Needed to put in a extra graphic card and needed a ticket and work from David A. to get this card to work at full resolution.

3) Ryzen 7 integrated GPU does not work in 4k with ArcaOS too. Of course it works with the other OSes I've installed. No clue if David can fix this, need to create a ticket for that.

4) Output (DP or HDMI) is switched off when I switch the KVM to another source. But it is not switched on again when I switch back to ArcaOS. So you don't see any output anymore from your running system until reboot. Of course the other OSes switches back on the output (tested with DP and HDMI on Ryzen 7) when the KVM switches to that input.

There are even more problems with video on our platform I don't wanna go into detail. Some of them are nice to have things which result from the way we are used to work nowadays. But the above are the most annoying.

2

Setup & Installation / Re: TCP/IP 4.3 patches

« on: November 13, 2024, 11:46:09 am »

Isn't there a tcpip32.dll shiped with ACPI package? Or was it the AN kernel WPI? I think it checks if the right one is installed. I vaguely remember we need a patched one for stable SMP. 

3

Hardware / Re: Observations on intel vs AMD

« on: November 11, 2024, 10:58:34 am »

So if you want to dual boot to two operating systems, one using UEFI and one using Legacy or CSM, you would have to put those operating systems on separate drives and use the BIOS supplied F11 boot menu.

On my new Asrock B550M Pro4 with Ryzen 7 I choice to UEFI boot from the first MBR NVMe which starts the AN Launcher there. From there I can choose to start an ArcaOS installation on the MBR drive (L:\) but also the ArcaOS installation on my second GPT NVMe (D:\). I also can start GRUB/Debian on the 1. NVMe and Win7 on the second GPT drive.

Bottom line I don't need to go into BIOS to choice between OSes on MBR or GPT disks. In also have EFI partitions on both NVMe drives which I can choice in BIOS. But I think that is was not a good idea and pretty pretty sure not necessary. I can choice in BIOS to boot non UEFI from disk 1 which would start Airboot there. But this is useless as the UEFI AN Launcher makes a better job on mixed MBR/GPT disks with an EFI partition.

4

Setup & Installation / Re: Switch from CSM to UEFI

« on: November 03, 2024, 09:46:59 am »

v 2.52. Included with ArcaOS 5.1.0 EN. Built 2023-08-23. Maybe that's to old. But I really tried. Even looked into the help without any hint.

I even cleared start of the disk with DFSee and started again. But could not find how to select GPT when creating the first partition.

I think there's a basic misunderstanding here: neither MiniLVM nor PTE _create_ a GPT disk. They are partition editors that know how to manipulate an *existing* GPT disk. To create one, you must use 'InitDisk.exe' or DFSee.

After a reboot, MiniLVM will clearly identify which disks are GPT and which are MBR. 'PTE' will only display GPT and will ignore MBR (IIRC). The other partition editors ('lvm.exe' and that java thing) are useless for GPT because they can't see the actual GPT disk.

Does make sense now. But maybe you understand the confusion. Usually we used the standard tools (fdisk, lvmgui, MiniLVM) or DFSee to create all partitions and volumes. There is also the strong advise to only use ArcaOS tools to create volumes. I guess most of us know about these mentioned tools.

But I for myself never heard about (maybe I've heard but didn't recognize) InitDisk or PTE until a few days ago. Although I created one of my disks with GPT layout, probably during one of my ArcaOS installation trials, I didn't know InitDisk is needed.

So thanks for clarification.

5

Setup & Installation / Re: Switch from CSM to UEFI

« on: November 02, 2024, 01:43:17 pm »

Too old of a minilvm? Note that the latest is called the "Installation Volume Manager" and seems to handle GPT fine.

v 2.52. Included with ArcaOS 5.1.0 EN. Built 2023-08-23. Maybe that's to old. But I really tried. Even looked into the help without any hint.

I even cleared start of the disk with DFSee and started again. But could not find how to select GPT when creating the first partition.

6

Setup & Installation / Re: Switch from CSM to UEFI

« on: November 01, 2024, 08:40:48 pm »

Rich thanks for clarification.

I tried to setup this new 8TB drive with MiniLVM as GPT but couldn't find out how to do. Maybe I have to create an EFI partition there? But I've already 2 EFI partitions on other drives. I really tried with MiniLVM but it does not work (for me). I can't convince MiniLVM to create a GPT layout. I also can't add another 2TB partition on this 8TB drive with MiniLVM cause there is no free space anymore. PTE can't do this too.

PTE - looks a bit strange cause the big font. But it worked for at least one nearly 2TB partition.

7

Setup & Installation / ArcaOS5.1 together with Debian, Win7 and OpenSuse - first UEFI & GPT impressions

« on: November 01, 2024, 08:29:18 pm »

I'm building up a new desktop system because I think it's time to replace my 4 core Intel one with a newer 8 core AMD. Bought an Asrock B550M Pro4 and a Ryzen 7 5700G. The system isn't nearly setup as I like but I think I should share some findings. This was the first time I played (have to play) with UEFI boot and GPT disks.

I have to say -
Concrates to ArcaNoae. I was surprised that handling EFI partition, UEFI boot with the AN Launcher and even creating a GPT partition on a 8TB drive works with ArcaOS5.1. Some things work even way better than with other tools/OSes.

More details - I started with a 2TB NVMe Samsung 980Pro. I partitioned this traditionally as MBR with Airboot and setup a ArcaOS partitions. But also made an EFI partition. I also reserved 3 partitions for Debian (swap, root, home). Also reserved some space for Win7 (which I didn't use later on but...). After the ArcaOS installation basically worked I installed Debian 11 in the reserved partitions. This went fine. But I can't get Debian 11 to offer more than 800x600 resolution. Some of the describes ways on the internet to use newer Ryzen with Debian 11 didn't work for me. Btw. ArcaOS supports only 2560x1440 on this system instead the desired 3840x2160 (needs a ticket and I hope David can fix this). So had to switch to Debian 12. This now works with the Ryzen integrated GPU in full 3840x2160.

I've to say ArcaOS installation went smooth but Debian was even easier to install. Debian also honors my partitioning (made with ArcaOS), means it didn't destroy anything in contrast to OpenSuse.

Now the hardest thing to install was Win7. Original W7 installation media don't work with NVMe and don't support XHCI controller. So I had to find patched ISOs prepared for newer systems. These don't wanna install on MBR disk because MS allows UEFI only on a GPT disk. So I put in another 2TB Crucial T500 NVMe. I prepared this with the ArcaOS installation stick as GPT and made the partitions for Win. As I was there I also installed onto the GPT disk another ArcaOS test installation. This time with UEFI support (extra EFI partition).

I also installed reFind cause I read it should be a good UEFI launcher. After playing a lot with all the options I have to say I like the AN Launcher better. I couldn't configure reFind to suppress unneeded ArcaOS, Win and Debian entries. In contrast the AN Launcher is easy to setup. It's also cool that with ArcaOS you usually give a drive letter to the EFI partition and so you can edit the config files there easily. For Win you need extra (time limited) software to access this TTBOMK. Probably you can do this from Linux too but I don't know Linux good enough to find out how until now.

Bad thing about all this UEFI stuff is that when installing different OSes or try to start from a stick you constantly need to go into BIOS setup and rearrange boot order. Or maybe this is a bad habit of my Asrock board. But especially Win changes things to start only Win next time. So you have to change in BIOS the right disk (EFI with your launcher) constantly.

Good thing about AN Launcher is also it seems to have some kind of fall back mode. If selected partition does not exist it shows a list of partitions on different disk you can chose to start. Needed this a few times.

OpenSuse installation destroyed the LVM information on my first disk. So one of my ArcaOS installation couldn't be started anymore. Tried with DFSee to repair but gave up. Used the ArcaOS installation stick and surprise, surprise, the disk checking tool mentioned the problem and was able to fix it. Thanks ArcaNoae. Even for me as a long time DFSee user it was way easier to let the disk checker do it's work than playing with DFsee myself.

I also put into a 8TB disk drive. At first I created a standard 2TB partition with MiniLVM. But afterwards I found out you should better use PTE.exe for that. With that you can create GPT partitions which are needed for such big drives. Luckily every ArcaOS installation has included gpt.sys in config.sys. So you can use such partitions even when added later on.

I also put into temporarily a 1TB SSD (SATA Crucial MX500) which I used to transfer data. When trying to copy a few partitions with all in all about 700GB of data ArcaOS reproducible hangs. I thought David had fixed the AHCI driver for this (I had a ticket about and lot of work went into solving this) but it seems there are some situations where it still does not work. Crucial offers firmware xx46 which should fix some very rare hangs in corner cases so I updated the SSD firmware from xx45 to xx46 (this time used Win for that cause way easier than the other options). I thought I've already updated this drive last year but not sure anymore. I'm not really sure all problems are gone now but at least I could copy my 700GB in a few 100'000 files finally.

So still under construction and will take a long way to setup a final ArcaOS main partition (probably when DE arrives) also take some time to prepare the Win7 I need it and a lot to discover with Debian and OpenSuse. But the first steps are done and ArcaOS works on bare metal here. Writing this with Seamonkey, the copied profile from the old system, and even with this long text no hang until now ;-). Six of the eight cores usually sleeps at idle. Hyperthreading is disabled although I looked nice to see OS/2 showing 16 cores. When Seamonkey is running power consumption is about 70W. Without about the half. Win uses less, Debian even less. Btw. Win7 can't handle 3840x2160 too. Such a shame AMD don't support this GPU anymore although it's a few years old anyway. If anyone knows a trick for Win7 and still read until here, please...

8

Setup & Installation / Re: Switch from CSM to UEFI

« on: November 01, 2024, 05:12:32 pm »

Sorry Rich that I've to say that, but ArcaNoae offers a way to convert MBR to GPT via dfsan. I found it in one of the ArcaOS readme files. Maybe gpt.txt? I already saw a menu entry in DFSee some time ago doing that. ArcaOS also comes with a simple GPT partition creation tool (PTE.exe I think). I created a 2TB partition with it on a 8TB disk a few days ago.

9

Hardware / Re: Mouse, Trackpoint, Trackpad, Touchpad - I2C Question

« on: October 30, 2024, 10:19:35 am »

I²C is a Philips Inter IC Bus invented decades ago. But it was not used in PC at the beginning. At least not at OS (not even DOS) level. Beside that a lot of ICs are talk I²C and so some of them are used in some motherboards too. Temperature sensors f.i. Said that, I think you should not concentrate on a bus or the bus protocol (I²C), you wanna support for a specific device. I²C can address more then 100 different device addresses on the same bus. Moreover each one speaks a specific control set (registers) which you have to know how to program and read.

What I wanna say is you don't need to understand (program) I²C only, you need the exact register settings of the specific devices. Let's say you need a device driver for your specific touch. But you also need to find a way how YOUR Bios is able to talk to this device. There are no standardizes ways in PC (BIOS) to talk to I²C devices (AFAIK). You have to find out where is the I²C bus master integrated in your Notebook. Is it in the south bridge or the north bridge (no clue if this even exists in new PCs) or if there is on connected via USB hub, or via the legacy (ISA) interface which seem to exist even in new processor designs although most of them do not make ISA available as a socket?

That said, I've designed in and programmed numerous I²C devices outside PCs. I also programmed them with PCs via parallel port and with own build in PC ISA cards. But I don't know how some specific sensors or other devices in notebooks are connected to the PC hardware. Nor did I ever saw standard BIOS calls to support something like that.

10

General Discussion / Re: Resource Compiler - Joke

« on: October 27, 2024, 08:24:15 pm »

I think that the wild dream will be that a tunned "wrc" would be able to work with both version of .rc files. (ver 4 and 5)

When not even IBMs RC4 and RC5 are compatible enough, why do you think a version of wrc can be ever be compatible with both?

11

General Discussion / Re: Resource Compiler - Joke

« on: October 26, 2024, 05:07:53 pm »

but I remembered this joke.

That's no joke. That's exactly what will happen if you invent a new wrc version.

12

Hardware / Re: Asrock B550M Pro4 - anyone tested this?

« on: October 21, 2024, 04:47:13 pm »

Answer some of my questions by myself -

This board looks pretty good to me regarding all the interfaces I like. Anyone tested this in CSM/legacy mode with a Ryzen 7 with integrated graphic (5700G I wanna have)?
- Memory available to OS/2 > 3GB?

Only about 2.6 - 2.9GB

- Ryzen 7 graphic with Panorama and 3840x2160 working?

No currently not. Only 2560x1440 or something like that.

- M2 slots working for boot device?

Yes, at least the first one. Waiting for a second NVMe to test. Both with CSM booting or UEFI works but WinOS2 only in UEFI mode. Maybe the switches in config.sys will allow WinOS2 in CSM mode too, but didn't test until now.

13

Hardware / Re: Troubleshooting GenMAC/GENMU

« on: October 20, 2024, 03:59:49 pm »

That is, it works with WPA-PSK, and NOT with WPA2-PSK. That has always been the case, with this machine (WPA2-PSK does work in winXP). If I was actually going to use this, I would do more tweaking in the settings.

I had a R52 which was not capable doing WPA2-PSK. Don't know if the card didn't support it or our Genmac driver. I think I changed the card in this machine to another working type.

I also seem to remember that for my T60 I have to use an older Genmac package, not the latest. But memories about all that wifi stuff are vanishing....

14

Comments, Suggestions & Questions / Re: general question

« on: October 20, 2024, 03:53:31 pm »

For ported programs I often use 'set lang=' before running them. F.i. gcc with German error messages is a mess for a long time programmer. Also for yum or such I like the English messages way more than the German ones.

15

Programming / Re: DosSetThreadAffinity - process or thread only?

« on: October 19, 2024, 03:22:12 pm »

No clue what you're trying to archive but OS/2 runs threads on different cores. Not only whole processes like some other OSes do (did). If you monitor your widget you also may see that OS/2 seem to switch threads from core to core regularly.

Further on, could I develop a system driver which would enforce the execution of specific programs (i.e. processes) on a specific CPU/core of a SMP system?

Again, not processes but threads run on different cores. Why do you want to force to OS to run one thread on a specific core? Do you wanna overheat a single core?

Only exception AFAIK is interrupts. They always run on core 0 and no other core. Think this is similar with a lot of (all?) other OSes.