Messages

16

Applications / Re: Archive tool problem

« on: May 14, 2024, 02:12:23 pm »

Archive tool you mean the tool from eCo software for managing ZIP files etc ?

Roderick Klein

17

Hardware / Re: OS/2 for Industrial Use

« on: May 13, 2024, 03:54:57 pm »

Universal instruments from the US uses/used(?) OS/2 on there chip machines.

18

Applications / Re: 3270

« on: May 02, 2024, 12:36:52 pm »

A free version was included in OS/2 Warp 4 somewhere on the main ISO.

19

Programming / Re: OpenDOC - Source Code

« on: April 29, 2024, 05:13:09 pm »

I think it was in Warp 4 original install media. But I seem to recall after that no further updates where released or new versions for OS/2.
Again off the top of my memory.

Roderick

20

Programming / Re: OpenDOC - Source Code

« on: April 27, 2024, 09:08:17 pm »

Hello.

There source code of OpenDOC released to the public with the intentions to be preserved.
- https://github.com/atcurtis/OpenDoc

I have zero experience with OpenDOC, as far as I know it was a framework created by Apple and with IBM and Microsoft they tried to turn it into a standard. I think it was close source and was discontinued on 1997.

I can not even list (or remember) one software that was created with OpenDOC on any of the platforms (OS/2, MacOS 7, Windows, or AIX). I guess all software created with OpenDOC was close source, so we can not even think on bringing some of that old software and port it to OS/2 today.

But on the bright side, I think it is interesting to keep releasing the source code of old software to the public for learning purposes or even some inspiration for something new.

If someone wants to chitchat and give some some insights, personal comments, opinions, it appreciated.

Regards

I think the OS/2 port was scrapped pretty quickly. And the standard had pretty serious security issue's. I seem to recall this was part of the reason Apple dropped it.
But this is from what I recall from many years ago.

Roderick

21

Networking / Re: [SOLVED] Networking not working In Virtual Box

« on: April 03, 2024, 02:42:02 pm »

I do not know if this is related, but after installing tons of programs onto a virtual ArcaOS 5.1 that I just reinstalled, I found the two following problems:

• The PATH and LIBPATH, still limited in size in config.sys, quickly go over their maximum length. It has been the same for ages, but I would be grateful if a good programmer (which I am not) could make a program into which one enters folder names that should be part of libpath (especially), then another folder for collecting all libraries, and then the program picks up all these libraries, copies them to that collection folder, favors newer versions when two files have the same name, or even prevents some files from being copied if they are known to create conflicts. But that is an entirely different topic.
• As mentioned on the old HPFS386 topic that I have to resurrect, some usual folders / files required for HPFS386 are missing. Again, not the same topic.
• Now let's get to the topic at hand. I did not have any network. Somehow the different interfaces are present / installed with one of them activated for DHCP, but there is no DHCPSTRT starting automatically. And yet I did install networking.. Starting DHCPSTRT by hand after getting to the WPS works, but why the heck is it not started during boot-up time? Could anyone tell me exactly how their DHCPSTRT line looks like in their config.sys ?

1. The path and libpath length will not be modified, put it simple OS limitation. If you want to use extended paths for development stuff. You need to use beginpath and beginlibpath.
2. I did not read this topic. But you might need to disable earlymeminit=true in the config.sys, I am not 100% is HPFS386 works with that setting on. Warning however. Switching this option off can result in drivers such as ACPI.PSD, UNIAUD ETC not loading. Switching this option off reduces the amount of RAM for loading kernel  and drivers to about 16 MB of RAM. Which can result in system crashes!
3. Check \mptn\bin\setup.cmd
That gets loaded from the config.sys.

Roderick Klein

22

Setup & Installation / Re: Ecomstation 1.0

« on: April 01, 2024, 12:01:35 pm »

Did you notice that ecomstation.com is still on-line?

I just checked. it is still online. https://www.ecomstation.com/index.phtml
 

The problem is that it keeps going on and offline it seems the site.
Click on this link
https://www.ecomstation.com/where_purchase.phtml
Now click on shop.ecomstation.com
It seems webshop is permanently offline.

Roderick

23

Hardware / Re: Wireless Mouse Issue

« on: March 31, 2024, 01:54:00 am »

Interestingly enough, I plugged my old Logitech mouse (that worked on ArcaOS ) and it does the same thing. I ran lsusb with the Logitech dongle installed:

Bus 000 Device 007: ID 046d:c52b Logitech, Inc. Unifying Receiver

It doesn't work, maybe it's my KVM switch? I will open a ticket.

It could be the kvm. Had more USB kvm tbat are wel nog goud.
If you open a ticket attach s testlog generic.

Roderick

24

Hardware / Re: Wireless Mouse Issue

« on: March 30, 2024, 02:26:04 pm »

Hello Christech

Can you specify which wireless mouse do you use? Of course bluetooth mice and the strange "wifi mouse" does not have OS/2 driver for it.
I guess this is a wireless mouse with USB receiver.  Is a regular USB cable mouse working?

Please post back the brand, model and USB Hardware ID (you can use lsusb).

Regards

Most of these wireless mice simply present as standard USB mouse. In this case a ticket should be opened with Arca Noae and a testlog attached. That way David can tell if the mouse is supported or not. For us here in the forum its guess work as to why the mouse is not working.

Roderick Klein

25

Setup & Installation / Re: Ecomstation 1.0

« on: March 27, 2024, 11:00:22 pm »

Hi Neil

Did you notice that ecomstation.com is still on-line?

Just to add something, yesterday when I replied to jacco123, I tried to visit ecomstation.com and it was not working. I guessed that it was gone for good, but now I realize the website is still there. I stand corrected.

Regards

I had the same.... I was able to access it again. But right now it has gone offline again.
Now if anybody can tell me if I am wrong. When the website www.ecomstation.com is go to the buy section on the website.
It links to shop.ecomstation.com.
However try and visit https://shop.ecomstation.com/  it shows a text:
" redirecting to main eComStation website"
That has been the case for weeks it. Seems the webshop where you could buy eComStation is no longer online

Correct if I am wrong.

Roderick

26

Applications / Re: eCs 1.x & SmartSuite

« on: March 27, 2024, 10:34:36 pm »

Hi all,

I am reinstalling my ArcaOS VM and some of my eCS-originating programs..

1. Does anyone remember on which eCS CD SmartSuite was located, and for which versions of eCS (before it was replaced by openoffice)?

2. Someone has uploaded the 3 CDs of eCS 1.0 to Archive.org. This is the US version, when the one I bought at that time was the version with the CDs made by Mensys (in their usual green cardboard pouch). What are the known differences between both versions?

3. At the time (must have been around 2000-2001), I had ordered eCS early enough to get a sort of 1CD beta before the final one was released. I remember it also had some programs that did not make it to the final one. Anyone has any idea ?

4. I started making/keeping the ISOs of all eCS versions to which I had access since 1.1, but I am missing the ISOs of the beta and of 1.0, and I lost the CDs. 7 years ago, when I emailed Mensys about the inability to redownload my CDs, Menso answered

 “I am sorry to say that our download system is currently in maintenance. We are working on it!

I have forwarded your e-mail to info@ecomstation.com. They will send you a quote for the latest version of eComStation.”
Needless to say, the eCS download system never got out of “maintenance” and the forwarded request was never answered. Would someone have ISOs of the Mensys-version of eCS 1.0, and if possible of the preceding beta?

Thanks !

I worked on eCS 1.0, 1.1 1,2, 2.0., 2.1 and 2.2 beta at Mensys. I left in 2013. Some of the exact revision history of the early 1.0. beta's I think is just lost forever.
This was done by Serenity Systems in conjunction with Mensys from the Netherlands. But most of the early beta's where polished up MCP 1 versions.
The real improvement came with eCS 1.0. with the installer. The phase 1 installer was pretty good but phase 2 (when booted from hard disk, was well, uuuhm, horrible).

eCS 1.1 got a complete new installer backend and frontend.
In 2013 eCS was purchsed by Xeu and I did not work there anymore.  I think the current download systems of eCS might contain 1.2R and 2.1 and eCS 2.2 beta II.
The rest of the other stuff is possibly lost. As in its most likely not online in the old archives. I do not know 100% certain.

As for Smartsuite that was on CD number 3.

If you want more info on early beta's drop be private email roderickklein at xs4all.nl.
(I do not read the forums daily).

Roderick

27

Programming / Re: DosDevIOCtl disabling keyboard in VIO mode

« on: March 07, 2024, 12:23:01 am »

But I also do not understand why you would be dogmatic about using 32-bit only.

Firstly from a technical cleanliness perspective. I thought that OS/2 2.0 was about upgrading to 32-bit. 30 years later and I'm still required to deal with 16-bit? Not what I want to do. Especially not for one problematic function (DosDevIOCtl) that would force me into 16-bit. I'd rather be forced into fullscreen.

Secondly, the pure 32-bit allows me to write a mini-clone of OS/2 either as an app that runs under another OS (e.g. UC386L that runs under Linux) or as a standalone OS (PDOS/386). Both available from http://pdos.org - new version that implements DosDevIOCtl uploaded a couple of minutes ago.

Note that "mini clone" means that it runs *certain* OS/2 executables - basically just the ones that were built with PDPCLIB (see makefile.wat). So anything that is C90-compliant, or uses ANSI x3.64 "extensions" and has been built with PDPCLIB or equivalent (I doubt that there is anything equivalent currently, but there is no barrier to that).

OS/2 has a strong 16-bit heritage, that's just the way it is.

And it doesn't need to be. With proper funding, OS/2 could be stripped internally of any 16-bit vestiges that affect a pure 32-bit application. As well as being a commercial competitor to Windows (note that I am similarly able to convert OS/2 into a mini Win32 clone with the use of win32os2 at pdos.org using the same technique). And yes, I know that Odin for OS/2 and Linux WINE are nominally superior (but neither are what I want).

So anyway, I want to be able to build a 32-bit OS/2 binary today, that runs on all those environments. And even if I lose the source code, the binary remains pure as better OS/2 clones come online.

Having worked on OS/2 for 25 years and more then 10 years on eComStation project I have somewhat experience in this. The issue is that it seems the funding that would be needed never arrived. It seemed nobody was interested in this approach.  Could it be done, I guess so. OS/2 also had ODIN on it, so in the other direction that might work.  However it seems that in most cases it was cheaper and faster to create a VM. Take Virtual PC with OS/2, Svista done by Serenity Systems. I seem to under years ago a France OS/2 customer wanted to move froim OS/2 to Linux. The problem was they had lost the sources of the OS/2 app. I seem to understand IBM tried to create an API layer on Linux. The project was never finished.

Anyway I am not saying it can not be done. I have no clue how much such a project would cost.  But I am skeptical at this moment if it will ever come off the ground.

Roderick

28

Applications / Re: XWP v1.0.16

« on: March 04, 2024, 09:52:38 am »

Hello

What do you think it is needed for lSwitcher to also respect the XWP font sizes too?

I opened a ticket in case Gregg Young wants to take a look at it.
- http://trac.netlabs.org/lswitcher/ticket/81

Regards

Gregg is on vacation right now.  He is aware of this ISwitcher issue. He mentioned this issue at Warpstock.

Roderick

29

Storage / Re: Boot from iscsi or fiber channel

« on: February 12, 2024, 12:20:22 pm »

I would like to have a diskless ArcaOS (or Warp 4, but preferably ArcaOS) machine. For that I would like to boot and run diskless from iSCSI or Fiber Channel or FCoE (Fiberchannel over Ethernet.)

Either way it will be booting from a Netapp filter.

It's just much more convenient for us, as it allows us to take filesystem snapshots, replicate storage remotely; and it gets automatically backed up; plus naturally, it's a very reliable SAN underneath with parity; and finally, it's more "aligned" with how we run things around here.

The initial OS installation can be done to Virtualbox (because I don't think you can readily install to FC or iSCSI), then the contents of the disk *could* be moved (more precisely dd if=virtualboxdisk.raw of=/dev/remoteblockdevice bs=512 or something like that) to the SAN block device, but I'm not certain how things would boot (ECSBOOT.COM?); naturally, I could use a Qlogic HBA with iSCSI boot support (sometimes they do that for windows or AIX) but I'm not sure if that was ever attempted for OS/2; although, because it's a fairly common way to do things in large organizations i would be surprised to hear that it was never done with OS/2.

GOALS: Note that I don't want to boot or run diskless os/2 from os/2 (or ecomstation or another operating system) or run os/2 "virtualized" here; the goal is to boot and run os/2 from a machine with no disk. So please refrain asking "why would you do this", "use a raid controller", "use reliable drives", etc. Finally, the GOAL is not to simply boot, but have the block device exposed over network or fiber channel; or basically run "diskless" via iscsi/FCoE or fiber channel.

Quick search on Google didn't show anything extremely useful (which hardware to use, which HBAs are supported etc) or how to accomplish this, so I'm turning to the community for ideas and pointers.

Thanks in advance -- J.

Sorry best I can tell this is game over. Maybe just maybe the current ArcaOS UEFI loader MIGHT work to load from iSCSI. The problem is that would load ArcaOS for a small portion. But once ArcaOS starts to boot with the UEFI loader your dead in the water.
The problem is that you would need some sort of iSCSI add driver (I think). This is really uncharted terrain and I think your chances or low of getting this to work.


Roderick Klein

30

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

« on: February 05, 2024, 11:05:59 am »

About GPT. It is slightly slower due to the filter. It allows partitions that are aligned correctly, this is important for SSD's etc that use 4KB sectors as ideally the devices sectors and file systems (JFS) should align. Not only somewhat faster but in the case of SSD's, cuts down on wear. Write a one byte file and 4KB gets written. If sectors are not aligned, 8KB actually gets written with house keeping and garbage collection happening twice as often.
With GPT, you can use other partitioning tools and at the worse, have to go back and reassign the drive letter.
You can only boot GPT with UEFI, and you will have to add the GPT filter to older installs to rad the GPT disks
Personally, I have my 1TB NVMe device partitioned GPT with ArcaOS 5.1, a big data partition and Linux on it and my older half a TB SSD partitioned MBR with legacy installs. rEFInd allows me to boot to which ever I choose, with airboot on the MBR device then chain loading.
Edit: ESP is also on the 1TB NVMe device. I did have one on the regular MBR SSD device, which I added to the system after installing 5.1, things got confusing until I wiped that partition. As you found, hiding it is not good enough.

David said at Warpstock (from Arca Noae) the performance impact is 15% slower then an MBR disc. So that is not to bad.
Honestly GPT is MUCH more compatible for setting up multiboot systems.

Roderick