OS2 World Community Forum

OS/2, eCS & ArcaOS - Technical => Setup & Installation => Topic started by: ivan on June 23, 2018, 05:53:58 pm

Title: USB 3.0 /3.1
Post by: ivan on June 23, 2018, 05:53:58 pm
Since most of us that visit here are not plugged into the the testing network and therefore never hear how essential updates and drivers are progressing, or even if they are being worked on.  I am now working on the principle that if you don't ask you never find out so I'm asking 'is there any progress on USB 3.0 and 3.1 drivers and if there is have those creating them thought to test them on the ASMedia chipset as used on most AMD Ryzen and A series CPU motherboards?
Title: Re: USB 3.0 /3.1
Post by: Sigurd Fastenrath on June 23, 2018, 06:35:57 pm
My last information is from May 2016, when David A announced at Warpstock Europe it is at 90%. Nothing since, may be there has been some informations at the last WSE, but the videos are still not online.  ???  :(
Title: Re: USB 3.0 /3.1
Post by: Dave Yeo on June 23, 2018, 07:19:51 pm
Haven't heard anything lately and the last was that they were almost done.
Lately resources seem to be being put into installer updates and getting ready for supporting multiple languages.
I'd guess that soon 5.03 should be released with the framework in place for NLV support then a push for 5.1 with actual NLV support. Hopefully concurrently there will be work going on for USB 3.x support as it is probably the driver that is most needed.
Hopefully Arca Noae has acquired an Asmedia equipped computer but only they know and I'm not aware of any being used in testing.
As you can see by my use of "hopefully", us testers don't have much access to the inner workings of the development cycle.
Title: Re: USB 3.0 /3.1
Post by: ivan on June 23, 2018, 09:31:47 pm
Hi Dave,

If they are looking at installer updates then they are going to need the USB 3/3.1 drivers if anyone is going to use a modern motherboard AMD  or Intel based.  The last three I got only had USB 3 ports, no PS/2 therefore if no drivers it becomes rather problematic installing without keyboard or mouse/trackball.

At the moment I have 3 Ryzen based computers - two if them running ArcaOS to a limited fashion and 5 with AMD 3850 APU 4 core processors, again with ArcaOS - I used one of them to build the hard disk for the Ryzen units since it is impossible to install from DVD or USB on those boards.

If anyone wants anything tested on new - less than 2 years old - AMD based boards I could dedicate one of my units to the task.  There are quite a lot of problems with those boards with the drivers we have at the moment with most of them revolving around the ASMedia chipset - ahci and USB.

I shall remain hopefully optimistic. 
Title: Re: USB 3.0 /3.1
Post by: Dave Yeo on June 24, 2018, 12:42:44 am
Hi Ivan, perhaps you should send Lewis an email offering to help test once the drivers are ready.
If you're bored you could also offer to help with translating as I believe you're a native Dutch speaker.
Title: Re: USB 3.0 /3.1
Post by: ivan on June 24, 2018, 10:35:17 am
Hi Dave, I don't know where you got the idea that I was Dutch, I'm British living in France now. I did own a company, based in Spain that works with several industrial plants keeping their computer controlled machine tools working in top condition.

E-mailing Lewis might be an idea, the ball is then in their court. 
Title: Re: USB 3.0 /3.1
Post by: Martin Iturbide on June 26, 2018, 03:36:49 am
Hi.

I also think that USB 3.x is important since not having it is a blocker to install ArcaOS on modern hardware (No CD-ROM, no USB CD-ROM works, no USB flash installer works).

But even that USB 3.x is important I think there are other drivers a that are important for the community like Wifi. If we see it from  the individual community users side, I think it is more important the Wifi driver "first" since they already have a computer assigned for OS/2  and it usually don't have USB 3.x, but usually we have an wifi adapter that does not work. Audio would be the second one.

On the corporate customer side, it is obvious that it may be more important USB 3.x, since they want to install OS/2 on modern hardware (I guess more PCs than laptops) to use some company software or industrial equipment. So corporate customer may need USB 3x and a solid wired Ethernet driver, not Audio or wifi.

I think that it is time for Arca Noae to have more driver developers formally on their team. If drivers are their strong point for the continuity of OS/2, they should train more employees to create device drivers since it seems that making the builds of ArcaOS is also taking a lot of resources efforts.

Regards

Title: Re: USB 3.0 /3.1
Post by: Andi B. on June 26, 2018, 08:14:50 am
Quote
...and it usually don't have USB 3.x, but usually we have an wifi adapter...
Depends on the individual POV. For me wifi is not so important cause I work with real computers not toys with mini displays called notebooks ;) USB3 on the other hand would be very interesting when it comes to speed of making backups on external drives. And most important for me are graphic drivers. Both big displays and multi monitor I need desperately.

As you see, different individual needs. We will see how AN prioritize activities. Personal guess - USB3, audio, wifi and then graphics.

Title: Re: USB 3.0 /3.1
Post by: Martin Vieregg on June 27, 2018, 09:37:46 am
The current solution to run ArcaOS on a Ryzen board which has no EHCI USB 2.0 controller onboard is to insert a PCIe USB 2.0 card. See this thread (https://www.os2world.com/forum/index.php/topic,1764.msg).

Three month ago, the ArcaOS guys said to me about the availibility of the XHCI USB 3.0 drivers "very soon"...
Title: Re: USB 3.0 /3.1
Post by: Doug Clark on June 29, 2018, 05:29:32 pm
Andi B - I also prefer working on a desktop over a laptop because of the keyboard, mouse, and much larger monitor. But sometimes it is impratical to haul my desktop around and a laptop is very handy. Hence wifi, and on the newer machines, USB 3, is important.

My opinion is the graphics part is pretty good right now for desktop users. It is easy and cheap to buy a graphics card that is supported by SNAP, and SNAP works great for dual monitors. I am writing this right now on dual 27" monitors each running at 1920 x 1080 via ArcaOS SNAP on a quad core machine. The video card (Radeon X600) cost $7 including shipping. While I don't believe SNAP will run the the very wide 4K screens, I think Panorama will.
Panorama on a quad core machine performs well enough to run video at 1920 x 1080, but I don't know how well it will perform at 4k resolutions.

If video is a concern then it is a concern (to me) for laptops because of the problem running WinOS2. My laptop will not run SNAP and WinOS2 does not run on that machine with Panorama - which means it doesn't run. However there may be a work around for that by running the Win16 apps in WinXP in VBOX. It will be a pain to install and setup, but I suspect it will work.
Title: Re: USB 3.0 /3.1
Post by: Andreas Schnellbacher on June 29, 2018, 06:37:58 pm
While I don't believe SNAP will run the the very wide 4K screens, I think Panorama will.
No, Panorama can only support what the VESA mode supports. The max. resolution is 1920x1200, no dual head possible.

BTW, I also prefer desktop machines over notebooks. I also know enough people who still have a notebook, but no desktop machine. Many of them use their notebooks more and more rarely. (I know that desktop machines are almost dead and almost the same applies for notebooks, but I don't care.)
Title: Re: USB 3.0 /3.1
Post by: Martin Vieregg on July 04, 2018, 08:58:48 am
I have got a new 27' 1440x2560 monitor with HDMI. All works fine with Panorama. DVI should also work (not tried yet) with 30 Hz.