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Messages - Lewis Rosenthal

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16
Hardware / Re: USB32 USBMSD problem of re-read diskette
« on: January 23, 2023, 03:08:46 pm »
Hi, Lars...

I happen to have an IBM FRU 02P5223 right here, and it works perfectly well attached to the same T560 USB3 port in the dock as my Teac, with or without media inserted at time of connection. This information from the DDK is considerably outdated, and of little to no relevance to the 32-bit AN driver..

David completed extensive reworking of USBMSD.ADD in the 12.04 release of the AN stack (March, 2020) when he converted it (USBMSD.ADD) to 32-bit. There was a lot of broken stuff in the IBM code (including at least one null pointer). Frankly, it's rather amazing that the IBM code worked as well as it did.

17
Hardware / Re: USB32 USBMSD problem of re-read diskette
« on: January 22, 2023, 06:38:34 pm »
Lars, I mean no disrespect, and do not mean to imply that one driver performs more or better checking than the other, but perhaps *different* checking.

I'll have to look at Igor's testlog output again, but all I can say right now is that we have what should be the same hardware, and yet, mine works and his does not. I'm confident that your stack would work for my drive, as well. So, I'm only positing that there may be other factors at play instead of an actual software defect.

Thanks for all you do, my friend. ;)

18
Hardware / Re: USB32 USBMSD problem of re-read diskette
« on: January 22, 2023, 04:11:48 pm »
Igor: You and I seem to have the same floppy drive (Teac USB ID 0644:0000). David also has one of these. Considering that David's and my drive work and yours does not, I would have to say that this is likely not something related to the USB stack (yes, I get that Lars' USBMSD driver works), but rather something unique to these systems where the drives are not working (and/or where the AN stack performs additional error checking which perhaps Lars' driver does not - and that is just a WAG on my part).

Michael: Have you opened a ticket with Arca Noae and provided a testlog for one of your drives which does not work? Are you also saying that the ports in your dock do not work? This could point to a number of other issues beyond software.

19
Hardware / Re: USB32 USBMSD problem of re-read diskette
« on: January 21, 2023, 09:06:48 pm »
Hi, guys...

Test system here:

ThinkPad T560
Lenovo Docking Station (17EF:1010 (HS hub with single TT) Lenovo ThinkPad Ultra Dock Hub)
ArcaOS 5.0.7
USB stack 12.14 / USBMSD.ADD /FLOPPIES:1
Teac FD-05PUW (0644:0000 (MSD)-(UFI)-(CBI-I) FS TEAC Corp. Floppy)

Device hot plugs. Insert media; able to read, able to write; eject media; insert different media; able to read, able to write.

Same system, but swap out the Teac drive with:

IBM USB portable FDD (057B:0000 (MSD)-(UFI)-(CBI-I) FS Y-E Data, Inc. FlashBuster-)

Same result. Disks insert, readable, writable, eject, replace with different disks, reading/writing still possible.

The only thing I didn't test was formatting. Okay, testing... Formatting works as expected (in the IBM drive, at least).

I fail to see what is wrong, sorry.

20
Comments, Suggestions & Questions / Re: ArcaOS 5.0 on xxxxxx.com
« on: January 17, 2023, 09:21:20 pm »
Thanks, Martin.

This appears to be the same ISO which was previously leaked to archive.org a few months ago (through no fault of the licensee - or Arca Noae). I've sent Juliano a takedown request.

As always, we are extremely grateful for everyone keeping a watchful eye out for leaks.

21
Comments, Suggestions & Questions / Re: ArcaOS 5.0 on xxxxxxx.com
« on: January 17, 2023, 06:57:08 pm »
Thanks, Mentore. I'm on it.

22
Events / Re: User Meeting Cologne November, 5th 2022 confirmed
« on: July 11, 2022, 12:37:35 am »
 ;)

Please read "keeping OS/2 running" as "keeping OS/2 running and continuing to improve the user experience." (I didn't think the second part was necessary, but I should have stated it directly. Mea culpa.)

Edit: And thanks for your kind words and acknowledgement of the enormity of the task of getting ArcaOS booting and installing on UEFI, as well as being able to make use of GPT devices, my friend.

23
Events / Re: User Meeting Cologne November, 5th 2022 confirmed
« on: July 10, 2022, 01:52:38 am »
Very, very simple:

5.0.7 (like 5.0.8 and possibly 5.0.9, 5.0.10, 5.0.20) is a fix rollup for ArcaOS 5.0. Who said it should not exist? People who paid for 5.0 support should get just that: 5.0 support.

If you watched and listened to my roadmap presentations and read the disclaimer slide (which is present in every single one of these I do), you would note that dates are approximate targets and never stated expectations of delivery. The work takes however long it takes to get a professional, commercial product to release. Without a crystal ball, there's no way to know how long that might be.

5.1 is not "delayed." It's simply not finished. There's a HUGE difference between those two states. "Delayed" implies that it was ready for release but had to be put on hold for some reason (like holding the countdown for a rocket on the launchpad). "Not finished" means just that: the rocket is not yet complete and ready for launch. We haven't even moved it to the launchpad. In fact, it's still in the hangar, being assembled.

Please be patient. 5.1 is coming soon. Really. We are literally down to documentation and last minute finishing and updating our delivery system to support spinning 5.0 and 5.1 ISOs, as well as 5.1 ISOs in various languages.

24
Events / Re: User Meeting Cologne November, 5th 2022 confirmed
« on: July 09, 2022, 10:54:04 pm »
Greetings...

you owe me email replies -- will be glad to resend the messages if they got lost

My friend, I sent you no less than five replies to your Yahoo! address on June 5, in response to your email to me of the same day from that same account, when I was recovering from cataract surgery and could barely see the screen. To date, I have no follow-ups from you, so...  ;)

I have another (much longer) one in draft which I'll finish one day soon (I hope).

As always, I am open to suggestions as to just what to say in such "we're still working on it; don't give up...there's still a pulse" posts which are not simply that. You're on the dev team, so if you ever feel that we've been sitting silent for too long, feel free to post something to the dev mailing list (substantive suggestions for verbiage always welcome and a plus), and I'll do my best to snap out of my doldrums to oblige.

You see, for me, in the thick of the forest, it's hard to tell what others might conjure...er...imagine...er...surmise left to their own devices. As I said to a consulting client a few years ago, in response to his comment to me about the age of most of the OS/2 code in his enterprise, "I see new OS/2 software every day."

Cheers

25
Setup & Installation / Re: Dos and WinOS2
« on: July 09, 2022, 10:41:05 pm »
Hi, Rick...

Thank you all for your help I just had to repurchase arca  :o because to buy the maintenance program after expired was more expensive than just purchasing the whole OS again.

[Further comment regarding Arca Noae deleted.]

As discussed in our FAQ here, and (now) in the ArcaOS 5.0 Support & Maintenance product page, here, as well as on the Support Info tab of the ArcaOS 5.0 - personal edition product page, here, the late renewal price applies when a subscription has lapsed for more than six months.

A late renewal is not, as you have asserted, more expensive than purchasing a new license. A new license not only costs $1 more (personal license) than a late renewal, but the late renewal includes a full year of support, starting from the date of purchase, as opposed to a new license, with its six months of included support.

In fairness, we blogged about this when the policy was put in place, and it only applies to subscriptions which have lapsed for - as I say - six months or more. If you had a question regarding the reasons for the late renewal pricing, you could have surely brought them to our attention through our Contact Us page. Customer retention is our goal (you can't base a business model on subscription services without renewals), and we always welcome direct feedback.

Cheers

26
Events / Re: User Meeting Cologne November, 5th 2022 confirmed
« on: July 09, 2022, 03:32:11 am »
Hi, Mike...

But I can understand his opinion about AN focusing on industry. I guess things might be different if you had brought up in your newsletter a continuous stream of progress updates about the new AOS5.1, the long time ago announced WiFi drivers and so on. Staying in the dark as an outsider leads to guess-working about whats going on. Better communication from AN might be the key to overcome such guessing.

Whenever the question arises about us not providing enough updates, I answer that with the question:

If we are still working on things, what should we say in a blog post?

In other words, we've said that we are working on ArcaOS 5.1, UEFI, GPT, WLAN drivers, and other things. Nothing has changed. We're still working on these things, and nothing has reached the point of us being able to release it as finished product. I could put that in a blog post every week, but then our blog posts would go from being few and informative to being frequent and redundant, saying nothing of any value.

We haven't gone out of business. We are processing new orders every day. We have released a steady stream of updates to USB, ACPI, and other things, including releasing a new NVMe driver (again, not for any commercial customer in particular, and not even prompted by a request from a commercial customer). I fail to see how or why anyone would get the impression that we had somehow shifted our focus from individual and small business users to large enterprises.

Again, to reassure everyone reading here:

Arca Noae remains committed to keeping OS/2 running on as many modern, bare metal systems as possible for as long as possible, whether those systems are owned by individuals at home or at school, or by businesses, small or large. Our driving force is just to keep OS/2 viable for those who need it or want an alternative to the ever-more-invasive mainstream OSes and the Powers behind them (Big Tech).

Sigurd, my friend:

We looked from what we know and what we can have access to today. The things I mentioned above are things we would like to have had, may be "exaggerated expectiations" from both of us.

I can understand about exaggerated expectations. Arca Noae's human development resources are limited. Whereas IBM could put a dozen or more engineers on a single task, we have a dozen or so tasks for a single engineer. This kind of flips the development cycle on its head. We have a queue of projects running in order to get to the next release. GPT was a major part of getting us off the ground (though GPT is by no means a requirement for UEFI - far from it). UEFI has been a monumental task, and then integrating that with the traditional BIOS install which we have had since ArcaOS 5.0, so that one ISO can boot under both environments and the installer can intelligently provide the correct options for the booted environment (correct options=ESP selection, as the ESP is necessary for UEFI boot, but makes no sense under traditional BIOS), has taken an enormous amount of time and effort. It is not easy to re-imagine the OS/2 installation process with UEFI involved, as it's decidedly un-OS/2-like.  :)

Somewhere in that work queue is continued USB3 development as tickets are submitted about this and that not working under a given controller (and USB technology itself - not the drivers we have on OS/2, but the specs and mis-application or ignorance of them by hardware manufacturers - continues to be an ongoing uphill slog). Behind that - and I do mean at the end of that list of priorities - is WLAN support, which really is moving along (though not ready for even a technology preview, yet).

The ordering is simple: First, be able to boot the machine. Next, be able to connect it to things, such as USB and LAN. If there are already supported drivers for wired networking, that's an acceptable workaround using bridge devices until such time as we can focus more attention on WLAN driver development. Otherwise, we'd be "all dressed up with nowhere to go," because who cares about a Wi-Fi driver when the computer can't boot or the display is black?

I understand that what's important to some may not be what's important to others or that on a scale of want-like-need-urgent, people will have many of the same things placed in different categories ("I have no working video, so video is urgent, while Wi-Fi is something which would be nice to have;" or, "My computer boots, video is fine, but I have no working keyboard or mouse - and only a single xHCI controller, so working USB is urgent.")...

Again, I fully understand the amount of work which goes into organizing a meeting of any type, and at a certain point, it's normal to stop and reassess the amount of time and energy vs the return on that human investment - for all concerned. I just don't know that ArcaOS 5.1 or Wi-Fi driver availability today would really make much of a difference in that picture (though it would give you more topics to cover, and considering that we really do anticipate 5.1 to be GA in the next couple of months - yes, we're that close - you may indeed have lots more to discuss by the time November rolls around).

ATB

27
Events / Re: User Meeting Cologne November, 5th 2022 confirmed
« on: July 07, 2022, 02:32:57 am »
- that ArcaNoae ultimately no longer has any major interest in the remaining "private/end users". Neither a version 5.1 has been released, nor a German translation, nor WLAN drivers, nor would there be without the work of Paul Smedley, Wim Brul, Lars Erdmann etc. (to name just a few and please forgive those who we have not named here have) sound support or webcam drivers etc. for OS/2 - eCS - ArcaOS on "modern hardware"

Sigurd, my friend, I wish that when you state your opinion or what you observe from the outside, you would make that clear in your statements.

Arca Noae does indeed have a major interest in individual and small business users. In fact, the entire 5.1 development cycle has been mainly about getting UEFI and GPT support into the finished product for these users, as our enterprise clients have not even requested this. We have spent the better part of two years on the 5.1 project, and we are within months of release.

ArcaOS 5.1 will indeed be released in EN, DE, ES, IT, NL, RU, and likely FR, with DBCS releases still in the works (CN, KO, JA, TW). Do you really think that we sit on our hands all day?  ;D

WLAN drivers are in development. Do you realize the scope of work involved in implementing the wireless protocol stack for the platform from scratch? GenMAC sort of cheated around this by wrapping a Windows driver, but MultiMac WLAN drivers do not take this approach. The first of these drivers is in development RIGHT NOW and has been for SEVERAL MONTHS, at least.

You mention Paul. Did you know that Paul is part of the ArcaOS development team? In fact, just a few days ago, Paul and I were discussing bringing the Samba server component up to the Samba 4.11 level to match the client, and how best we want to handle the server configuration utilities.

Just because you don't see things outside the Company doesn't mean that we aren't busy inside the Company.

I understand that what you wrote is your perception and opinion, and that's fine. Just please say that and don't presume to speak for Arca Noae. We remain committed to all OS/2 users, regardless of how many licenses they purchase. Our goal, however, is not to implement every single driver for every single device in every single computer so that it may be used under OS/2. Rather, we produce an operating system, and drivers necessary to get that OS up and running on as many new and recent systems as possible. Wim's webcam work is great, and we fully support his efforts and applaud him for making his drivers available to all. The same goes for Lars and other third party developers. You should not, however, feel that they do their work specifically because Arca Noae isn't doing ours.

Lastly, I understand the frustration of organizing an event for fewer and fewer people. I recall my late friend, Stan Sidlov, the former Warpstock treasurer, saying to me that the attendance was dropping to such a point that we should just have a barbeque in his backyard - and that was over a dozen years ago. All tech gatherings have struggled with this problem, and frankly, the technology itself is partly to blame (we seemed to be able to do virtual meetings during the COVID-19 disaster without the hassle of travel and hotels). I've also said many times that it takes the same amount of work to do a conference for 10 people as it does for 100. In the end, if you have stuff to discuss next year, I suspect you'll reconsider the merits of investing your time and effort in another meeting.

28
This should all be working, now. A server glitch led to a cascade failure of several dependent systems, but reboots work wonders.  :)

29
General Discussion / Re: YT video with download link
« on: December 13, 2020, 09:47:23 pm »
Many thanks.

Now to see how quickly the download site and YT process our takedown requests.

30
General Discussion / Re: YT video with download link
« on: December 12, 2020, 09:26:23 pm »
Reported. Please remove the link here from your previous post.

We are dealing with it. Thanks for letting us know. In the future, it would probably be better to just send an email to sales AT arcanoae DOT com or use our contact form.

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