Topics

16

Applications / Thunderbird hang

« on: February 13, 2023, 04:09:57 am »

Someone suggested this experiment, and I tried it. I configured Thunderbird to not check for new mail. Then I opened Thunderbird and left it open, but doing nothing. With the build of Thunderbird in ArcaOS 5.0.7, dated March 23, 2020, the computer will hang after three or four days. By hang I mean no response to mouse or keyboard input, no response to network.

With the thunderbird-45.8.0.en-US-i686-06-06-22.os2.zip  build, dated June 6, 2022, no hang occurs even after eight days.

17

Utilities / dmidecode and UEFI

« on: November 24, 2022, 08:44:39 pm »

When we look at hardware, one of the tools we use is dmidecode.exe (version 2.12) This tool displays a wealth of information about the system, and we use it to fill out hardware reports for the wiki.

https://www.os2world.com/wiki/index.php/Extracting_Hardware_Information_from_ArcaOS_and_OS/2

With UEFI support coming in ArcaOS 5.1, our port of dmidecode isn't working any more. We need dmidecode v3, apparently, which uses the UEFI to display the system information. I'm curious to know if anyone has looked into what would be required to port dmidecode v3.

18

Hardware / Turn off Laptop Display

« on: October 17, 2022, 10:29:36 pm »

I'd like to turn off the laptop display. Actually the screen saver ought to do it, but it doesn't.

Is there any way to turn off the display. Can it be turned on again later?

Test machine is a Lenovo Thinkpad T450s, in case it matters.

19

Applications / printing from Lotus SmartSuite WordPro

« on: October 10, 2022, 01:10:54 am »

I'm looking at a computer that has a bit of trouble printing from Lotus SmartSuite Word Pro. I ask for three copies, collated, but none at all come out.

On a nearly identical computer and printer, it works perfectly. I can't get at the failing machine, so I'm attaching testlog of the machine that works.

I'm not really expecting an easy answer, but I'd appreciate advice about solving printing problems like this. I'm actually kind of expecting that it is significant that it is WordPro trying to print. It's a short document with an image or two, and the spool file is 50 megabytes.

It seems to take a long time for copies to print. And yet, on my regular desktop machine, printing starts in a second or two.

20

Multimedia / recommendation for KVM

« on: September 23, 2022, 06:04:11 pm »

KVM stands for “Keyboard, Video (monitor), Mouse.” The main function of a KVM switch is to control, switch between, and manage multiple PCs or servers via a single keyboard, monitor and mouse (also referred to as the 'console').

I also share audio. I use an analog VGA KVM today, but I'd like to upgrade to a digital 4K monitor. An HDMI KVM sounds attractive. Has anyone got one that they like?

Does HDMI audio work in uniaud?

21

Applications / New builds of Thunderbird and SeaMonkey

« on: June 09, 2022, 04:28:47 pm »

I see the posting of new builds for Mozilla apps. The prerequisite list looks shorter now. What compiler was used to make the new builds?

(Thanks Dave Yeo, for supporting us with these new builds.)

22

Setup & Installation / Lock in place hides a printer

« on: June 03, 2022, 07:11:38 pm »

This is a bit of Workplace shell weirdness. I have a printers folder with 8 printer objects in it. The window is neatly sized to show all 8 printers in a 2 x 4 grid.

I created shadows of 4 of the printer objects on the desktop. So far, so good.

I then checked "Lock in place" for the 4 shadowed objects on the desktop. When I open the printers folder, all the icons are gone.

(After a little investigation, I see that if I make the printers folder very large, some of the printer show up. By very large, I mean bigger than the desktop.)

23

Applications / Password manager

« on: May 31, 2022, 06:02:47 pm »

Password managers are a good thing. But now we need them to work on our computers, phones, tablets, watches, etc. Is there any solution for ArcaOS users?

Some password managers are open-source? Can any of them be (easily) ported?

24

Applications / Media-downloader

« on: May 09, 2022, 07:14:02 pm »

I saw the news about Media-downloader, but I don't really understand how to install it.

I used 7z to make a mediadownloader folder, and when I run media-downloader.exe, I get a bunch of notices.

I found and installed ffmpeg using ANPM, so that was one message. Here are the rest.

Code: [Select]

[media-downloader] *****************************************************
[media-downloader] To Disable These Checks, Do The Following:-
[media-downloader] 1. Go To "Configure" Tab.
[media-downloader] 2. Go To "General Options" Sub Tab.
[media-downloader] 3. Uncheck "Show Version Info When Starting".
[media-downloader] *****************************************************
[media-downloader] Failed to find executable "aria2c"
[media-downloader] Failed to find executable "stdbuf"
[media-downloader] Error, executable to backend "aria2c" could not be found
[media-downloader] Failed to find executable "aria2c"
[media-downloader] Error, executable to backend "aria2c" could not be found
[media-downloader] Checking installed version of yt-dlp
[media-downloader] Failed to find version information, make sure "yt-dlp" is installed and works properly
[media-downloader] Checking installed version of ffmpeg
[media-downloader] Found version: 4.2.2
How can I fix the rest of these messages?

25

Utilities / zip for Warp 4

« on: April 21, 2022, 06:35:24 pm »

I want to run zip.exe on a system that lacks networking. Zip version 2.3.2 fails because the system lacks NETAPI.DLL. Is there another zip I can use?

(Note: rpm/yum works better on machines with a network)

26

Setup & Installation / Airboot, Linux and ArcaOS

« on: March 30, 2022, 04:49:31 pm »

I want to install a system with Ubuntu and ArcaOS in a multi-boot configuration. But ArcaOS has one idea of disk geometry and Ubuntu another. If I use AirBoot, Ubuntu responds with "Load Error", which is not helpful.

Given ArcaOS already installed on hard drive 1, how can I get Ubuntu to boot on hard drive 2? The computer BIOS doesn't give that option. This really ought to be easy with the right boot manager.

27

Applications / Scribus on ArcaOS

« on: March 21, 2022, 03:33:34 pm »

I'm trying to install Scribus again, but the environment is ArcaOS and rpm/yum, so a lot of the ways the prerequisites are fulfilled have changed.

At this point the Scribus splash screen shows for a moment, then disappears.

I have all the prerequisites mentioned in the readme.os2. I have two local DLL files that perhaps should not be there.

fntcfg2.dll
freetyp2.dll

https://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/scribus/scribus/1.4.5/scribus-1.4.5-os2ecs.zip

I have tried Scribus 1.4.4 as well, but it fails the same way.

I don't see any error message or log file. PMDLL says I can load everything.

28

Applications / FORTRAN

« on: March 08, 2022, 03:09:32 am »

I'm interested in finding GFortran. All I've found so far is an emx-based build from 1999 on Hobbes.

https://hobbes.nmsu.edu/?path=%2Fpub%2Fos2%2Fdev%2Femx%2Fcontrib%2Fg77

29

Networking / USB Modem

« on: January 22, 2022, 02:27:37 am »

I think I need a modem for a modern computer that lacks a standard serial port. So probably a USB modem. I remember the problems with WinModems, and I think those problems are still there. But I think I have a reasonable modern modem that would work with our USB com driver.

Does anyone have any idea if this would work?

https://www.cdw.com/product/us-robotics-56k-usb-fax-modem/1429761

30

Internet / A few questions about Thunderbird

« on: December 30, 2021, 01:04:03 am »

I have a perfectly working example, and one that is broken. How can I fix the broken Thunderbird?

Spell check isn't working. I checked the options, and it should be on. What could make spell check stop working?

Clicking on a URL does not bring up Firefox. IAI seems to have the right Firefox exe and typing that path at command line does bring up Firefox. What else could stop Firefox?

Just a weird question: Thunderbird suggests prior e-mail addresses as you type. Can I edit that list of e-mail addresses? Where is it stored?