Messages

31

General Discussion / Re: Hobbes Retirement

« on: January 30, 2024, 12:52:17 am »

Hello Roderick

Nathan is doing a good progress with the replacement development, he has the filesearch links, search inside the "long description" text and other fixes that didn't have the original hobbes. He even coded a web form for file uploads.
Even that I share your same concerns, I say let's see how it works out and see if we can evolve from there.

The important thing to start is being able to backup "Nathan's Hobbes" files (He agreed to that), and keep uploading the backup on different places like OS2Site.com/sw.
After some days of the release we will see if this works or not, and if not, we can ask Nathan if something can be worked out.

But Roderick, I prefer if you keep going and improve OS2Site. I'm also willing to collaborate to have OS2Site as the "Main 'OLD and NEW' Repository". (Like saying HobbesArchive has the new stuff, but OS2Site/sw has everything)
I still dream of reorganizing the OS2Site.com/sw (After a full public backup in archive.org or course). I have on my hard drive (and backup) the same hobbes reorganized structure, but with the difference that I try to collect all older versions of the software. That is 56GB for the moment compared against the 18GB that Hobbes are right now. Yes, it is not "that interesting" to collect older versions of the software for some, but it is worth to be preserved and 56GB is not a lot of storage these days.

Regards

Sorry Martin there is only so many balls I keep in the air at the time (day has 24 hours) . I am willing to work on it but the priority for me has gone down as I simply find the current setup not workable. I also wanted to assemble a team of volunteers to process incoming on os2site.com. I just do not think its useful to have two servers with an upload DIR.

Roderick

32

Applications / Re: AcpiDaemon start

« on: January 30, 2024, 12:48:20 am »

If you think there is an issue and you reproduce this on one machine you have with the ArcaOS kernel loaded open a ticket via https://mantis.arcanoae.com.
Attach a testlog and describe how you can reproduce a hang.

Roderick Klein

33

General Discussion / Re: Hobbes Retirement

« on: January 28, 2024, 02:21:20 pm »

ftp hobbes.os2voice.org is already up for upload.

Thanks Roderick. I just uploaded some old software that Hobbes was missing to give it a try. For me moment my only observation is that you can not see what file were uploaded. "/incoming" always look empty but the files seems to be uploaded without problems.

Regards

I have decided to cancel work on that mirror as Nathan went ahead. As I have stated my concern before. We need one master hobbes archive not two upload FTP.
As we do not know how to synch files.

My personal opinion is that just like with NMSU it would have better for the long run if it would have been ran by OS/2 VOICE or OS/2 world foundation so it does not depend on single person.
I do not think a master archive should be on PC in his son bedroom, sorry. And if something happens to his home (what we do not hope) well we loose it again.
Doing this via an organization provides slightly more redundancy in different ways.

So I see it as a waste of time to work on a mirror as well.

Roderick

34

Hardware / Re: The last nail in OS/2's coffin

« on: January 25, 2024, 01:53:55 pm »

Poked around on other forums, mentioning the X86-S spec, and folks there pointed out some VirtualBox tidbits:

  - old versions of VirtualBox emulated enough of a CPU such that they could run OS/2 when other virtualization products couldn't.
  - newer versions of VirtualBox no longer needed that emulation layer, as they could pass things thru to the CPU directly. But, to this day, VirtualBox still has pieces of QEMU in it.

Most likely, both VirtualBox and QEMU will be able to run OS/2 long after a particular x64-only CPU can't. I'd guess that Intel needs a new line of x64-only CPU's to carry them further into the server ecosystem. But I'd also guess that they'll continue CPU's that support legacy business apps for a long time (lots of money there).

If DOS, an OS that is older than OS/2, can be emulated and survive & thrive to this day, there shouldn't be any reason why OS/2 (all variants) can't be emulated as well, and prosper long into an x64 world. VirtualBox (virtualization) and QEMU (emulation) will get us there.

CPU's might take away a needed "layer of compatibility" on the one hand, but they almost always give back with "speed" on the other hand. Emulation developers do the rest ...

Its not that easy virtualization will full x86 emulation.  It has an impact on perfomance.

Roderick

35

Hardware / Re: The last nail in OS/2's coffin

« on: January 24, 2024, 01:07:51 am »

Correct. Virtualization of OS/2 (and likewise: DOS and Windows 16-bit) will not be possible once x86-S is introduced. Only emulation will be possible (with a huge performance impact, of course).

This raises the question of how virtualization works currently with a 64 bit system running 16 bit code. My understanding is that in 64 bit mode, 16 bit software doesn't work.
As for emulation, with JIT compiler, performance can be pretty good. The PowerPC OS/2 was supposed to run DOS/WinOS2 well, as well as some versions of NT such as the Alpha port.
I doubt that anyone will actually do it but possible.

I do not know how this works, but the CPU does not swtch to legacy mode. You will have to ask a CPU expert.

Roderick

36

Hardware / Re: The last nail in OS/2's coffin

« on: January 23, 2024, 10:20:06 am »

If you want to delve into the details:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/developer/articles/technical/envisioning-future-simplified-architecture.html

Currently, this is only a proposal. But it gives a very good idea of what Intel thinks is no longer needed.

Its expected this will indeed be long term thing to happen. I understand the legacy bit takes up 12% of the space in CPU.
I read an article (I do not the have link handy) of one of the main AMD tech engineers and he said the proposal was every interesting.
However the engineer indicated the changes proposed are "very, very, very, very complex to make".

The other thing that this would imply is (the way I understand it) is that NO current VM would work anymore
to run legacy OS. Its the CPU that provides the virtualization support to hypervisor.

Roderick

37

General Discussion / Re: Hobbes Retirement

« on: January 14, 2024, 11:49:24 pm »

ftp hobbes.os2voice.org is already up for upload.

Thanks Roderick. I just uploaded some old software that Hobbes was missing to give it a try. For me moment my only observation is that you can not see what file were uploaded. "/incoming" always look empty but the files seems to be uploaded without problems.

Regards

Please read the FTP banner that is shown when you login in the server with an ftp.exe on the OS/2 command line.

Roderick

38

General Discussion / Re: Hobbes Retirement

« on: January 14, 2024, 10:08:12 pm »

Oke Since Iam wants to keep his domain name for private use a new domain was setup.
hobbes,os2voice.

I might get lucky and NMSU might want to reidrect to this domain name.

My goal is run the master repo as a part of the VOICE foundation. That way is something happens to me the main repo should be safe.

ftp hobbes.os2voice.org is already up for upload.

Stay tuned for more information.

Roderick

39

Applications / Re: ArcaOS 5.1.0 and cups

« on: January 14, 2024, 09:14:51 pm »

Did you also open a ticket at Arca Noae so they are aware of this issue ?

Roderick

40

Setup & Installation / Re: Does AOS-5.1 large-file copying fight with FAT32?

« on: January 14, 2024, 06:46:45 pm »

Good news and mildly disappointing news...  After around three hours of wrestling with DFSee, LVM, InitDisk and finally the "Format" option on my USB 2TB HDD's drop-down menu, the HDD got set up as a JFS device -- but those 2TB mysteriously reduced to just under 1TB.  OTOH backup of my system's almost 11GB of AOS-5.1 (two lots: main + maintenance) and scads of other Stuff took some ten minutes, compared with the time needed when the HDD was FAT32: about 12 hours.  And no wildcat strikes by AOS's copying mechanisms.  *yay*

Oh... and if I eject the USB MSD while dependent folders are still open, they now quietly close themselves.  That may be down to the use of CHECKINI.  (Talking of which, has Henk also been kind enough to update his other Regularly Useful util, CLEANINI?)

FWIW, I think the LVM family of apps, good as they are already, might benefit from AN folks putting heads together to make setting up (eg) USB MSDs less mysterious.  (Including a way to enlarge the font in the Advanced LVM, please.)

You are better of using miniilvm and not the Advanced LVM program.

Roderick

41

General Discussion / Re: Hobbes Retirement

« on: January 14, 2024, 12:41:45 am »

Ah, so it's now hosted in another place, with no limits. Then of course, no problems with limited traffic. That's good.

Its a server in a datacenter in Netherlands hooked onto a fast fibre optic line.

Roderick

42

General Discussion / Re: Hobbes Retirement

« on: January 12, 2024, 10:19:39 pm »

Hi all. As an option, I could host the Hobbes archive too. I already have the mirror of it, which is synced with hobbes.nmsu.edu each week.
The mirror is in [ftp|http|https]://[ftp|hobbes].osfree.org/upload/mirrors/hobbes.nmsu.edu/.
It also has shortcuts for quick access as:

http://osfree.org/download/
http://hobbes.osfree.org/
ftp://osfree.org/download/

The missing part is still the web part for search etc.
Waiting for it when Hobbes admins publish it.

The problem is not the mirror of the site itself from my perspective. There are plenty of mirrors floating around and everybody is running around wanting to create more mirrors.
What is being forgotten is what should be the replacement for hobbes.nmsu.edu which we would consider the main archive. Where are new files going to be uploaded ?
Or should we have 5 mirrors where you can all upload files. So if a developer uploads something to mirror, how do the other mirrors get updated ?

That is why I suggested os2site.com. As I typed I already have a ticket out to NMSU and an email to somebody working at NMSU asking if hobbes.nmsu.edu can somehow be redirected to os2site.com. That way we have one central from which we can mirror and people can keep finding the old content via hobbes.nmsu.edu.

Roderick

Roderick

43

General Discussion / Re: Hobbes Retirement

« on: January 12, 2024, 10:04:51 pm »

Roderick,

So is your plan to have two sites? Merge what is now os2site with what is now hobbes? Something else maybe?

I ask because it seems like os2site has stuff that is not on hobbes.  I kinda like the idea of the 2 sites being different.  But that is easy for me to say since I am not maintaining either site.

os2site.com is a copy of hobbes its just outdated since Ian could not synched the data properly to os2site.ciom.

Roderick

44

General Discussion / Re: Hobbes Retirement

« on: January 12, 2024, 06:15:50 pm »

As a first thing.
www.os2site.com will get readonly FTP download and a write only FTP incoming in the next couple of hours.
Stay tuned as we work on stuff in the engine room.

Please do not upload complete directory trees and dozens of files. Next step is to get somehow os2site.com synched with the current content of hobbes.

Roderick Klein
President OS/3 VOICE

45

General Discussion / Re: Hobbes Retirement

« on: January 12, 2024, 06:11:42 pm »

Martin, IAN, Roderick, etc.

Do you think NMSU be willing to permanently redirect the URL hobbes.nmsu.edu to a URL of our choosing?  Or could we buy the URL? 

The hobbes website is pretty simple and straightforward.  I am guessing the archive directory structure matches the directory structure laid out on the web site.   Seems like it would be relatively simple to recreate hobbes website and point the old (current) url to the new server.

I opened a ticket for this 2 days ago at NMSU. I just called them and a manager is looking into the request.

You see I see more people with ideas to mirror but I see an overall lacking plan
1) We want the impact of the domainname go away to be as small as possible. The fact that hobbes.nmsu.edu shuts down is not a good moral boost.
Since a lot of OS/2 users live in caves (as in habbits do not change) its good to have a pointer from hobbes.nmsu.edu that points the official copy of the (os2site.com).

2) Which repo should be leading ? I assume we want to have 1 official repo that people upload files to.  And from there on it can be synched to other hobbes mirrors.

3) Anybody made a list of current servers that run a mirror of hobbes ? Send me the list if you want to help out and then we can see if they can be pointed to the new official mirror
so the old mirrors updated. You see I am now aware of 5 people mirroring the old hobbes. But what about the points above ?

Roderick Klein
Prsident OS/2 VOICE