Topics

46

Utilities / PCL6 Printer driver

« on: March 20, 2017, 01:56:25 pm »

I am wondering if anyone has a better memory than I.

Do we have a PCL6 printer driver in OS/2?  I have vague memories from way back in the days of Passport Advantage that there was such an item and my notes from that time are long gone.

If we do I will have saved a local charity some money and they will have a couple of reasonable laser printers for nothing. 

47

Setup & Installation / Desktop restarts at local midnight

« on: December 31, 2016, 01:54:44 pm »

This is an odd 'problem' that I noticed on one of the computers assembled by our teens that are on our social program.

A few days ago that computer happened to be on at midnight when I saw it restart the desktop.  I have now seen this at every midnight since then but can't see any reason for it to do so.

If anyone has any ideas please post them.

This computer is one they have assembled from salvaged parts and consists of:
Acer MCP61M2MA-K motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 x2 dual core processor 4200+
2x 1GB DDR2 Memory
ATI Radeon X550 graphics card (not using the internal nvidia)
ST3320820AS SATA hard disk
ST320LM001 SATA hard disk
DVD RW SATA
DVD ROM SATA

The operating system was installed from an updated (using UPDCD) OS/2 CP2 (they needed to see how it was done and do it).
Latest XWorkplace installed
Styler2 and a set of utilities that we use on all our computers is also installed.

In other words, apart from some of the specialist programs, which shouldn't have any bearing on the problem, it is the same as all our other computers - the ones that don't reset the desktop at midnight.

Thought please.

48

Setup & Installation / Help installing old software

« on: December 17, 2016, 01:49:10 pm »

Way back in the late 1990s when passport advantage was alive we got a CD from IBM with software for a client.  I installed it using the Netscape based interface and al was well up to the middle of this week when the computer running it was involved in a fire.

We have a replacement computer but I need to reinstall the software from the CD preferably without using the Netscape route.  I think there is a way of doing this and I may have done so with other software but I can't remember how.

Could someone please prompt my memory.

49

Applications / Vbox5.06 beta

« on: November 10, 2016, 06:02:09 pm »

A couple of points.

Where do we get the additions iso from?
Has anyone got a zip of the required DLLs that they could send me?

With thos two items I can try this out on several different computers.

50

Applications / Utilities and Games

« on: November 02, 2016, 03:45:08 pm »

This is just a note to let people know that Daniel F Valot has now restored his OS/2 utilities and Games page on his site.
http://dvalot.pagesperso-orange.fr/OS2programs.html

The utilities include such programs as EMT4PM a program to make and restore diskette images and FREEPM a program to show partition size and free space.

The games include SHISENPM and several others.

51

Networking / Bluetooth

« on: September 04, 2016, 12:38:52 am »

I have just finished setting up a set of Bluetooth enabled devices for a friend.

This got me wondering, since it can be done on Linux could it also be done on OS/2? 

Yes, I know that we don't have the drivers, but some excellent programmers are porting such things from Linux. 

From what I can find out Bluetooth dongles are USB WiFi using a spread spectrum @ 2.5GHz and in that respect require a software driver just like normal WiFi only setup to account for the frequency hopping. 

52

Applications / Open Office

« on: September 03, 2016, 12:11:14 am »

Just wondering if this news will have any bearing on our port of OO.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/09/02/openoffice_retirement/

Also does the exploit mentioned apply to OS/2?

53

Utilities / IRQ Monitor

« on: June 25, 2016, 01:09:38 am »

For years I have used the graphical PM program IRQMon to monitor IRQ usage but now I am considering moving to using ACPI  rather than OS2APIC.PSD because of problems I am having with a new motherboard that stacks things like nic, usb, hard disk controllers all on the same IRQ 11 (fine if I am not doing much but a PITA when I want to copy something from a USB disk to the NAS box and do something else that brings the internal hard disk into use).

Now the question is, is there an equivalent to IRQMon that can be left running all the time and display IRQ usage on a real time basis and show the high IRQ numbers?  Is it even possible to do so with IRQs above 15?

54

Article Discussions / Flam3 - The Flame Algorithm 3.1.1

« on: April 14, 2016, 04:00:28 pm »

For those interested there is a JAVA program that graphically does much of the work.

j-Wildfire, while the latest versions require Java 7 the j-wildfire-2.00R2 is quite happy to run with our openjdk6.

This version can be obtained from http://www.andreas-maschke.de/java/j-wildfire-2.00R2.zip

Just unzip, rename the 'start_linux.sh' to 'start_os2.cmd' (give path to java.exe if necessary) or create a program object.

See the attachments for what you get (I also have an icon for the program object if anyone wants it).

55

Applications / Problems with Tame

« on: March 25, 2016, 01:19:27 am »

Does anyone have the magic incantation to get tame working on an updated computer?

Tame used to work on my computer with an Epson Perfection 640U USB scanner.  The scanner was needed in the outer office and was moved there several months ago (the computer it is hooked up to is an unmodified WSeB install that also acts as e-mail server).

Tonight I needed to do some scanning so got the scanner and hooked it back to my computer.  It is seen by Tame but when I try to scan anything scanimage flashes on screen for an instant and nothing gets scanned.

Scanimage -L finds the scanner backend (epson2) but again trying to get scanimage to actually scan results in failure.

I am assuming that we have reached DLL hell as my computer has been updated with all the latest DLLs that are needed for such programs as OpenOffice, Firefox etc.  Something in that lot has broken Tame and I would like to know what I need to do to get it back working on my computer again and keep the other programs working as well.

Any suggestions?
 

56

Internet / Seamonkey 2.28b5r2 will not accept addons.

« on: December 23, 2015, 05:34:33 pm »

I decided to try out Seamonkey 2.28b5r2 and while it works, I can browse web sites etc. it will not allow the install of any addons.  They download and appear to install BUT the message in the attachment always pops up and there is no addon to be found.

57

Mail-News / PMMail spelling dictionaries

« on: September 21, 2015, 10:35:12 pm »

I use PMMail 2-20-2382 and am wondering if anyone knows if it is possible to add a different dictionary, for example UK English and/or French and run them beside each other? 

Is it even possible or would I have to create a custom word list myself and use that?

58

General Discussion / OS/2 Distro / Clone Discussion

« on: July 14, 2015, 03:52:52 am »

Martin, I too don't want to shut any doors but it is rather strange that Joachim should start two topics which essentially say nothing and then does not answer any of the point raised in those topics.

Regarding an individual compilation of OS/2, while that is possible for individuals (we have disk images for each of our servers and workstations) it does not address the problem of new licences for the base OS/2 - something we can no longer get from IBM.  The other idea is to make a DVD of all the programs that are used and individuals might want to install (we have that as well including a /dll directory containing all the extra dlls that it now appears we must have to run anything, the install scripts include adding that /dll directory to the libpath).

If you can work out a way of getting OS/2 without needing a licence then I am prepared to use that version in a disk image and make it available to all.  What I would like to see is the whole OS/2 being converted to 64 bit, although 32 bit would do for a start,  I know there is a 32 bit CMD implementation but it needs everything from networking (IPV6) and up with some sort of VM built in to enable use of 16 bit windows applications.  In other words I would love to see everything (except the win 16) on the WSeB install CD changed up to 64 bit and then have the necessary 64bit drivers included on WSeB CD2.  I know it isn't very likely to happen but I too can dream.

59

Networking / Simple scanner for IP addresses on local network

« on: June 21, 2015, 02:53:49 am »

Hi All,

A friend asked me if there was an OS/2 equivalent to the windows Netscan by SoftPerfect.  That is a GUI in which you put the start  and end IP addresses hit start scan and it scans the network and lists all IP and MAC addresses it finds along with a lot of other information if you want it.  He uses this at the moment on a win XP VM under VirtualPC for OS/2 but would like something that gives the information without having to start the VM. 

Netscan does not run under Odin, even when you copy over the missing DLLs from win XP. 

Is there such a program for OS/2 or could something be cobbled together using some scripts?

60

General Discussion / OS4 kernel and associated files

« on: May 17, 2015, 12:29:27 am »

I don't know if this is the correct place but here goes.

One of my guys at work today asked how the OS4 kernel project was getting on ans since I didn't know I downloaded the latest (os2krnlSVN4363_unoff.zip) to have a look see.

Unzipping produces frustration. 
The read me is from 2008 but since the install shouldn't have changed that is OK.
Whatnew is several versions old and has the last couple of entries in Russian.

OS4APIC.PSD does have reasonable documentation.

Clock03b.sys, doscall1.dll and screen03.sys are just there with no information about them at all.  Looking in doscall1, it appears to be a special build for the SMP version of OS4.

It would help if those doing this work would give some indication of what these three are for and what we can expect from using them.  I assume the doscall1.dll is a direct replacement - if so how do you get back to using the IBM version or does it work with the IBM SMP kernel?  Are the two sys files replacements or do they work in conjunction with the IBM versions?

I could try replacing everything on a test machine, and most probably will if the night shift becomes too boring, but it would be helpful if there was some indication of what did what and what should happen.

If anyone can throw any light on this I will be very thankful.