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Messages - Roderick Klein

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1
Utilities / Re: ArcaOS Time Sync Problems
« on: November 24, 2023, 01:29:49 pm »
Hi

I have some problems with ArcaOS 5.1 and Time synchronization. It is putting the wrong time on my machine even that I have the correct zone. ( GST5).

I get this error when I open "Clock Synchronization". (Picture attached).
I don't understand where I have to correct this problem. If I sync the time, the clock get corrected just for a little while, and after some seconds it is change to the wrong time again.

On the config.sys I have "SET TZ=GST5".

Please let me know what I'm missing to check. I guess it is something trivial that I don't know.

Regards

If this is an error please open a ticket in https://mantis.arcanoae.com.

Roderick

2
We do have an old MesaGL which, even using software rendering, works fairly well. Unluckily as Roderick says, manpower.
SDL is another library that would benefit.
Doesn't SNAP had OpenGL software rendering included? The OpenGL feature level might not be the same to have at least the OpenGL ES compatibility. On the other hand Vulkan is the replacement for OpenGL today.

It has software OpenGL but its very old. I do not know what it would take to update to a new version of sofrware openGL in SNAP. Let alone what the performance impact of more recent version of OpenGL without 3D hardware acceleration.

Roderick

3
We do have an old MesaGL which, even using software rendering, works fairly well. Unluckily as Roderick says, manpower.
SDL is another library that would benefit.

Software OpenGL in some form could be done. But for OpenGL to work on hardware requires per chipset a pretty decent amount of work. Based on the fact that we have not gotten new chipsets added to SNAP for 2D acceleration should be good enough of an indicator how scarce our community resources are (manpower). But more about that in my Warpstock presentation in Phoenix Arizona.

Roderick

4

3) Based on current expectations SNAP is what it is. And 3D support is not useful, what can use it on OS/2 ?
Have you looked closely how well Panorama these days performs ? The real enhancement would be support for  more then 1 screen. Other then that I do not think SNAP will ever get updated.


All modern browsers expect to have OpenGL available for use.

Simply put putting full OpenGL support in SNAP is simply not going to happen. Its to much work to implement it.
I wish it could we do not have the human resources in the community, sorry.

Roderick

5
Quite a few ideas come to mind, but I'll list the ones I believe Arca Noae would be more likely to roadmap, at least in the long-term.

> A new release of OpenJDK: 1.6's time came and went some time ago, with it's LTS period ending just over 4 years ago. Given how many times it's been mentioned in Warpstock events since 2021, I'm somewhat optimistic that we will see this raised as a priority sooner than later.

> Improved memory management: As Neil has mentioned, a big peril of running ArcaOS on modern hardware is the increasing shortage of RAM which the user has access to. Having PAE would be a godsend and a half, but any kind of improved memory management is much welcome.

> An updated version of SNAP with support for more video chipsets: Moving away from VESA(Panorama) would not only help with performance/stability issues related to video playback and 3D rendering - it would resurrect an expansive library of software which hasn't been usable in quite some years due to being only GRADD-compatible. The last item in this list is an example directly affected by this.

> QEMU (or similar): Yes, I'm bringing this up once again. AN has stated their intentions on multiple occasions to address retro x86 gamers as a target demographic - even stating it to be the focus of a subsequent 5.1 update. Since we have WINOS/2 and DOS, adding the ability to run Windows 9x and maybe even early Linux distros would do quite well.

1) OpenJDK would need somebody to work on at least 4 to 6 months. This would require somebody to have experience with OS/2 and WIN32 knowledge. Debugging ODIN is more difficult because of the more layers of code.  The ODIN code would be the "fastest" way to port a new version of OpenJDK to OS/2. But the ODIN has not been updated for 15 years or more. So its a big haul up the mountain. If somebody can do this in his spare time I think is not possible. That is my estimate.

2) As mentioned before PAE is game over. All memory structures would need to be patched and all drivers updated.
I am still discussing some suggestions with Dmitry from BWW. But big changes to the kernel are extremely difficult.

3) Based on current expectations SNAP is what it is. And 3D support is not useful, what can use it on OS/2 ?
Have you looked closely how well Panorama these days performs ? The real enhancement would be support for  more then 1 screen. Other then that I do not think SNAP will ever get updated.

4) Why QEMU ? To run as VM on ArcaOS ? Well then you can better use the current build of Virtualbox.

Roderick

6
Programming / Re: Copying text strings to AOS-5.1 clipboard in 'C'
« on: November 13, 2023, 04:53:00 pm »
While waiting for my new m/c && AOS-5.1 to arrive, I've been keeping my brain busy outlining an app which, if it works nicely, I'd like to offer to the AN Free Fun Stuff section.  May I keep its nature vague for now?  I'm hoping someone can show me some simple 'C' code that copies text to the AOS (5.1, if it matters) clipboard.  I admit to being lazy but I do want to get it right (and safe) and researches suggest clipboard interfacing can be a can of worms.

Essentially, my app supplies char *pText where the string pointed to can be up to 200 chars (plus final \0) long.  If commanded, the app generates the string and copies it; otherwise, the string is only displayed on screen, allowing it to be redirected or piped in the usual way.

Maybe this has been asked before.  I did look but maybe in too much haste.

If you are writing a program with Open Watcom or Visual Age: try one of the following programs:
http://www.altsan.org/programming/os2/index.html#dbcsmap
Sources included.

Roderick

7
Setup & Installation / Re: ArcaOS Sluggishness
« on: November 06, 2023, 04:57:40 pm »
Hi

So it seems I had an issue with my BIOS that was preventing me from booting up after the first phase of a UEFI ArcaOS installation. The setting was "Enabling Memory Mapped IO > 4GB" that I needed to disable for my non-UEFI installation when I upgraded to 5.1 originally. On my UEFI install it would hang on the ArcaOS logo after phase 1 reboot until I re-enabled it. I am going to try that GPT partition again.

Christech, so can you say that disabling the "Enabling Memory Mapped IO > 4GB" on the BIOS/UEFI was the solution of your install/sluggishness problems?
Is your Dell Precision T3610 now working as expected with ArcaOS 5.1 in BIOS and UEFI mode?

FYI, According to DELL's site this feature does: "Enables or disables the support for the PCIe devices that need large amounts of memory. Enable this option only for 64-bit operating systems. This option is set to Enabled by default. "

Just checking around the internet I found this issue on a different Dell model. They suggest updating the BIOS, did you check if your T3610 is using the latest BIOS just in case?

Regards

Again if under UEFI boot he needs to TURN ON (enable) the above 4 GB memory option. This is possible issue in the UEFI loader.
The UEFI loader should BTW be able to deal with both cases. Opening a bug in https://mantis.arcanoae.com would be a welcome thing.
And it mgiht get fixes.

Roderick

8
Setup & Installation / Re: ArcaOS Sluggishness
« on: November 06, 2023, 04:55:08 pm »
Isn't os2ldr.x64 a 64 bit program that can sometimes reassign addresses to below the 4GB boundary, same with the frame buffer, sometimes needs to be moved to below 4GB and IIRC, some hardware doesn't allow that and can't run OS/2.

Infact this remap code works in a lot of cases. Unless a frame buffer does not fit the 4GB memory range.

Roderick

9
General Discussion / Re: ArcaOS 5.0 free to use?
« on: November 04, 2023, 08:37:47 pm »
Its not...

Roderick

10
Setup & Installation / Re: ArcaOS Sluggishness
« on: November 04, 2023, 08:34:00 pm »
So it seems I had an issue with my BIOS that was preventing me from booting up after the first phase of a UEFI ArcaOS installation. The setting was "Enabling Memory Mapped IO > 4GB" that I needed to disable for my non-UEFI installation when I upgraded to 5.1 originally. On my UEFI install it would hang on the ArcaOS logo after phase 1 reboot until I re-enabled it. I am going to try that GPT partition again.

Aren't computers fun?  ;D Any other OS that gave me this much trouble I would have just given up!

As long time OS/2 user I hope your experience with OS/2 would have been better. I do however hope you understand Arca Noae does not have access to all equipment. in the world.
The code that inside the UEFI loader is brand new. This is the first  OS/2 version ever with UEFI support. Not all bugs can be captured by Arca Noae.
If you want to help open a bug report.  Maybe the issue can be resolved and your findings can help to prevent this on possibly other systems.

Roderick Klein

11
Setup & Installation / Re: ArcaOS Sluggishness
« on: November 03, 2023, 08:00:24 pm »
So it seems I had an issue with my BIOS that was preventing me from booting up after the first phase of a UEFI ArcaOS installation. The setting was "Enabling Memory Mapped IO > 4GB" that I needed to disable for my non-UEFI installation when I upgraded to 5.1 originally. On my UEFI install it would hang on the ArcaOS logo after phase 1 reboot until I re-enabled it. I am going to try that GPT partition again.

Aren't computers fun?  ;D Any other OS that gave me this much trouble I would have just given up!

Interesting. Oke that means there is possibly a bug in the UEFI loader.
You see when you switch 4 GB ABOVE decoding is off UEFI boot should work as well.
This means all PCI devices get address ranges below the 4 GB address range.

However it should also work when enabled. As the loader has code to rempa PCI devices.
This is needed on systems where you have devices only above the 4 GB. Maybe open a bug
in the Arca Noae bugtracker https://mantis.arcanoae.com.

Roderick


12
Setup & Installation / Re: ArcaOS Sluggishness
« on: November 01, 2023, 10:59:00 pm »
I've got another SSD I will try GPT partitioning with. It's just weird that I can create a GPT partitions with other OS's just fine - ArcaOS is very picky when it comes to storage from my experiences. I did a BIOS wipe of the SSD and other OS's were able to detect the drive, allow me to create a GPT partition and install the OS. With ArcaOS I had to have it partitioned and formatted before the installer would even recognize it.

With ArcaOS and using GPT discs issue's should in much less cases
However there is a warning. If you switch from GPT to MBR disc for example. A GPT disc has its partition stored at the beginning and at the end of the disc! So if you wipe the first portion o the only with DFSee, you could open up pandoras box. Better use inidisk.exe to setup the disc properly.

Roderick


13
Setup & Installation / Re: ArcaOS Sluggishness
« on: October 30, 2023, 10:42:26 pm »
Ok, I got Rich's program and was able to create a GPT drive, installed ArcaOS and when I rebooted to finish the installation I am stuck on the ArcaOS logo screen.

Ok, I got Rich's program and was able to create a GPT drive, installed ArcaOS and when I rebooted to finish the installation I am stuck on the ArcaOS logo screen.

Interesting I have heard of more people having such an issue. The primary suspect with these random hangs is the ACPI.PSD that is running into some sort of trouble. I seen this before but I think it was tracked down what the cause was. Dutch OS/2 user Keith Merrington has such a system and have one as well. I have some questions I want you to answer:

Are you running UEFI boot on this system.  That makes debugging this hang more difficult because of some limitations.
The problem is that you can not disable the ACPI.PSD in the config.sys as ArcaOS does will not boot on the next boot.

You can try this:
https://www.arcanoae.com/wiki/bootdiag/

However what is more interesting is to see if we can get a serial log of the ACPI.SD.

Question does your mainboard have a serial port ?

Doug your system has a serial port ?

If so: https://www.arcanoae.com/wiki/acpi/requirements/
See the section "Collecting logs"

You need another PC with a serial port to collect the data and a terminal program.

If have more questions, let me know.

Roderick

14
Setup & Installation / Re: ArcaOS Sluggishness
« on: October 19, 2023, 01:53:38 am »
Ran into an issue. I Zero'd out the 500GB SSD and ArcaOS installer said it needed to 'fix' the drive and I chose GPT for the partition table and rebooted. Now ArcaOS installer says: "This GPT emulated disk is read-only for the following reason: Broken header 2."

Should I re-zero and try MBR?

Edit: Yeah, I should have used MBR :)

Avoid MBR, use GPT if you are going to install in UEFI mode.
I guess you only zero's the beginning of the disc.
GPT disc has a copy of the partition table at the end of the disc as well...
Run booted from ArcaOS install media the program initdisk.exe that dan be started from an OS/2
command line.

Roderick

15
Setup & Installation / Re: Looping ArcaOS Install
« on: October 19, 2023, 01:47:58 am »
Reading about all the problems with 5.1 I am glad I decided to stop with 5.0.7, I have considered going back to OS/2 v 4.52 with all the fix packs.

The BIOS boot support between 5.1.0. and 5.0.7. has not been modified. Just newer drivers, nothing magic.
ArcaOS 5.1.0. just adds another boot method and UEFI and GPT disc support.

As for going back to MCP 2 4.52. If you think it will be more stable ? For what reason ?
Miss out on some of the JFS fixes that have been proven to present that casue disc data to go corrupt (a fixed  CHKDSK issue) ?
Not even to mention the tons of ther fixes in the code in video drivers, USB, SMP and other files that have been present for decades for in OS/2.

Roderick

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