Topics

1

Internet / lost in Hobbes

« on: June 22, 2022, 04:48:23 pm »

I have uploaded meshell-os2.wpi to hobbes incoming two weeks ago and now the file have vanished.
These files I have uploaded:
http://www.hypermake.de/archive/meshell-os2.wpi
http://www.hypermake.de/archive/meshell-os2.txt

Any idea?

2

Setup & Installation / Problem creating PS files after running ArcaOS Package Manager Update

« on: June 22, 2022, 04:35:02 pm »

I have got two ArcaOS installations. On one I have processed ArcaOS Package Manger update, on the other not. The updated system has now problems with generating PS files. When creating a PS file from an application, the PS file is larger than normal. When executing Ghostscript to generate a PDF file, the size is much higher than normal and fonts, both Type 1 and Truetype, gets an ugly bitmap replacement.

These printing/PS/PDF related packages are still identical on both systems:
cups* 2.2.13-1
cups-filters* 1.25.6-1
fontconfig 2.13.1-4
fontconfig-legacy 2.11.94-1
ghostscript 9.18-7
ghostcript-fonts 6.0-1
gutenprint* 5.3.3-2

Which other packages can cause this problem? I have to find the package which is responsible for this problem.

3

Utilities / Ghostscript and True Type Fonts

« on: June 06, 2022, 01:04:17 pm »

I have got two ArcaOS installations. On one installation, Ghostscript properly compiles True Type Fonts (*.TTF), on the other an ugly bitmap substitute occurs. I did not recognize the difference between the two installations. Any ideas where there is a setting to say to Ghostscript how to prpoperly compile TTF fonts?

4

Setup & Installation / ArccaOS 5.0.6 does not see hard disk; FAT32 problems

« on: November 06, 2021, 04:58:52 pm »

(1) I have got two HDs installed, a SSD with the operating systems and a bigger HDD for backups, videos, music and so on. I have got both 5.0.2 and 5.0.6 installed. 5.0.6 does not see the HDD, 5.0.2 and Windows sees it. Any ideas?

(2) I thaught that the ArcaOS FAT32 driver is the more stable one, compared to the Netlabs version. But now I tried to copy 500 MB of data to the FAT32 drive (internal SSD) with the original ArcaOS FAT32 driver. Copy runs without problems. But after restarting, both Windows and ArcaOS does not see the new files anymore. chkdsk /D on Windows has no effect. (This had always an effect with Netlabs driver). Any ideas?

5

Setup & Installation / YUM default platform setting

« on: October 19, 2021, 02:35:36 pm »

After getting problems with two ArcaOS installations, I started a new installation of ArcaOS 5.0.6. Meanwhile, installation really runs fine on my two computers. But I wonder why on the one computer, the default Arca Noae Platform setting (Manage - Platform) is "pentium4", on the other "i686". Only on the "i686" computer, OpenOffice 4.1.8 works. On the "pentium4" computer, it ends with the 2nd start screen (User Name). I did not install any other software on both systems. The main difference (besides another manufacturer of the AMD4 motherboard) is that the one which works ("i686") has got a Ryzen 2200G 4 core APU without Hyperthreading (= 4 threads), and the one where I have got the problems ("pentium4") is a Ryzen 3400G 4 core with Hyperthreading (= 8 threads), and more clock speed.

Is it possible that ArcaOS does not like Hyperthreading (sorry, I cannot turn it off on the BIOS) and switches back to the more secure "pentium4"?
Can I force i686 while installing ArcaOS ? I did not find a setting in the installation routines.

6

Storage / exFat or FAT32 ?

« on: September 25, 2021, 11:37:40 pm »

Since a few days, I thought that the only way to store data together with other OS is FAT32. Then I put a EXFAT pre-formatted SD card of my new Smartphone into the USB adapter, and - what a surprise - it can be accesses without any problems with ArcaOS without formatting via DFSEE.

I have got serious problems with FAT32 partitions on my Hard Disc with FAT32. ArcaOS often hangs.

Now my question:
(1) Is it better to format my USB sticks used for data transport between ArcaOS and other OS with EXfat instead of FAT32 ?
(2) Can I format a HD partition with EXFAT ?
(3) Is there a OS/2 tool (dfsee?) where I can format a partition with EXFAT?
(4) What about performance and stability on ArcaOS in comparison to FAT32 ?

7

Mail-News / pmMail 3.24 serious problems

« on: August 19, 2021, 12:09:41 am »

I have got serious problems with pmMail 3.24. It is nervy that it always tries to reindex folders when opening a folder, and the processor load is heavy when re-indexing a folder by command (I have SD and Ryzen processor). But my main problem is now, that in the SENT Folder, pmMail 3.24 omits the "From:" line in the mail. That would not be a problem, because in my SENT folder, all stored mails are written by me. But when reindexing the folder, I get the error message:

Code: [Select]

Folder Re-Index - <Sent Mail>
Content has no FROM address: [VIEREG0.ACT\SENT.FLD\qtao1500.msg]
Content has no FROM address: [VIEREG0.ACT\SENT.FLD\qtaozp00.msg]
Content has no FROM address: [VIEREG0.ACT\SENT.FLD\qtat8g00.msg]
Content has no FROM address: [VIEREG0.ACT\SENT.FLD\qtcf3y00.msg]
(and so on)

So all sent mails which I have sent with pmMail 3.24 are vanishing when reindexing the SENT folder. That's not funny !

Can someone send this bug report to the autor or send me the address or buglist page where I can send this description? Thank you.

8

Applications / pmMail and TLS 1.2

« on: July 15, 2021, 07:09:59 pm »

My E-Mail provider sent me an E-Mail some weeks ago that TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 is no more supported in the future. Since yesterday, I cannot receive mails anymore with the current pmMail 3.24 version. Sending E-Mails is still working.

I get the very helpful account error message

Code: [Select]

Error: Error 0
I do not find any content about TLS in the pmMail documentation.

The more detailed query in english language is here:
https://www.os2.org/viewtopic.php?p=20613#p20613

9

Applications / SkyChart from 1990

« on: December 16, 2020, 04:39:50 pm »

There's a tiny nice program SkyChart which has been written for OS/2 1.3 in 1990. It still works on current OS/2 systems:
http://www.hypermake.com/english/favorite.html
then press "SkyChart".

The program shows the night sky on a specific location and a specific time.

But there are two bugs:
- Date bug: the current date is 2000 instead von 2020
- Resolution bug: Screens larger than 1920x1200 immediately crash the program.

The authors are Hans Bloemendaal and Klaas van Ditzhuyzen, Netherlands. Does anyone has still contact with them? If I get the source code, I could try to fix the two bugs.

I like the program more than current Windows programs, because it is so simple.

10

Setup & Installation / Problem with SNAP resulution

« on: October 10, 2020, 06:15:15 pm »

I have installed ArcaOS 5.0.6 on a old Computer from 2009 where an ecs 2.0 silver release has been installed before. An ATI X300 graphics card is installed where a 1920x1200 16M resultion works fine.

I cannot switch in the "Screen" object to 1920x1200 resultion. I can click to it, but after rebooting, I always get a 1600x1200 resolution.

I have compared the settings with the old SNAP version from 2006 with eCS 2.0. The monitor is recognized, in both cases DPMS is on, GTF is off. In the old SNAP, there are checkboxes "Wide Resolution" on and "4 x 3" res on which are no more existant in the newer SNAP.

Any ideas?

11

Programming / Table of similar API calls for OS/2 and Windows ?

« on: July 11, 2020, 11:13:01 pm »

Does a tutorial or list of corresponding API calls for OS/2 and Windows, like DosCreateNPipe (OS/2) and CreateNamedPipe (Windows) exist somewhere?

12

Programming / MeShell problem - start progname inherits stdin/out

« on: June 30, 2020, 10:40:14 pm »

I have realized now why sometimes starting MeShell fails ("cannot create inpipe...") because a named pipe which has to be closed when closing the last instance of MeShell seems to be still occupied.

The problem occurs if a program has been started via start from MeShell:

[C:\] start e

starts the e Editor in an own session. But it seems that this new session inherits stdout and stdin from the calling cmd.exe process, even it is a PM program, and stdout and stdin are redirected named pipes which are generated when starting MeShell. So when leaving MeShell, the pipes are still occupied while the e Editor is running and MeShell cannot be restarted. After closing the e Editor, you can restart again MeShell. Any idea how to omit inheriting stdin/out/err when starting a program in an own session via Cmd.exe?

13

Programming / again MeShell - binary distinguishing PM programs from cmd programs

« on: June 25, 2020, 12:17:50 am »

I have written a syntax completion of commands for the next MeShell version. For this purpose, I have saved the PATH list exe, com, bat and cmd files in a very fast string list. I want to use this for another purpose:

In my opinion, it is nervy to write "start" in front of the name of the PM program which is not running in the same session as cmd.exe. Otherwise MeShell switches to non prompt state (LED glows red). I want to send a "start progname" to cmd.exe instead of "progname". I need a secure way to binary analyze the EXE file and to see if it is a PM program or a cmd program (generating stdout or VIO and running in a command window). Any ideas what part of the binary I have to check? Or is there an API call doing this?

14

Applications / PDFtk for OS/2 would be nice!

« on: May 30, 2020, 10:07:57 am »

Sometimes I start Windows only for concatenating PDF files to a single PDF file with the commandline tool

pdftk

It is much better than the (?) gs based epdf OS/2 tool.

The name of the commandline version is pdftk-server

Here is the homepage where the source is available.

Here is a part of the docu:

Code: [Select]

EXAMPLES
       Collate scanned pages
         pdftk A=even.pdf B=odd.pdf shuffle A B output collated.pdf
         or if odd.pdf is in reverse order:
         pdftk A=even.pdf B=odd.pdf shuffle A Bend-1 output collated.pdf

       Decrypt a PDF
         pdftk secured.pdf input_pw foopass output unsecured.pdf

       Encrypt a PDF using 128-bit strength (the default), withhold all per-
       missions (the default)
         pdftk 1.pdf output 1.128.pdf owner_pw foopass

       Same as above, except password 'baz' must also be used to open output
       PDF
         pdftk 1.pdf output 1.128.pdf owner_pw foo user_pw baz

       Same as above, except printing is allowed (once the PDF is open)
         pdftk 1.pdf output 1.128.pdf owner_pw foo user_pw baz allow printing

       Join in1.pdf and in2.pdf into a new PDF, out1.pdf
         pdftk in1.pdf in2.pdf cat output out1.pdf
         or (using handles):
         pdftk A=in1.pdf B=in2.pdf cat A B output out1.pdf
         or (using wildcards):
         pdftk *.pdf cat output combined.pdf

       Remove page 13 from in1.pdf to create out1.pdf
         pdftk in.pdf cat 1-12 14-end output out1.pdf
         or:
         pdftk A=in1.pdf cat A1-12 A14-end output out1.pdf

       Apply 40-bit encryption to output, revoking all permissions (the
       default). Set the owner PW to 'foopass'.
         pdftk 1.pdf 2.pdf cat output 3.pdf encrypt_40bit owner_pw foopass

       Join two files, one of which requires the password 'foopass'. The out-
       put is not encrypted.
         pdftk A=secured.pdf 2.pdf input_pw A=foopass cat output 3.pdf

       Uncompress PDF page streams for editing the PDF in a text editor (e.g.,
       vim, emacs)
         pdftk doc.pdf output doc.unc.pdf uncompress

       Repair a PDF's corrupted XREF table and stream lengths, if possible
         pdftk broken.pdf output fixed.pdf

       Burst a single PDF document into pages and dump its data to
       doc_data.txt
         pdftk in.pdf burst

       Burst a single PDF document into encrypted pages. Allow low-quality
       printing
         pdftk in.pdf burst owner_pw foopass allow DegradedPrinting

       Write a report on PDF document metadata and bookmarks to report.txt
         pdftk in.pdf dump_data output report.txt

       Rotate the first PDF page to 90 degrees clockwise
         pdftk in.pdf cat 1east 2-end output out.pdf

       Rotate an entire PDF document to 180 degrees
         pdftk in.pdf cat 1-endsouth output out.pdf

It would be really useful to port the project for OS/2. It is available for several Unixes, for Windows and for MacOS. So I assume that porting should be possible with not too much work.

15

Programming / General: which C compilers and which source code editors do you use?

« on: May 09, 2020, 05:23:57 pm »

Programming is not my main job, and I use WDsibyl Pascal environment and for my few small C projects the old Borland C IDE 2.0 and there was not the need of installing a current C compiler. The feedback with MeShell users show me that a main purpose of MeShell will be to have a better frontend for commandline compilers. I first did not had these users in the focus and now I realize that these programs often generate more stderr output than stdout. So I have to check this purpose myself to find bugs and to get a feeling about the usability of my program with this purpose.

Now I want to install a current C compiler. I assume that meanwhile GCC is the only option after Open Watcom has been abandoned and Borland C for a much longer time. Is Gnu C 8.30 here:
https://smedley.id.au/downloads/gcc-8.3.0-os2-20190324.zip

the right location at the moment? I want to install the "mainstream" compiler, not the newest version. I prefer an easy installation.

How do you work with a commandline compiler? Which source code editors do you use?