Messages

1

Hardware / Re: USBCOM big problem

« on: January 22, 2025, 01:23:38 am »

Igor,

I am using an USB-RS232 adapter that uses the PL2303 chip with the AOS  USBCOM.SYS driver.  You can find the adapter on Amazon by searching for
   BENFEI USB to Serial Adapter, USB to RS-232 Male (9-pin) DB9 Serial Cable
It costs about $10

That adapter works fine with my own, very simple, program that talks to a IBM 6094-20 lighted keyboard.  The program sends and receives data through the COM port, however the device does not use the RS232 control signals DTR, DSR, CTS, RTS

That same adapter does not work when trying to connect the DOS program LapLink through a COM port assigned to the adapter to another computer.  LapLink reports that the COM port does not exist, while the OS/2 MODE command says that it does.  However LapLink also refuses to recognize any COM port on my Quatech 8 port serial card - I suspect that problem is related to the interrupts LapLink expects to be with a specific COM port and the fact that the 8 port serial card is a PCI card and the interrupts that are assigned at boot up do not match the standard COM1-COM4 interrupts.

I also have a graphics tablet (ACECAD) which will not work when connected to the USB-RS232 adapter, or when it is connected to a port on the QuaTech 8 port serial card - but will work when connected to a serial port on the motherboard.  I am guessing it is the same interrupt issue.

So if you are getting an error message from OS/2 when you issue a MODE command in a Command Prompt window on a COM port provided by the USB-RS232 adapter, then I am guessing you have an issue between the adapter and the driver.  It looks like you are using COM5 for your USB-RS232 adapter, so the command would be MODE COM5.  If the MODE command returns OK but your application says the COM port does not exist then you have a different issue.   I tried various combinations of switches/parameters with USBCOM.SYS and no combination would make LapLink work with the USB-RS232 adapter.  (I tried LapLink simply because I know it does all sorts of interesting things with a COM port and it was handy.)

If this is possible for you, have you thought about trying to connect to a COM port on your motherboard - assuming you are using a desktop computer and the motherboard has a COM port header?

2

Applications / Re: OO v3.18

« on: January 17, 2025, 12:49:42 am »

TeLLie,

The log file message you posted makes it look like somehow you are executing something from OO v 4 instead of from version 3.  Either that or you perhaps are reading the wrong log file?

3

Comments, Suggestions & Questions / Re: OS/2 Licensing

« on: December 31, 2024, 02:33:06 pm »

If someone wants to run a older copy of OS/2 it is pretty simple, and cheap, to buy a copy from ebay.  This avoids any potential legal issues.

Finding a used copy of eCS will probably be harder.  From the viewpoint of running Win-OS/2 I think there is very little advantage to eCS over a earlier version of AOS - meaning what will run in eCS v 2.x will probably also run in AOS version 5.0  It is when you get to later versions of AOS that I have seen some Win-OS/2 issues start to appear.  And most of those Win-OS/2 issues that I have experienced can be fixed by running limited to one CPU.

Whether those issues would appear in eCS or AOS running in a virtual machine I don't know.  It would be interesting to hear from someone that is running Win-OS/2 in either eCS or AOS in a virtual machine. 

4

Hardware / Re: Report Your Working ArcaOS-OS2 Hardware Month

« on: November 23, 2024, 12:22:08 am »

Model F Labs makes reproduction Model F keyboards. If you have ever typed on IBM PC, XT, or early AT you probably remember the sound and feel of the keyboard; those all used Model F keyboards. IBM AT computers, from 1985 onwards shipped with the then new Model M keyboard which was cheaper to manufacture and had a revised key layout that established to modern keyboard standard used today.

This particular keyboard is a Model F Labs F104 Classic. It is basically a USB connected keyboard that uses the open source QMK programmable keyboard controller with Model F internals in a metal case with the looks and key layout of the IBM Model M keyboard. The pic shows an IBM Model M made in 1993 and a new Model F Labs F104 for comparison; the F104 is on top. The two keyboards are the exact same size; it is the angle of the pic that makes the F104 look smaller. The two main visual differences between the new F104 and the Model M, other than color, is there is no label in the upper left, and what is between the CTRL and ALT keys on the left and right side. On the Model M the case fills in that space, on the F104 a key is inserted in that space; those 2 additional keys are mapped to the Windows key and Windows Menu key by default. Hence the name F104 instead of F102.

The F104 Classic comes in a variety of case and key colors
https://www.modelfkeyboards.com/product/classic-f104-model-f-keyboard
My F104 in the pic has an industrial grey case with standard pearl keyset plus mopar blue keys and a red escape key.

In addition to the two extra keys between ALT and CTRL on each side, you can also split any of the long keys into two keys - the long keys being: backspace, left shift, right shift, enter, keypad plus, keypad enter, keypad zero or space bar. To utilize those extra keys in OS/2 you would have to map the extra key(s) to a key that OS/2 recognizes such as F13 - F24, or assign a keyboard macro to the key that generates a key press combination that OS/2 recognizes.
My F104 Classic in the picture has the short spacebar option which allows for an extra key in between the right ALT and right CTRL keys - the blue key in the pic - which I have mapped to F24.


You can use the open source graphical keyboard manager application called Vial, which runs on Windows, Linux and Mac, to create keyboard macros or to remap keys. Or masochists can achieve the same thing by modifying the keyboard controller firmware and reflashing the controller. If you pick a standard layout and you don t have any "extra" keys you probably won t need to map the keys.

The main Vial screen is split between a top half that shows the current key map of your keyboard, and a bottom screen that shows available keys that can be mapped - you may have to select one of the tabs on the bottom screen to see the key you want. You remap a key by clicking on the key you want to remap in the top half, and then clicking on the key you want to assign in the bottom half. If you don t see the key you want in the bottom half you can double click the key on the top half and type the key code you want to map to that key.You get no feed back that the change has taken place other than the "current" key selection changing in the top half to some other key. If you want to map to a key that does not appear in the layout in the bottom half you can either click on one of the tabs in the bottom half to see additional keys, or you can double click on the key in the top half and type the key code in the dialog box.   The possible key codes are shown in

https://docs.qmk.fm/keycodes_basic

Be aware that OS/2 does not recognize all the key codes in the list. The version of OS/2 and the version of the USB keyboard driver will determine which keys are recognized. You can use the utility keyscanr.zip from Hobbes to show the scan codes of keys that your version of OS/2 does recognize.

You can see in the Vial layout pic that I mapped the blue key between the right ALT and CTRL to F24.

In OS/2 you have 3 ways of utilizing keys mapped in your keyboard: 1) use an application that recognizes the key, 2) use the ôKeyboard - OEM Keysö object in the System Setup folder to assign actions to the left and right Windows keys and the Windows Menu key, 3) use the Hotkeys feature of ArcaDesktop or XWorkplace to assign any key that ArcaDesktop/xWorkplace recognizes to a WPS object. You assign a key on the Icons page of the object s Properties notebook - for xWorkplace you must enable the hotkey feature first.

The F104 Classic, like many gaming keyboards that use the QMK controller, can have issues with some KVMs. My F104 works correctly with my Trenda NetIO TK-409K KVM, but does not work correctly with my IOGear Dual Display KVMP switch.

The issue for the IOGear KVMP is if the F104 is plugged into the console keyboard port the KVMP will recognize hot keys to switch between computers, but no other key presses - in other words you cannot type on it. If the keyboard is plugged in to a switchable USB port on the KVMP it will work correctly, except that hot key sequences for switching between computers or programming the KVMP will not work. It appears it may be possible to modify and reflash the firmware for the QMK controller to fix this problem. Or you can plug two keyboards into the KVMP: one in the console keyboard for entering hotkey sequences, and the main keyboard in a switchable USB port. I chose the two keyboard option.

For my second keyboard I chose the programmable YMDK YMD09 nine key keypad and created macros for the hot key sequences the IOGear KVMP wants to switch between computers. There are a number of programmable keypads out there but most of them require you download an executable from their website, and some of them warn you that if you are worried about viruses don t buy their product. A refreshing bit of candor. The YMDK uses the QMK controller and the third party keyboard management application VIA to program macros and key layouts. Via is a graphical program similar to Vial - while is it not open source it is widely used and owned by a third party.

5

Hardware / Re: Report Your Working ArcaOS-OS2 Hardware Month

« on: November 16, 2024, 06:43:59 am »

Martin,

QuaTech 8 port PCI serial port adapter.  QuaTech made OS/2 drivers for this card, and it looks like all their serial port cards.  QuaTech supplies both an OS2 driver and a virtual driver for DOS/Win-OS/2

 It is sometimes marketed by others, such as HP.

There is a special connector on the card which connects to an octopus type cable assembly with the DB9 connectors at the end.  This is a half-height card.

I have this running in a PCIe slot using a StarTech PEX1PCI1 PCI express to PCI adapter. 

I have two StarTech PCIe to PCI adapters in the same machine: one running the QuaTech PCI serial port card and one running an Intel PCI Network card.

6

Hardware / Re: Observations on intel vs AMD

« on: November 11, 2024, 01:21:55 am »

Remy,
O&O ShutUo 10++ may be better than AME.  It looks like is has more choices for configuration than AME.  The AME system is pretty locked down and they have made a number of choices on what to include and not include based on what they think it safe. I don't know if those choices are the right ones.  It appears there are a number of "systems" available that do similar things for Win 10 and Win 11.

JTA
I am pleased with AME, but I don't game at all.  If I did game in windows I might have a different conclusion - since AME turns off updates.  So I am stuck at the version of Win10 that was out when I installed AME.  I guess if I gamed I could use AME as the base for my virtualization system and then install later or other versions of Windows in virtual machines with AME as the HOST for specific games.

My AME does do some strange things - I am running it in dual screen mode:  sometimes when it wakes up from sleep it switches the left screen with the right screen, and sometimes a minimized window will restore off the edge of the desktop and it is difficult to get it to move into the desktop where it can be seen.  And removing the administrator ID is kinda strange.

7

Hardware / Re: Observations on intel vs AMD

« on: November 11, 2024, 12:52:41 am »

Roderick,

Yes -  the BIOS configuration utility is visible with this non GPO card - what you get when you press the DEL key while it is booting.  That utility is completely graphical with mouse support.

You can also press F11 on boot-up to get a list of "drives" to boot from.  This list is a subset of the drives recognized by the BIOS.  On this machine you "suggest" which mode, UEFI or CSM, you want to use by:
1) configuring a UEFI/CSM or CSM/UEFI in the main BIOS settings menu/utility,
2) picking a drive that is listed as UEFI, or a drive that does not have UEFI next to its name.

So every drive on the machine is listed twice in the main BIOS screen: once with UEFI label and once without.  Since the F11 boot device list only lists a small number of drives you have to configure in the BIOS utility which drives will appear in the boot-device list that is displayed with F11 at boot.  That all works with the non-GOP graphics card.

As an aside - this means that to use the new AOS UEFI boot manager you have to install that on a drive that you will boot as UEFI.  To use AirBoot you have to put that on a drive that is listed as non-UEFI.   So if you want to dual boot to two operating systems, one using UEFI and one using Legacy or CSM, you would have to put those operating systems on separate drives and use the BIOS supplied F11 boot menu.

By contrast, on my Lenovo T530 I originally installed AOS 5.01 and Win 7 as dual boot on the same drive.  When AOS 5.1 came out I replaced the AOS 5.02 installation with AOS 5.1 installation.  To move between the two I go into the BIOS in the Startup section and change the Boot First entry from to LEGACY FIRST  to get boot Win7, or UEFI FIRST to boot AOS 5.1.  When I boot LEGACY first I get the Airboot menu (from the previous AOS 5.02 install) and chose Windows 7.  When I boot UEFI first I get the new AOS boot manager menu and chose AOS.  If I chose AOS from the AirBoot menu it will boot into AOS, but with lots of errors about not being able to load drivers.

My conclusion from building this Ryzen 5 machine is computers are a LOT more complex now than the used to be when I did my last build.

As for booting on the Ryzen 5 machine with the AOS installer media plugged in adn the non-GPO grahics card.  (I am doing this from memory)
You get the logo,
Then you get the boot from hard drive or install media (or whatever that choice is)
Then you get the Boot with defaults or Configure choice.  If you pick configure that screen shows up and works - meaning you can configure stuff.
If you choose boot with defaults, or you configure and exit, the screen goes blank. 

8

Hardware / Re: Observations on intel vs AMD

« on: November 09, 2024, 06:18:27 pm »

Roderick,

The MSI motherboard/BIOS will switch from UEFI/CMS mode to CMS/UEFI mode during boot if it does not detect GOP support in the graphics card, which pretty much insures that you see SOMETHING - at least with this motherboard/BIOS combination.  But the installer won't get the screen where you select system maintenance or install.  I submitted a ticket and some data to AOS to see it they would support the card in the installer and the answer was no - which I completely understand.

As you said, I can't detect a performance difference between Panorama and SNAP.

IVAN,
The resolution is 3840 x 1080 - exactly double the width of the standard 27 inch monitor's 1920 x 1080.  I wish I had more vertical resolution but it isn't worth the cost or hassle to switch - although in theory I could switch to the x800 and 34 inch monitors to get a 1600 vertical resolution.  The physical width (left to right) of the two 27 inch monitors is just under 49 inches.  For me that is about the maximum usable size, and that is with me sitting back a ways from the desk.

I didn't think Panorama would support a horizontal resolution of 3840 so I tried a 49 inch monitor with picture by picture in order to get rid of the black frame "bars" in the middle of the screen by switching to a single monitor.  The idea was I would drive each input of a 49"  monitor that supported picture by picture with a separate monitor output of SNAP.   It worked - but the result was a very large black area on the monitor between the left and right outputs, which was considerably wider that the physical frame that you can see between the left and right 27" monitors pushed together as I have them.  I had to use VGA to HDMI converters to get from the output of the X600 to the inputs of the Samsung 49 inch monitor, so I don't know if it was a monitor issue or convert issue.  But I found out that a 49" monitor is very heavy and wobbly on my desk.  So that experience made my happier with my two monitor setup.  Plus these two monitors are a LOT cheaper than a single 49 inch monitor.

I am using a IOGear 4-port DualView VGA KVMP switch and the monitors have VGA/HDMI inputs.  So I can switch both monitors at the same time. I have hooked up to the KVM  to OS/2, Win7 and a modified version of Win10 (Windows AME) that removes the telemetry and switches some of the built in Windows parts (like file explorer) to look and function like they did in Win7.  I am guessing that most OS/2 users who have a desktop PC also use some kind of KVM.

Martin,

The LPFK (lighted programmable function keyboard) and the 8 dial thing next to it are old products IBM sold mainly for use with RS600 machines running CAD software.  Each of the 8 dials has 256 positions as it rotates.  Each "key" in the LPFK emits a signal when pressed, and the LED for the key is separately addressable.  My plan for the LPFK is to have a WPS object/driver where you can drag and drop another object on the key to assign the key to some action for the object: Open, Run, Close etc.  The LED should be lit when the open is open or running, and off when the object closes or stops. I am waiting to finish up with a new version of my WinZombe program object because that can signal when an application closes or stops running - which means I would not have to poll the window list or active processes to find that out and turn off the light for a key.

I am also planning layers for the LPFK, which would function like layers in a normal programmable keyboard - each layer being a separate set of assignments for the keys and LEDs.  That way you could assign a layer to an application so the application could control the keys and LEDs in "its" layer either through a named pipe or by sending WPS setup strings to the LPFK.  A perfect application for that, in my opinion, is X10 home automation.  There is already an OS/2 X10 interface in the House/10 application and it has a Rexx interface.  The keys could then be assigned to separate devices in the house: lights, garage doors, sprinkler circuit switches, etc. and the dials could be assigned for sending dim/bright signals to a light.  In that case the LPFK would function like a desktop version of an X10 keypad - see attached pic.

You probably didn't notice the black Space Mouse on the desk.  This device essentially replaces the LPFK and the 6 of the dials on the IBM 6094-10 Dials device.

I am pretty much done with the WinZombe object except for the feature that Dariusz asked for a few years back - a folder containing recently opened documents.  The recently opened documents folder object is populated by the WinZombe object when it passes a document to an application - either by drag and drop or by association when a data file object is double clicked.  I have to finish building the part that deletes a shadow in the folder when the total exceeds a user specified number based on when the shadow was added to the folder.

Dariusz,

I am guessing the your son's "hand me up" system will work very well as an upgrade to what you are using today.  Good luck with that.

9

Hardware / Re: Observations on intel vs AMD

« on: November 09, 2024, 06:18:33 am »

Dariusz,

I have attached Sysbench results - it seems not much of my hardware was recognized so I edited some of the descriptions in the results.

My 2 top priorities for a machine are a big screen and a good keyboard.

For graphics I am running a Radeon X600 because SNAP supports the chipset and therefore I can run dual monitors - as shown in the attached picture desktop_2.jpg  Which gets me a big screen for a very reasonable amount of money. 27" 1920x1080 LCD monitors run about $100 each nowdays.

For keyboards I used a IBM model M for years because they typed so nicely.  I fact my daily driver until 2 weeks ago was a Model M made in 1993, and I bought a number of them to take to client sites. My new keyboard shown in the picture is essentially a Model M restomod.  It is made with entirely new Model F internals, in a steel case designed to look like the Model M.  It types even better than the original Model M.  If you have ever typed on an old Model F keyboard you know what I am talking about. It is put out by Model F Labs.

This combination has a great feel - both screen and input wise. But installing an older card like the X600, or the X850, can be a challenge on a new machine, because of hardware issues and the installer for AOS 5.1

The issues:

1) AOS 5.1 installer will not run unless the graphics card/chipset supports GOP (graphics output protocol), which apparently came along with UEFI.  The Radeon X600, and probably the X850 do not support GOP and therefor the AOS installer will not run with those cards.  I may be stating this incorrectly but that essentially is the issue.

2) I could not find a single Ryzen 5 processor (when I purchased) that had an on-board graphics processor and supported a PICe gen 4 sockets.  Apparently the chips had a limited number of gen 4 lanes and dedicated them to the on-board graphics chip.  I wanted at least one gen 4 socket so I could get a faster NVMe SSD.  I might have been able to get a Ryzen 7 that had the graphics processor and at least one gen4 NVMe socket but those generate more heat and didn't come with a cooler so you pay more intial costs and operating costs for probably not much if any performance gain.

3) I purchased a graphics card that would support GOP so the AOS installer would run, then took the card out and replaced with the Radeon X600 to get SNAP support and dual monitors. The cheapest I could  find was a Radoen HD 5450 put out by VisonTek that cost about $70.

4) This means I needed a maintenance partition on a hard drive because I would not be able to boot from the install USB stick when problems arose unless I switched video cards .

5) I chose to format the drives as MBR to avoid the performance penalty that comes with the GPT driver - David A. talks about this at the 2023 Warpstock in Tempe Az. during one of his presentations.  I had someone suggest that GPT allows you to customize block sizes on the drive and avoid some additional wear that happens on SSDs but I decided I cared more about the performance than the wear rate, and I wasn't smart enough to figure out how to do that anyway.

6) There is only one boot manager type application/utility that  (potentially) allows you start in UEFI mode then then allows you to boot to Legacy or CSM. mode. That utility is reFind.  But even though others could get that to work I could not.  But the documentation on the reFind site describing how machines decide to boot into either UEFI or Legacy and the problems with this is excellent.

7) The Radeon will boot in pure UEFI mode but the screen does strange things for about 15 seconds before starting the desktop normally.  However if you boot that way Win-OS/2 doesn't work.

This means you have to boot in Legacy or CSM mode which means AirBoot is your boot manager.   AirBoot has an issue, at least with my Ryzen machine, where it will lock up if you use a USB keyboard to make any selections in AirBoot.  I have a very small PS/2 type keyboard plugged into the PS/2 port of the motherboard just for navigating AirBoot. Once you get past AirBoot, and before you get to AirBoot, USB keyboards work just fine.  It is only in AirBoot that the problem exists. Well - if you have an error when booting and you are using  a USB keyboard you cannot Hit Enter to Continue. The PS/2 keyboard also works in those situations.

9) Finally - I have speed issues with RealTek network chips when using Netbios.  These issues do not show up when using TCP/IP.  Since my file server/NAS is WSeB it makes sense for me to be using Netbios on the  OS/2 machines.  This meant installing an older PCI Intel NIC card so that I could use Intel drivers and get decent network speed.  Which meant getting an PCI to PCIe adapter. The first one I tried did not work.  The second one made by StarTech did.  It is listed on the OS2WORLD wiki under the Hardware - SCSI section.

I was forced to upgrade my old AMD machine when the ASUS motherboard stopped working.  The transition  to a new machine was very painful and took weeks, but I am very happy with the end results.  It feels very good, and my graphics performance, while not as good in Sysbench as yours is,  feels very good to me.  For example I can drag application screens across the desktop with no noticeable delay.

I do have some issues with some Win-OS/2 applications but I think started having those issues when I upgraded AOS versions on my older AMD FX4350/ASUS machine and didn't realize what the cause was at the time.

BTW - I have an old Radeon X800 in the basement and might drag it out to see what it does for the graphics benchmarks.  I switched to the X600 because the X800 took up two slots, had a loud fan, and was a power piggy.  This new machine is essentially silent - I have to get my head right next the fans in the case to hear anything at all.  It is uses about 60 watts at the desktop at idle (without a screen saver) 90 watts when the screen saver kicks in.  At boot-up it hits about 120 watts briefly.

Hope this helps.

10

Hardware / Re: Observations on intel vs AMD

« on: November 08, 2024, 04:47:44 pm »

Roderick,

Thanks for the input.

I should have mentioned that  psd=acpi.psd /maxcpu=1  in CONFIG.SYS does fix the issues I have with Win-OS/2 software running on the Ryzen system, as does running those applications in full screen mode.  But running apps in seamless mode is pretty important to me. And I should make it clear that some Win-OS/2 applications run fine in seamless mode on the Ryzen machine. Some lock up the machine pretty quickly, some take a longer while to lock up the machine.  I do have a ticket open for this particular issue.

The title Intel vs AMD is somewhat misleading because I am not sure how much is just limited to the CPU and how much influence supporting chipsets, motherboard and bios have - but those other factors are usually closely related to the CPU selected.

11

Hardware / Observations on intel vs AMD

« on: November 08, 2024, 03:24:30 pm »

I am current running AOS 5.1 on three machines:

Lenovo T530 laptop with an 2.8-GHz dual-core Intel Core i5-3360M (circa late 2012) with SATA SSD

HP EliteDesk 800 G4 65 watt  mini desktop with an Intel i5 8500 (circa early 2018) with very fast NVMe SSDs,

A desktop Ryzen 5 5600x on MSI PROB500-VC (circa late 2020) with very fast NVMe SSD and spinning hard drive.  The Ryzen 5 5600x and MSI PROB550-VC can still be purchased new as of this writing (Nov 2024). 

I offer my very unscientific observations in hope that anyone considering a machine replacement for AOS may find them useful.  My observations center on two areas: performance and compatibility - although my own personal priorities are compatibility and then performance.

Performance
-----------------
Graphical: I am not gaming on any machine so for me graphical performance on all three are basically the same. The machines are running both panorama (T530) and SNAP in both accelerated (Ryzen) and non-accelerated mode (EliteDesk 800), and for me there is no noticeable difference in graphical performance.  This includes text mode scrolling in editors and command line prompts, as well as graphical performance in VLC while playing movies.

Boot up time: Boot time, from power on to desktop ready is.  T530 - 31 seconds, EliteDesk - 31 seconds, Ryzen 5 - 72 seconds.  All machines are running MBR disks and all go through Airboot - so the times include me hitting Enter as fast as possible in Airboot.  All are running CSM/legacy mode.  All machines have UEFI bios.  The relative differences between the machines stays the same when re-booting, i.e. a warm boot.  The longer boot time for the Ryzen is almost all in the "what the hell are you doing in there" bios setup time, that is the time between turning on the machine and getting the Airboot prompt. For a warm re-boot on the Ryzen there is a multi-second delay between clicking the Shut Down menu item in the Desktop pop-up menu and the display of the extended shutdown prompt.  I have to point out that the Ryzen is running xWorkplace and the two Intel machines are running AOS Enhanced Desktop.

Desktop restart time:  Here I am timing how long it takes for the Restart Desktop prompt to show after clicking on the Restart Desktop prompt in the Desktop popup menu. T530 and EliteDesk are essentially instantaneous, Ryzen 5 is 7 seconds.  The actual desktop restart process, once you hit OK at the Restart Desktop prompt is essentially the same.

The bottom line is the T530 with a SATA SSD and slowest CPU boots as fast as the EliteDesk with the fast NVMe SSD, and twice as fast as the Ryzen with the fastest NVMe SSD I could buy plugged in to PCIe gen 4 socket.  For boot times it appears Intel has a significant edge.

General Performance:  It is hard to directly compare the performance of the machines because they are used for different tasks.  The EliteDesk is used as a file and database server (WSeB). The Ryzen and T530 are used as general purpose machines and do a lot of compling.
 
Once I (finally) get the Ryzen booted it is the fastest of the three machines, which is mainly noticeable in application startup time and compile times.  I suspect this is mostly due to the speed of drive access.  The Ryzen is running PCIe gen 4 with a very fast NVMe SSD.  The EliteDesk is running PCIe gen 3 with the fastest NVMe SSDs I could buy.  The T530 is running a SATA SSD.   

Compatibility
------------------
I have significantly more money invested in software then I ever will have in hardware, so compatibility is very important to me.  I run, on a regular basis,  both OS2 and Win-OS/2 software (both Win16 and Win32s), some of which was released in 1992.  Software compatibility is generally not a problem with OS/2 software.  I have a couple of applications from 1992 that run on OS/2 - they have a few issues but run.  The compatibility issues mostly arise in Win-OS/2 and here things get complicated.

The T530 is more compatible with Win-OS/2 software than either the EliteDesk or the Ryzen - in most ways.  It will run applications in seamless mode that will not run in seamless mode on the Ryzen or the EliteDesk;. the EliteDesk will not run Win-OS/2 or DOS in anything other than full screen mode.

On the other hand, I can install some Win-OS/2 applications on the Ryzen that won't install on the other two machines - even though the Ryzen has problems running some applications in seamless mode.

The bottom line is that for compatibility  it appears there is more of a difference in how old the machine is than there is between Intel and AMD processors.  With older generally being better.

Versions of AOS
-----------------------
The T530 will run earlier versions of AOS than 5.1, but Win-OS/2 will not run on that machine until AOS version 5.1.  You cannot install any version earlier than AOS v 5.1 on the Ryzen - the installer will not work.  You can install an earlier version of AOS on a different machine and move the drive over to the Ryzen but USB,  and perhaps networking, will not work.

I didn't try to install an earlier version than 5.1 on the EliteDesk but I suspect an earlier version would not install.

This is not unique to AOS.  By way of comparison you cannot install Win7 on the EliteDesk without heroic efforts and strange incantations.  The fact that you can install and run AOS on the latest hardware is truly an accomplishment.

Hope this is helpful to someone.

12

Hardware / Re: Report Your Working ArcaOS-OS2 Hardware Month

« on: November 04, 2024, 11:59:12 pm »

Martin,

Good question.  The HP documentation says Conexant CX20632 but I am not sure that is correct.

David A said at one point the audio chip:  "Intel 8086:A348 cAVS audio before but it seems it looks like standard Intel HDA"

13

Hardware / Re: Report Your Working ArcaOS-OS2 Hardware Month

« on: November 04, 2024, 11:04:14 pm »

HP EliteDesk 800 G4 DM 65W

Intel i5 8600 3.1 GHZ with Intel UHD 630 graphics and Intel i219LM NIC integrated chip.
AOS v 5.1 with WSeB

Ports
There are six USB 3.1 Type A ports on the front and back, and one USB 3.1 Gen 2 port on the front, plus one Configurable Option slot in the back which can contain a DisplayPort 1.2, HDMI, VGA or USB Type-C with alt mode display, USB Type-C with power delivery, DisplayPort 1.4, Thunderbolt 3.0, Serial Port, or Fiber NIC port.

Memory
It has two slots for DDR4-2666 memory for a maximum total of 32 GB.
MEM.EXE reports 3,110 MB accessible to system

Storage
Storage consists of 2 PCIe v 3 NVMe v slots and one non-standard SATA “slot” which requires a special cable - and its own fan.  HP makes a caddy that contains a standard SATA socket and ribbon cable for connecting the SATA drive to the motherboard plus a fan that must be connected to the motherboard connector - see picture.  If you connect a drive to the SATA connector and do not connect a fan you will get an error message on bootup that the fan cannot be detected: you can hit Enter at the error message to continue booting.  The caddy is designed to fit the location where the NVMe SSD drives reside and there is not enough vertical space to position the caddy with NVMe SSD drives installed. You could however attempt a customized install of a SATA drive without the caddy - it will run with both SATA and NVMe SSD drives attached.

Network>
Intel Pro/1000 Network Driver (MultiMac32-E1000B)
With this adapter and driver the transfer speeds using Netbios approximately 28 MB per second - AOS to AOS. With AOS SAMBA 3.6.25 to WIN10 approximately 39 MB per second. (Times reported by Explorer for Win10 and Larsen Commander for AOS.) I have seen speeds as high as 95MB second when transferring from Win10 to AOS.

Power Usage and Sound
The machine does have an internal fan but in most situations the fan spins very slowly and cannot be heard. Running two NVMe SDD drives the power usage at the desktop without the screen saver running is 14 watts.

Audio
To get sound working with UNIAUD you need to submit a ticket to Arca Noae with a test log in order to get a special driver along with the address needed to supply the driver in CONFIG.SYS to make UNIAUD work.

Video
Panorama or unaccelerated SNAP.  Both are more than fast enough.

I had a problem running VLC with Panorama where the system would freeze up at the end of a video. Installing SNAP made the problem go away.

Win-OS/2 and DOS
Win-OS/2 and DOS run but only in full screen mode.

14

Setup & Installation / Re: WSeB Server parts on ARcaOS 5.1 with installed Samba - what to deinstall?

« on: October 27, 2024, 04:52:36 am »

Sigurd,

One more shot in the dark.  Try temporarily removing

E:\usr\local\lib;E:\usr\lib

where E:\ is your UNIXROOT
from your CONFIG.SYS before you run the install. 

I think I remember there is a conflict in one of the DLLs or executables in the unix stuff with something in the IBM networking stuff.  If that is the case this might explain why it worked before and this time, when you have the samba stuff already installed, it fails.

Checking my WSeB over AOS 5.1 install (which has Samba installed but it was installed after WSeB) I see that I have the USR\LIB and USR\LOCAL\LIB after all the networking stuff in LIBPATH.

15

Programming / Re: VisualAge C++ 3.6.5 (+ Fix2) - WarpIn or RPM?

« on: October 25, 2024, 12:17:16 am »

Martin - Netscape and Feature install isn't THAT bad.  The only gotcha is you need to size the netscape window large enough to accommodate the install screen without resizing.  Size the netscape window to the size you need  - shut down netscape, then do the feature install stuff.  Otherwise the little icon at the bottom of the netscape screen that you click on to start the install can't be reached because there are not scroll bars.  If you can't see that icon/graphic at the bottom of the last screen - you haven't sized the window large enough.

And you probably want netscape anyway for the help system.  I know the help system runs with mozilla on Windows, but (according to my faulty memory) I don't think the help system runs with any later browsers on OS/2, so you need the legacy netscape anyway.  If anyone has gotten the help system to run with mozilla please correct me here.