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Messages - Lars

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1066
Setup & Installation / Re: RAM disk and temp folders...what else?
« on: April 17, 2018, 08:22:37 am »
Why would you use HPFS386 on a ramdisk anyway ?
Optimizing sector accesses is irrelevant for a ram disk. Caching will even make things worse: you waste additional memory for no gain in speed (after all, on a ram disk, each data sector is already in memory ...)
And it does not look like the OP cares about the file access protection features that HPFS386 offers on top of HPFS.

However, I don't know if you can load HPFS.IFS and HPFS386.IFS at the same time. Most likely not ...

As to STRAT1 method: as far as I can remember from the OpenJFS code I think JFS.IFS will fall back to the STRAT1 method when it cannot find a STRAT3 (flat addressing) entry point. Of course that is irrelevant nowadays as the 32-bit (most recent) OS2DASD.DMD supports the STRAT3 entry point. But the old 16-bit version of OS2DASD.DMD did not.
On the other hand, I think that JFS.IFS will only work with the new OS2DASD.DMD + OS2LVM.DMD.

Also: VFDISK.SYS (the virtual floppy disk driver, a legacy block device driver) only supports the STRAT1 entry point. But given the fact that you can only format virtual floppies to FAT anyways that should not be a problem.

1067
Setup & Installation / Re: RAM disk and temp folders...what else?
« on: April 15, 2018, 11:13:32 pm »
You are missing the point. QSINIT uses physical memory beyond the 4GB border. And THAT makes it so valuable. RAMIFS steals from the memory available to the OS.

1068
Internet / Re: Firefox and Traps
« on: April 12, 2018, 12:42:49 pm »
Hm,

I am beginning to believe that Andi is right about the problems with LIBPATHSTRICT.

there exists a kernel data structure called "PTDA" (per task data area") that effectively exists for each process started.
Within that structure there are 2 pointer fields that can take a pointer to the BEGINLIBPATH and ENDLIBPATH strings respectively.
This effectively means that each process can define its own BEGINLIBPATH and ENDLIBPATH. However, I can see no such field for the LIBPATHSTRICT setting (which can take on 2 values: TRUE and FALSE).

That leads to the conclusion that there must be a GLOBAL list somewhere in the kernel that remembers which process asked for LIBPATHSTRICT in which case, when the process execution leads to loading of DLLs, the process will, if LIBPATHSTRICT is TRUE, preferrably load from its BEGINLIBPATH setting before it loads from any location defined in LIBPATH even if a DLL of the same name has already been loaded (and is still loaded) from a different directory.

A GLOBAL list will likely have a limit ...

Lars

1069
I would love to believe that. However I also have these problems when I don't run Firefox at all.
But again, memory is the problem. When I run EPM.EXE and subsequently close it, I can observe that it leaves an endless sequence of memory "holes" in upper shared memory. That is due to the fact that the DLL that it loads (ETKE603.DLL) specifies trillions of small memory objects (it contains 234 memory objects: who compiled and linked that stuff ?). And for each memory object, 64 kByte of memory is allocated (even though they are considerably smaller).
When EPM is closed the DLL is unloaded but the fragmentation remains.

1070
Are you sure it is a Firefox problem ?

Sometimes I have reboots if I just open the Master volume control (volume.exe). And I had it on other occasions starting applications. But I also had occasions where I would get a "page fault" exception in Ring 0 (for which I generated a system dump).
I think there is a fundamental flaw in some very basic system component. That could be the OS virtual memory manager. But it can also be DOSCALL1.DLL as that is used by about any process that is started.
I think the virtual memory manager is the more likely culprit. And it much looks like it is a serialization issue (access not properly serialized on updating memory structures etc.) as it only happens occasionally.
If you have Theseus: run "getws.exe" and watch your system reboot ...



1071
Comments, Suggestions & Questions / Re: Censorship complaints
« on: February 23, 2018, 09:25:59 am »
Dave,

I dare to disagree. I am losing more and more interest in this forum because there is so much "white noise". And I am a native german speaker and often enough I don't understand one single word of what Andreas is trying to say (also when he answers on the german www.os2.org forum).
Especially if the real solution to the problem of the original OP is very easy to answer. Andreas tends to flood people with information they have not asked for.

1072
Article Discussions / Re: OS2VOICE RPM Server
« on: February 21, 2018, 10:21:11 pm »
WIC.EXE can do the same from a commandline.

1073
Article Discussions / Re: OS2VOICE RPM Server
« on: February 21, 2018, 03:26:05 pm »
I don't know. But why don't you look here:
http://trac.netlabs.org/rpm/browser/spec/trunk/SPECS

? That should give you an idea, at least. I think everybody has read-only access to that directory ...

1074
Article Discussions / Re: OS2VOICE RPM Server
« on: February 21, 2018, 11:12:53 am »
Just to add: everybody can always extract the original WIS installation script file from a WPI archive. It's ASCII plain text and the syntax well explained in the documentation that comes with WarpIn.

That is, even for unmaintained WPI packages:
1) we can fix the installation by extracting the original WIS script from the WPI, modifying it to our liking and putting it back into the WPI
2) we can deduce an uninstallation script (Rich's suggestion) from what the original WIS installation script does

The only thing that has always been a mess is that with WarpIn you can easily screw up your config.sys to a point where after uninstallation of a WPI the system will no longer boot. See the FAT32 WPI.
Short rule: NEVER EVER have a WPI script modify PATH or LIBPATH with subdirectory paths that you can expect to exist (like \OS2 or \OS2\DLL).

1075
Hardware / Re: Limitation on using an USB DVD and CD writer under ArcaOS
« on: February 13, 2018, 10:25:43 am »
1) so, USBMSD.ADD seems to do its job and can therefore be ruled out

2) cdrecord needs a DVD/CD writer device to appear as an SCSI device. That typically requires 2 drivers:
    a) OS2ASPI.DMD (/ALL) which comes with OS/2
    b) a proprietary router driver that routes to OS2ASPI.DMD, normally that would be ASPIROUT.SYS from Paul Ratcliffe. Also there is aspinikk.sys (or something like that) that does about the same. However, for
reasons yet unknown the later sometimes fails to load on bootup (at least on my system).

3) I seem to remember that at least DANIATAP.FLT had a switch /RSJ that would make visible a DCD/CD-ROM drive that would otherwise be claimed exclusively by RSJ (at least while writing). But DANIATAP.FLT does not come into play for USB attached DVD/CD-ROM drives (is DANIATAP.FLT still necessary for CD-ROM/DVD drives attached via AHCI ?).


Lars

1076
Hardware / Re: Limitation on using an USB DVD and CD writer under ArcaOS
« on: February 12, 2018, 02:00:39 pm »
Have you tried my USBMSD.ADD instead of the one that AN delivers ?  If not, you could give it a try.
If it still does not work, a trace of USBMSD.ADD would help (it's all explained in the "readusb.txt" file that comes with my package).

In principle the USBMSD.ADD (at least my version) should support SCSI "write" commands for USB DVD/CD drives. It should also support any DVD/CD specific SCSI commands.

1077
Hardware / Re: USB 10.221 is out
« on: February 09, 2018, 04:35:47 pm »
Thank you Lars, I now have sound on several of my computers using a USB adapter.

One question, since you are the expert on USB drivers, is it possible to update the USBKBD.SYS to work with the extra keys on many new USB keyboards?  I have an old no name PS/2 that allows the use of those keys but non of the USB keyboards have any response (the keycodes don't appear in the programs I used to get them for the PS/2 keyboard.

Being called the "expert" is always a minefield  :)

Yes it would be possible for sure. Unfortunately, the HID spec (the specific spec for human input USB devices) is complex compared to the other specs and then I don't have the HW knowledge as to what special keys generate what scancodes. I would have to go through trial and error and I don't have the time for that.
There is some code and definitions currently commented out of USBKBD.SYS (don't know why. I did not touch that). Maybe it's worth putting that back in and giving it a try ...

1078
Hardware / USB 10.221 is out
« on: February 06, 2018, 09:58:53 pm »
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/system/drivers/misc/usbdrv221.zip

It contains fixes to USBD.SYS and more importantly the completely updated USBAUDIO package to support higher sample rates and bit resolutions.

1079
Thanks for the explanation, Lars. I guess I thought conversion was going on, and these are old USB speakers, so makes sense they don't support 24 bit. I actually prefer there is no conversion - now I just need to get some USB speakers that support 24 bit. Is there a tool you know of that can report what speakers are capable of?

Regards,

There was a good reason to not put conversion into the driver (apart from the stated exceptions) :
The first guy asks: can't you make 24-bit work ?
The second guy asks: can't you downsample from 64000 Hz to 32000 Hz ?
The third guy asks: can't you make it play MIDI ? I thought it was an audio driver !

You could go on forever. I would have no chance to ever get ahead of the game. The correct solution is to move the conversion into either an application or into an MMIO proc (like USBWAV.DLL). It's also more stable if the conversion code traps: a driver is running at Ring0, an application / MMIO proc is running at Ring3 ...


Yes, there is a tool called 'lsusb' and there also exists an OS/2 port of it. I think the latest version can be found on Paul Smedley's website. 'lsusb' will show you detailed USB device info for each device. That also includes the supported bit-depths and sample rates of your USB audio devices.

From practical experience I can say that normally, if a device supports 24-bit (or even 32-bit) it's also sophisticated enough to support 16-bit.

1080
Thanks Lars! This seems to work with regular MP3 and WAV files, but I can't play any 24 bit WAV files (by double-clicking on them). I get an error saying 'The device driver cannot be opened or the required hardware is missing (rc=5006)'. Files are 24bit, 48KHz, 2 channel and are properly recognized if I right click on it and choose 'Open as..' -> 'Wavefile Info'. Far as I can tell the USBWAV codec is installed (using listprocs). Is this a limitation of the OS/2 player? What do you or Wim use to play 24 bit files?

 Still can't switch back and forth from Uniaud to USBWav, probably because there is no AmpMix page for UniAud. Unchecking the 'Default Device' under the USB Ampmix page doesn't stick for some reason. Once checked, USB is all I get until I go into MMPM2.INI and remove it from the [defaultnames] section. Can the Ampmix page for UniAud be added manually by tweaking MMPM2.INI? I'll play around with that...

 One other thing that seems obvious in retrospect... I uninstalled the old USB audio stuff using this package before re-installing, but the USB sequencer stuff was not removed (because it doesn't install it!). Have to use the last package (USBDrv220) to do it right.

Regards,

1) "cannot play 24-bit": the error messages states exactly what happens: Your USB audio HW does not support replay of 24-bit. I decided to not add additional conversion code into USBAUDIO.SYS (apart from support for "legacy" sample rates and bit sizes of 8 kHz,11.025kHz, 22.050kHz and 8-bit respectively). We let the HW do what the HW can do but no more. You can use PM player which will do 24-bit and 32-bit to 16-bit conversion in SW. I could add that to USBWAV.DLL but currently it's not in there.

2) installation woes: unfortunately, audio installation is a bit tricky. The minstall.exe uses the info in CARDINFO.DLL in order to decide what to install or uninstall (which is ok and the right way to go). As you found out, the new CARDINFO.DLL no longer contains the "sequencer" section because USBAUDIO.SYS has never and probably will never support MIDI. That's the reason why you cannot uninstall it. If everything else fails, you can always copy the "virgin" MMPM2.INI from \MMOS2\INSTUNST\INIBACK directory to \MMOS2 and rerun the installation.
In hindsight I should have never delivered a USBAUDIO installation that installs the sequencer device ...

3) you have to "toggle" the "AMPMIX as default" setting (deselect and then reselect). That will finally create the [defaultnames] section in MMPM2.INI with WMBAMPMIX01 set as default. You do likewise for the WAVEAUDIO device.

As you now have found out, setting the DEVICEFLAG from 2 to 1 in the [UNIAUDAMPMIX] section (and then giving it a sensible ALIASNAME for displaying on the settings tab) will get you the AMPMIX page in the Multimedia Setup object (and the USBAUDIO installation does that  through CARDINFO.DLL for its own installation). I think the UNIAUD installation should be updated but oh well ...

Lars


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