Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - Doug Clark

Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 26
1
Setup & Installation / Re: ArcaOS 5.1.1 can't install on Acer Aspire.
« on: November 23, 2025, 01:10:27 am »
My memory is that Alex (the presenter whose presentation Martin listed above) mentioned that problem.  But unfortunately I cannot remember specifically what he said about it.  Might be worth the hour or hour and a half listen.

2
Hardware / re: T530i
« on: November 21, 2025, 01:08:46 am »
Dan,

I am responding here because I thought the questions and answers might be of interest to others. Once again sorry I missed your message for so long.


1) USB to serial
---------------

On the ArcaNoae wiki the main readme for USB is

https://www.arcanoae.com/wp-content/uploads/wiki/ReadMe-USB.txt

There are two different USB packages for USB to serial: USBCOM and USBSER, each with its own readme

https://www.arcanoae.com/wp-content/uploads/wiki/ReadMe-USBCOM.txt
https://www.arcanoae.com/wp-content/uploads/wiki/ReadMe-USBSER.txt

The USB serial adapter I use is BENFEI USB to Serial Adapter, which you can get on Amazon here
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0753HBT12?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_7&th=1
This adapter uses the USBCOM package and costs about $10

2) Ethernet to wireless
-------------------------
There are lots out there.  What seems to be the thing now is portable routers/WiFi access points, but the ones I saw at Warpstock were all wall powered.

The adapter I use is IOGear Ethernet 2 Wifi Universal Wireless Adapter model GWU637
It is about the size of a tube of lipstick with a micro USB socket on one end and Ethernet socket on the other end.  You connect the USB socket on the adapter to USB on the T530 for power and the Ethernet socket to on the adapter to the Ethernet socket on the T530 for communications.  You configure it through a browser.  Once it is configured you can unplug it and it will retain the configuration.  My T530 is dual boot and I boot to Windows to configure it, because that's what the instructions show and I am lazy, and then boot to OS/2.  Remember you have a switch on the side of the T530 for turning on/off the internal radio, be sure to turn off the internal radio when using the adapter.

I will point out that you have a wireless LAN adapter/socket AND a wireless WAN socket.  The WAN socket is mini PCI express and you can install an additional SSD in that socket if you so choose.  I installed one for a while, and then decided I didn't really need the hard drive space, and would rather conserve battery power so I took it out.  The pic shows that SSD installed in a mini PCI express to SATA adapter after I took it out of the T530i.

3) "...would you use APM or ACHI?"
-------------------------------
I think you mean APM or ACPI.  I suggest using ACPI for power management.  ACPI does a good job switching on and off the processors to save power, but I only get about one to two hours of editing in OS/2, perhaps a little longer when in Windows and that is with the larger battery.

I originally had AOS 5.02 installed and Win-OS/2 and DOS would not work.  When I switched to AOS 5.1 Win-OS/2 and DOS started working.  However now I cannot turn video on for an eternal monitor, either directly connected or when using a dock.  Other than that the laptop is basically perfect. WiFi does not work as you know, but with the IOGear adapter that is not an issue for me.  Everything else works.  Including switching on Hyperthreading - I notice no issues with Hperthreading on this machine.

4
Events / Re: Warpstock 2025 USA - The end of my journey with ArcaOS
« on: November 20, 2025, 12:12:07 am »
A few thoughts, FWIW, about the wifi discussion:

1) I was sitting next to a guy (Grant) at Warpstock who was using his iPad to provide internet to his Lenovo laptop running AOS 5.1.1 (I think it was through his iPad but might have been through his iPhone).  So it is possible.  If anyone wants the details I will email him and ask - if he isn't already reading this topic.

2) Grant is an assembly language programmer - his preferred language.  One of his goals is to get bluetooth running on OS/2.  He has an ODB2 car scanner that he wants to be able to read using OS/2.  So we MAY get some bluetooth support, for at least some devices.

3) I also watched  multiple people messing with USB to Ethernet adapters to get internet on their laptops: some were successful, some were not. So there ARE some that work.  Like almost all devices, you have to be careful when you purchase to get something that works with the drivers already available for OS/2.

4) As Dave Leo pointed out, there currently are limited resources available that can be applied to OS/2 related problems, like drivers and a web browser.   And some of those previously available resources are now less available because of world events.  So someone has to choose which problems get which resources.

5) There are devices which can be purchased today which enable laptops running OS/2 on bare metal to access the internet.  Those solutions are not as convenient as turning on the radio switch on the laptop and having internet access.  But they do exist, they do work, and they are relatively affordable.

6) I think that is what Lewis was trying to express at Warpstock. 

So yeah wifi isn't here yet, and it very well may not be here for some time to come.  But from my perspective I think that the decisions on where to apply resources have been pretty spot on.  AOS can run bare metel on new machines - which is a pretty amazing thing.

5
Hardware / Re: SNAP Driver Source
« on: August 24, 2025, 05:09:25 pm »
Quote
Making an educated guess based on what is written it means you can for example use PCI cards that still have legacy support. Such as an old video card.

Generally speaking, yes.  You have to use an adapter to plug the PCI card into the PCIe slot because of electrical and physical differences - the two use different voltages for example. And some adapters do not work - but the adapter from Startech does.  You can even plug multiple PCI cards into PCIe slots in the same motherboard - each with an adapter.  I currently have an Intel PCI network adapter and a QualTech multiport serial card plugged in one of my machines; the Intel network card because it is MUCH faster with netbios than the Realtek chip/driver on the motherboard.  This allows you to find and use hardware that matches older OS/2 specific drivers.

As for video cards: you could use an old PCI video card with an adapter but you really don't need to.  PCIe was becoming a thing right at the end of SNAP's development and you can find lots of PCIe video cards that work with SNAP.  There will be a presentation on this at Warpstock US in November.

Quote
As I typed before as time moves on supporting CSM for old operating systems makes less and less sense
Unfortunately this is true - and it appears that Intel already made that decision for most of its product line.  The good news though is that processors production runs are much longer than they used to be. The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X that I am currently using was released in November 2020 and is still for sale at Microcenter (as of this morning) now almost 5 years later - along with motherboards that support the processor.  The end of CSM is coming, but we have a few years before it vanishes - at least on the AMD side.

6
Hardware / Re: SNAP Driver Source
« on: August 21, 2025, 07:07:58 am »
Quote
I can not find any references to other BIOS settings related to CSM support in this specific case that indicates you can still BOOT a CSM OS.
You see next to the BIOS having CSM support you must have drivers that support the new hardware.

I am not sure what they mean there - or where it says it only supports 64 bit operating systems.
The manuals don't give very much information on CSM  - or in some cases any information at all.

With my AM4 socket MSI motherboard the way you choose whether to boot UEFI or CSM mode is through the BIOS boot menu - I suspect it is the same with AM5 socket boards.   Basically each media that is attached when the machine turns on is listed twice: once with a UEFI tag and again without the UEFI tag.  If you pick the media with the UEFI tag you boot in UEFI mode, otherwise you boot in CSM mode.  This isn't described in the manual.  With the other two manufacturers I had to look on forums where people posted about problems booting CSM or UEFI to find out that the board supported CSM.

With the choices between UEFI and CSM, MBR verses GPT, and how UEFI vs CSM affects the capabilities of both SNAP and Panorama, along with DOS and/or Win-OS/2,  setting up a system is now a very complex undertaking.

7
Hardware / Re: SNAP Driver Source
« on: August 20, 2025, 06:00:07 pm »
Roderick,

That appears to be true for Intel CPU based motherboards, but does not appear to be true for AMD CPU based motherboards - at least for today.

I went to Microcenter.com (a big, national, US computer retailer/superstore) and searched for AM5 socket motherboards.  AM5 is the latest AMD socket for its processors.  AMD has announced it will support AM5 socket until 2027.  I took the first 3 motherboards from different manufacturers and checked if they had CSM - all three did.  Those motherboards are MSI MAG X870E Tomahawk Wifi, ASUS B650A ROG Strix, and Gigabyte X870E AORUS Elite.

I have no idea about that state of CSM support in laptops.

8
Hardware / Re: SNAP Driver Source
« on: August 18, 2025, 07:06:11 pm »
Rodrick,

I am attaching a screen shot of a seamless win-os/2 application at 3840x1080, and a pic of a full-screen win-os/2 session running at 3840x1080, both using SNAP.

As for GRADD and how SNAP and Win-OS/2 works - and for that fact BIOS/CSM  - I am no expert.  I'm just Ken (and I am not even blond.)

The limitation for SNAP seems to be in the vertical direction rather than the horizontal direction.  I am guessing this is due to the fact that support for new chipsets ended before DisplayPort became common and so we are bound by the display resolution limitations of DVI. 

The graphical performance of seamless, and full-screen Win-os/2 sessions, seems to be fine.  The card I am using (Radeon X600) is a first generation PCIe but it seems to have more than enough performance for OS/2.  I am not counting frame rates or running games - I am judging by how fast text scrolls, how responsive window dragging is, and how many movies I am play on VLC at the same time (it is at least 4 - the limitations appear to be VLC related rather than graphics performance)

As for CSM/BIOS/CPU - once again I'm just Ken.  There are lots of links about Intel and CSM - including this one

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/content-details/630266/removal-of-legacy-boot-support-for-intel-platforms-technical-advisory.html

A couple of weeks ago I was wondering the same question as you asked - is it the CPU or the BIOS/motherboard that determines CSM support - so I looked at some new Intel based motherboards from MSI, Gigibyte and ASUS to see if the new boards have CSM support.  I could not find any mention of CSM in the manuals for the motherboards, or listed on their web sites.  This of course is not conclusive, either for the BIOS verses CPU question or for whether CSM is now gone from Intel based motherboards. 

But if CSM is now discontinued for Intel based systems it might drive some OS/2 users to AMD based systems - especially those who need DOS/Windows support and/or are using older hardware that really requires BIOS support - such as some graphics tablets, etc.  Right now it appears that we need CSM for Panorama to access the full range of color depth and/or resolutions that are available on modern monitors/video cards.


9
Virtualization / Re: Win-OS/2 - Open vbesvga.drv video driver
« on: August 16, 2025, 05:29:26 am »
Martin,

I tried the vbesvga.drv driver on a bare metal machine booting CSM (BIOS).  It works in Win-OS/2 full screen and DOS full screen; the mouse pointer seems slightly less jumpy than when running "normal" Win-OS/2 full screen session.  Neither the VBESVGA.DRV nor the "normal" driver will run seamless Win-OS/2 or seamless DOS sessions.

10
Hardware / Re: SNAP Driver Source
« on: August 15, 2025, 09:23:09 pm »
The big benefit of SNAP for me is that currently SNAP is the only way (that I know of) of getting Win-OS/2 to reliably work on a screen size larger than 1920x1080. Which in my case is SNAP with a dual monitor setup running 3840x1080  (I don't have two monitors that will display larger than 1920x1080.  I do have a single 4k monitor).

Because of AndiB's post on 4k screen sizes awhile back, I purchased a Sapphire pulse RX 550 video card (from England - the shipping was more than the card)  to see if I could get it to work on my Ryzen.  What I found (on the Ryzen with RX550 video card and virtual address limit = 2048) was:

1) you have to boot as CSM in order to set colors to something less than 16M.  64K colors seems to work well. 16M colors not so good.
(first screen shot - the card name shows up as LEXA for some reason).  Win-OS/2 will not work

2) If you boot as UEFI you can only use 16M colors - there is no other color option and I did not get custom resolutions to work.  I did not try messing with virtual address limit

3)  with UEFI boot  (and 16M colors) you can get Win-OS/2 to work - but not very well.
On the second screen shot you can see the screen not getting updated correctly - noticeable for example below the "Initializing" text in the grey window at the lower left of the
Visual Builder screen.

4)  There are some Win-OS/2 apps, like Paint Brush, that won't work correctly at 16M colors, even with SNAP.

5) The type of video "connection" used makes a difference.  Even though the RX550 video card supports both HDMI and DisplayPort, and my monitor supports both connections, 4k will only work on with a DisplayPort connection.  I also tried hooking up a 4K TV via HDMI and it will not display 4K for Panorama even though the TV and video card say they support HDMI at 60 HZ.  This was also true when testing with an Intel i5 8600 with integrated UHD graphics 630, which also supports HDMI, DisplayPort and VGA.

6) for the Intel (virtual address limit = 1536)  I had the same issue of needing to boot CSM in order to set the colors at something other the 16M, and the resolution at something other than 640x480.
When booting CSM WIn-OS/2 will not work in seamless mode, but will work in full screen. OS/2 seemed to work correctly - although I didn't do extensive testing.
(screen shot 3)

When booting the Intel in UEFI - at 16M colors and 640x480 (the only color and resolution choice) - Win-OS/2 would work in seamless mode and full screen.

There are some points to remember:

The older Radeon video cards that will work with SNAP are probably not going to be GOP enabled - meaning they won't work unless CSM is on, and the AOS installer will not work with them.  They will work fine once AOS is installed and with CSM support turned on.

Intel has removed CSM support from most of its processors by now.  AMD is removing CSM support from its graphics video cards starting at the Radeon 9000, but appears to be keeping CSM for its processors, at least at this point.

I was thinking of doing this a presentation at Warpstock Little Rock if you guys think anyone would be interested.

11
Programming / Re: Powerbasic for OS/2
« on: July 30, 2025, 06:13:38 am »
In addition to the ones listed on os2site.com, CA-Realizer was a basic interpreter and development package released for OS/2 and Windows, but it is hard to find. You might find one on ebay.

12
Lewis has a T43 that he has installed a SSD in so it can be done.  BUT - if you consider the price of an SSD for that machine, and compare that price to a later model  Lenovo, such as a T530 - you can get an entire used T530 for less than you can get a PATA - SSD.  I just checked ebay and there is a 15" T530 for $50 or best offer.  It doesn't have a HDD but you can get a new 1 TB SATA SSD for $70 - both together are less that what you would probably pay for the PATA-SSD.

Everything except wireless on the T530 works with AOS 5.1, including seamless WIN-OS/2.  For wireless you have to use one of those adapters that plugs into the wired network socket.  The boot up time on the T530 is actually faster than the resume time on the T43p. As for which keyboard is better - I like the T530 better but I know others like the T43 keyboard better.  The T530 keyboard can be replaced with a lighted keyboard - mine cost about $25 - I don't think there is a lighted keyboard for the T43.

So while the T43 is a very nice machine, you can probably get a much later, better performing Lenovo laptop for less money than upgrading the T43 hard drive.  Just a thought.


13
Rich,

Quote
When you drop a datafile on a program object, the pgm object does *not* open the file. Instead, the datafiles's wpDroppedOnObject() method is called, advising that it was just dropped on the pgm object. The datafile then queries the pgm object for its PROGDETAILS structure which contains the particulars for that program. Using this info, the datafile runs the program itself. And here lies the problem...

Thanks for that explanation.  I knew that wpOpen() in the program object wasn't getting called when a file was dropped, but I didn't know what was getting called and how the program was executed .  Is wpOpen() called in the datafile object when it is double-clicked and it then runs the program by querying PROGDETAILS the same way?

I am afraid that I probably am causing the problem because I am overriding wpQueryProgDetails() in the program object and modifying the contents of PROGDETAILS - which it appears that DTProgram is picking up on a drag/drop and hence the issue.

I could add the "standard" environment  to PROGDETAILS since I am modifying some of the contents anyway.  And that may be the best solution.  But I am a little worried about a memory overrun.  Most of the time when wpQueryProgDetails() is called it is called twice: the first time with a NULL pointer for returning the contents of the PROGDETAILS in order to get the needed size for allocating the memory to hold the PROGDETAILS and the second time with a pointer to the memory allocated to hold the PROGDETAILS with the pointer hopefully the correct size.  But I have noticed that sometimes it is only called once, with an "assumed large enough" size allocated for holding PROGDETAILS,  (If I am remembering correctly the size I saw was 1024)   If I add in the standard environment it could exceed that "assumed large enough" size.

I saw that "only call once with an assumed large enough size" behavior on a machine that was running eWorkplace, but I don't know if that is a eWorkplace particular behavior or something else that was installed on that machine that was calling  wpQueryProgDetails().

Thanks for the help.


14
It appears to me that an empty environment is passed to the program started when a file is dropped on a WPS program object.

Double clicking the WPProgram object doesn't do this, and double-clicking on a file associated with the program object also doesn't do this. - meaning the full environment is passed in both situations.   It appears to happen only when dropping a file on an WPProgram object.

Has anyone else experienced this issue?  Meaning is this a bug, or is there a reason for this that I am unaware of?

15
Networking / Re: Sharing WSeB Server drives to Win 10/11 Clients
« on: April 10, 2025, 06:15:18 pm »
Chris,

I am running WSeB on bare metal - an HP Elitedesk 800 mini that consumes about 12 watts at the desktop.

That system is an AOS 5.1 install minus the networking, with the networking from WSeB installed on top of that.

I am running the Samba 3.6.25 server for connections from earlier Macs, Win7, Win10, and connect OS/2 and WinXP via Netbuei to the WSeB.  I have not been able to get any version of Samba server greater than 3.6.25 running correctly. I run a domain for WSeB and a different domain for samba.  Previously I had WSeB running on top of ECS and used the same domain name for both samba and WSeB, but to do that you have to connect in a special sequence or you cannot connect to both at the same time: either samba first or WSeB first, I don't remember which.  With different domain names you can connect to both at the same time without worrying about connecting in the correct sequence.

In order to connect the Win10 machine I had to add the line
    max protocol = SMB2
to the samba.conf  file on the samba server.

I have not been able to get any of the family's latest Macs to connect to this setup but the older Macs connect fine.

With the WSeB on AOS 5.1 I cannot get the samba configuration to work when adding a user.  So I use the WSeB on ECS machine to make a configuration and transfer that the WSeB on AOS machine.  You probably wont have that issue if you are running a "pure" WSeB install.

The other issue I have found with samba is it gets very unhappy when transferring a very large set (number of) of files - like for instance backing up the entire C drive by copying the individual files over.  It works fine if those same files are zipped into one large file and that large file is copied across the network.  This is not an issue with WSeB.

Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 26