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Messages - Lars

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601
Internet / Re: Experimental build of SeaMonkey
« on: November 27, 2017, 03:39:07 pm »
I've uploaded an experimental build of SeaMonkey 2.42.9ESR, https://bitbucket.org/dryeo/dry-comm-esr31/downloads/seamonkey-2.42.9R2esr.en-US.os2_exp1.zip

The link does not point at your new build. It is identical to your build of August 17, 2017.

Also, this is OS/2 where the mozapps were specifically designed to be installed wherever the user chooses. Why would anyone advocate confining them to the bloated and largely pointless @unixroot tree unless absolutely necessary? Group-think? A fondness for arrogant and authoritarian mindset that BWW unfailingly displays?

These types who go on and on and on about their unyielding hostility to any semblance of a unix directory structure certainly are tiresome (in extremis), but they do have a point. Me, I'll say it only once:  ONU !!!!

It's funny that you say that. I thought it was AN's idea to come up with the splendid "sys", "etc" and "usr" directories.
As arrogant and authoritarian BWW might be: if they pull the plug on application development for OS/2 then ArcaOS is dead in 2 years flat.

602
Article Discussions / Re: Large Floppy Support Discussion - USBMSD.ADD
« on: November 27, 2017, 07:45:10 am »
Unfortunately your answer is as wrong as you think my answer is:

1) OS/2 only supports "large floppy" if the file system is formatted with FAT16. Yes, there should be no special dealing in USBMSD.ADD to support "large floppy" (no matter what filesystem is in use). But it's the kernel (or OS2LVM.DMD/OS2DASD.DMD) that has this limitation and this can only be worked around by fixing the kernel (DMD drivers) large scale. By the way: USBMSD.ADD does not care a bit about the filesystem. It only cares about the difference of partitioned vs. "large floppy" media. It does that by reading the very first sector of a media which contains the MBR (master boot record) or the VBR (volume boot record), the latter containing the BPB (bios parameter block). This is also a dead end because with EXFAT Microsoft decided they are going to drop the BPB for good and describe the media layout at another place on the media. Another nail in the coffin of OS/2.

2) even the "large floppy" support for FAT12/16 media is done half-heartedly. The kernel has a bug in that it wants to write a DLAT sector to this kind of media nonetheless (if LVM is in use) if you tell lvm.exe (or minilvm.exe) to do that. What happens is that this will corrupt your USB stick as the kernel will blindly write that sector as sector 63 which will usually either fall into the FAT or into the data section of a "large floppy" formatted stick. Believe me, I have been testing and experiencing exactly this problem.

From the last comment you can tell why USBMSD.ADD is so paranoid about avoiding to mess with the real contents of a "large floppy" type stick. Changing data: Ok but changing vital disk structures: No.


In short: the kernel has never been written to support a layout without an MBR (that is: "floppy") on anything else than floppy disks (that's why FAT12/16 is supported for this layout). It has nothing to do with FAT32.IFS (or any other filesystem driver) whatsoever.


As to Mr. Kohl's response:

a) USBMSD.ADD deals with removable media as much as with permanently attached USB hard disk, USB CD-ROM drives and USB floppy drives. I am not focussing on anything, neither does USBMSD.ADD.

b) In the year 2017 it only makes sense to support systems with LVM. It's too late to make USBMSD.ADD compatible to an OS of the year 1996. There would be too many limitations.

c) it is true that even IBM writes in their JFS release note that JFS should not be used with removable media. Nonetheless it is the only filesystem that is usable on large partitions, with large files. It seems to work ok (at least for me) but of course you need to take care when removing a USB device formatted with JFS. You better do a proper eject or you are asking for trouble.

603
General Discussion / Re: Good Bye Net Neutrality
« on: November 26, 2017, 08:07:29 pm »
Having the internet under your control is as having all newspaper and radio media under your control.
You can manipulate/fake/alter/interpret news the way you need. If you can do that on a large scale then you have influence on many people's opinion.

And that's the real threat. There are prominent examples from the past and also from the present.

604
Article Discussions / Re: Large Floppy Support Discussion - USBMSD.ADD
« on: November 26, 2017, 05:56:13 pm »
Actually the most important problem WAS and IS solved. I agreed with David that if you want to change a large floppy stick to a partitioned stick under OS/2 you have to use DFSee (or its engine) to write all zeros for the first sector. (Think about why it requires a user decision to do that). USBMSD.ADD will detect that and will drop "large floppy" support so that you can subsequently partition and format the stick.

You can try that. It will work:
1) use DFSee to "write zeros to start of media"
2) eject the stick
3) run a lvm /rediscoverprm to have the system redetect the stick.
4) you can now freely partition the stick etc.

Not allowing to change the "large floppy" layout is a deliberate decision. If you think about it: you would not want OS/2 to mess around with your "large floppy" stick because that is a layout that stems from Windows. There are some subtleties in blindly formatting a "large floppy" stick to a different file system. Think about what would happen if someone deciced to format a "large floppy" stick to JFS.


Lars

605
Programming / Re: Custom OS/2 Kernel Debugger
« on: November 25, 2017, 09:19:05 am »
Of course the OS/2 KDB NET Driver was introduced with the LAPS included with TCP/IP 4.1. It's some kind of embedded terminal server functionality. It removes the need of a physical terminal server and it's cabling. And it works quite reliable in TR or switched Ethernet segments. But requires matching debug kernels.

I don't see a need for some match of debug kernel version. The driver (KDBNET.SYS) just uses the Dev Help to register itself with the kernel. From then on the kernel will know which driver to call and what address to pass debugging data to.

606
Programming / Re: Custom OS/2 Kernel Debugger
« on: November 24, 2017, 07:10:43 pm »
Thanks.

Ploughing through my pile of paper I found the notes:

dh = RegisterKDD (0x83)
eax = Command Code (1 = valid value)
es:di control buffer address (4 DWORDS)
DWORDS in control buffer:
1. DWORD: ???
2. DWORD: lower WORD: IRQ number (what IRQ ?)
3. DWORD far pointer to code -> Handler routine (into the code segment of the invoking driver)
4. DWORD: far pointer to buffer (into the data segment of the invoking driver)

Control Buffer is then copied to symbol address _KDDC (segment "c" of DOSCALLS at offset 1233c)

USHORT FAR HandlerRoutine(USHORT arg1=ax, USHORT arg2=cx)
arg1 = function code 1,2,3
arg2 = KDB function ?

The Device Helper "RegisterKDD"  (dh_RegisterKDD) can be found at 3:1528 (3. segment of DOSCALLS module, offset 1528) in the 14.104a SMP debug kernel (the latest available apart from what AN offers)
You can use Theseus disassembly to have a look into how it operates. You can also use Theseus module view to find out at what target address the various DOSCALLS segments are loaded.
Of course, the retail kernel contains no operational code (even though it also exports symbol dh_RegisterKDD) it only returns with the carry flag set to indicate an error:

push ds
mov eax,5
stc
pop ds
retn


I remember there was some way to find out which driver registered with the KDB (that's how I found out that KDBNET.SYS indeed calls this Device Helper to register with the debug kernel) but I cannot remember how I found out. I guess I looked at symbol _KDDC ...

607
Article Discussions / Re: ArcaOS Wishlist - 6 months !!
« on: November 24, 2017, 05:04:49 pm »
Ok, I apologize.

But given the fact that I have implemented this more than 1 year ago and that AN did not pick it up (which would finally allow me and everyone else to have only one USB stack,same holds true for all changes Wim Brul and me did to USBAUDIO.SYS) you might understand my frustation a little better. Whatever I did has always been visible and accessible by AN and in the past I communicated to them whatever I did. Since they have full access they could have also taken it and fix whatever they think is wrong with it.
Unfortunately I have been ignored for the most part.

608
Programming / Re: Custom OS/2 Kernel Debugger
« on: November 24, 2017, 04:53:33 pm »
Does anybody know if there are kernel APIs which would allow a custom OS/2 debugger driver/PSD to be created?  And if so, are there any open source examples I could look at?

There is a more or less undocumented Device Helper (DevHlp_RegisterKDD, function code 0x83) that allows a remote debugger to send commands to the debug kernel and receive the returns and also events. For example, this Device Helper is used by KDBNET.SYS to support debugging via UDP network connection.
The "Control Programming Guide and Reference" contains a chapter "Kernel Debugger Communications Protocol" that sheds some light on the commands you can send and also the returns and events you will receive.

At one point in time I dug into this stuff to find out what registers are used in the Device Helper and what format the input and output buffers have to be. Unfortunately I lost my notes (they were incomplete anyway).

You'll need to delve into KDBNET.SYS and do some reverse engineering.

609
Article Discussions / Re: ArcaOS Wishlist - 6 months !!
« on: November 24, 2017, 01:25:27 pm »
As far as I remember Panorama requires VESA BIOS support.
For 2020, Intel announced the end of the legacy/conventional BIOS support.
From that time on there will only be "UEFI only" systems. As far as I understand that will also be the end of the VESA BIOS as we know it today. But correct me if I am wrong ...

610
Article Discussions / Re: ArcaOS Wishlist - 6 months !!
« on: November 24, 2017, 07:38:50 am »
<quote>
- Support for accessing unpartitioned/non-LVM USB sticks (large floppy) greater than 2GB. To make life easier also. (Listed as Long Term Projects on AN Roadmap)
</quote>

As I said multiple times this issue is already solved with my USBMSD.ADD driver. I am using "large floppy" sticks of 16 GB in size and it works just fine. AN is just too ignorant or self centered to pick up the changes I did. I think they have to solve it themselves.


611
Web applications / Re: Oddities with Youtube.
« on: November 15, 2017, 06:05:13 pm »
Pentium 4, identical setup: no such problem. Today FF 45.9.0-2 produced the Pentium III TRP file, instead of PM DLL. LGPLLIBS.DLL was the DLL file I (/ PM DLL's TRP file) was refering too earlier, besides NSPR4.DLL.

Illegal instruction MOVQ (FF):


______________________________________________________________________

 Exception Report - created 2017/11/15 14:08:38
______________________________________________________________________

 OS2/eCS Version:  2.45
 # of Processors:  1
 Physical Memory:  1023 mb
 Virt Addr Limit:  2048 mb
 Exceptq Version:  7.11.4-shl (Mar  6 2017)

______________________________________________________________________

 Exception C000001C - Illegal Instruction
______________________________________________________________________

 Process:  C:\TCPIP\FIREFOX\FIREFOX.EXE (10/05/2017 02:41:08 61,253)
 PID:      58 (88)
 TID:      01 (1)
 Priority: 200

 Filename: C:\TCPIP\FIREFOX\FIREFOX.EXE (10/05/2017 02:41:08 61,253)
 Address:  005B:00011514 (0001:00001514)

______________________________________________________________________

 Failing Instruction
______________________________________________________________________

 00011502  CMP  BYTE [0x302c0], 0x0     (803d c0020300 00)
 00011509  JZ   0x1153b                 (74 30)
 0001150B  MOV  EAX, [0x30280]          (a1 80020300)
 00011510  MOVD XMM0, EAX               (660f6ec0)
 00011514 >MOVQ QWORD [ESP+0x18], XMM0  (660fd64424 18)

There's the problem, it's using an XMM register, probably an SSE2 instruction which is illegal on a PIII.
Quickly grepping through media\ there's quite a few SSE instructions. The question is whether it is hard coded or a failure of the CPU detection.
I'll try to look closer later. Do you have the dbg files installed? If so can you post the call stack?

Quote
0001151A  FILD QWORD [ESP+0x18]        (df6c24 18)
 0001151E  FST  QWORD [0x30270]         (dd15 70020300)
 00011524  FDIV DWORD [0x1163c]         (d835 3c160100)

______________________________________________________________________

 Registers
______________________________________________________________________

 EAX : 0001234C   EBX  : 000301A4   ECX : 2003A0E0   EDX  : 2003A0EC
 ESI : 0013FFA4   EDI  : 0013FF64
 ESP : 0013FE80   EBP  : 0013FED8   EIP : 00011514   EFLG : 00012202
 CS  : 005B       CSLIM: FFFFFFFF   SS  : 0053       SSLIM: FFFFFFFF

 EAX : read/exec  memory at 0001:0000234C in FIREFOX
 EBX : read/write memory at 0002:000001A4 in FIREFOX
 ECX : read/write memory allocated by LIBC066
 EDX : read/write memory allocated by LIBC066
 ESI : read/write memory on this thread's stack
 EDI : read/write memory on this thread's stack

That cannot be the explanation. The instruction preceding the trap is also an SSE2 instruction ("MOVD XMM0,EAX"). Or will the failing location point "behind" the failing instruction ?

612
Hardware / Re: Preparing an USB Flash drive with FAT32 with DFSee
« on: November 13, 2017, 10:00:54 am »
In DFSee, just go to the Scripts menu and choose Make FAT32 Data (USB) disk and choose your disk and follow instructions.
You can probably do the same by partitioning with LVM and formatting the drive with the FAT32.IFS format command now. Previously we had no way to format FAT32.
Using Lars's USB stack, you should be able to read the USB stick that was formatted under Windows, which defaults to making a large floppy rather then a partitioned disk

Some additional info: if the first sectors of a stick are completely wiped (overwritten with zeros), then Windows will make it a large floppy stick if you select to format it. However, I you buy a stick in a store, then it is likely that it is already partitioned (with one partition usually). In that case Windows will keep the partitioning when you choose to format and will format the already existing partition. My USBMSD.ADD does its best to support "large floppy" if the stick is "virgin" as well as keeping and supporting the proper CHS layout if already partitioned.

613
Networking / Re: Subnets routing?
« on: November 09, 2017, 09:51:18 am »
Giving it a guess:

route add -net 192.168.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 192.168.2.1
route add -net 192.168.2.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 192.168.0.1

What the first line should should do is allowing to access network 192.168.0 via the gateway 192.168.2.1, that is access to whatever attaches to lan0 from lan2.
The second line works vice versa: it allows access to network 192.168.2 via the gateway 192.168.0.1, that is access to whatever attaches to lan2 from lan0.

If you want to get lan1 into play, I would assume that it is seen under gateway 10.0.0.1:
route add -net 192.168.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 10.0.0.1
route add -net 192.168.2.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 10.0.0.1


614
Applications / Re: Mouse jumps in text editor and other applications
« on: November 01, 2017, 12:47:55 pm »
Revert Back to 11.16. I See the Same Probs with 11.17.

615
Applications / Re: Mouse jumps in text editor and other applications
« on: November 01, 2017, 10:08:13 am »
Do you use a USB mouse? Do you use AN Version 11.17?
Then revert Back to 11.16.

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