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Messages - Dave Yeo

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166
Setup & Installation / Re: Dual (or tripple) booting ArcaOS and FreeDOS?
« on: December 27, 2020, 12:15:50 am »
Well, they all support FAT, some support FAT32 and there are HPFS drivers available for DOS https://hobbes.nmsu.edu/?search=HPFS&stype=any&sort=type_name&dir=%2Fpub%2Fdos
Drawbacks, FAT, 8.3 names generally under OS/2 and probably DOS 6.x along with a 2GB partition limit.
FAT32, slow, don't know if there is a driver for DOS 6.x, perhaps partition limits and 2-4GB file limit.
HPFS, limited to 64 GB partitions (actually in practice a bit smaller, like 60GB) and 2GB file size. Long chkdsk on large volumes.
Edit, quite possibly those DOS HPFS drivers have lower partition size limits, pinball.sys for NT is limited to 4.3GB or so partitions for example.

A JFS DOS driver would be interesting. The Linux JFS is a fork of the OS/2 JFS and generally handles OS/2 JFS, so that GPL code would be a start as the source is available.

167
Setup & Installation / Re: Dual (or tripple) booting ArcaOS and FreeDOS?
« on: December 26, 2020, 10:51:29 pm »
The main reason for doing the partitioning from ArcaOS is that it is old (actually the under laying OS/2) and needs the partitions on a cylinder boundary.
You should be able to choose which primary is active, forget if airboot allows it or you have to use the logical volume manager.

168
Setup & Installation / Re: Dual (or tripple) booting ArcaOS and FreeDOS?
« on: December 26, 2020, 02:40:34 am »
Ok, so I hit another snag.  It seems my ArcaOS installation did not fix the MBR, which previously, and still, has GRUB.

So when I try to boot from the hard disk to continue with the installation, I get a grub error because it doesn't recognize the file system(s).

How do I fix this?

IIRC, there is an option for installing airboot in the LVM that you can run from maintenance mode from the stick. Might be in the disk checker.
If ever want to dual boot Linux too, ideally you also create the partitions from AOS, including /boot and install grub there.

169
Setup & Installation / Re: Dual (or tripple) booting ArcaOS and FreeDOS?
« on: December 26, 2020, 02:33:41 am »
Ok, so I partitioned the machine in the following way.

Code: [Select]
         2,000 unformatted Primary
         2,000 unformatted Primary
->C:  5,005 unformatted Primary Startable
->F: 29,147 unformatted Logical Advanced/LVM
While installing ArcaOS in the 3rd primary as C: will work, I would have made it a Logical and perhaps E: That way after booting AOS, one of the DOS partitions can be C: and from what Roderick said, even the 2nd one could have been a Logical and not C: for FreeDos. (I have no experience with FreeDos)
Who knows, maybe you will want to try one of the Dos's under AOS instead of its included DOS. You could even have all 3 running in individual VDM's on the desktop if you chose and your graphics card is happy displaying a VDM on the desktop (not all are)
I hope this will work for a tripple boot system.  I am currently installing ArcaOS right now, in C: and F: as above.  Let's see how that works out.  I can do this as many times as I need.

170
Internet / Re: Curious what the problem is making new firefox versions.
« on: December 25, 2020, 03:17:08 am »
There's a couple of steps in building an executable, including a DLL. First the compiler turns source code into object files. For a large project there are lots of source files, arranged in subdirectories for various functionality. Second the compiler calls a linker to link all those object files into a program or DLL. Sometimes there are other steps involved but we'll ignore them for now.
Another consideration is debug data, which is handy for debugging a program. The debug data can be big as it keeps a bunch of data in the source files and program so that when run in a debugger, you can see the original text code as well as variables etc.
First problem is that sometimes compiling those source files with debug data can use upwards of 2GB's of memory, the workaround there is to compile one at a time, which is wasteful on a multi-core machine and adds time. Firefox here on a 3.1 GHz I5 takes over a hundred minutes to build when compiling up to 5 files at a time, perhaps twice as long or longer when doing one at a time. So by trading off time we can get around this bottleneck.
The next step is feeding all those files into a linker. The linker has to keep track of a lot of stuff as it combines them into one file and can get pretty memory hungry. Firefox's xul.dll is 75 MB's at this point and the QT5 web one much bigger. Even with Mozilla, we had the IBM linker start to fail back at Firefox 4 and had to switch to the OpenWatcom (OW) linker, which we do have the source for and Steven knows how it works and has commit access to put fixes back upstream.
The OW linker also had problems and has been adjusted a few times, it can use what it calls a spill file (think swap) and this is what Roderick is talking about when he talks about modifying wlink the OW linker. So basically we're, or rather some developers, are doing what you suggest. GCC is an open source cross platform current compiler that we have the source for and can adjust and wlink is a very good linker, which once again we have the source for and can adjust. It all takes time from an expert though and gets harder when and if you have to juggle parts into our limited address space.
Then there's the memory that a program uses when running, and a browser can use a lot.

171
Storage / Re: DISKIO - updated version in need of TEST
« on: December 24, 2020, 06:44:04 pm »
I tried VACPP 3.08 with no joy, didn't even like the CPLUS type comments.
BTW: No, that can't be the reason. "//" is defined in VAC 3.0.8 as single-line comment string, as well as C-Set/2 supports this.

Well, it sure complained. Here, I just added a CPLUS type comment on line 9 and get,
Code: [Select]
icc -q -Wpro -O -qtune=pentium2 -Gl -Gm -Gs -DOS2TMR -DOS2 -c cpuperf.c
warning EDC1020: Excess text tune=pentium2 ignored on /q option.
cpuperf.c(9:1) : error EDC0046: Syntax error.
cpuperf.c(9:4) : error EDC0166: Definition of function a requires parentheses.
...
Then problems like not knowing what __uint64 is, after I fixed the comments to be C type, so I switched to OW.

172
Storage / Re: USB 3 Hard drives
« on: December 24, 2020, 06:30:33 pm »
Hi Ivan. As said, I was using File Commander to copy the ISO's (Midnight Commander on Linux) and the source tree. Rsync also outputs speeds, mostly low for small files and higher for large files. The output of rsync could be piped to a log file.

Hi Martin, yes, the back port has a SATA power cable plugged in. I bought a Y cable, then had to extend it as this Dell only had 4 SATA power cables, exactly the right length to reach the HD's and DVD's. Remember, it is USB C, which is supposed to be capable of delivering more power for charging and such. Not sure if I'd trust the power supply to deliver lots of amps but this USB drive worked fine on USB 2 power.
I looked at various USB 3 controllers as well, they mostly took the old style of HD power cable and all seemed to need external power compared to what the PCI-E bus can deliver.
This card also needed an X4 PCI-E slot, I have it plugged into the 2nd physical X16 slot which is wired as a X8. Most of the USB 3 cards used 1 lane and plugged into a X1 slot. As this computer is old and only 2nd generation PCI-E, I figured using 4 lanes (actually seems to only use 2 lanes) would be an advantage.
Don't have much more info, the card came with a little CD with Windows and Mac drivers and that was about it.
PCI reports,
Code: [Select]
Bus 3 (PCI Express), Device Number 0, Device Function 0
Vendor 1B21h ASMedia Technology Inc.
Device 2142h ASM2142 USB 3.1 Host Controller
Command 0006h (Memory Access, BusMaster)
Status 0010h (Has Capabilities List, Fast Timing)
Revision 00h, Header Type 00h, Bus Latency Timer 00h
Self test 00h (Self test not supported)
Cache line size 64 Bytes (16 DWords)
PCI Class Serial, type USB (UHCI), programming interface 30
Subsystem ID 21421B21h Unknown (Generic ID)
Subsystem Vendor 1B21h ASMedia Technology Inc.
Address 0 is a Memory Address (64-bit) : E1A00000h..E1A07FFFh
System IRQ 58, INT# A
New Capabilities List Present:
  Message Signalled Interrupt Capability
    MSI is enabled
    MSI function can generate 64-bit addresses
  MSI-X Capability
  Power Management Capability, Version 1.2
    Does not support low power State D1 or D2
    Supports PME# signalling from mode(s) D0
    PME# signalling is currently disabled
    3.3v AUX Current required : 55 mA
    Current Power State : D0 (Device operational, no power saving)
  PCI Express Capability, Version 2
    Device/Port Type :
      Legacy PCI Express Endpoint Device
    Device Capabilities :
      Unsupported Request Severity is Fatal
    Device Status :
      Correctable Error Detected
      Unsupported Request Detected
      AUX Power Detected
    Link Capabilities :
      Maximum Link speed : Unknown (03h)!!
      Maximum Link Width : x2
      Link Port Number   : 0
    Link Control :
      Common Clock Configuration In Use
    Link Status :
      Current Link speed : Unknown (02)!!
      Current Link Width : x2

173
Hardware / Re: Restoring T450S backup to M93P Tiny - USB HID woes
« on: December 24, 2020, 10:07:47 am »
OHCI vs ECHI drivers? Post the USB parts of the config.sys. Ideally would be to have the config.sys of the failed install. Output of PCI would be nice too.

174
Storage / USB 3 Hard drives
« on: December 24, 2020, 05:50:26 am »
Hi, there's been various discussions about USB 3 hard drives here and on the testers list so I thought I'd start a new dedicated thread.
I've acquired a Seagate Slim Drive USB 3 2TB drive for backup purposes which worked well with USB 2, peaking at about 19 MB/s.
Now I acquired this, https://www.ebay.ca/itm/USB-C-PCI-E-Express-Card-USB-3-1-2-Port-Controller-Adapter-HUB/133124878295?hash=item1efedc6fd7:g:OCYAAOSwjm5dOpkd which showed up within 3 days in my mail. Unluckily the needed cables from a different supplier haven't shown up yet. So I lucked out and picked up a 6 foot USB C to USB A cable at London Drugs for $7 bucks, it's rated at 5Gb/s, USB 3 speed.
Testing by transferring an ArcaOS ISO using File Commander, I see speeds of 90-98 MB/s, under Linux, Using MC and an EXT4 partition, the speeds are about 100-110 MB/s for really big files with the odd really high peak. Seems pretty decent, at that testing with the Mozilla source tree (about 5GB's of mostly small files) it is still about 30 MB/s, speeding up for large files and slowing down for small files. It's actually faster then my SSD on a SATA 2 port and may be the fastest drive in my system.
Problems, I have a 1 TB JFS partition for backing up to. Given a power failure or system crash, chkdsk runs for hours before quitting  with
Code: [Select]
JFS0101: CHKDSK  Insufficient dynamic storage available for required workspace
(1,6). CHKDSK CANNOT CONTINUE.

I guess I'll repartition as even though after ejecting and remounting the drive seems fine, who knows.
The other problem is all attempts to benchmark with diskio or sysbench locks the system hard, requiring the big red button to reboot and that hours long chkdsk.
Copying files, using rsync and such seem to work fine.
I must say I'm impressed so far with the hard drive speed, unlike other reports. Not sure if due to the USB C controller or what.
Edit, USBTree reports,
Code: [Select]
USB driver version = 12.8
----- USB device tree ---------------------------------------------------------
DS 07f0=4ff8

Controller 0: USBXHCD$
Root Hub 0 (4 ports) 1B21:2142
  Port 1: Device 0BC2:AC2D (MSD)-(SCSI)-(BO)(MSD)-(SCSI) SS Seagate RSS LLC
...

175
Multimedia / Re: again on Uniaud
« on: December 24, 2020, 04:26:50 am »
I just wanted to state that the USB audio driver package contains an application to properly switch between different audio devices. This has nothing to do with USB audio as such.

Pretty sure that Rich wrote one for AOS as well. Haven't tried either.

176
Storage / Re: DISKIO - updated version in need of TEST
« on: December 24, 2020, 04:19:29 am »
Well, ideally would be to keep the Win32 codebase and binaries so people can do comparisons. Of course if you have no motivation to do that, you could remove them, while leaving them in history in case someone wants to resurrect them, and do a major version jump to ver 2 or fork by renaming your binary. You're the one taking on the maintainer-ship.
Hopefully you're using something like Git to maintain history.
BTW, which compiler are you using? I tried VACPP 3.08 with no joy, didn't even like the CPLUS type comments. It did build fine with OpenWatcom with this patch.
Code: [Select]
From a1cf054f2665f861b537300e70f183bb447b136c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Dave Yeo <dave.r.yeo@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 20 Dec 2020 16:42:12 -0800
Subject: [PATCH 2/2] Fix compilation on OpenWatcom This macro is declared in
 the OW headers

---
 sources/perfutil.h | 6 ++++--
 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/sources/perfutil.h b/sources/perfutil.h
index 9cb9800..238051b 100644
--- a/sources/perfutil.h
+++ b/sources/perfutil.h
@@ -57,11 +57,12 @@ typedef HOOKDATA * PHOOKDATA;
   *
 */
 
-#define   CMD_KI_RDCNT    (0x63)
+#define   CMD_KI_RDCNT    0x63
 
 /* note: on SMP machine DosPerfSysCall() will return an array of */
 /* CPUUTIL structures, by number of processors. */
-
+
+#ifndef __WATCOMC__
 typedef struct _CPUUTIL
 {
     ULONG ulTimeLow;     /* Low 32 bits of time stamp      */
@@ -73,6 +74,7 @@ typedef struct _CPUUTIL
     ULONG ulIntrLow;     /* Low 32 bits of interrupt time  */
     ULONG ulIntrHigh;    /* High 32 bits of interrupt time */
 } CPUUTIL;
+#endif
 
 typedef CPUUTIL *PCPUUTIL;
 
--
2.11.0

Tried a few things to find the divide by zero without luck and I'm not sure how to use the debugger in OW, I think I might have the HLL experimental linker screwing up wdw. Have to revisit.
Hmm, reviewing my patch, a related change got in, does VACPP need those brackets? OW didn't like them.

177
Setup & Installation / Re: Dual (or tripple) booting ArcaOS and FreeDOS?
« on: December 24, 2020, 03:14:40 am »
Does FreeDos need to be on C:? Pretty sure MSDos does. Use ArcaOS's Disk Manager to partition, create 2 primary partitions at the beginning of the hard drive how ever big you plan for the Dos's probably 1-2GB, then an extended partition or more for AOS and perhaps another small one for sharing data.
The first 2 will be C: with only one visible to DOS, you can assign different drive letters to them for AOS and give the other partitions what ever drive letter you choose, perhaps leaving D: for your DVD drive if you have one.
Oh, install Airboot too.
Airboot should allow booting from either C: where you install a DOS as well as booting E: or where ever you install AOS.
So you end up with 2 primaries at the front of the drive for a DOS each, then some extended for AOS or sharing.
AOS can see both primaries if you give them different drive letters and either DOS can't see the other.
I'm assuming FreeDOS installs like most DOSes, on the first visible primary. If FreeDOS is happy installing elsewhere, you can adjust. The important thing is doing all partitioning with AOS.

178
Applications / Re: Change font size in File Open Container
« on: December 23, 2020, 08:25:23 pm »
I think holding down the ALT key while dragging from the font palette will do what you want.
Backup your desktop first just in case. Right click Desktop, choose restart desktop, click Archive Desktop once after restart to backup. You can restore at the beginning of boot by pressing ALT-F1

179
Hardware / Re: Snap Vs Panorama - Refresh rate problem.
« on: December 20, 2020, 08:40:00 pm »
The so called MTRR registers need to be setup correctly. If this does not happen on multi CPU system the video performance can be implode...

What is the MTRR registers and what is the way to set it up to not implode?
Wow you guys really know your stuff on os/2. Feel like a complete newb, and I know allot about Linux so thought I had a first class nerd pass but alas I apparently have a way to go lol.

Memory type range register, basically they control caching of memory ranges.
Here's an old article about setting them up in Linux, https://www.meduna.org/txt_mtrr_en.html on a single processor system. The thing is is that every CPU (core) has to be set up the same.
Here's the current status on Linux, mostly superseded. https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/x86/mtrr.html

180
Hardware / Re: Snap Vs Panorama - Refresh rate problem.
« on: December 20, 2020, 07:44:13 pm »
As was said, it depends on the hardware and BIOS whether the old Snap will work for you. Panorama is newer and likely the developers haven't taken refresh rate into too much consideration as so few people are still using CRT monitors.
If you notice bad performance, desktop hangs or crashes, you might have to revert to the newer Snap. Personally, I think if using a video card that Snap supports and if it works well, Snap is the way to go. Testing is the only way to judge though.
Note that sysbench (available on Hobbes) will allow you to benchmark the video performance.

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