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Messages - Robert Deed

#1
Quote from: aschn on 2011.07.11, 21:23:49
Quote from: miturbide on 2011.07.11, 21:00:17
My main concern is that this future versions of Firefox seems to make a major shift in the technology that is used to have, and it seems to me that it is going to have more challenge to port it eCS-OS2.

Sure: It seems to me as then someone has to port Azure first. I fear that trends like that will be responsible for an early dead.

I am willing to bet that Azure will have a cario compatable fallback mode, after all even in the Linux/Windows worlds (especially embedded)  devices may have substandard or poorly implemented OpenGL Drivers.   This is really mentionable as far as embedded devices are concerned since battery life vs slight performance increases become increasingly important.   I however would love to see some tweaking to the OS/2 version of firefox to improve screen rendering performance,  though I fear that comes down to needing updated accelerated video drivers for our display adapters.  There is only so much you can do without proper hardware support.   I know the authors of panorama would like to argue that, but real world usage cannot be disputed.
#2
Applications / Re: Recommended software?
2011.07.04, 02:05:47
I honestly don't know what the flash hate is all about.  In windows I very seldomly if ever have flash crash, and generally if it does it is the content developers fault.   The issue here is that when developing runtime libraries you have to develop them from the ground up to be smp safe or you're going to run into this issue 99.9% of the time.   Wine in linux has gotten incredibly mature, seeing professional developers such as Trion releasing patches for their software to work under wine is amazing.  While ODIN offers some features I would love to see in wine, the maintainers while putting in some pretty incredible effort which I would never wish to devalue, don't always have the best understanding of the underlying systems which they are interacting with.


Quote from: Pete on 2011.07.02, 02:16:43
Hi

Well, reading "if you use the latest Odin release that came out with the Java GA then it Flash shouldn't have any SMP issue either" I was hopeful that Flash10 would now work without problems - especially as java6 is no longer supplied in SMP and non-SMP packages - so I reinstalled Flash10 to test.

Sadly I see no difference to the original Flash10 release as Flash10 still locks up SMP systems causing the system to need rebooting after very little Flash use - probably around 10 minutes, maybe slightly less.

I guess it is only to be expected as Flash10 is probably the worst bit of software to run in Windows - many of my friends who use Windows exclusively tell me that if they use it it is liable to fall over frequently causing Internet Explorer and other browsers (Mozilla, Chrome and Opera) to constantly reload the page containing the Flash object.

God knows why Mensys are trying to get such useless software running using Odin.

I think they should spend their money adding h264 support to Mozilla browsers instead.

Regards

Pete

#3
I think the love of WPS is not so much that it can do things extremely quickly, but it is extremely expendable (alot more then any window manager or desktop on other OS) and it keeps a good amount of commonality between apps, unlike linux when someone changes something and all of a sudden you now have 2 seperate clipboards  ::kicks his work computer:: 

Quote from: warpcafe on 2011.05.09, 15:30:53
Hi,

some update in case you weren't already aware:
eCS 2.1 was distributed on Sunday morning as true media kits with printed manual etc.

The reason for the delay was that they ran into a problem where they needed to do only a small change.
However that required working on the translation files for German too - in order to finalize the SVN checkins and build the stuff.
I personally did the translation Sunday morning and they went off to build and burn it. Done.
I cannot tell when the ISOs will be available for download but I am checking from time to time just in case Mensys "forgets" to tell about it. ;)

Personally, I am OK with what eCS is doing for me and what I actually need to do with it. Except 1 thing:
As long as I need to LVM/partition/format/<or whetever> any f*** USB MSD I attach (e.g. my phone's SD storage via USB cable) this OS is no longer an option (I wonder how any other end-uder operating system under the sun manages to let me access FAT32 USB MSD without complaining like eCS is doing)

And finally, even at the risk of upsetting folks here: The WPS is overrated. Sorry.
If I think about what I *do* with the WPS it boils down to actually the same things I can do with FileCommander (and in less time BTW). I know this does perhaps only apply to me, but I wonder why people absolutely want to stick with the WPS like if it was some kind of religion.

Okay this is far too much OT.
Let me close by saying that I am looking forward to eCS 2.1 and I appreciate what Mensys is doing / has done.

Cheers,
Thomas
#4
Quote from: Tomasikus on 2011.03.06, 23:43:18
Hi! I can't seem to find where in eCS 1.2r I turn off the preview of images/pictures in folders. If I open a folder that contains many large pictures/images, such as a folder of digital camera pictures, the CPU meter goes to 99% and stays there until all pictures have been processed into icon images. This can take several minutes since my computer is a bit old and during this time the system is unusable due to the high CPU load. The feature causes me some headache since I often just want to copy a few pictures to somewhere else. How do I turn image previewing off?

Best regards, Thomas H

If you allow an application such as PMView generate the thumbnails it generally performs a bit better.
#5
Hardware / Re: new hard drive
2010.10.15, 02:00:58
I have seen this before when the partition you are trying to boot to is not on disk 1.   In my laptop I just pulled the primary hard drive from the system while I was installing and everything went fine (even though I was still installing to "disk 2", there simply was no disk 1.  Some systems it will go, others it won't.  Sometimes it is effective to temporarily disable all disks except the one you want OS/2 on, assuming you are using the bios to control which drive to boot from later on.

Quote from: Phil on 2010.10.11, 23:23:57
Saijin, Ivan and Robert and all

    Thanks for all suggestions and ideas.  Been a few days to reply, was waiting to get dfsee
10,5.  I then wiped the disk and recreated partition.  Back to the installer that is on the ecs disk and still  same results "disk not bootable"  in installer, disk management,  disk is reported as disk 2 with partition dfss created.  Tried creating a bootable partition and failed  shows no free space.  In the same menus list  is option to install boot manager, had not tried that, in doing so put boot manager at begining of disk and the created partition next  and as free space, as required to make bootable. 

Back to the installer and the new partition showed up in window of installedables.  Formatted with JFS  and install completed quickly and smoothly.
    Unclear as to why boot manager had to be installed first but it worked.  Hope this will help someone else faced with like situation.

Regards  Phil
#6
Article Discussions / Re: Ports
2010.10.10, 07:23:58
Quote from: craigm on 2010.10.09, 15:36:20
Its a very exciting time for eCS with everything going on such as a new version of Java, Flash, Openoffice, MySQL, Oden, and  GCC (and a lot more).

Just for fun...in a perfect world, what top three programs (new or updated) would like to see done next (if money was not an issue):

This is what I would love to see:

1. OpenGL - Games!
2. DOSBox - Dos Games!
3. Adobe Photoshop

To add some additional fun...what hardware drivers/ports would be on your two three?

Mine are:

1. USB 3.0
2. Bluetooth 3.0
3. Able to read my Cell phone / Nook SD Card when plugged in (USB wise)

Even though these items are not in eCS 2.0 I think everyone that has put time in developing eCS has done a fantastic job...I am enjoying eCS more now than ever!

OpenGL is useless without hardware acceleration, since we barely have 2d acceleration on most common graphics adapters I doubt if we will ever see even half baked 3d.

USB 3.0 might be useful, assuming there ever are any USB 3.0 devices which give any benefit over running them in 2.0 :)

Cell phone / nook looks like it may happen as they upgrade USB components in the future.  There is little reason why these things cannot be supported at this time other then just some poor implementations (usually in the hardware, and not in OS/2.. but I guess writing drivers "to a standard" and "making them work" are two mutually exclusive things :)

Photoshop you can give up on, would be nice enough to get a recent gimp build which doesn't rely on some crappy window manager that actually works on our desktop with possibly the ability to run SOME photoshop plugins.
#7
Quote from: Sigurd on 2010.09.30, 16:15:41
Hi Robert,

can you please give me the excact part number of your Laptop then I may can take a clooser look. (i.e.: mine is 7450-65G)

2081-CTO.  It is a T500, C2D T9400 w/ 3gigs ram, AtherOS 802.11b/g  (may switch out for intel), Intel/ATI switchable graphics (currently forced to ATI drivers since Intel is crap), and 1280x800 LED display. 

eCS runs flawlessly on it, except that ACPI turns off the cpu fan.   I have disabled ACPI and the fan issue goes away, but then my audio has issues, I can only use 1 core, and there is no chance to getting lan to work. 
#8
Hardware / Re: new hard drive
2010.10.07, 00:10:44
Quote from: Saijin_Naib on 2010.10.06, 20:00:00
I believe 250gb should be fine if you're using the latest LVM and DANIs drivers.
What version of eCS are you rocking right now?

I have OS/2 loaded on a 320gb deskstar and a travelstar as well..  The size of the drive should be fine.   I would probably open up DfSee and remove all partitioning on the driver, MBR the whole lot.   I have found that the best thing to do it start with a clean slate and let the installer handle the LVM and configuration if that is possible.   Keep in mind, the drive may have shipped with some crummy partitioning. :)
#9
Quote from: iainnitro on 2010.10.01, 07:35:30
@Robert Reed:  So USB support should be enabled with FP 15 on my PL?

Thanks.


Should be just removing some REM's.  However, I do not remember which type or how many usb ports this model has.   I was a software choice subscriber when USB support was released and used the installer to handle setting up the USB drivers.   
#10
Quote from: Wolfman on 2010.09.30, 19:50:52
Hi,
I'd like to say thanks to Pete, Robert and Fahrvenugen for the will to help, I'll bite.

I'm sorry, I must disappoint Robert first. I decided it isn't time to splash on eComStation yet (I said yet). My interest in OS/2 (and, consequently, my presence here) is still a case study of what has been. I am all for paying for a product, I'm sure I will consider eCS at the right time, the price doesn't put me off, it's an hobby after all, and I enjoy my computers.

So my quest for now is to have OS/2 on an old Thinkpad and get some use out of it (the more the marrier).

First questions that sprung to mind were,

- where to find a legal copy of OS/2 4.52

- what's the best manual to get me started

- I have a soft spot for the Thinkpad X30, will 4.52 run on it? (it's just the right price/performance spot I'm searching for hardware-wise, but I couldn't find any info in the eComStation.ru database here http://en.ecomstation.ru/hardware.php?action=category&section=brand&page=13)

- how's trackpoint support?

- how's power management support (laptop application, remember)?

- what's the latest Firefox version supported? (I don't care about flash)

- will wireless work?

- fixpacks, fixpacks... I stumbled upon some browsing for info. No idea what some are for. Is there a guide somewhere? Will I need all of them?

this pretty much covers the basics, I am fully aware I am no expert and I have no problem in continuing my researches via PMs if the admins feel so.

Thanks again for your time,

best regards,

Andrea

No disappointment .  I myself held of jumping on eCS for quite a while, however I needed an easy to install package since I still develop OS/2 apps (point of sale system and business management system).


The X30 is one of the last Thinkpads which officially had OS/2 support. You shouldn't have any issues with it.  You may find the ultranav drivers on lenovo's support site, or possibly on Hobbes.  The trackpoint/trackpad will also function with the latest Amouse drivers however you will not be able to assign them advanced functions (they will simply work as a pointing device).

APM should be fully supported on that laptop.  I know this is the case with warp4, and IIRC 4.52 did not remove these features, though I am not sure since the power management features are not present in ecs so it is also entirely possible they last shipped as part of warp4.

Fixpacks, Service.boulder.ibm.com   The exact location was posted in one of the previous msgs.

Wireless is more hit or miss.  It depends on which wireless option you have.  Genmac supports several chipsets and wlan handles the security side of things.  If you have one of the supported chipsets they are a fairly straight forward (painless) setup.  Using custom drivers for unsupported chipsets can be a little sketchy.  Last but not least, there are some drivers out on the internet for the prisim chipset 11a/b devices which used a different login tool.  These are mostly older devices which are not capable of the newer security used in modern access points. 

There is no way to legally obtain a copy of Warp 4.52 any longer.  You may be able to find a copy on ebay.

AFAIK, Warp 4.52 was never a stand alone product, it was shipped as a client operating system for WSEB.  I am not sure there ever was an official boxed version.  I received mine in the mail with my copy of WSEB with a form to contact IBM to purchase additional licenses as needed.
#11
Quote from: Fahrvenugen on 2010.09.30, 17:17:52
Quote from: Robert Deed on 2010.09.30, 01:34:08

It is getting exceedingly difficult to find the older updates for warp 4 as well.  Since the original release of Warp there have been extensive bug fixes, additional features added.  IBM no longer offers these fixes free of charge (and if they do they are very difficult to find).   Something as simple as a stable 32bit tcpip stack may be impossible to find. 



I'm not sure I fully agree with this, many fixpaks are still available, directly from IBM.  True I'd agree that some stuff (such as the latest USB stuff) isn't available without eCS, but there's a lot of updates still out there.


For example, Warp 4, Fixpak 15:

ftp://service.boulder.ibm.com/ps/products/os2/rsu/xr_m015/

Base install for 32 bit stack (MPTS):

ftp://service.boulder.ibm.com/ps/products/mpts/fixes/english-us/wr08610_conv/

Additional updates for 32 bit stack:

ftp://service.boulder.ibm.com/ps/products/mpts/fixes/english-us/wr08621/

Additional fix for 32 bit stack to prevent crashing with certain apps:

http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/h-search.php?sh=1&button=Search&key=newstack&stype=all&sort=type_name&dir=%2F

Fixes for the rest of TCP/IP (updates stuff so it'll work with the 32 bit stack)

ftp://service.boulder.ibm.com/ps/products/tcpip/fixes/v3.1os2andv4.0os2/universal/un_0980/

On the other hand, I'd agree the best way is to just purchase eCS, then you not only get the latest updates, but also stuff like acpi, multi-processor/multi-core support, etc.



Assuming you don't have a list of the file locations saved, or happen to remember service.boulder.ibm.com there is little chance you are going to find them from the outside world. There is also no guarantee that they will remain at those locations or continue to be available.
#12
Quote from: iainnitro on 2010.09.30, 01:35:11
Greetings:

I have become quite the IBMer in the past two months.  It started with my passion for vintage computers (like my TRS-80 model 4) and wanting to preserve the BBS culture of which I was involved in as a Sysop.  I am currently working on reviving my old BBS system and in the course of getting some machines to do the job (both IBM PC300 series, 1 PL 6562-86U and the other a GL 6282-58U).  The PL is the one I decided to install OS/2 Warp 4 on and I plan to apply fixpack 15 and the native drivers for the machine in the next few days as I have time.

The questions are:  What is a good terminal program (supporting ANSI-BBS) for OS/2?  Also, the official Lenovo support site where I found the drivers for my machine for OS/2 state that the USB ports are not supported, are there any workarounds or third party drivers for USB?


Also need a good FTP program and the ability to SSH into my *NIX boxes.  I am an avid Linux user and I am hoping I can do alot with OS/2 W4 since it still seems to have development happening.  I am actually also looking for a legit copy of the CD.  I think I found one on Amazon, but really don't think I want to pay $196 for the system, but if that is the going rate, I suppose I will break down and get it soon.

To that end, I want to learn all the ins and outs of the OS, I have ordered a book from Amazon that specifically addresses Warp 4, but wonder what other books I may want in my collection.

Lastly, there are rumours that IBM is thinking about revitalizing OS/2... are these purely rumours or does anyone know for sure?  I have been following the renewal of Amiga OS since they just made Version 4 of AmigaOS a year or so ago... since that was an even more "dead" platform, I would think a redo and modernization of OS/2 would be a good move at this time for IBM.

Anyhow, I digress, Hope someone is willing to be a bit of a mentor for me, just PM me with an email if you are willing to kind of do some hand holding for someone with 21 years in computers who knew DOS pretty well :-)

Otherwise, I welcome answers to my questions and any advice I will gladly accept, even if I don't end up following some of it ;-)

Hope all are having a good day!

Thanks in advance for the help.  Mike



I use http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/apps/comm/term/mt-a5.zip as a terminal.

The USB ports in virtually every system should work fine with the latest USB drivers for OS/2.  IIRC Warp4 did not ship with USB support, warp server for ebusiness and the client release were the first to add USB support.  They were also added to warp4 through a fixpack later on.  These will function on the PL/GL (I know from first hand experience).

So far, any rumors of IBM reviving OS/2 are purely rumors.  It would be a massive undertaking that I don't think IBM really has in their heart anymore.  They are moving away from the OS side of things and more onto software and services.  It would be incredibly difficult to modernize OS/2 without a significant amount of legacy support being destroyed.  Without a very thorough  rewrite 64bit support would be impossible.  Most apps rely on 16bit code in some form.  Almost all device drivers do as well.  If OS/2 was to be brought back, what would be released would probably have little resemblance to the OS we love.
#13
Quote from: Wolfman on 2010.09.29, 21:21:00
Hi all,

first post here, my name.s Andrea and I got interested in OS/2 recently.

I'm trying to "do my homework" and gather some information on that os, both in the forums and over the internet, but I feel direct opinions would get me up to speed quicker.
I would't want to add "noise" in the forum, as I feel some of my questions have been posed repeatedly, so if someone is willing to contact me privately (or anywhere else,i.e. IRC) , I would be more than happy to receive direct feedback over Warp 4.

Thanks for reading, let me know, I will be checking this thread regularly.

best regards

Andre


It is really quite simple.  You would buy eCS if:

You are interested in supporting the future development of the OS.
You are interested in using a dual core processor to the greatest of its abilities
You need open office and updated flash
You are using a computer which needs ACPI in order to boot

It is getting exceedingly difficult to find the older updates for warp 4 as well.  Since the original release of Warp there have been extensive bug fixes, additional features added.  IBM no longer offers these fixes free of charge (and if they do they are very difficult to find).   Something as simple as a stable 32bit tcpip stack may be impossible to find. 

I think I touched upon most of the reasons, though I still think the first is the most important.  Even if Warp4 is a viable operating system for you today it is going to take continued development of features such as ACPI, lan drivers, and software to keep the system viable in the long run.  This can only happen if the financial means are there to make it happen.  Buying eCS is more then just "paying for warp".  You get to benefit from the development which sales of eCS have helped make happen, and you are insuring that this can continue to happen in the future.

In the end, you alone can make the decision.  I think that when you look at what you are getting for the price, the value becomes more apparent.  Sure, openoffice.org is free on most platforms, however if you needed an officesuite and openoffice didn't exist you would be paying close to the eCS license fee for a single piece of software. 
#14
Quote from: Sigurd on 2010.09.28, 08:48:26
Hi,

FYI:

I think it is better to start a new topic, following this one here: http://www.os2world.com/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,63/topic,1737.30/

Got a Lenovo X200T with an inbuild Sony Ericcson F3507G 3G Modem. Try to get this to work. Did modify usb_modeswitch.conf with the parameters of the card: vendor: 0DBD and product ID 1900. Got a first result here. Have to check exactly what it means, I think it recognizes the card = good , but somehow stops.

Will give the usbecd driver of Wim Brul a try later this day, will receive a needed SIM card for this today as well so that I can try to get access to the net via Injoy and the very good howto presented for this by Ed Durrant.

I will keep you informed.

Any hints - as allways  ::)  - really welcome and appreciated!

Hope you have better luck then I do with Lenovo built-in devices.  It seems that Lenovo enjoys modifying devices so that they only work right with their own drivers or something.  I have a lan card in my T500 which will not work in OSX or eCS even though the drivers exist and are tested with other manufacturers laptops with the same device.  Same results to, device is seen, driver loads without issue, device is unresponsive.  Sorry I wasn't helping you out, it is possible the pin is being the stopping point.  Good Luck!
#15
Quote from: Sigurd on 2010.09.24, 13:18:04
Quote from: Robert Deed on 2010.09.23, 21:40:47
Quote from: Sigurd on 2010.09.23, 15:39:34
Hi,

the work with the new Stylus Driver for my Lenovo "X200T" project I am still working on leads me to the following question:

Do you think it makes sence to install eCS2 on such a Tab or Pad (whatever they are called)? May it be impossible (because of hardware/Driver restrictions) - or may it be possbile but useless (no way for a reasonable onor effective use) or may it be....

Every suggestion is welcome!

For sure the i-pad is not a candidate for this, but it may be a Tab like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WeTab that is based on Netbook (Intel technology).

What might be possible:

- Installation itself: it does have a USB connector, so might be via USB CD
- Virtual keyboard (already existing)
- Big Icons (already existing)

- and essential: Touch Screen support - but because the new Stylus Driver is already designed as a part of a new Touch screen driver - see: http://home.hccnet.nl/w.m.brul/index.html this might happen, but Multitouch may be impossible but not needed at all for eComStation.

What's your opinion?


I defiantly like the idea of using a 200 Tablet..  I'm wondering if you have the issue of the fan turning off and the system getting really hot that I have on my T500.  I'm investigating the best way to rectify this myself.   I think it would be interesting to use eCS on a full tablet, and the performance is bound to be better then win7.  Would be cool to get multitouch working, or atlleast an on screen control buttons for things like zoom etc, though considering the resolution of most tablets zoom is pointless (zoom out may not be).  Really my question would be how many resources would need to be moved from other projects to allow this to happen.  I for one do not believe that tablets are the "future of computing"  I believe that while they may become popular they are mainly for media consumption, as soon as our tv manufacturers and cable companies get on the ball and give us that consumption through our media center, using a tablet will then become mostly for portable media consumption, which right now is being done by cellphones, and carrying a tablet as well might not really catch on.   

Hi Robert,

regarding the fan, please try this, worked for me at least not sure if it is the same with the T500 but worht a try I guess.

Go to BIOS

Change the "Performance mode" to balance and "Battery optimized" for the Engery states at SpeedStepTechnology, even for AC powered.

Cheers

Battery optimized will fail to boot.
Booting on battery power will fail to boot as well..  hangs right after the logo is displayed.