Hi Jeremy, Jim and remaining kernel and shell experts,
While I have not seen it discussed here yet, https://sourceforge.net/p/freedos/news/2021/06/freedos-kernel-2043-and-freecom-085/ writes: > FreeDOS kernel 2043 and FreeCOM 0.85 > > Jeremy Davis has been working to update the FreeDOS kernel and > FreeCOM, the FreeDOS command shell. Jeremy has shared new versions on > GitHub. Thanks Jeremy! > > For the kernel, some changes include now support building with > GCC-ia16, CHAIN command in config.sys, various fixes, new setver > capabilities. Source and 8086 compatible builds provided, f16 only > supports FAT12/FAT16, while f32 also supports FAT32 formatted disks > (both 8086). kernel.zip provides a FreeDOS package, 8086 version with > FAT12/FAT16 and 386 version with FAT12/FAT16/FAT32. ke2043_rufus is a > 386 compiled version with FAT12/16/32 support and FORCELBA enabled. Why is it necessary to have a special FORCELBA edition? Should that not be accessible via SYS CONFIG, without the need for a separate compile? Also, not all 386/486 have proper LBA support in the BIOS, so users of those would have to revert to the slower and larger f32 file? > Also see the git history for the full change log. You can find the > updated kernel at kernel.freedos.org and via GitHub in the version > 2043 release. We've also mirrored the updated kernel in the FreeDOS > Files Archive at Ibiblio, in the /files/dos/kernel directory. > > The FreeCOM release provides multiple variants - the recommended is > one of the Open Watcom xms-swap versions. The files with ow are built > with Open Watcom and the files with bc are built with Borland C/C++. > Currently only English xms-swap GCC (ia16) built version is provided, > please see automatic builds for latest builds with GCC. The files > with -intl use English language for critical errors and provide > strings. for all supported languages. The xmsswap. files are > recommended for computers with XMS memory, as XMS memory is used for > swapping. The command.* files use standard swapping and swap to disk. Please give more details about this. For 8086, people will want the KSSF editions, while the rest will usually go for the XMS-SWAP ones in combination with HIMEM, XMGR or, on 286 computers, FDXMS286. Which downloads correspond to those use cases? > The language specific versions are compiled for the specific language > so the critical errors will also be translated if available. These > are only provided in Open Watcom builds. You can find the updated > version in the FreeCOM GitHub, and in the FreeCOM 0.85 release > directory on GitHub. We've also mirrored this version in the FreeDOS > Files Archive on Ibiblio, under /files/dos/command. I would like to bring up two long-standing problems again. Maybe you can give an estimate when those might be addressed. Thank you :-) Problem one: The HMA cannot be used before the end of config sys, so drivers cannot make use of this extra space unless you "devload" them. Problem two: One cannot have several UMB drivers. Otherwise, people could load UMBPCI first to get UMB and then load EMM386 (into UMB!) to get some more, to have even MORE of their 640 kB DOS RAM free :-) I notice that the history.txt for the updated kernel ends at 2042, so I assume the current 2043 downloads are release candidates which are waiting for us to test before the changelog gets fully updated? The URL in the bugs.txt and index.md etc. also seems outdated, still pointing to the barely useable sourceforge tracker instead of the new https://github.com/FDOS/kernel/issues and a description of the relevant changes from https://github.com/FDOS/freecom/commits/master which seem to include long CMDLINE support improvements :-) Unfortunately, ALL files in the kernel source download have the same timestamp, making it impossible to see what was last changed when :-o In freecom, the link in file_id.diz is outdated, to sourceforge, now redirecting to the wiki start page. The same happens with the link mentioned in download.txt ... https://github.com/FDOS/freecom/blob/master/todo got last changed in 2006, I guess those to do items are no longer matching reality? I guess the HTML docs may no longer match the implementation: https://github.com/FDOS/freecom/tree/master/docs/html/commands Other possibly outdated documentation: How to contribute: https://github.com/FDOS/freecom/blob/master/docs/upload.txt How is DOS=HIGH relevant to command.com? Multiplexor ==> Multiplexer https://github.com/FDOS/freecom/blob/master/docs/todo.txt Outdated web links in: https://github.com/FDOS/freecom/blob/master/docs/readme.txt https://github.com/FDOS/freecom/blob/master/docs/download.txt No updates since 2003, version 0.83 beta something: https://github.com/FDOS/freecom/blob/master/docs/history.txt Reaches 0.84 pre 7, but not 0.85 yet either: https://github.com/FDOS/freecom/blob/master/CHANGED Describes 0.83 beta 48, not 0.85 yet: https://github.com/FDOS/freecom/blob/master/docs/html/build48.html Thanks for your updates and feedback! Regards, Eric _______________________________________________ Freedos-devel mailing list Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
