Re: [Freedos-user] unload previsiously loaded exe and sys on fdconfig.sys

2009-03-20 Thread Michael Reichenbach
Eric Auer schrieb:
> Hi Michael,
> 
>> Do BIOS update 100 % step by step as the manual says. No experiments wit
>> h DOS versions, TSR's, boot medium (if you shall use legacy floppy then
>> do so). Otherwise you risk the BIOS update to fail as the developers did
>> not thought about your modified use.
> 
> I agree that unloading TSRs can cause risks, but I would not
> overdo the 100% step by step part. Remember that even big
> mainboard makers shipped half-broken modifications of FreeDOS
> with their products and that for example MS DOS simply is no
> longer legally available for normal post-Win9x home users.

I haven't made a comparison of all available manuals but from my
experience them recommend to use the "create DOS bootdisk" feature of
Windows XP.

> 
>> Ok, well you can experiment if you have the equipment
>> to remove the flash chip and to flash it from outside.
> 
> Better BIOSes have various fallback options, such as a second
> copy of the BIOS or a part which cannot be flashed which is
> able to load update floppies even after a failed BIOS update.

I would scare to rely on such wobbly underground.

> I personally would say that floppy is best (if you still have
> a drive) followed by harddisk, CD/DVD and then USB.

Agreed.

> You should
> avoid loading EMM386 for compatibility reasons

Agreed.

> but HIMEM should
> be safe for most BIOS update tools as far as I remember...

I do not see for what it should be needed in this situation.

> If
> your BIOS USB drivers are not stable, it might help to copy all
> relevant files to RAMDISK before updating the BIOS. You could
> even BOOT from a RAMDISK, using ISOLINUX / SYSLINUX and MEMDISK.

Well, the exact process how legacy BIOS is booting is not fully
documented and vary from motherboard to motherboard.

BIOS developers done strange things such as hardcoding Win9x boot files.

This makes me think that them might have hardcoded the way them allocate
memory and using memdisk's memory while it still needs to access the
memdisk would result in a crash.

If a BIOS updates failes and you used not-100% manual then you do not
know if it was because of the not-100% manual or if it would have
happened also with following the 100% the manual.

Because if the BIOS update failed with a not-100% manual following way
then the person does mostly not reproduce the 100% manual following way
and reports to public the results, even these results would be only
valid for the one motherboard at it's revision. This is because people
do not experiment and reproduce with BIOS as often as them do with
software because it's risky and needs special tools for recovery. (Even
worse with brazed flash rom chips.)

Personally I would be glad if there would be "less magic" inside the
BIOS, just an sd card with FAT (or other fileformat where open source
drivers are available) where you can copy (backup) and exchange the rom
file without performing magic and/or Dual BIOS where one is completely
static and read-only for recovery purposes while the other one can be
used to reproduce things as often as you like.

> In general, it is bad if you have to load "fancy" drivers such
> as USB, NTFS or network, between booting and flashing... It is
> much better if you can put your BIOS update files directly on
> the drive where you will boot from, so you need no extra driver.

Agreed.

-mr

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Re: [Freedos-user] unload previsiously loaded exe and sys on fdconfig.sys

2009-03-20 Thread Eric Auer

Hi Michael,

> Do BIOS update 100 % step by step as the manual says. No experiments wit
> h DOS versions, TSR's, boot medium (if you shall use legacy floppy then
> do so). Otherwise you risk the BIOS update to fail as the developers did
> not thought about your modified use.

I agree that unloading TSRs can cause risks, but I would not
overdo the 100% step by step part. Remember that even big
mainboard makers shipped half-broken modifications of FreeDOS
with their products and that for example MS DOS simply is no
longer legally available for normal post-Win9x home users.

> Ok, well you can experiment if you have the equipment
> to remove the flash chip and to flash it from outside.

Better BIOSes have various fallback options, such as a second
copy of the BIOS or a part which cannot be flashed which is
able to load update floppies even after a failed BIOS update.

I personally would say that floppy is best (if you still have
a drive) followed by harddisk, CD/DVD and then USB. You should
avoid loading EMM386 for compatibility reasons but HIMEM should
be safe for most BIOS update tools as far as I remember... If
your BIOS USB drivers are not stable, it might help to copy all
relevant files to RAMDISK before updating the BIOS. You could
even BOOT from a RAMDISK, using ISOLINUX / SYSLINUX and MEMDISK.

In general, it is bad if you have to load "fancy" drivers such
as USB, NTFS or network, between booting and flashing... It is
much better if you can put your BIOS update files directly on
the drive where you will boot from, so you need no extra driver.

Eric


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Re: [Freedos-user] unload previsiously loaded exe and sys on fdconfig.sys

2009-03-20 Thread Fabrício Ceolin
Hi

On Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 10:12 AM, Michael Reichenbach <
michael_reichenb...@freenet.de> wrote:

> Do BIOS update 100 % step by step as the manual says. No experiments wit
> h DOS versions, TSR's, boot medium (if you shall use legacy floppy then
> do so). Otherwise you risk the BIOS update to fail as the developers did
> not thought about your modified use.
>
> Ok, well you can experiment if you have the equipment to remove the
> flash chip and to flash it from outside.
>

 I can do experiments!


> -mr
>
> Fabrício Ceolin schrieb:
> > Hi,
> >
> > Thanks everybody.
> >
> > Reboot it's not a option. I'm creating a script for bios update. Part of
> > process is access a TCP/IP net, but I need to free memory to run a update
> > executable. I'll try using a TERMIN.COM and report it!
> >
> > Best regards!
> >
> > On Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 3:47 AM, bwspos  wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> Fabrício Ceolin wrote:
> >>> Hi,
> >>>
> >>> I want free some freedos memory after using a packet driver and others
> >>> sys (under fdconfig.sys) and exe (like doskey).
> >>> There are any way to unload programs without reboot?
> >>>
> >>>
> >> I use TERMIN.COM on 24/7 POS systems with no recourse to rebooting. Not
> >> sure where I found it as it's not part of FREEDOS
> >>
> >> example from .bat
> >>
> >> REM LOAD COMMS
> >>
> >> LH C:\NETWORK\LSL.COM /C=C:\NETWORK\NET.CFG
> >> LH %NIC%
> >> LH C:\NETWORK\ODIPKT.COM 0 96
> >>
> >> REM UNLOAD COMMS
> >>
> >> TERMIN.COM.com 96
> >> %NIC% /u
> >> LSL /u
> >>
> >> where %NIC% = Netware ODI driver
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> --
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> >> easily build your RIAs with Flex Builder, the Eclipse(TM)based
> development
> >> software that enables intelligent coding and step-through debugging.
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> >>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > 
> >
> >
> --
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> >
> >
> > 
> >
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>
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Re: [Freedos-user] unload previsiously loaded exe and sys on fdconfig.sys

2009-03-20 Thread Michael Reichenbach
Do BIOS update 100 % step by step as the manual says. No experiments wit
h DOS versions, TSR's, boot medium (if you shall use legacy floppy then
do so). Otherwise you risk the BIOS update to fail as the developers did
not thought about your modified use.

Ok, well you can experiment if you have the equipment to remove the
flash chip and to flash it from outside.

-mr

Fabrício Ceolin schrieb:
> Hi,
> 
> Thanks everybody.
> 
> Reboot it's not a option. I'm creating a script for bios update. Part of
> process is access a TCP/IP net, but I need to free memory to run a update
> executable. I'll try using a TERMIN.COM and report it!
> 
> Best regards!
> 
> On Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 3:47 AM, bwspos  wrote:
> 
>>
>> Fabrício Ceolin wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I want free some freedos memory after using a packet driver and others
>>> sys (under fdconfig.sys) and exe (like doskey).
>>> There are any way to unload programs without reboot?
>>>
>>>
>> I use TERMIN.COM on 24/7 POS systems with no recourse to rebooting. Not
>> sure where I found it as it's not part of FREEDOS
>>
>> example from .bat
>>
>> REM LOAD COMMS
>>
>> LH C:\NETWORK\LSL.COM /C=C:\NETWORK\NET.CFG
>> LH %NIC%
>> LH C:\NETWORK\ODIPKT.COM 0 96
>>
>> REM UNLOAD COMMS
>>
>> TERMIN.COM.com 96
>> %NIC% /u
>> LSL /u
>>
>> where %NIC% = Netware ODI driver
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Apps built with the Adobe(R) Flex(R) framework and Flex Builder(TM) are
>> powering Web 2.0 with engaging, cross-platform capabilities. Quickly and
>> easily build your RIAs with Flex Builder, the Eclipse(TM)based development
>> software that enables intelligent coding and step-through debugging.
>> Download the free 60 day trial. http://p.sf.net/sfu/www-adobe-com
>> ___
>> Freedos-user mailing list
>> Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net
>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
>>
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> --
> Apps built with the Adobe(R) Flex(R) framework and Flex Builder(TM) are
> powering Web 2.0 with engaging, cross-platform capabilities. Quickly and
> easily build your RIAs with Flex Builder, the Eclipse(TM)based development
> software that enables intelligent coding and step-through debugging.
> Download the free 60 day trial. http://p.sf.net/sfu/www-adobe-com
> 
> 
> 
> 
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Re: [Freedos-user] unload previsiously loaded exe and sys on fdconfig.sys

2009-03-20 Thread Fabrício Ceolin
Hi,

Thanks everybody.

Reboot it's not a option. I'm creating a script for bios update. Part of
process is access a TCP/IP net, but I need to free memory to run a update
executable. I'll try using a TERMIN.COM and report it!

Best regards!

On Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 3:47 AM, bwspos  wrote:

>
>
> Fabrício Ceolin wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I want free some freedos memory after using a packet driver and others
> > sys (under fdconfig.sys) and exe (like doskey).
> > There are any way to unload programs without reboot?
> >
> >
> I use TERMIN.COM on 24/7 POS systems with no recourse to rebooting. Not
> sure where I found it as it's not part of FREEDOS
>
> example from .bat
>
> REM LOAD COMMS
>
> LH C:\NETWORK\LSL.COM /C=C:\NETWORK\NET.CFG
> LH %NIC%
> LH C:\NETWORK\ODIPKT.COM 0 96
>
> REM UNLOAD COMMS
>
> TERMIN.COM.com 96
> %NIC% /u
> LSL /u
>
> where %NIC% = Netware ODI driver
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> Apps built with the Adobe(R) Flex(R) framework and Flex Builder(TM) are
> powering Web 2.0 with engaging, cross-platform capabilities. Quickly and
> easily build your RIAs with Flex Builder, the Eclipse(TM)based development
> software that enables intelligent coding and step-through debugging.
> Download the free 60 day trial. http://p.sf.net/sfu/www-adobe-com
> ___
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> Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net
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>



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Re: [Freedos-user] unload previsiously loaded exe and sys on fdconfig.sys

2009-03-19 Thread bwspos


Fabrício Ceolin wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I want free some freedos memory after using a packet driver and others 
> sys (under fdconfig.sys) and exe (like doskey).
> There are any way to unload programs without reboot?
>
>
I use TERMIN.COM on 24/7 POS systems with no recourse to rebooting. Not 
sure where I found it as it's not part of FREEDOS

example from .bat

REM LOAD COMMS

LH C:\NETWORK\LSL.COM /C=C:\NETWORK\NET.CFG
LH %NIC%
LH C:\NETWORK\ODIPKT.COM 0 96

REM UNLOAD COMMS
 
TERMIN.COM.com 96
%NIC% /u
LSL /u

where %NIC% = Netware ODI driver




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Re: [Freedos-user] unload previsiously loaded exe and sys on fdconfig.sys

2009-03-19 Thread Eric Auer

Hi,

> I want free some freedos memory after using a packet driver
> and others sys (under fdconfig.sys) and exe (like doskey).

I recommend to have 2 different config sys menu items:
With and without internet :-). Doskey should not be
necessary, FreeCOM and 4DOS have built-in history...

> There are any way to unload programs without reboot?

Some tools which work with "snapshot and restore" of some
system state can do this, and some "drivers" have a built-
in unload option, but it is easier and more stable in the
result to just reboot. Booting DOS only takes seconds :-)

Eric



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Re: [Freedos-user] unload previsiously loaded exe and sys on fdconfig.sys

2009-03-19 Thread Christian Masloch
Hi,

> I want free some freedos memory after using a packet driver and others  
> sys
> (under fdconfig.sys) and exe (like doskey).
> There are any way to unload programs without reboot?

The best method is to use programs that provide unloading as option so  
that they can properly unload themself. If you have to use a program  
without such an option you may want to try out the TSR Utilities (freeware  
without source code) which save some important system data before you  
install the program, then try to unload the program later by restoring  
this data. This method doesn't work for all programs so you have to be  
careful with it. I think the TSR Utilities don't work with programs loaded  
in FDCONFIG.SYS but you could try whether that program can be loaded by  
DEVLOAD (on Eric's site, or on the FreeDOS software page) instead.

Regards,
Christian

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