Re: [Freedos-user] A windows 9x replacement...
being worked on, all it does is make people angry. Because you are unable to describe your problem in a way understandable to other people ;-) It's not that simple. Asking questions about when XYZ will work or what is being worked on raises people's ire because they can't give good answers, or so I'm told. The ReactOS newsletters stink, they are short leaving you with more questions than answers. There seems to be a shortage of dedicated developers for the ReactOS project and the problems the project is running into appear to be extremely difficult to solve ( meaning they will be time intensive ). Warcraft II BNE version 2.01A runs in Windows 9x and Windows XP. It was designed for 9x, which shows when you install it to XP and you have to be Administrator to play it. I would prefer to be able to play it under Freedos. I also have a program called Drivewire that allows my COCO 3 via the serial port to use my PCs hard drive like it's a disk drive. There's a Linux version, but the old machine I use is too slow for that and Linux doesn't support W2BNE without emulation of some kind ( processor intensive ). There is another program I like, Red Alert Command and Conquer Windows 95 edition, that only runs in Windows 9x. I would love to have a clone of Windows 9x handy that runs on top of Freedos so that I don't have to dual boot and I don't have to worry about licensing. I am not interested in a Windows 9x clone being MS-DOS compatible as I won't be running it on top of MS-DOS. Freedos should be better than MS-DOS where adding an MS-DOS compatible GUI might create a problem. I realize that a Windows 9x replacement for Freedos is a down the road sort of thing. I also hear people who complain that this is just DOS and not Windows. ReactOS is not useful at this point and even if it were it is not a DOS compatible replacement for Windows. There is a lot of DOS based Windows software that is orphaned because Microsoft switched everyone over to NT. The ReactOS project, originally called something else, was going to clone Windows 95. Asking for a clone of Windows 9x or 3.x is another way to make the ReactOS community extremely angry with you these days. Where is dos based Windows relevant? The ReactOS community doesn't want to discuss it. I naturally assumed that the Freedos community feels differently. Was I wrong? -- Crystal Reports - New Free Runtime and 30 Day Trial Check out the new simplified licensing option that enables unlimited royalty-free distribution of the report engine for externally facing server and web deployment. http://p.sf.net/sfu/businessobjects ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] A windows 9x replacement...
I know about ReactOS, ReactOS is garbage right now. It will probably be garbage for 2-3 more years. Realistically, writing a Windows 9x replacement for FreeDOS would take years, probably more than 2 or 3 because developers are hard to find and it's a huge project, probably (correct me if I'm wrong) even more challenging than writing a dos kernel. And FreeDOS's kernel has been in development for much longer than 2 or 3 years and still isn't 100% compatible to MS-DOS. I would recomment simply waiting for or helping out with ReactOS if you're interested in open-source Windows replacements. There is no reason for an MSDOS Windows replacement to be MSDOS compatible. Freedos doesn't need to be munged to do those things that MS-DOS did that don't make sense. As far as Linux and Wine, Warcraft II BNE does not work under wine. If I had the dos version, I could use dosbox or freedos. Wine is not much better than ReactOS at supporting Windows progams. Under Wine, I have never gotten sound for example. On a less than 1 Ghz machine, who wants to run Wine? Need I remind people, you cannot legally run MS-DOS anymore. It's not something you can legally install to a system that never had MS-DOS. MS-DOS is not freeware, that's why Freedos exists after all. I've tried to talk to the ReactOS community to find out when this or that will be fixed or what is currently being worked on, all it does is make people angry. -- Crystal Reports - New Free Runtime and 30 Day Trial Check out the new simplified licensing option that enables unlimited royalty-free distribution of the report engine for externally facing server and web deployment. http://p.sf.net/sfu/businessobjects ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user -- Crystal Reports - New Free Runtime and 30 Day Trial Check out the new simplified licensing option that enables unlimited royalty-free distribution of the report engine for externally facing server and web deployment. http://p.sf.net/sfu/businessobjects ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] UIDE.SYS
DOS386 wrote: Thanks for the explanation ... UIDE won't see the PCI addon card since it uses BIOS INT $13 to search for disks ... but does anything prevent UIDE from searching for IDE/ATA/SATA stuff using PCI BIOS, and assigning it to a free INT $13 disk number specified in commandline if some special switch is used ? Such disks would have to be installed into DOS. The BIOS never did handle CD/DVD units directly, thus SHCDX33D always installs its units into DOS. However, the BIOS does handle hard-disks, and DOS discovers how many hard-disks the BIOS found during system boot. So, UIDE does not have, nor does it usually need, drive-installation code for hard disks. UIDE could have logic permitting a user-specified controller (i.e. an add on card) and could install disks/CDs/DVDs for that controller. But few people have add on cards, it is not the best use of my time. It also increases the size of UIDE/UIDEJR. UIDEJR is about 30 bytes from going over 4608 bytes packed via UPX (9 sectors on a boot diskette). I will add AHCI logic when needed, but I must be guarded re: other driver additions! -- Crystal Reports - New Free Runtime and 30 Day Trial Check out the new simplified licensing option that enables unlimited royalty-free distribution of the report engine for externally facing server and web deployment. http://p.sf.net/sfu/businessobjects ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] A windows 9x replacement...
guest schreef: I know about ReactOS, ReactOS is garbage right now. It will probably be garbage for 2-3 more years. Calling a project garbage is quite severe. If it's unusable for you or your goals, just indicate so but don't dismiss other people's efforts into getting something nice off the ground. ReactOS is slowly seeming to get somewhere, with finally some hardware support for storage controllers, networking, video (VESA, OpenGL rather than DirectX) and sound. Personally I'd love to have a free 150MB Win32 operating system which allows me to run World of Warcraft on a small but fast disk. As far as Linux and Wine, Warcraft II BNE does not work under wine. If I had the dos version, I could use dosbox or freedos. Wine is not much better than ReactOS at supporting Windows progams. Under Wine, I have never gotten sound for example. On a less than 1 Ghz machine, who wants to run Wine? [ http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=versioniId=592iTestingId=15183 ] indicates that this game can be installed properly. Besides, the supported operating environmonts for this game are Macintosh (not OS-X I guess), Win9x and Windows NT. Need I remind people, you cannot legally run MS-DOS anymore. It's not something you can legally install to a system that never had MS-DOS. MS-DOS is not freeware, that's why Freedos exists after all. I think full retail versions of MSDOS have been available and can be installed to any single computer system if you own a licensed copy. As Microsoft dropped support and sales for MSDOS, you can usually no longer purchase a new copy indeed. Install any other DOS flavor you got a licensed copy of :) Most people run older operating systems inside virtual machines nowadays, which makes developing and testing things so much easier compared to real hardware 90% of the time (with the other 10% being a check for real world cases instead of ideal conditions). I've tried to talk to the ReactOS community to find out when this or that will be fixed or what is currently being worked on, all it does is make people angry. They are in alpha fase, trying to get a framework up and running, rather than your specific apps which require support all over the place. Per opensource model, the fastest way to get what you want is to contribute yourself rather than waiting for someone to implement certain parts you need. I'm still surprised you don't just use a Windows 9x license that you already have. It's highly unlikely any opensource project besides Wine would get support for Win3.x and Win9x applications. No idea about Windows XP compatibility modes I'm afraid. Goodluck creating a Win9x replacement if you're willing to put in such an effort to get your games running. -- Crystal Reports - New Free Runtime and 30 Day Trial Check out the new simplified licensing option that enables unlimited royalty-free distribution of the report engine for externally facing server and web deployment. http://p.sf.net/sfu/businessobjects ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] A windows 9x replacement...
There is no reason for an MSDOS Windows replacement to be MSDOS compatible. Except to run on MS-DOS as well. As said, it's Microsoft's method to write programs such that they only run with other Microsoft programs although there's no good reason why they shouldn't run with other vendor's programs as well. Freedos doesn't need to be munged to do those things that MS-DOS did that don't make sense. I don't see where it currently does any such things, even in the WINKERN version. Sharing the System File Tables with all other virtual machines (DOS boxes) makes perfect sense because the DOS file I/O needs to be serialized anyway. Need I remind people, you cannot legally run MS-DOS anymore. Get an old MS-DOS or Win9x license and you have your MS-DOS to run legally. It's not something you can legally install to a system that never had MS-DOS. Uhm, why not? Regards, Christian -- Crystal Reports - New Free Runtime and 30 Day Trial Check out the new simplified licensing option that enables unlimited royalty-free distribution of the report engine for externally facing server and web deployment. http://p.sf.net/sfu/businessobjects ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] A windows 9x replacement...
HX DOS Extender does support VERY basic Win32 applications, but it is somewhat of a hodgepodge. It's basically using the Windows NT form of Win32 as its base. If that could be refitted to work with Wine DLLs then it would make a lot of the work needed go by a lot faster. Then we would just need someone willing to write the user apps included in Windows 3.11. Either I've missed that HX now supports loading all Windows VxD drivers, or it still doesn't. Regards, Christian -- Crystal Reports - New Free Runtime and 30 Day Trial Check out the new simplified licensing option that enables unlimited royalty-free distribution of the report engine for externally facing server and web deployment. http://p.sf.net/sfu/businessobjects ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] A windows 9x replacement...
I try to ask what is going to get done in the next release or when XYZ is going to get fixed and I get attacked. YES, but is cloning of Windaube ME on-topic here at all ? :-D What are you talking about? ReactOS is not about Windows Me at all, because Windows Me is effectively part of the Windows 9x line (and it's the best version of Windows 9x, except dropped DOS mode support). I agree here. A new GUI should not run exclusively on FreeDOS, because that's the Microsoft approach. Ideally, all programs should run on MS-DOS (or DR-DOS FreeDOS + EDR-DOS + RxDOS + ... And create a DOS GUI, rather than a ME or NE clone ... And Windows 3.x/9x is no DOS GUI from what point of view? I would recommend to program your GUI in a way which makes in run on any DOS, using exclusively normal int 21 calls for which you can easily get documentation by reading a MSD INT $21 doesn't provide any GUI ... so you will need VESA + VGA BIOS (+ VGA ports) or VGA + PCI ports + some mouse support (INT $33 is unusable, so a new mouse driver standard) Int21 doesn't provide any multitasking and file sharing stuff or patching of the system to do certain things like writing (virtual) machine IDs into SFTs. All found on Int2F, readily usable if you plan on writing either a Windows replacement (use 2F.16, 2F.1605 as call-out) or a generic multitasker (use 2F.16 except the call-out, there use a 2F.4B multitasker instead because you can't load Windows VxDs) for MS-DOS 5+. Regards, Christian -- Crystal Reports - New Free Runtime and 30 Day Trial Check out the new simplified licensing option that enables unlimited royalty-free distribution of the report engine for externally facing server and web deployment. http://p.sf.net/sfu/businessobjects ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] A windows 9x replacement...
probably (correct me if I'm wrong) even more challenging than writing a dos kernel. I think you're right on that. For example, Japheth writes on his site that HX's source code is about 100,000 lines of code, whereas the current RxDOS kernel Assembly source code is only around 35,000 lines (with 10,000 lines of that being only comments, assembler directives, blocks commented out with #IFDEF (NASM %IF) and such). So, ignoring which is more difficult to write, a full Windows replacement will certainly take much more work, just for the typing! And FreeDOS's kernel has been in development for much longer than 2 or 3 years and still isn't 100% compatible to MS-DOS. Because that's not the goal of the kernel. Regards, Christian -- Crystal Reports - New Free Runtime and 30 Day Trial Check out the new simplified licensing option that enables unlimited royalty-free distribution of the report engine for externally facing server and web deployment. http://p.sf.net/sfu/businessobjects ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] FreeDOS kernel 2038 now available on sourceforge
Thank you Eric. Pat On Thu, Jun 11, 2009 at 12:44 PM, Eric Auere.a...@jpberlin.de wrote: Hi everybody, There is a new sourceforge file release of the FreeDOS kernel: Version 2038 is now available with OpenWatcom 8086 FAT16 and FAT32 binaries and as source code download. No 386+ or Turbo C binaries this time, but please email if you want / made those. Bart is already working on features as combined country sys and built-in country settings support and f_node free operation for the next FD kernel, 2039 :-). Thanks to everybody who made the 2038 release possible, by using 2036, reporting bugs, writing bug reports, documentation of patches, packaging zips etc :-) Download: https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=5109release_id=689068 Release Notes and Change Log: https://sourceforge.net/project/shownotes.php?release_id=689068 Known but almost fixed issues: - main.c copyright string mentions 1995-2006 ;-) - you cannot rename things in a full root dir, 2039 will fix this issue which is listed as Bugzilla item 1908 afaik :-) - partition tables are now read via CHS instead of LBA if possible, might cause regression bugs if BIOS / MBR CHS geometry is wrong? - files above 2 GB size can cause problems with signedness of file offsets, which is easy to fix if error handling either uses a separate flag or uses -1 instead of any negative - maybe others Bugs fixed in kernel 2038, in no particular order: - handling of CHS-only BIOSes overflow / off-by-1 fixed by RayeR - int 21.1c detection of invalid drives fixed by Tom - CP/M call to support ancient apps, fixed by Bart and others (sourceforge tracker id: 2421577) - int 21.7303 get FAT32 disk space now accepts drivespec with and without slash, fixing sourceforge tracker item 2380828 - assume that BIOS data cannot be before 1980, fixes y2k BIOS bug compatibility, Bugzilla item 1748 - truename/chdir dir bug for SUBST fixed, Bugzilla item 1862 - SYS now uses buffers when copying kernel and shell, fixes usability bug on single floppy systems, Bugzilla item 1840 - EXE load size handled modulo 1 MB, fixes bug caused by odd header of Turbo C++, Bugzilla item 1854 - int 21.29 now reports invalid drives, fix Bugzilla item 1953 as well as SF tracker item 2362450 - use segment instead of offset for handle NULL pointer check, fixing compat bug for FILES alloc apps, Bugzilla item 1956 - fix compatibility with a game using 77a8 attrib in findfirst - NUL device returns 0 bytes in both raw and cooked mode, fixes DJGPP SED problem. Might fix Bugzilla item 1793, please test! - avoid f_node panic for critical error int 24 handler, by Tom - support int 2f.4a00 callback to let a GUI replace the usual change disk message on single floppy systems - fix MS QB4 QBasic / QuickBasic alloc double free compatibility - you can now use the JEMM FASTBOOT option for int 19 reboot as the kernel now stores some original pre-DOS int vectors in RAM - MKTEMP filenames now follow DOS 3-4/6 style unless you set the VERSION to 5.x, avoids compat issues with directory choice - SYS now updates both main and backup boot sectors if FAT32, as some tools (incl DOSFSCK) would show warnings about mismatches - reboot while files are open is now less likely to cause cross linked files, more secure FAT handling idea by Hardi Stengelin - improved compatibility with old FCB based apps such as old GEM or GEM/XM versions, fixes sourceforge bug tracker item 2253450 Please verify that all bugs are fixed and check our bug archives to see which other bugs got fixed without being listed above :-) Candidates: Bugzilla 1753, 1793, 1658, 1779, 1814, 1875, 1923, 1828, 1956... Sourceforge 2733092 (QEMM works only with 2037?) and 2547549 (problems booting from 1.5 terabyte harddisk ;-)). Please report bugs, problems, suggestions, regressions etc, too. http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=browsegroup_id=5109atid=105109 Bugzilla archive: www.freedos.org/bugzilla/ - only for closing bugs Enjoy the FreeDOS update :-) Eric -- Crystal Reports - New Free Runtime and 30 Day Trial Check out the new simplified licensing option that enables unlimited royalty-free distribution of the report engine for externally facing server and web deployment. http://p.sf.net/sfu/businessobjects ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user -- Crystal Reports - New Free Runtime and 30 Day Trial Check out the new simplified licensing option that enables unlimited royalty-free distribution of the report engine for externally facing server and web deployment. http://p.sf.net/sfu/businessobjects
Re: [Freedos-user] Getting sound to work in FreeDOS on Modern systems.
Hi Dos386, Intel ICH Pure AC97, does not attempt to support SB. Supported by few modern DOS apps as AC97, not supported by old games. ES1371/1373 AKA SB128PCI/SB16PCI, EMUxxx (SB512/LiveAudigy), ... (MPXPLAY) Supported by modern apps as AC97, comes with driver which creates virtual SB, apparently needs NMI and EMM386... will no longer allow SoundBlaster or similar clone cards to work correctly with Sound Blaster emulation. NO, but that wasn't a working solution anyway Actually DDMA / TDMA on PCI slots worked quite okay on my old K6-2 board which had PCI, ISA and AGP... At some time boards stopped with DDMA support and more recently, TDMA and/or NMI support stopped in nForce and Core2 etc boards. SB Live24 (ask Laaca, I don't use old games) See above - even that might fail on modern boards. Note that more full emulators such as DOSEMU (Linux) NOT a full emulator Correct. It only emulates the devices, not the CPU, which makes it much faster than a whole-PC emulator :-). BOCHS and QEMU do work in FreeDOS and can emulate SB16 ... I meant running them in Linux or Windows, but nevermind ;-) so the only lacking thing is the connection from HX WINMM DLL to PCI sound hardware ;-) Cute idea actually! Run Bochs/Qemu with DOS as host, using the Win32 support layer of HX, and then run ANOTHER DOS INSIDE Bochs/Qemu to have sound... Of course it will be slow as hell, but it CAN work :-) Emulated CPU of course wastes CPU time Much time, but a non-issue (or even desirable) for old games + new CPU ;-) I remember that DOSBOX was too slow for my taste on any normal single core CPU even though DOS games only need CPU speeds of 486 or Pentium I times... :-p Eric -- Crystal Reports - New Free Runtime and 30 Day Trial Check out the new simplified licensing option that enables unlimited royalty-free distribution of the report engine for externally facing server and web deployment. http://p.sf.net/sfu/businessobjects ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] Thank you to kernel developers for new kernel 2038
Some years ago I thought that DOS was more or less dead. So I am very happy that there are people how continues. Many thanks, I will test it after my final exam next week. Bye Flo On Sat, 13 Jun 2009 15:33:11 +0200, Pat Villani p...@monmouth.com wrote: I would like to thank all the folks who have worked very hard to produce this latest kernel. Their effort is very much appreciated by myself and all the people who continue to use FreeDOS in various applications. I am looking forward to using this new kernel and updating the distribution. Pat -- Crystal Reports - New Free Runtime and 30 Day Trial Check out the new simplified licensing option that enables unlimited royalty-free distribution of the report engine for externally facing server and web deployment. http://p.sf.net/sfu/businessobjects ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user -- Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/ -- Crystal Reports - New Free Runtime and 30 Day Trial Check out the new simplified licensing option that enables unlimited royalty-free distribution of the report engine for externally facing server and web deployment. http://p.sf.net/sfu/businessobjects ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
[Freedos-user] New kernel install floppy won't boot
The boot process identifies all the HDD partitions then: Incorrect DOS version Bad or missing Command Interpreter: command.com /P /E:256 Enter . Suggestions? Ray -- Crystal Reports - New Free Runtime and 30 Day Trial Check out the new simplified licensing option that enables unlimited royalty-free distribution of the report engine for externally facing server and web deployment. http://p.sf.net/sfu/businessobjects ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] New kernel install floppy won't boot
Ray Davison wrote: The boot process identifies all the HDD partitions then: Incorrect DOS version Bad or missing Command Interpreter: command.com /P /E:256 Enter . The floppy had a 2003 Command.com. The bat went looking for a copy of command.com on the HDD and that is what it found. It didn't even look on C:. Seems like it would need to ship with the kernel. It works with the 08-28-06 command.com. Ray -- Crystal Reports - New Free Runtime and 30 Day Trial Check out the new simplified licensing option that enables unlimited royalty-free distribution of the report engine for externally facing server and web deployment. http://p.sf.net/sfu/businessobjects ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] New kernel install floppy won't boot
Ray Davison schreef: The boot process identifies all the HDD partitions then: Incorrect DOS version Bad or missing Command Interpreter: command.com /P /E:256 Enter . Suggestions? Ray How was the bootdisk created? Are you sure it contains both the kernel.sys and command.com from FreeDOS, and not any MSDOS/Windows command.com by accident? Doing SYS A: on a MSDOS bootdisk doesnt work too great either. Bernd -- Crystal Reports - New Free Runtime and 30 Day Trial Check out the new simplified licensing option that enables unlimited royalty-free distribution of the report engine for externally facing server and web deployment. http://p.sf.net/sfu/businessobjects ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] New kernel install floppy won't boot
Bernd Blaauw wrote: How was the bootdisk created? The included bat. See my previous post where I described the fix. Ray -- Crystal Reports - New Free Runtime and 30 Day Trial Check out the new simplified licensing option that enables unlimited royalty-free distribution of the report engine for externally facing server and web deployment. http://p.sf.net/sfu/businessobjects ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] New kernel install floppy won't boot
Hi Ray, Bernd, How was the bootdisk created? The included bat. The kernel download only includes the KERNEL itself and the installer tool SYS. It does not include a SHELL, so if you run SYS (or run the bat which runs sys) then it will copy whatever version of command.com you already have and add that to your boot floppy ;-). You can get FreeCOM command.com as a separate download here: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=5109package_id=9826 (version 0.82pl3, please use the xmsswap version and load himem!) You can get a somewhat less stable version 0.84pre2 here: www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/fdupdate/ (sometimes stops running apps, might be related to UMB use) The newer version has more support for long file names :-) You will have to load DOSLFN if you want to use those: www.geocities.com/jadoxa/doslfn/ You can get HIMEMX, a more modern HIMEM variant, here: http://japheth.de/Jemm.html Eric PS: Jeremy once had pre-made boot disk images on fdos.org, maybe he can update those to contain the new kernels :-) -- Crystal Reports - New Free Runtime and 30 Day Trial Check out the new simplified licensing option that enables unlimited royalty-free distribution of the report engine for externally facing server and web deployment. http://p.sf.net/sfu/businessobjects ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
