[Freedos-user] OT: Howto debug DOS programs
I've been using FreeDOS for a while and it works great. I'd like to write an Intel HDA driver for SCI games (Sierra quests). Ok, they work great under Dosbox, but I still prefer using plain DOS. I consider myself a good programmer, but I've never made any low-level programming or debug DOS programs. Is there any book or information on the net I can start with? Thanks, Gino -- Let Crystal Reports handle the reporting - Free Crystal Reports 2008 30-Day trial. Simplify your report design, integration and deployment - and focus on what you do best, core application coding. Discover what's new with Crystal Reports now. http://p.sf.net/sfu/bobj-july___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] OT: Howto debug DOS programs
Hi Eric! Thanks for your answer! I'd like to write an Intel HDA driver for SCI games (Sierra quests). Ok, they work great under Dosbox, but I still prefer using plain DOS. You could at least use dosemu :-p Much faster :-) I'll try it, but I still want plain DOS. I consider myself a good programmer, but I've never made any low-level programming or debug DOS programs. Which programming languages do you write? At least part of your driver can be written in C, but you might need Assembly language as well, in particular if you want to take the tough route of creating universal virtual hardware instead of a Sierra driver. For debugging, I recommend using DOSEMU or, for even more lowlevel stuff, BOCHS, but you can also try 386SWAT in pure DOS, maybe :-) My program languages are Basic, C, C++ and Java. I know Basic and Java won't help and I am sure C C++ somehow will. I installed Dosbox with heavy debug information but since I don't know any assembly language I couldn't do much. Is there any book or information on the net I can start with? Creating virtual hardware can be very hard, but if I understand you correctly, Sierra games already have some sort of interface for loading custom sound drivers? Almost all Sierra quest, from the 90's, uses SCI (Sierra's Creative Interpreter). SCI game has a configuration file that specifies what drivers files to use for audio, video, mouse, etc. Most drivers aren't larger than 10,000 bytes. Then you can split your task in two parts: Write something which makes any sound on HDA and can be run from the command line. And write something which does anything with the sound sent by a Sierra game and which can be loaded as a Sierra driver. For example the latter can blink some pixels on your screen or can use the PC speaker (port 61h) - any noticeable activity will be enough to show you that your Sierra driver does properly receive sound data from your game... Excellent idea! PS: You can have a look at the sources of the ancient VSB virtual sound blaster to see how complicated it is to create some virtual hardware for SB1/SB2. Or look at the sources of DOSEMU to see how a proper virtual SB16 can be implemented in C. Of course DOSEMU uses Linux to send sound to your hardware and to trap I/O access of DOS, so it only shows the middle part of what a virtual soundblaster for DOS will need... Where can I find VSB sources? I've found in Google the phrase virtual sound blaster but I can't find neither the binaries nor the source. I find a couple of sites with the phrase, not the files to download, though. Santiago -- Let Crystal Reports handle the reporting - Free Crystal Reports 2008 30-Day trial. Simplify your report design, integration and deployment - and focus on what you do best, core application coding. Discover what's new with Crystal Reports now. http://p.sf.net/sfu/bobj-july___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
[Freedos-user] Emulating FreeDOS
Hi! Please if you find this topic too Offtopic, please tell me, I won't insist. Have you tried Qemu? I have been using it without problems before I tried to configure the network. - Network Basically, Qemu have two options (RTL8139 and NE2000 ISA). Do you use any of those under Qemu? RTL8139 works fines under other OS, however the DOS packet drivers hangs the system. In the other hand, the NE2000 (ne2k_isa) packet driver, I can even use DHCP, but I can't ping or try to connect to anything. RTL8139: qemu -hda freedos.img -net nic,model=rtl8139 -net user NE2000: qemu -hda freedos.img -net nic,model=ne2k_isa -net user -M isapc Do use FreeDOS networking under qemu? - DOS Idling Under MS-DOS a idler is needed to avoid the guest DOS use many cycles in the host PC. Do FreeDOS have the same problem and needs dosidle. Thanks, Bcpino -- Protect Your Site and Customers from Malware Attacks Learn about various malware tactics and how to avoid them. Understand malware threats, the impact they can have on your business, and how you can protect your company and customers by using code signing. http://p.sf.net/sfu/oracle-sfdevnl ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
[Freedos-user] Best virtual machine for FreeDOS 1.2
Dear friends: I usually use VirtualBox, but as Jack said, it didn't emulate well some old hardware. Which one should I use? QEMU, some VMware gratis. I need SB16 and network emulation, controlling CPU cycles (I don't want to burn my PC) Thanks in advance, BCPino Gino P.S. Please I don't want to start any flame war, just need opinions. -- Try before you buy = See our experts in action! The most comprehensive online learning library for Microsoft developers is just $99.99! Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL - plus HTML5, CSS3, MVC3, Metro Style Apps, more. Free future releases when you subscribe now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/learndevnow-dev2 ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] Best virtual machine for FreeDOS 1.2
Thank you Bernd and Ruxgulo for your help. I am using VMware Player because I've used Vmware Server before, I suppose they are somehow similar. I also have Bochs to give it a try... Bernd: I didn't know DOS emulation wasn so difficult... more than 20 options to make a choice! On Sat, Feb 4, 2012 at 3:08 PM, Rugxulo rugx...@gmail.com wrote: Hi, quick reply (as it takes too long to think things like this through, it's a complicated question), On Sat, Feb 4, 2012 at 11:17 AM, the bcpino bcp...@gmail.com wrote: I usually use VirtualBox, but as Jack said, it didn't emulate well some old hardware. It's mostly fine but doesn't like UIDE. Not a surprise, so not a deal breaker (though on real hardware UIDE is much more indispensable). Which one should I use? QEMU, some VMware gratis. VMware is reputedly pretty good, but I've never bothered, too lazy. Bernd (as mentioned) seems to love it, and you can use Eduardo's VMSMOUNT, so that's a big incentive right there. (I really need to test it one of these days.) QEMU is okay (and VirtualBox is partially based upon it) but quite slow (last I checked a while back). It also doesn't fully emulate segments, so some stuff (e.g. 286 16-bit pmode) won't work correctly. Also getting newer Win32 builds seems problematic (while VirtualBox has no problem). I need SB16 and network emulation, controlling CPU cycles (I don't want to burn my PC) IIRC, VirtualBox will let you choose what percent of the cpu to utilize. Also, newer FreeDOS kernels have a CONFIG.SYS option IDLEHALT, which you may find interesting (though offhand I don't know if it helps, or FDAPM, or what). I have not tried a lot of heavy stuff under VirtualBox lately, too lazy, also tend to just use DOSEMU or native FreeDOS here instead. BUT ... FASM author's Kelvar (32-bit flat real) demo worked in VirtualBox 4.x on this VT-X cpu (Westmere, Nehalem, 32nm), and it used both SB .WAV playing and graphics. Oh, and the PCNTPK (or whatever, aka AMDPD.ZIP) packet driver also works under VirtualBox, apparently, as I successfully tested the DOS port of Dillo, my own sloppy compile of Lynx, and various mTCP stuff. So just FYI, it will probably mostly work for you, and fairly quickly too. But some better functionality may?? require VT-X. Others are fairly good too (DOSBox, Bochs) but slower. Just don't get your hopes up too high (then they can't be dashed, heh). ;-) -- Try before you buy = See our experts in action! The most comprehensive online learning library for Microsoft developers is just $99.99! Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL - plus HTML5, CSS3, MVC3, Metro Style Apps, more. Free future releases when you subscribe now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/learndevnow-dev2 ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user -- Virtualization Cloud Management Using Capacity Planning Cloud computing makes use of virtualization - but cloud computing also focuses on allowing computing to be delivered as a service. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfnl/114/51521223/ ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
[Freedos-user] Making fdapm-aware programs
Hi people: Is there a way to add code to make old QB45-compiled programs aware of fdapm? A simple INKEY$ sends the computer use from 3%-4% to 100% !!! I know there is a newer FreeBASIC, but I can't compile some sources inside FB yet. Thaks in advance, BCPino Gino -- Virtualization Cloud Management Using Capacity Planning Cloud computing makes use of virtualization - but cloud computing also focuses on allowing computing to be delivered as a service. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfnl/114/51521223/ ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
[Freedos-user] VMware - increase text fonts
Hi! I am using FreeDOS under VMware Player 4.0.2, my problem is that host machine is a 17 monitor 1080p, which means, the 80x25 windows is too small. Is there any way to increase fonts size? 1. Using full screen doesn't stretch the text screen, I still have the same size with black borders 2. I have played with all these settings in both preferences and vmx file. pref.autoFitFullScreen = fitHostToGuest gui.fullscreenAtPowerOn = TRUE pref.autoFit = true pref.autoFitGuestToWindow = true Is there anything I am missing? Gino -- For Developers, A Lot Can Happen In A Second. Boundary is the first to Know...and Tell You. Monitor Your Applications in Ultra-Fine Resolution. Try it FREE! http://p.sf.net/sfu/Boundary-d2dvs2 ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
[Freedos-user] OT: Good discussion groups for ASM, C or C++
Hello! Excuse me if I write to this list with this OT. I am learning to write code in DOS assembler (nasm and jwasm, mostly). I know this group is EXCELLENT for DOS users old a new, but not that much for DOS developers (sorry just my opinion, there may be another one related to this one) What about C and C++ too ? I think I already know C and C++ standard libraries, but not i86.h or dos.h ones. Do you know where I can find one good discussion group for assembler or C/C++ DOS-developers? Thanks! Bcpino -- Live Security Virtual Conference Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
