Updated HIMEM, EMM386
jhall1 - 2004-10-30 09:35
Michael Devore wrote: "Uploaded to ftp.devoresoftware.com/downloads are HIMEM.ZIP (compressed HIMEM.EXE file only), and EMM386.ZIP ( the full FreeDOS file set of HIMEM and EMM386 for those few individuals interested in all base files and those updated by this interim release). This version of HIMEM contains revisions made by Aitor Santamarφa Merino. Specifically, HIMEM command line feedback has been updated with recent features; the TESTMEM option has been improved, the standard Microsoft HIMEM option HMAMIN is now supported (although I'm not sure if anything can really use it); and HIMEM now recognizes the suffixes M for megabytes, G for gigabytes, and K for kilobytes in its option values. In the HIMEM changes, I slightly updated and corrected to typical technical English several of the original modifications, but that's it for my input on this HIMEM revision. I have not strongly tested the changes beyond the feedback and booting into the new revision, but it looks good. Any problems, let me know."
FreeDOS EDIT 0.82
jhall1 - 2004-10-24 10:47
Joe Cosentino writes: " Hey all, I've updated Edit to version 0.82 and have fixed a lot of bugs and made some additional improvements to it, such as the ability to load a blank file on startup or not. I've decided and ADAMANT about not adding these features: (1) Version number in titlebar. You should know what version you are using... Also, look in Help|About. This is not difficult and fairly common of almost every single piece of software created. (2) I'm not putting a ridiculous keyboard shortcut in the title of 1 single window in the entire freakin' program. See second part of number 1. (3) As far as the disk write-protection error goes: I don't know about this, because on the machine I'm testing it on, it works (albiet this is an MS system, not a FreeDOS system) which leads me to believe that this could possibly be a kernel problem. (4) As of right now, /H does not work, has not worked and unless someone wants to write an algorithm to determine the maximum number of lines a screen can handle (not which one it is currently set at), it'll just sit there." The download is http://www.geocities.com/xsaintx69/freedos/edit082.zip
FreeDOS Beta9 (Final) is out!
jhall1 - 2004-09-29 05:43
Bernd Blaauw has posted the FreeDOS Beta9 (Final). From the announcement: "I'm proud to announce you the final version of the FreeDOS Distribution Beta9 series. The aim of this release was to update software components, to facilitate installation, to actually offer the disksets on diskettes again, and to make sure FreeDOS cooperates nicely with any previous installed operating system. Credits to Eric Auer for the OScheck utility. The FreeDOS Beta 9 Distribution is now available at ibiblio and Fdos.org. This release is available as an ISO image For your convenience we also provide a 1.44MB bootdisk image. (A complete diskette distribution still lacks, though.)" Get it at http://www.freedos.org/freedos/files/
New ROMOS 0.98
jhall1 - 2004-09-25 07:36
Martin Rehak writes: "I would like to announce new version of ROMOS + FreeDOS kernel 2035 - New version 0.98 contains a lot of changes and code optimalizations. The most important improvement is change of storage of few needed permanent data from ROMOS segment to unused place in interrupt vector table. This allows ROMOS to run from true read-only memory (such as EPROM on ISA board without shadowing) and under BOCHS PC emulator where ROMOS can be comfortable and without risks tuned. Now ROMOS is not fixed to given ROM segment but practically we have only few choices in PC: D000h or E000h (only for older PCs). Also structure of INT13h routine was changed for easier adding of new subfunctions. Subfunction 03 (write sector) was added and return proper errorcode. For faster orientation in code I placed a brief state diagram at end of source file. Later I updated kernel to version 2035 in virtual ROM disk image." http://rayer.wz.cz/romos/romose.htm
NwDsk Arachne plug 'n play bootflop
jhall1 - 2004-09-13 15:01
Erwin Veermans wrote: "I updated this NwDsk FreeDOS Arachne bootflop. Latest Kernel has been applied and I pruned Arachne from some superfluous stuff and optimized its startup-settings for minimum P100 with 2MB VESA. For machines not matching these requirements this can be skipped for a blanco config. Also the WATTCP-configuration for both DHCP and Static is now fully transparant by configuring NwDsk's NwLan module. It has Ping and Tcpinfo on board to test your WATTCP configuration, and I squeezed in a total of 15 widely used nic drivers. It will optionally save Hotlist, History and Cookies to the bootflop for re-use after reboot. Homepage defaults to http://www.freedos.org/ and search-page to Google." Available as Fd16ara.exe at http://www.veder.com/nwdsk/#images
Edlin 2.3 released
jhall1 - 2004-09-06 10:51
Gregory Pietsch writes: "When searching the Internet for "freedos edlin" I found a patch to 2.1 on a Japanese website. Using the files from that patch (renamed to follow format), I tried to put together a Japanese edlin. Also, the guy used Borland as his compiler and there is a kluge in edlib.c (apparently, the guy thought kbhit() was not working, and wrote his own version of kbhit()). I would like to know if this has been patched so that I can dike that kluge out of there. What's new about this version is that the code has been slightly modified to accomodate the Japanese language." http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/dos/edlin
LBAcache 01sep2004: Better read-ahead, data lock control
mceric - 2004-09-03 14:34
I am pleased to announce LBAcache 01sep2004 with some small but useful improvements: TICKLEHD is now obsolete and you can LOCK data into the cache. http://www.coli.uni-sb.de/~eric/stuff/soft/ lbacache-01sep2004.zip has it all :-).
EMM386 enhancement and cosmetic HIMEM change
jhall1 - 2004-08-31 09:00
Michael Devore wrote: "Uploaded to ftp://ftp.devoresoftware.com/downloads are the files emm386.zip and himem.zip containing uncompressed executables of, respectively, EMM386.EXE and HIMEM.EXE, plus the source files modified in this latest version. EMM386 adds support for EMS function 51h, reallocate pages. This enhancement allows Lemmings 3 The Chronicles, known in Europe as All New World of Lemmings, to execute, through title screens. My test copy of Lemmings 3 failed due to CPU speed restrictions, but the SLOWDOWN utility allowed it to work a while. I also modified HIMEM so that its text feedback properly showed the /MAX option to be /MAX= instead of a trailing colon. No operational differences were made, just the one text character was changed."
PG 1.12 is out
jhall1 - 2004-08-31 08:54
BAHCL has posted a new version of PG: "I've make some enhancements to PG that work well. So I would like to announce that a new version (PG 1.12) is out now for download at http://bahcl.freewebpage.org - New features: 1. Junk filtering (embedded '\x8'); 2. Mouse support; 3. Solve the cursor disappear problem with jump and search; 4. Remove redundant coding. Screen flicker has also been reduced."
FORMAT 0.91s
jhall1 - 2004-08-26 11:01
Eric Auer writes: "Hi all, I am pleased to announce FORMAT 0.91s at: http://www.coli.uni-sb.de/~eric/stuff/soft/by-others/ - Daniele Giacomini did several tests with his various old PCs with 5.25in drives, and I think the (broken since 0.91q?) handling of 5.25in formats should now work better than in most older FORMAT versions. FORMAT also avoids a false DMA overrun error (Mark Zbikowski wrote about it in an old usenet posting, and somebody recently mentioned his other postings on the freedos-devel list...) and saves/restores the DDPT between int 13 calls (otherwise, log printing, if redirected to another floppy, would mess up the floppy property settings between the accesses to the to-be-formatted floppy - found by Daniele, too). The DDPT log text is shorter now, and the drive setup for floppy format got cleaned up. As suggested in Bugzilla entry 1823, FORMAT now checks the carry flag first before checking the returned status (AH register) after int 13 (BIOS disk services) calls. This check was missing in some floppy-related calls."
