Subj : MS-DOS Emulation -use To : Ky Moffet From : Barry Martin Date : Tue Aug 04 2020 07:59:00 Hi Ky! > > That would almost make sense: here it seemed as if a buffer/holding area > > of some sort was being overloaded/overfilled as always worked for a > > little while and then stopped. The amount of time varied: sometimes > KM> When it ran out of file handles, probably. Windows could scrape > KM> by on 20 (IIRC) but as soon as you run something else... > KM> kablooie. > Probably -- not questioning, just not recalling as that was a long time KM> I probably wouldn't remember so specifically except for that KM> MSOffice problem, and that my brain never throws away anything. KM> Doesn't label or index a durn thing, but keeps all of it! I can relate! There are times when it being all indexed neat and tidy would be handy, then there are those times when the randomness works better (like "got a problem? Don't know what it fixed but 'FILES=40' worked"). > ago, and haven't fiddled with this Windows XP (on the virtual machine) > in I don't know how long -- I think it's even a clone of what was on the > old computer. ...Yup: 2008 (!) Well, c:\windows\system32\config.nt has > Files=40. (And I've switched topic from ~WFWG to XP.) KM> Topic? What topic?? :D Tho I vaguely recall that with the NT KM> base, it no longer really matters, tho might be there for KM> compatibility. Topic: those random words in the Subject field! As for my "FILES=40" guess I'll just leave it alone as things seem to be working acceptably. > > > almost immediately to a few minutes. Would be nice to be able to go > > back and check. > KM> Time machine needs rebooting? :D > Might be a bad time to find the motherboard battery is dead and we're at > the computer epoch date! KM> Especially if it's Borg (the first of mine built by assimilating KM> other PCs), who left to its own devices thought the year was KM> 2093!! That was 1993, add a hundred years to make the BIOS look current.... > > KM> all was well. (And Windows never, ever crashed again, nor even > > KM> misbehaved in any noteworthy way. Seven years without a single > > KM> crash!) > > Seven days is considered a long time!! > KM> Not in MY house! > It's all due to the typewriter hung onthe fence!! KM> 38 years or so later, the warning is still in force! A little rusty, but that's part of the punishment! > > One fix for a problem creates a problem which needs to be fixed > KM> Haha, so it goes! > Job security for the programmers! Fix on problem, create another, but > not so it looks like incompetence! KM> I've heard of some actually attempting that... thing is, those KM> who think that way usually aren't as good as they thought... and KM> get caught. The job security is there will always be problems, and they don't have to be created. Was reading a post the other day where an automatic firmware update took a company's system down. Company's IT fixed the problem, then called the hardware company to find a way to turn off automartic updates (run manually instead so could test first). Hardware tech minsuderstood and rolled back the firmware update instead, and so the company's computers crashed again! > KM> Or why I'm a big fan of portable apps, and why we have Flatpak > KM> and AppImage for linux (given DLL Hell has NOTHING on Dependency > KM> Hell). > I can sort of see both sides: mainly why re-invent the wheel so use > something already working (guess called a 'dependency'), but of course KM> Dependency: same as a DLL, except for linux. Shared bits of KM> programs and/or OS. So a dependency depends on the OS! KM> But the problem is that dependencies can get out of sync, and KM> then whichever program didn't update its build... no longer KM> works. Right: and probably can't keep the old dependency for compatibility: first thing coming to mind is the old and the new have the same filename. Can't change to 'depencency.old' as the utility is looking for 'dependency.current'. Suppose the best way would be a version: 'dependency.20200804'. That probably creates some other problems. KM> In fact I lost my preferred font manager to that very problem. It KM> has a dependency old enough it conflicts with current OS KM> versions. So this program works on the, uh, archival PCLOS that KM> I've never updated, but not on the one I keep up to date. KM> (Synaptic removed it, being fairly good about resolving conflicts KM> that way. Otherwise I would have had several broken packages.) I had a semi-similar problem with my scanner software. I use the scanner intermittently: might use it a few times in a week and then not again for a month. Went to use it: utility didn't see but did see the all-in-one in the basement. (The scanner is USB, the all-in-one wireless.) Retry, unplug/plug USB -- - try different utility - it works fine ('oddly' doesn't see the all-in-one) so make the scan that way. Check on-line for troubleshooting. Update utility - same problem. Try a few command-line checks - no problems. Check the original utility - problem still. Not sure what happened but something finally broke through: took a longer than normal time to find any scanners (found the all-in-one almost immediately) and then the one up here and things have been fine since. (Just checked: still good.) > > KM> Yeah, I wound up using it because the person who got me started > > KM> on this stuff was a DRDOS enthusiast, but fact was it wasn't > > Something like when I got started with Linux. The utility I was using > > at the time for recording TV was MythDora, which is based on Fedora. > > ..Hmm: so why did I go Ubuntu instead of Fedora?? > KM> There's no excuse for Ubuntu. > Maybe the Desktop background caught my eye: a Felt Fedora - yawn! An > Energetic Ermine -- hmm! ...Probably more MythDora died (no longer > supported) and Mythbuntu was the replacement. (I do recall looking at KM> That sounds like a less fanciful explanation. There are times when the direct path is taken! > other options but they appeared to be too complex, especially for the > other person here.) Mythbuntu was built on Ubuntu and so if seems > halfway logical to get more into Ubuntu. KM> Whereas I have a variety of OSs... in fact Fireball has KM> accumulated a stack of SIX hard drives with several KM> different Windows and one PCLOS. (I no longer multiboot, thanks KM> to issues variously with GRUB and with the current Windows KM> bootloader. Much safer to just swap HDs.) Plus with manual vs. electronic switching the OS is 'pure', whereas with the GRUB doing the selection there is the possibility of being altered as the data passes through. > KM> Seriously, it makes Win10 seem agreeable... > I'm thinking it's just a personality conflict: no real problems here; KM> Heh.. in my book, Gnome3 is completely unusable. If I wanted a KM> cellphone interface, I'd use a bloody cellphone!! Now that's a visual!! I pretty much go with the flow, primarily because I don't know the 'programming details' and so half-figure the people putting it all together for me mad ethat selection for a reason. Admittedly not always the right selection, KM> Also, compared to just about every other species of linux (except KM> possibly Mageia), Ubuntu is a hog. Not so critical on newish KM> hardware, but it's downright sluggish on an older box. Realized KM> why when I compared it directly to Mint... Mint is built from KM> Ubuntu, but runs MUCH faster, and... per actual count only loads KM> 1/4th as many modules. Well, no wonder!! KM> So that's how I came to so very much dislike Ubuntu. If 75% less modules to 'look through' then yes, would be faster. OTOH what's missing? Probably nothing of usual importance but may be items needed for compatibility with 'old stuff'. Just guessing. If so, seems could look on-line for the necessary module -- which could be dangerous! -- or look internally in an archival subdir and copy into the main one. Now thinking that dependancies issue! > have been some minor issues but IMO they got resolved quickly. Now > maybe when looking at a more in-depth and technical mindset.... KM> Or a complete lack of patience :) "SERENITY NOW"! > https://www.howtoforge.com/tutorial/run-dos-application-in-linux/ > He's wanting to run a 16-bit MS-DOS game. WINE won't work because > 16-bit applications want to access the first 64K of kernel memory and > that's a security issue. DOSBox and DOSemu seem to be working. KM> Decided WINE and DOSbox both not worth the effort; easier to run KM> VirtualBox and WinXP. In fact that is now how I deal with 16-bit KM> anything, and with Win-only apps I can't live without. And being KM> lazy, built it once then exported an OVA, so I have the same KM> WinXP in every VM. But the clone on this system does this and the clone on that system does something else -- oh! it's those two Dells! > This article may give you some other clues: > https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15597155/porting-16-bit-dos-x86-asse > mbly-to-32-bit-linux-x86-assembly KM> Assembly language is its own arcanity... this program is in KM> Pascal (author gave me the source code for my personal use... if KM> I could track him down again I'd ask about opensourcing it). Decades ago I tried to self-teach myself assembly from a book or two. Some 'but first' got in the way.... > My search was "convert 16 bit DOS to Linux" ==> > https://www.google.com/search?channel=fs&client=ubuntu&q=convert+16+bit+ > DOS+to+Linux KM> Now my brain hurts. That was simple! > Probably the more technical hits will be what you need -- they're over > my head. KM> That's because they're hitting me over the head! You're taller! > Yeah! Like my little issue with getting the fiber optic > system going here: details in posts with Nancy in Chit Chat, basically I > figured out why my computers weren't seeing the outside world: (a) > Ethernet cable was disconnected, and (b) needed another device (a router > -- I wasn't sure of the terminology so when talking to IT let them give > me their name for the device). KM> Ah, yes, the old "unplugged cable" gambit... But it's plugged in at the end we're asking about! > Over the years have done lots of troubleshooting by paying attention to > details. Stuff doesn't run off 'magic'. KM> Wait, it doesn't?? Ugh-ugh: black boxes! > > KM> Geez, look what happens when you stir the ancient sludge in the > > KM> sewers of Ky's brain... > > So there was this article about how the Thames River was London's sewer > > and during droughts..... > KM> ....they found Ubuntu CDs?? :D > Nah: Prodigy! KM> LOL, not AOL? :) I suppose if it was there it would have been 'London on Line' rather than 'America on Line'! > .. Shell to DOS...Come in DOS; do you Copy? Shell to DOS... KM> I hear water... Flood! RUN!!! ¯ ® ¯ BarryMartin3@ ® ¯ @MyMetronet.NET ® ¯ ® ¯ (Humans know what ® ¯ to remove.) ® .... Both oars in the water, but on the same side of the boat. --- MultiMail/Win32 v0.47 þ wcECHO 4.2 ÷ ILink: The Safe BBS þ Bettendorf, IA --- QScan/PCB v1.20a / 01-0462 * Origin: ILink: CFBBS | cfbbs.no-ip.com | 856-933-7096 (454:1/1) .