Hi All,

It has been quite a while since I last worked on my code. Recently I added a command line. Please take a look and report your thoughts. Please be kind, it is a work in progress. You can get it here.

Erm, it isn't a floppy, neither it is a CD and even not HDD
wtf? I finally got it running by extracting the contents
It contained an EXE and a TXT file - then when running in Win2K it halted after printing some info that nothing is available

Some info on how to use would be helpful.


EDIT: Oh, I get it now - its a compressed image - I uncompressed it and it worked as a floppy image. It printed a few lines of 1234567890s and then it stopped for a bit and then started spamming the screen with PCI devices. All info was zeros and nulls

it's a zip file with floppy image (see "PK" at the start)

Hi Madis731,

It is a floppy image. The EXE within the image will run on top of DOS or booted from the image. It will work from within Bochs, DOSBox 0.63 (with errors imposed by DOSBox), and DOSBox 0.65.

As it boots from the floppy you should get a series of numbers across the screen, which is indicative of the number of sectors being read. Then it shoudl go through a routine of identifying what is on board your system.

I am curious about the zeros and nulls. When it identifies the PCI devices it should give the hex vendor ID and device ID along with the vendor name and then the device name, if available within the VENDORS.TXT file.

Finally you should have gotten to a prompt, did you?

I have tested it ,some problems because i have a spanish keyboard but it works, aplications required

Octavio wrote:
GOOD!, please compare it with YOUR operating system. How is it different, what do you like better about Smiddy's OS? What feature(s) do you implement that are (currently) absent from Smiddy's?

It boots, shows a listscan, afterwards a memmap and ends up in a prompt [NO DIRVE]:/>

The first time I typed help, this will hang the os
The second time I tried dir and ls and got ERROR: NO SUCH COMMAND OR FILE. So the final command, the second time became help again.

Niels.

@ Tom and Octavio,

I have plans to implement some programs, they are a few months down the line. I haven't even considered different keymaps for languages either, which if I will be going primetime (which I don't intend to) would be needed, agreed.

@ Niels,

Can you provide me the environment in which you ran it? The reason I ask is I have noticed on emulators that there are times when the keyboard isn't being captured in a timely manner.

Image on CD-RW.
Boot from CD annex Floppydisk.

P4, 2Ghz, 1Gb

@smiddy:



I hope you do understand the logic in this sentence.

Yep, I don't understand your avowal. It is implying something, but I can't fathom what.

Ok... I assume you're just killing time with this, I do.

I tried it with Bochs for you, it worked.

Which version of Bochs? 2.2.1 works fine here, though it seems slow in 2.3...was this your assessment?

I didn't make an assessment. If it runs any faster or slower in different versions of Bochs than 2.3, I wouldn't know.

Smiddy: Hi Smiddy! Worked well, even better than last year. Correctly identified my old scsi controller, obsolete Cirrus Logic video card, as well as modern gear, in short, excellent.
On my system, dfi motherboard, Tualatin P3, the program finished with the customary block of the keyboard, as I vaguely recall from last year's model, which was far less detailed, and less comprehensive than the new and improved version. So, there still remains a small glitch preventing restoration of the prompt permitting the user to exit gracefully--I was obliged to perform a hard reset, since the keyboard was non-functional....
All in all, good job, A-, looking forward to the day I can install it on hard disk....
tom

Sorry, I suspect more instruction is needed. From the prompt if you typed help or help help you would get a listing of internal commands. Within the help you would have found EXIT and REBOOT. EXIT will exit back to DOS, if you are running from it or REBOOT. REBOOT does at it says...

However, it sounds as though you are not getting a prompt? It should look similar to:

[NO DRIVE]:\> _ <- Where the underscore is the cursor

As an FYI, I am looking into ATA ATAPI specs now and intend on make a small HD image (30MB) which should zip nicely. I need to include better docs (none currently available) which would remove the hunt and check currently going on.

I have just finished the MODE command to change the screen size (text) to any of the following:

40x25
80x25
80x50
80x60
100x37
132x43
132x50
132x60
160x64

All of these modes don't work all the time, so there is a bug somewhere, to which I am hunting. For the most part the first three work without issue.

I suppose considering it has been a year since I touched it, I have made some strides in a couple of weeks time.

Personally I think you're generous with the A-...but I'll take what I can get. Thanks!

ABSOLUTELY!! Wow, my mistake. Sorry Smiddy. It works lovely. Umm, you may wish to add a phrase like "please type 'help' " at the prompt.
Ok, not an A-, just an A.

Great idea, until I get the docs ironed out, I'll add that phrase, in your honor: please type HELP for help

FYI, I can identify HDD and CD/DVDs from the (E)IDE interface. I'll work on a decent boot sector for a small 16-bit FAT HDD image.

Thanks for trying it out! I will be putting current builds out there weekly...