Mateusz, thanks a lot for looking into the problem! I think FDNPKG could be really useful. FreeDOS 1.1 is two and a half years old and at least some programs are under active development. So doing a FDNPKG update from time to time could make FreeDOS a kind of a rolling release (or at least create a "testing" branch).
For instance UIDE and mTCP are constantly developed (did you see Mikes new http server?) and it should be easier to do an update. So there is a lot of potential. But at the moment FDNPKG seems to be not as useful as it could be: - Users of FreeDOS 1.1 can't use FDNPKG, because it doesn't recognize their installed packages (as you summarized). - Using the "all_cd.iso", as you suggested, is not an option. It means installing package by package per hand. There should be a way to install all "base" packages" or all "net" packages - but there isn't. It also should come with working AUTOEXEC.BAT, FDCONFIG.SYS and maybe WATTCP.CFG and MTCP.CFG. That means "all_cd.iso" needs an installation routine. I do not understand why FDISK works flawlessly with the FreeDOS 1.1 installation ISO attached to VirtualBox - but it doesn't with "all_CD.iso". (It gives you the "Error Reading Hard Disk" as you described). IMHO the solution would be to update the FreeDOS 1.1 installation ISO to a version "1.11" where the LSMs are fixed to a format FDNPKG understands (and maybe the packages are also updated). I will do some more experiments at least with VirtualBox. It seems to have improved lately (for instance I do not get the slow-down at boot with FreeDOS 1.1 and do not need Erics and Jacks vbox-fix). thanks again!! regards Ulrich Am 11.08.2014 um 11:49 schrieb Mateusz Viste <mate...@viste.fr>: > Hi again, > > I looked into the issue, by installing a fresh FreeDOS 1.1 inside a > vbox, and booting all_cd on top of it. Now: > > FDNPKG freezing: debugging this really scares me. I wanted to check if > there's some memory leak maybe, and typed "MEM" in the vbox shell where > I launched FreeDOS... The answer I got was an immediate crash with > messages like "Run chkdsk: Bad FAT I/O: 0x00000001" and "JemmEx: > exception 06 occured at....". After, that, trying to run FDISK or FDNPKG > was leading to "exception 06" crashes every time. This all looks quite > unstable :/ > > I will try to see if I can locate the source of vbox freezing during > next weekend, but can't promise any results, since I'm almost sure the > problem doesn't come from FDNPKG (but you never know for sure, so better > to triple check everything). > > About "unknown versions" of packages: this is actually normal (as in > "expected"), and it's due to the fact that we switched the format of > packages after 1.0. Yet FD 1.1 somehow installs packages containing LSM > files named with the old scheme, like "PKGNAMEX.LSM" (for example: > "CHOICEX.LSM"). FDNPKG expects them to be named exactly like the package > name, which is a more consistent approach (esp. considering 8+3 > troubles). Since FDNPKG doesn't find the LSM file, its unable to guess > the software's version. > > My advice would be to use the all_cd.iso as the only installation > source, and forget about the FD 1.1 install CD. all_cd comes with 'sane' > packages, and provides minimalistic tools to partition/format your hard > disk, and install a working FreeDOS environment from scratch. > Alternatively, you could also remove packages from your FD 1.1 install > one by one, and reinstall them with FDNPKG (this will replace them with > correct versions). > > About FDISK incompatibility: I am getting an error message "Error > Reading Hard Disk: Function number of drive not permitted". Is it what > you end up with, too? If so, then it appears to be a problem only if you > run FDISK from the emulated A: drive. Of course it is still a problem, > because the all_cd is supposed to be booted on a clean (non partionned) > hdd, and allow to create partitions... Seems to be some limitations of > FDISK (or maybe some vbox quirk again). > > My suggestion would be to use xfdisk instead (it comes on the bootable > CD already, and it's also available as an installable package). xfdisk > seems to work fine with virtualbox in my limited testing experience. > > So, in short summary: > - use all_cd.iso instead of the official 1.1 CD > - if you really have to run vbox, then try using xfdisk instead of fdisk > - about freezes/crashes, I'll see what I can do, but I wouldn't get my > hopes high, as vbox tends to be buggy, esp. when it comes to switching > protected mode on/off... but IF there's a problem with fdnpkg, I'll do > my best to find/fix it > > cheers, > Mateusz > > > > > > On 08/11/2014 03:57 AM, Mateusz Viste wrote: >> Hi Ulrich, >> >> Thank you for your report. >> This sounds unfortunate :) >> >> It seems you have three different problems. >> >> About fdisk: could you tell more about the problem? What version of fdisk >> works correctly for you? >> >> About missing versions: could you please locate the *.lsm file of one of the >> "unknown version" packages and send it to me? (it is in %FREEDOS%\APPINFO) >> Are you testing using the latest available version of FDNPKG? >> As a temporary workaround: does removing/reinstalling a package make its >> version to be displayed fine by fdnpkg? >> >> About fdnpkg freezing: how could I reproduce this problem exactly? Should it >> be enough to just install freedos 1.1 on virtualbox, without any special >> configuration, and boot the latest version of all_cd.iso on top of it? What >> network card model are you simulating? (and what packet driver handles it?) >> >> cheers, >> Mateusz >> >> >> >> >> On August 11, 2014 1:21:29 AM GMT+02:00, Ulrich <my.gr...@mailbox.org> wrote: >>> I am a bit stuck with FDNPKG. >>> >>> If I use: >>> >>> fdnpkg listlocal >>> >>> on a fresh install of FreeDOS 1.1, I get a list of all installed >>> packages with >>> >>> "(unknown version)" >>> >>> behind their names. >>> >>> If I do: >>> >>> fdnpkg update >>> >>> I get the message: "79 package(s) checked, 0 package(s) updated, 0 >>> package(s) failed". >>> >>> Does this mean FDNPKG can't be used to update the 1.1 packages? >>> >>> I also took a look at >>> http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/distributions/1.1/repos/all_cd.iso >>> >>> The iso boots fine. But the version of fdisk doesn't work on >>> VirtualBox. I got around that problem: I attached the iso to an already >>> installed FreeDOS 1.1 guest and booted the all_cd.iso. Then I formatted >>> the hdd. >>> >>> Unfortunately there's no installation routine that lets me install the >>> necessary 79 packages (plus configuration files) conveniently. Also >>> only the first fdnpkg command runs successfully. Afterwards the >>> VirtualBox guest freezes. I didn't have the nerve to switch the guest >>> off and on again 79 times and then create FDCONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT >>> by hand. >>> >>> VirtualBox version is 4.3.14. >>> >>> Thanks! >>> Best regards >>> Ulrich >>> > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > _______________________________________________ > Freedos-user mailing list > Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
