Hi Thomas, > If using a USB keyboard (and USB mouse), there is the problem that > when starting the USB driver (USBUHCI from Bret Johnsons USButils > collection), the Keyboard stops working. So you can’t start the > keyboard driver next, which seems should done to get somewhere.
The trick would be to write a batch file (filename loadusb.bat, content simply the commands you want to run, one per line) and then run the batch file (by typing "loadusb" and hitting enter) to run all commands as one sequence. After that, you should be able to use your keyboard and other USB things, as long as you load Bret's USB drivers for all things you want to support :-) > Mr. Johnson was kindly replying to my inquiry on this. > So my approach at the moment ist using a PS/2 Keyboard and Mouse > to avoid this problem. („Hardware solution“) Of course that is a possibility - if you HAVE a PS/2 keyboard and PS/2 connectors in your system. For other people, it is not. > As Eric et al. are pointing out, I have to agree that USB isn’t at > all what I thought it was: neither „Universal“ in the sense of „easy“ > nor „universal including DOS". On my ITX with a recent Bios. that > Bios lets me use USB mouse and keyboard nicely right from booting, > also a trackpad with no problem. So it also seems to be much a > question what the inbuilt BIOS supports. But even on the system where you try to print things, the KEYBOARD already works with the USB support of your BIOS, so that is more or less the same. I just say that your BIOS is unlikely to help at all for serial or parallel (printer) port simulations or for example for printers or external modems or similar. So you still have to use USB drivers for USB printers. As you already say, only EITHER the BIOS OR the DOS USB driver can manage one USB controller. You can either tell the driver to manage only some, but not all of your USB ports/controllers, or you will have to load DOS USB drivers for everything and no longer use BIOS USB support at all, as in the "loadusb.bat" way. > Regarding printing I think there are two basic concepts: Using fonts > from the printer (I call this „generic“, but maybe this is my private > lingo) or using graphics from the computer. As I am only interested > in printing out pure text (A-Z, 1-0 :) As explained here earlier, printers differ in what they accept as input. Some accept plain text. Some accept PDF or Postscript. Some accept ESC/P or other "printer languages". Some actually do NOT accept plain text. Some do not accept any "normal" file format: Those can ONLY print graphics, which means you must use special drivers which turn everything into graphics first. Your printer luckily does not have that problem. So as Frantisek said, your chances are quite okay to use the MTCP NETCAT trick to send a TEXT (or at least PDF) file from DOS to the printer by network. That could actually be easier than using USB, even when this is counterintuitive for you. Not sure which network chip your PC has? > I also had tried printing using the Centronics cable/port. > Thanks to Eric for COPY x.txt PRN or COPY x.pdf LPT1 That would of course be the EASIEST option as long as your PC and your printer both still have Centronics connectivity :-) Regards, Eric _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
