December 2005 - Oberon - mailman3.inf.ethz.ch

Booting Bluebottle on Celeron D 326
by Patrick.Hunziker＠unibas.ch 03 Jan '06

03 Jan '06

Hello I tried to boot Bluebottle 19.12.05 from CD on a recent Pentium System (Shuttle XPC): Celeron D 326 (2.53MHz), 256MB RAM, Chipset SiS 661FX / 963L There is a problem early after "Bluebottle loading": I am able to change settings in the BBL0: mode if I need. I used TraceMode=1 over a serial cable, to locate the problem. Now I see, over the serial connection: "Aos 19.12.05", then booting fails, the machines goes on to reboot again from zero. Same with TraceMode=4. On other machines, I see "Processor ..." etc. now. >From the Output on the serial line, it appears that the problem is in AosBoot.Mod, maybe in recognizing the processor ? I also tried the setting "MaxProcs=1" with no success. I have also tried to eliminate Boot actions from "Boot5" back to "Boot1" back to "Boot", and have tried to boot without accessing the video driver by setting "Init=" and TraceMode=4 with no avail- the problem appears to occur earlier on in the boot process. It does not appear to be a problem of the display driver as far as I see. A try to circumvent the problem by booting from USB did not succeed either. Where might the problem be ? Do others report successful operation of the Celeron D 326 processor ? (BTW: -adding the file AosSetup.Text to the WM Menu might be helpful for others) (BTW2: there is an inconsistency in the syntax of TraceMem= between AosSetup.Text: TraceMem=0B8000H,80,25 and Boot CD: TraceMem=0B8000H,2,80,25 : bug or feature ?) Thanks for help Patrick ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program.

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Greenbottle
by Dan Parnete 24 Dec '05

24 Dec '05

Hello, It takes me a while to digest the new stijn (glass) interface. This skin is one year old, but I never considered it. The first day I was a little disappointed. The game style cursors, the yellow submarine. The second day I have realized the green glass transparency is not so bad, and the general well defined contrast is acceptable. After a week, I can say I'll never turn back to Bluebottle, I prefer the Greenbottle. Meanwhile we have adopted it for BBw, witch will be released this days, upgraded to 09.12.05 version. Yesterday we have presented a new application with the Greenbottle interface to 60 end users, on a giant screen. This people never seen other then Windows, and I was anxious to see the reaction. It was well accepted and the people has appreciated "the new style". Now some observations: - The PET opens bigger then the view dimension, and the bottom scrollbars are not reachable, if not zooming. - The buttons have a small zone on the right side where are not active. In fact the color rest green and clicking has no effect. For small buttons (width 15) this zone is in the middle, and becomes critical. I use such small buttons on the right side of the ComboBox components. - For the old style menu the Tools/VNC button opens the FTP client (error in MenuPage40.XML). The stijn skin menu is of grate impact for the end user, but for development, the original menu is more practical: in two clicks you can open any application. My thanks to all ETH team for the good job, Dan Parnete

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Re. USB
by easlab＠absamail.co.za 23 Dec '05

23 Dec '05

Stauber Sven Philipp wrote: > > > The crazy fresh release dated 09.12.2005 includes the new > > > version of the > > > Bluebottle USB system software. > > > User-visible advantages: > > > - USB 2.0 support > > > - Fixed critical bug in UHCI driver which broke many flash drives > > > - Mass Storage Driver improved: support for multiple logical units (-> > > > Cardreader support), improved performance > > > - On-demand USB class/device driver loading > > > .......... > > >Will this knowledge be available for NO ? > > No. It can, however, be used under Oberon when running Oberon > Bluebottle. Doesn't Bluebottle use the Oberon syntax ? NB. I wrote "knowledge". Ie. algorithm can easily be ported, independant of interface/appearance, which should have been factored-out. Does Bluebottle still use the funny/awkward system programming syntax like: SYSTEM.PORTIN(p, SYSTEM.VAL(CHAR, t)); ? What about someone writing a translator to use an intuitive syntax: t -> Port(p); or eg: Byte(t) -> Mem(m); ? == Chris Glur.

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WinAos 2.04
by Felix Friedrich 23 Dec '05

23 Dec '05

Hi everybody, a new release of WinAos is available on http://www.bluebottle.ethz.ch/WinAos (or www.winaos.de) It is based on the Bluebottle Crazy Fresh Build from 9.12.2005 and the recent WinAos version 2.03. It is completely generated with the parallel compiler PACO. It contains recent modifications and bugfixes performed by Dan Parnete, Alex Mircea and Felix Friedrich hopefully leading to again a more stable release with respect to exception handling and networking . Note that in this version the OP2 compiler and also the Watson Browser do not work, the latter being a temporal problem while OP2 might in fact completely be removed. For those, who see problems with that: Please send modules that cannot be compiled with PACO (but can with OP2) to us, we will find a solution! This release consists of two different compiled versions of WinAos: One providing an external Windows Window for the Oberon Platform and one providing the Oberon GUI as Bluebottle window. The kernel is the very same for both versions, only the Oberon dependent object files have to be exchanged for booting. Here this is managed by providing different search paths for the two distinct versions: Obj for the external version and ObjI for the Object files that differ with respect to an internal one. Check it out: Remove or rename ObjI to enable the external interface. More informations available in Aos.Text Changes with respect to (native) Bluebottle: - Not all Bluebottle modules are running on WinAos (some system specific application ex.: Partitions). - Meta key is substituted by Contex Menu key. Alt-Shift not available. - Ctrl-Esc is Windows specific. - Ctrl-C copy on both Bluebottle and Windows clipboard. - Ctrl-W paste from Windows clipboard. - Ctrl-L indent right text. - Ctrl-K indent left text. Fullscreen mode: The system starts in fullscreen mode. If you don't like this option, delete the Fullscreen parameter of the Win32AosDisplay.Install command, in Aos.Text file. Use Ctrl-Esc, Meta key, Alt-Tab to activate Windows tasks. done: - TCP is now more stable - the complete system is (and can be) compiled with PACO - WinAos can now be started in Fullscreen mode (thanks, Alex) - automount of windows drives (thanks, Alex and Dan) known problems: - OP2 does not work any more, this will not necessarily fixed as PACO replaces OP2. - Browser does not work any more, this will be fixed. - PACO hangs from time to time while compiling, will be fixed. - Windows 2000: Some BBw network application (ex.: FTP client) will not work properly on WIndows 2000 due to the lack of ipv6 capabilities. You have to upgrade the system: 1. Go to http://msdn.microsoft.com/downloads/sdks/platform/tpipv6.asp and download tpipv6-001205.exe 2. Extract the archive and execute "setup -x files". This will create "files" directory. 3. Open the file files\hotfix.inf and search the string "NTServicePackVersion" To be able to install on different service packs you must change the value of "NTServicePackVersion" key to: a) on SP4 to 1024 b) on SP3 to 768 c) on SP2 to 512 d) on SP1 leave it as it is (256) 4. Run hotfix.exe 5. Restart computer /todo:/ - increase display transfer speed All the best for christmas and the new year Felix.

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Release.Build
by shark＠gulfnet.sd64.bc.ca 22 Dec '05

22 Dec '05

Andre and Josef mentioned > ... Native.Tool Appears that Release.Build does nothing more harmful than create a text. Will it break anything? Thanks, ... Peter Desktops.OpenDoc http://carnot.pathology.ubc.ca/

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Heap and GC
by Dan Parnete 20 Dec '05

20 Dec '05

Hello, Today I have made a newbie trip on the 13.12.05 Bluebottle version. That mean I have opened and close all applications the menu offers. At the end the Performance monitor indicates 144Mb occupancy with a maximum of 153Mb (it starts at 22Mb from a total of 256Mb). The GC didn't work to much. Then I have insisted to open 3 times the DTP, with is the heaviest, and it easily arrived at 184Mb. From this point opening any other application is a pain, all activities are frozen for 5-6 seconds. All this newbie trip takes 1 minute. In 1 minute the system becomes unusable. Not very encouraging for a newbie. This is an old story. We have the same problem on BBw, of course, and it becomes the most critical point of the moment. I'm wandering if anybody works on that in ETH? A collaboration could be useful. Thanks, Dan Parnete

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Re. USB
by easlab＠absamail.co.za 19 Dec '05

19 Dec '05

Re. Subject: [Oberon] Bluebottle USB Stauber Sven Philipp wrote: > The crazy fresh release dated 09.12.2005 includes the new version of the > Bluebottle USB system software. > User-visible advantages: > - USB 2.0 support > - Fixed critical bug in UHCI driver which broke many flash drives > - Mass Storage Driver improved: support for multiple logical units (-> > Cardreader support), improved performance > - On-demand USB class/device driver loading > .......... Will this knowledge be available for NO ? Perhaps usb is do-able ? A strange 128MB/mp3 dongle works [after effort] with W98 & linux/Mandrake9, but not yet with NO [Ver. 2001]. BTW a main fact causing focusing on FlashMem [for NO] is that fd0 was not robust. I see no good reason for brittle Backup.* ! While installing [again] V2.3.6 DOSbased, I noticed that Backup.Directory recovers from a trap, like in DOS. Since I can see the fd0-wheel-mechanism I know that N0 ver 2001 continues to spin after a trap ! Which needs a reboot - after the annoyance of packing all the active-projects frames away. I see no good reason why the fd0 could not recover and try again, perhaps with a different diskette ? I remember the justificaction for having the LED on, once fd0 was mounted. Does this automaticaly spin the wheel ? Ie. V. 2.3.6 was good, and later version[s] are bad ? I'd patch my source accordingly, unless I've overlooked something else. == Chris Glur

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Re. Bluebottle and Intel XScale
by easlab＠absamail.co.za 19 Dec '05

19 Dec '05

Alexander wrote: > On the Bluebottle-Homepage it says, that there is an ARM/XScale-Port. > What is the progess of this version, and would it be able to run on a > PDA equipped with an CPU based on Intel's XScale-Tehnology (eg. the > Pocke LOOX N520 from Fujitsu-Siemens)? Yes, where is the information kept - knowledge to be accumulated be contributors who can write: " I move on from state N by doing a,b,c...". Again, something like a Wiki or a CVS. ARM-family ports of ETH-S3-family software would have wide appeal. The trick is to have a mechanism to allow even small contributions to be accumulated. == Chris Glur.

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Bluebottle and Intel XScale
by Alexander Hofmann 18 Dec '05

18 Dec '05

Hello, I'm shure it was on the list times before, but I'm to lazy to search ;-) On the Bluebottle-Homepage it says, that there is an ARM/XScale-Port. What is the progess of this version, and would it be able to run on a PDA equipped with an CPU based on Intel's XScale-Tehnology (eg. the Pocke LOOX N520 from Fujitsu-Siemens)? Alexander.

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Bluebottle for Windows
by Dan Parnete 17 Dec '05

17 Dec '05

Hello, A new Bluebottle for Windows release is available on: ftp://81.208.36.220 user: public password: user file BBw_01_091205.exe (12Mb) It is upgraded to Bluebottle 09.12.05 version. Windows 2000 users have to read BBw Notes (menu button Docu). This release has been prepared by Alex Popescu. This is the first self compiled version with the last PC compiler, no more from Oberon. We steel use the Oberon's PELinker, but with the new Bbx format a new Aos version is needed. Ulla please feel free to put it on the ETH server (for more visibility), if you consider it useful. We have all interest now to keep close to Bluebottle. Cheers, Dan Parnete

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