DOS ain't dead

Hi friends,

I want to access memory beyond 4GB(The real memory size is 36GB). I found the PAE patch here http://dos32a.narechk.net/content/beta.html but I don't know how to use it.

Do you anyone know about it?

Also I know memtest86+ can test the memory beyond 4GB. Do you anyone know how can it do?

Thanks,

Actually, I have the exact same question. I have seen the PAE code also, but I can't make use of it either. Does anyone have a precompiled binary of this code?

And yes, I've used memtest86+ to test memory beyond 4 GB. I've used it fine and it saw all 16 GB of my memory perfectly. I do not know its real limit (maybe 2048 GB of RAM?)

> Actually, I have the exact same question. I have seen the PAE code also,
> but I can't make use of it either. Does anyone have a precompiled binary
> of this code?

DOS/32A uses TASM, which you can get free from Turbo C++ Explorer 2006 (although big download). Or ask Narech K. himself for a binary via e-mail.

> And yes, I've used memtest86+ to test memory beyond 4 GB. I've used it
> fine and it saw all 16 GB of my memory perfectly. I do not know its real
> limit (maybe 2048 GB of RAM?)

I think PAE is limited to 64 GB.

> I want to access memory beyond 4GB(The real memory size is 36GB). I found
> the PAE patch here http://dos32a.narechk.net/content/beta.html but I don't
> know how to use it.

Copy the patch files over the dos32a 9.12 sources from the src\dos32a\ folder. You will need TASM 4.0+ to assemble kernel.asm and dos32a.asm. Then you will need Watcom linker in order to link the two object files. Good luck!

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Glory to God for all things

> Then you will need Watcom linker in order to link the two object files.

Actually you could use any OMF linker with 32-bit and MZ format output support.

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Glory to God for all things

> > Then you will need Watcom linker in order to link the two object files.
>
> Actually you could use any OMF linker with 32-bit and MZ format output
> support.

WarpLink? Valx? Alink? Tlink? Qlink?

Anyways, I actually tried building with TASM32 5.3, and annoyingly enough it bombs out with a bunch of errors. So much for compatibility. (Maybe there's a switch, but I dunno what.)

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Know your limits.h

> Anyways, I actually tried building with TASM32 5.3, and annoyingly enough
> it bombs out with a bunch of errors. So much for compatibility. (Maybe
> there's a switch, but I dunno what.)

Use it with "-ml -m3" switches, and don't forget to define EXEC_TYPE (-dEXEC_TYPE=?).

EDIT: Peronally I used to build it the followings:
tasm -ml -m2 -dEXEC_TYPE=2 kernel
tasm -ml -m3 -dEXEC_TYPE=2 dos32a
tlink /3 dos32a kernel, dos32a
You can use instead Tlink any other linker supporting OMFs with 32-bit fixups and MZ output.

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Glory to God for all things

Okay, I built it, but I don't have > 1 GB of RAM (even), so I can't really test. Here's binary and sources:

1. Download Link: Click here to download file
http://rapidshare.com/files/253281239/dos32a.zip.html
MD5: 4B8CE29C127CEF1352FB9DC23BD9A0DC