DOS ain't dead - Jemm 5.75a

Japheth

Germany (South),
24.05.2012, 09:10

Jemm 5.75a (Announce)

Hello,

The Jemm package has got a small update:

---------------------------------------------------- history.txt
05/21/2012: v5.75a

- no changes in JemmEx/Jemm386, just bugfixes in XDMA32.DLL and
XCDROM32.DLL.
----------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------------- JLM/readme.txt
v5.75a:XCDROM32: native controllers (SATA) weren't detected.
XDMA32 no longer relies on value at 0040:0075 to determine
the number of HDs.
----------------------------------------------------

http://www.japheth.de/Jemm.html

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MS-DOS forever!

Japheth

Germany (South),
30.05.2012, 09:26

@ Japheth

Jemm 5.76

Post reply

Hello,

another small update, this time it's the memory manager itself:

----------------------------------------------
05/25/2012: v5.76

- an 64kB EMS page frame may now be located inside address space included
with 'I=XXXX'.
----------------------------------------------

This makes it possible to set an EMS page frame even if Jemm warns "system memory detected...", as it is the case in VirtualBox 4.1.16:

DEVICE=JEMM386.EXE I=C900-EFFF FRAME=E000 NOVME NOINVLPG

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MS-DOS forever!

Berlin, Germany,
30.05.2012, 10:06

@ Japheth

Jemm 5.76

Post reply

http://www.japheth.de/dwnload4.html still says "5.75a". So better visit http://www.japheth.de/Jemm.html to download version 5.76.

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Forum admin

Japheth

Germany (South),
31.05.2012, 07:51

@ rr

Jemm 5.76

Post reply

Thanks for the hint! It has been fixed.

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MS-DOS forever!

Japheth

Germany (South),
20.06.2012, 15:14

@ Japheth

Jemm 5.77

Post reply

Hello,

again an update of jemm:

----------------------------------------------
- commandline option I=A000-B7FF didn't increase DOS low memory, the
region became just the first UMB.
- tool MOVEXBDA added.
----------------------------------------------

about including A000:
----------------------------------------------
þ The I=XXXX commandline option may be used to include the VGA "graphics"
segment A000h. It might be possible to increase DOS conventional memory
up to 736 kB by option I=A000-B7FF. However, there are quite a few
hurdles that may cause unexpected results:
- conventional memory is increased only if the region to include is
adjacent to current memory. On newer machines, there's very often a
"hole", caused by the Extended BIOS Data Area (XBDA or EBDA); thus
the included region just becomes an UMB and won't increase lower memory.
Use tool MOVEXBDA to fix this issue!
- Once address space A000h is remapped, any attempts to run programs that
use VGA graphics most likely with cause a crash.
- Depending on the VGA-BIOS it may happen that some non-graphics functions
won't work anymore and may also cause a crash. In the worst case, it's
not even possible to set a video text mode.
----------------------------------------------

About MOVEXBDA:
----------------------------------------------
MOVEXBDA is a device driver supposed to move the Extended BIOS Data
Area ( XBDA or EBDA ) to low DOS memory. If an XBDA exists, it is usually
located just below the A000 video segment, with a size of 1 or 2 kB.
Moving the XBDA to low memory allows Jemm to increase DOS low memory up to
736 kB with commandline parameter I=A000-B7FF ( one should be aware of a
few limitations of this setting - see below for more details ).

Some DOS versions will move the XBDA on their own; then MOVEXBDA is not
needed and will do nothing if launched.

MOVEXBDA should work with other EMMs as well. Brief tests with MS Emm386
didn't reveal any problems. However, it looks like MOVEXBDA won't work
reliably with FreeDOS!
----------------------------------------------

XCDROM32 also got a few updates, all related to "play audio" device driver functions. These changes were the result of a "teamplay" with J.R. Ellis. Thanks!

http://www.japheth.de/Jemm.html

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MS-DOS forever!

Japheth

Germany (South),
15.07.2012, 12:57

@ Japheth

Jemm 5.78 (+jwasm 2.07)

Post reply

Hello,

2 bugs were fixed in Jemm v2.78:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
- bugfix: if SPLIT option was set and there were 2 ROMs to be split on
adjacent 4K-pages, the latter one may have been overwritten with zeros
(problem found in Qemu v0.15.1).
- bugfix: MOVEXBDA didn't restore the XBDA at reboot. This may have been
a problem if the FASTBOOT option was active.
- a warning is displayed if the page frame isn't set to a segment address
divisible by 0x400 without remainder ( i.e, FRAME=DF00 will trigger the
warning ).
- MEMSTAT additionally displays location and size of XBDA.
- source package only: extrsect.exe replaced by bin2inc.exe; bin2inc.exe
is needed only if Masm is used to assemble the source.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.japheth.de/Jemm.html

Also, JWasm got an update a few days ago:

http://www.japheth.de/JWasm.html

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MS-DOS forever!

RayeR

CZ,
22.07.2012, 23:50

@ Japheth

Jemm 5.78 (+jwasm 2.07)

Post reply

I didn't have issues with this bugs but thanks for your effort you still put on Jemm :)

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DOS gives me freedom to unlimited HW access.

Stephan

30.11.2013, 10:18

@ Japheth

Jemm and Windows

Post reply

Thank you for your work on Jemm386/HimemX/JemmeX. It's pretty awesome how much memory can be freed by using it.

However, I have one problem with using it: if either jemm386 or jemmex is used they prevent Windows (version 3.11) from starting. It them complains "that a protected mode driver is already loaded".

Is there a way to use both jemmex and Windows at the same time?

I'm using EDR-Dos with a DR-Dos 7.03 base OS on a physical 486 machine from around 1993/1994.

Japheth

Germany (South),
30.11.2013, 18:25

@ Stephan

Jemm and Windows

Post reply

> Is there a way to use both jemmex and Windows at the same time?

Windows in so-called "enhanced-mode" cannot cooperate with jemmex because the appropriate interface that allows Windows to "take over" is not implemented in jemmex.

There are 2 options left:

1. don't load jemmex in config.sys, but dynamically via LOAD/UNLOAD.
2. run Windows in standard mode - there's a DOSX.EXE in HXRT\unsupp that may be used as "Windows Extender".

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MS-DOS forever!

Stephan

20.12.2013, 13:01

@ Japheth

Jemm and Windows

Post reply

> > Is there a way to use both jemmex and Windows at the same time?
>
> 1. don't load jemmex in config.sys, but dynamically via LOAD/UNLOAD.
> 2. run Windows in standard mode - there's a DOSX.EXE in HXRT\unsupp that
> may be used as "Windows Extender".

I have had not luck with (1) so far, and I don't understand what I need to do to test (2). Probably because I have not had a look at HXRT yet.

Experience with proposal (1):
I'm loading HimemX in the config.sys and then jemm386 through the autoexec.

First try: Using jemm386 with the same command line as jemmex before caused the system to freeze.

Second attempt: Simplified the jemm386 command line. Better, but now the system reboots whenever nwcache (DR "smartdrv" disk cache) is loaded.

Third attempt: No nwcache. Boots, but since the UMBs are now unused it leaves barly 500kB of conventional memory - and I haven't even installed a cd-driver yet.
Also, Windows still doesn't work. It now (with jemm386 not loaded/unloaded) complains about "a driver loaded in config.sys" preventing it from starting.

Rugxulo

Usono,
21.12.2013, 08:23

@ Stephan

Jemm and Windows

Post reply

> > > Is there a way to use both jemmex and Windows at the same time?
> >
> > 1. don't load jemmex in config.sys, but dynamically via LOAD/UNLOAD.
> > 2. run Windows in standard mode - there's a DOSX.EXE in HXRT\unsupp that
> > may be used as "Windows Extender".
>
> I have had not luck with (1) so far, and I don't understand what I need to
> do to test (2). Probably because I have not had a look at HXRT yet.

Do you need EMS at all? Or just trying to use UMBs? Have you tried EMSMAGIC or UMBPCI or similar?

BTW, you can find HX at http://www.japheth.de/HX.html , so unzip it to \hx, put \hx\bin in your %PATH% , and (backup old, then) copy DOSX.EXE to %windir%\system or wherever.

> Experience with proposal (1):
> I'm loading HimemX in the config.sys and then jemm386 through the
> autoexec.
>
> First try: Using jemm386 with the same command line as jemmex before caused
> the system to freeze.

Why not use DR's EMM386, which has its own XMSv2 built in? It (and DR-DOS) should run Win 3.x just fine. (Although it's possible that EDR-DOS has some bugs since it's based upon an older version of the kernel.)

> Second attempt: Simplified the jemm386 command line. Better, but now the
> system reboots whenever nwcache (DR "smartdrv" disk cache) is loaded.

Try using "X=TEST I=TEST". Also, if NWCACHE doesn't work, try something else, e.g. UIDE or LBACACHE.

> Third attempt: No nwcache. Boots, but since the UMBs are now unused it
> leaves barly 500kB of conventional memory - and I haven't even installed a
> cd-driver yet.

If you don't "need" 386 Enhanced Mode for some odd reason, just use standard mode. And of course in that case, you can just use FreeDOS, which should be fairly good about keeping low RAM free. Though in all the years I used DR-DOS 7.03, it wasn't ever horrible about it. If anything, DR-DOS 7.03 is more reliable in some ways (e.g. Win 3.x support or TaskMgr) but has some limits (e.g. NWCACHE max or EMM386 bugs or TaskMgr size limits, no FAT32).

> Also, Windows still doesn't work. It now (with jemm386 not loaded/unloaded)
> complains about "a driver loaded in config.sys" preventing it from
> starting.

Run DOSBOOK.EXE if you can, and double-check that you're using the correct parameters with DR's own EMM386. Don't use EDR-DOS at all, just use DR-DOS 7.03, which is more stable. If that doesn't work, fiddle with some of the alternatives I mentioned.

Japheth

Germany (South),
21.12.2013, 15:36

@ Stephan

Jemm and Windows

Post reply

> Experience with proposal (1):
> I'm loading HimemX in the config.sys and then jemm386 through the
> autoexec.

I'm not sure if Win31 works with HimemX. Better use the Himem.sys driver that ships with DOS 6.22 or Win31 ( these are v2 drivers, limited to 64 MB ).

> Also, Windows still doesn't work. It now (with jemm386 not loaded/unloaded)
> complains about "a driver loaded in config.sys" preventing it from
> starting.

My test - today - was:

- boot MS-DOS 6.22 with MS Himem.sys
- load jemm386: JEMM386 LOAD
- unload jemm386: JEMM386 UNLOAD
- launch Windows ( WfW 3.11 )

and the Windows Desktop appeared without problems.

( tested on a AMD-K2 500 MHz, 320 MB SDRAM-DIMMs, 3D Rage Pro AGP, 1080 MB Quantum Fireball HD; MB chipset supports USB 1.1 )

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MS-DOS forever!