DOS ain't dead - BatteryMax

Guti

07.07.2013, 17:02

BatteryMax (Developers)

Currently I am using DOSIDLE from http://maribu.home.xs4all.nl/zeurkous/download/mirror/dosidle/ in my Virtualboxed Enhanced DR-DOS machine with DR-DOS 8.0 + EDR 7.01.08. I have come across about BatteryMax at http://www.drdos.com/dosdoc/bmaxhtml/idlechp1.htm , and realized that it would be a better choice.

Anyone knows if there are already available BatteryMax available? If not, where can I get the SDK?

Thanks.

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Rugxulo

Usono,
07.07.2013, 18:17

@ Guti

BatteryMax

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> Currently I am using DOSIDLE from
> http://maribu.home.xs4all.nl/zeurkous/download/mirror/dosidle/ in my
> Virtualboxed Enhanced DR-DOS machine with DR-DOS 8.0 + EDR 7.01.08. I have
> come across about BatteryMax at
> http://www.drdos.com/dosdoc/bmaxhtml/idlechp1.htm , and realized that it
> would be a better choice.
>
> Anyone knows if there are already available BatteryMax available? If not,
> where can I get the SDK?

Ask the guys at DrDOS.com , I suppose. I don't think it's publicly available (but I could be wrong).

A quick check of your second link shows that you need some files for APM support. Well, I guess you know that APM is basically deprecated (dead) in lieu of much more complicated ACPI. Sure, this desktop Lenovo of mine still supports it (thankfully) but my laptop Dell does not. :-(

Either way, your best alternative is "probably" FDAPM.

Or if you're just trying to save cycles in a VM, there are various other TSRs, but I can't honestly remember which ones work best for which VMs, so I'm of little help there. EDIT: For completeness, Japheth does have one that says this: "DosIdle: Small tool to detect idle state in DOS. Useful if DOS runs in a virtual environment and causing a very high CPU load. Source is included. (DOS, 04/2007)": dosidle.zip

Newer FreeDOS kernels have CONFIG.SYS "IDLEHALT=1" to also help (I know, useless under DR-DOS), and I also tend to do "lh fdapm apmdos" under real native FreeDOS, but I'm not sure that's helpful for you here.

Guti

07.07.2013, 20:55

@ Rugxulo

BatteryMax

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Thank you for the tipo. FDAPM seems to be the perfect option here.

Will give later a try to DOSIDLE by Japheth.

As for FreeDOS, I will need to take a new look to it. Last time I tried were on 2008 or so, and I did not liked it so much, because of compatibility issues, and performance, but now, it sounds quite promissing.

Regards.

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Guti

03.05.2025, 11:07

@ Guti

BatteryMax

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12 years later I am back with BatteryMax, importing it at Github: https://github.com/javiergutierrezchamorro/DRIDLE

DRIDLE.SYS (IDLE.SYS DR-DOS device driver) for Digital Research / Novell BatteryMax by Michal Necasek updated.

Reference: https://www.os2museum.com/wp/idle-dr-dos/
Original Mercurial: https://www.os2museum.com/hg/dridle/file/

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mceric

Germany,
03.05.2025, 14:26

@ Guti

BatteryMax

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> 12 years later I am back with BatteryMax, importing it at Github:
> https://github.com/javiergutierrezchamorro/DRIDLE
>
> DRIDLE.SYS (IDLE.SYS DR-DOS device driver) for Digital Research / Novell
> BatteryMax by Michal Necasek updated.
>
> Reference: https://www.os2museum.com/wp/idle-dr-dos/
> Original Mercurial: https://www.os2museum.com/hg/dridle/file/

How well does it perform compared to FDAPM? :-)

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FreeDOS / DOSEMU2 / ...

Guti

03.05.2025, 21:36

@ mceric

BatteryMax

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FDAPM should perform better in terms of energy saving, but worse in terms of performance. Advantage of this is that takes advantage of IDLE$ already built on DRDOS kernel.

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mceric

Germany,
04.05.2025, 00:50

@ Guti

BatteryMax

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> FDAPM should perform better in terms of energy saving, but worse in terms
> of performance. Advantage of this is that takes advantage of IDLE$ already
> built on DRDOS kernel.

"Should" based on which assumptions? Have you compared the drivers in practice, also comparing different settings for FDAPM? See the documentation, the FDAPM APMDOS default is a bit heavy on energy saving, but you can select more moderate ADV:... strategies to reduce impact on performance.

As you mention IDLE$ in the DRDOS kernel, you could also include IDLEHALT in the FreeDOS kernel in your comparisons :-)

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FreeDOS / DOSEMU2 / ...

Guti

04.05.2025, 08:41

@ mceric

BatteryMax

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I am not using FreeDOS since 1.1, so will look forward to your comparisons :-)

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Berlin, Germany,
04.05.2025, 11:17

@ mceric

BatteryMax

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> > 12 years later I am back with BatteryMax, importing it at Github:
> > https://github.com/javiergutierrezchamorro/DRIDLE
> >
> > DRIDLE.SYS (IDLE.SYS DR-DOS device driver) for Digital Research / Novell
> > BatteryMax by Michal Necasek updated.
> >
> > Reference: https://www.os2museum.com/wp/idle-dr-dos/
> > Original Mercurial: https://www.os2museum.com/hg/dridle/file/
>
> How well does it perform compared to FDAPM? :-)

Why you do not do the comparison yourself and tell us the results?

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