Re: [Freedos-kernel] FreeDOS kernel 2041 and SYS issues | Split

[Kenneth J. D. <je...@fd...>]

On Mon, Mar 5, 2012 at 2:13 AM, dos386 <do...@gm...> wrote:
...
>
> Minor SYS BUG (see shot): it fails to find KERNEL.SYS despite it's
> in there (it has "R" attribute). Suggestion for improvement:
>
> - read and report KERNEL.SYS attribs and size
> - if "R" then write "can't modify because read-only"
> - IF ((not "R") AND (modification requested)) THEN
> - - open with write access
> - ELSE
> - open with read access only
> - ENDIF
>

Thank you for the bug report, I will try to look into and provide an
updated version later this week (see below).

> Other thing somewhat "missing" is reading out the version info
> (now 2041, date, 8086-vs80386, FAT16-vs-FAT28) ... IIRC we had
> already discussed that some time ago:
>
> http://www.mail-archive.com/freedos-kernel%40lists.sourceforge.net/msg02521.html
> 2011-Jul-30 "[Freedos-kernel] FreeDOS kernel UPX'ing and versionning
> chaos"

Convince whoever still has write access to the kernel to add version
resource and I will update sys to support it.


>
> And one more suggestion: SPLIT SYS from KERNEL. Why?

Sys development has been split for a while now, however a version has
also been kept with the kernel to ensure the kernel downloads are
usable as-is. I would periodically sync the sources with the kernel
sources (and would merge any updates committed there into the primary
source).

Sys may be found at http://www.fdos.org/kernel/sys/  with current svn
sources browsable at
http://fdos.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/fdos/trunk/source/BASE/sys/


>
> - FreeDOS SYS is de facto shared with EDR-DOS, unlike KERNEL
> - SYS getting updated independently (like the 2011-Aug-10 release)
> - The 2041 release has 4 packages all having the same SYS.COM file
> - SYS.COM history is not documented
>
Note: 2041 does not have the latest version of sys, but an older not
really that different version (doesn't support as many other DOS
kernels).  However, as I no longer work on the FreeDOS kernel, it will
be up to the current maintainers to determine if that version of sys
continues to stay with the kernel or if it diverges (branches) or if
it will be periodically sync'd with the current sys sources.

There is one version of sys, but it actually produces several
different executable versions - one for the FreeDOS/DOS-C kernels, one
for EDR-DOS*, and optionally with generic DOS support for MS/PC DOS +
other kernels.  *EDR-DOS version is not actually released in binary
form, but the FreeDOS release supports EDR-DOS as well even without
the generic DOS support enabled as they both use the same boot
sectors.  Latest SYS version is 3.7b.

Jeremy