XOSL-OW Files

XOSL-OW116 Release Notes
========================

XOSL-OW116 is an Open Watcom port of XOSL115 released by Geurt Vos in 2000.
XOSL115 is developed with the Borland C++ 3.1 tool set, XOSL-OW116 is 
based on the Open Watcom version 1.8 tool set.
This Open Watcom Port allows for future development of XOSL using an Open 
Source development tool set.

XOSL-OW116 has no new functionality compared to XOSL115 but it does give
improved behavior on specific PC hardware. In fact XOSL115 stability issues
on some PC platforms have been the reason for porting XOSL to the Open 
Watcom tool set in the first place.

To give an example, using XOSL115 on a Compaq Armada M300 system will give
the following stability issues: 
- Launching the Ranish Partition Manager which is embedded in the XOSL boot
  manager (Ctrl-P) results in a non-responsive keyboard.
- Booting into the Smart Boot Manager (used to support booting from CD/DVD)
  results in a non-responsive keyboard.
- Booting into Linux using the XOSL boot manager might not succeed because
  of a non-responsive keyboard after the XOSL boot manager hands over 
  control to the Linux boot process.

In the XOSL-OW116 version these stability issues have been solved by 
implementing an improved A20 Line Switching algorithm and by making sure
that the keyboard buffer is flushed before the XOSL boot manager hands over
control to the Ranish Partition manager, the Smart Boot Manager or the
Operating System Boot Process.
 

XOSL-OW116 is in no way related to XOSL2. XOSL2 only includes limited 
functional changes compared to XOSL115. Where XOSL115 installation will
fail when during the installation process backup files can not be written
onto the installation disk (which will be the case when trying to install 
XOSL115 from CD/DVD) XOSL2 will simply ignore this and continue with the 
installation.

In XOSL-OW116 this is solved using a RAM disk when installing XOSL-OW116
from CD/DVD. During installation process backup files will be written onto 
the RAM disk. 
Because storage on a RAM disk is volatile (e.g. files will be lost after 
rebooting the system) it is up to the user to copy the backup files to a 
permanent storage device before rebooting the system.


Files available for download:

xosl-ow116.zip
--------------
In folder: xosl-ow116 / Binaries

The XOSL-OW116 installer (DOS-executable)
	

xoslfont.zip
------------
In folder: xosl-ow116 / Binaries

Utility to support different fonts for the XOSL Graphical User Interface


fdxosl-ow116.img
----------------
In folder: xosl-ow116 / BootMedia / BootFloppy

Freedos bootable floppy image including the xosl-ow116 installer.
In case you don't want to make use of the Freedos bootable floppy 
image but prefer to create a bootable DOS floppy by yourself 
download the XOSL installer (xosl-ow116.zip) and add the files in 
this archive to your bootable DOS floppy.


fdcdxosl-ow116.iso
------------------
In folder: xosl-ow116 / BootMedia / BootCD

Freedos bootable CD Image including the xosl-ow116 installer.
In case you don't want to make use of the Freedos bootable CD/DVD
image but prefer to create a bootable CD/DVD by yourself download 
the XOSL installer (xosl-ow116.zip) and add the files in this 
archive to your bootable DOS CD/DVD.


xosl-ow116-manual.zip
---------------------
In folder: xosl-ow116 / Manual

XOSL-OW116 Manual (HTML format)


xosl_ow116src.zip
-----------------
In folder: xosl-ow116 / Source

XOSL-OW116 Source Files. The XOSL-OW116 source files have to be compiled
using the Open Watcom version 1.8 tool set.

  	
Remark: The XOSL-OW116 source files will not compile using the latest 
        version of the Open Watcom tool set (version 1.9).