Author Archives: David A

New driver packages released

Arca Noae is pleased to announce the immediate availability of updates for ACPI, JFS, FAT32, and Panorama to match what is in the recently released ArcaOS v5.0.6.

If you updated to ArcaOS 5.0.6 you already have these updates. These updates are recommended for everyone.

ACPI

The power manager in the daemon was enhanced to better handle multiple CPUs.
ACPICA was updated to the current version.

JFS

The boot loader has a fix that prevents an IPE if the boot volume has empty directories that are read before the IFS is loaded.

FAT32

Improved cache performance and stability.
Better conformity with standards when formatting media.
Improved messages for errors and utilities, including cache control.
Improved disk check handling for mismatched FATs.

Panorama

The Custom Resolution module was enhanced to better handle some types of Intel BIOS if patching is necessary.

For more information, please read the ReadMe for the specific package.

if you have problems with any of these drivers, please read the wiki first. If your problem cannot be resolved with the information in the wiki or the ReadMe, then the problem should be reported in the ticketing system.

If you have ArcaOS, these driver packages are available for download from the Arca Noae website as part of the Support & Maintenance subscription for your ArcaOS product. Please log into your account and see your ArcaOS order details page to access your software.

If you have an Arca Noae OS/2 & eCS Drivers and Software Subscription, these driver packages are available for download from the Arca Noae website as part of your Arca Noae OS/2 & eCS Drivers and Software Subscription. Please log into your account in order to access your software.

If you are still running OS/2 and/or eComStation systems and haven’t yet purchased a software subscription, this is a great reason to do so now. It may also be a good time to consider moving up to ArcaOS.

USB driver package version 12.07 released

USB Arca Noae is pleased to announce the immediate availability of release 12.07 of our USB stack.

This release has improvements to device enumeration that will fix some problems with devices getting missed during boot. It also fixes another defect in EHCI isochronous handling and has some other cosmetic updates.

As usual, this release is update only. It will only update an existing installation. It will not install USB support and it will not break existing XHCI support if you have it. More information about the USB drivers can be found in the wiki.

If you have problems with any of the drivers in this release, please read the Troubleshooting Guide in the wiki first. If your problem cannot be resolved with the Troubleshooting Guide, then the problem should be reported in the ticketing system.

If you have ArcaOS, this driver package is available for download from the Arca Noae website as part of the Support & Maintenance subscription for your ArcaOS product. Please log into your account and see your ArcaOS order details page to access your software.

If you have an Arca Noae OS/2 & eCS Drivers and Software Subscription, this driver package is available for download from the Arca Noae website as part of your Arca Noae OS/2 & eCS Drivers and Software Subscription. Please log into your account in order to access your software.

USB XHCI driver preview available (v12.06)

USB Arca Noae is pleased to announce the immediate availability of a preview release of our new xHCI driver. xHCI controllers are designed to support USB1, USB2, and USB3 devices.

This release is a preview release that has some limitations. The xHCI driver in this release is exactly the same xHCI driver that is included in ArcaOS 5.0.5 and has the same limitations regardless if you got it by installing ArcaOS or by installing this package.

The xHCI preview is only available for ArcaOS customers. The full GA release (coming soon) will be available to ArcaOS Support & Maintenance subscription holders for free, and to eCS and OS2 users for a small fee.
The xHCI preview is intended to be a one time only release. We don’t expect to release any updates to the preview. If there are updates to the rest of the USB stack before the full GA release of the xHCI driver, those updates will not contain the xHCI driver and may render the preview inoperative.
The xHCI preview requires that the version 12.06 USB stack be installed first.
The xHCI preview has no support. Please do not open tickets to report problems with the preview.
The xHCI preview has limited functionality. The limitations only apply to devices connected to an xHCI controller. If you have a system that has OHCI, UHCI, and/or EHCI controllers in addition to xHCI controllers, devices connected to these other controllers are not affected by the preview and will have full functionality as before.
- Isochronous transfer support is not implemented in the xHCI driver yet. This means that any kind of streaming media such as audio and video won’t work when plugged into an xHCI connected port.
- Problems have been reported with a small number of xHCI controllers. Depending on the specific xHCI controller(s) you have, your experience using the preview may vary.
Make sure your system is fully up-to-date. Specifically, you should be using the latest Arca Noae 14.201 kernel, the latest ACPI PSD, and not using the /VW switch for the PSD.

Unlike the USB stack package, the xHCI preview package is not “update only”. The installer in the xHCI preview can and will install the xHCI driver on your system, but only if you are running ArcaOS and only if you have detectable xHCI controllers in your system. If you are not running ArcaOS the xHCI driver package will notify you and will not run.

More information about the USB drivers can be found in the USB wiki. Information about the xHCI preview can also be found on the Troubleshooting Guide, and may be updated as more information becomes available.

This driver package is not available for download from the Arca Noae OS/2 & eCS Drivers and Software Subscription.

If you are still running OS/2 and/or eComStation systems this may be a good time to consider moving up to ArcaOS.

USB driver package version 12.06 released

USB Arca Noae is pleased to announce the immediate availability of release 12.06 of our USB stack.

This release has a minor fix that affects certain USBCALLS applications. Version 12.06 is the same version as in the recently released ArcaOS 5.0.5 so if you install or update to ArcaOS 5.0.5 you already have these drivers. As usual, this release is update only. It will only update an existing installation. It will not install USB support and will not install new drivers. More information about the USB drivers can be found in the wiki.

USB driver package version 12.05 released

USB Arca Noae is pleased to announce the immediate availability of release 12.05 of our USB stack.

This release has only a few minor fixes and enhancements, but it is required in order to use the upcoming xHCI driver. This update is recommended for everyone. As usual, this release is update only. It will only update an existing installation. It will not install USB support and will not install new drivers. More information about the USB drivers can be found in the wiki.

USB driver package version 12.04 released

USB Arca Noae is pleased to announce the immediate availability of release 12.04 of our USB stack.

This release has both minor and major changes including:

Fixed a trap in the USBCALLS driver.
Fixed some minor problems initializing devices in USBD.
A new USBMSD driver which brings significant stability and reliability improvements.
A new USBMOS driver for Moschip based USB to ethernet adapters.

This update is recommended for everyone. As usual, this release is update only. It will only update an existing installation. It will not install USB support and will not install new drivers. More information about the USB drivers can be found in the wiki.

ACPI Driver Package version 3.23.13 released

Arca Noae is pleased to announce the immediate availability of our ACPI Driver Package for ArcaOS, OS/2, and eComStation version 3.23.13.

This release contains improved bus bridge fixup logic for systems with multiple busses and a problematic BIOS. Please see the ACPI Driver ReadMe for details about this update.

This is a non-critical maintenance update that only contains an improvement for specific systems in rare cases. This update is recommended for everyone.

USB driver package version 12.03 released

USB Arca Noae is pleased to announce the immediate availability of release 12.03 of our USB stack.

This release has some minor but important fixes that primarily affect Isochronous devices and hubs. This update is recommended for everyone. As usual, this release is update only. It will only update an existing installation. It will not install USB support and will not install new drivers. More information about the USB drivers can be found in the wiki.

Panorama Video Driver Package version 1.15 released

Arca Noae is pleased to announce the immediate availability of our Panorama Video Driver Package for OS/2 and eComStation version 1.15.

This is a maintenance release containing some minor changes affecting driver startup. This release contains all the changes that were included in v1.14 but fixes the regressions that were reported. If you previously installed v1.14 you should probably install this update. This update is recommended for everyone, but it is not critical, so it can be installed at your convenience. It should not change the way existing installations operate.

More information about the Panorama Package may be found in the Panorama wiki.

ACPI Driver Package version 3.23.12 released

Arca Noae is pleased to announce the immediate availability of our ACPI Driver Package for ArcaOS, OS/2, and eComStation version 3.23.12.

This release includes a few improvements and enhancements to make the PSD run a little more efficiently and also handle some newer hardware better. Please see the ACPI Driver ReadMe for details about this update.

This is a non-critical maintenance update that only contains improvements. This update does not contain any bug fixes, but it is more efficient and uses less memory than previous versions. This update is recommended for everyone.