Category Archives: New software releases

Announcements of new software packages and updates.

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.

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.

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.

ArcaOS 5.0.4 updates for 2020-02-26

Dynamic Icons Several packages included in ArcaOS 5.0.4 have been updated or refreshed today, and are now available 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. Specifically, these are:

Dynamic Icons 2.5.2.1 (refreshed)
Archive Tool 1.03.03 (updated from 1.0.0)
ArcaOS Desktop 1.0.13.1 (updated from 1.0.12+)

In addition, it is now easier to identify which packages have been updated since the last ArcaOS ISO release.

More updates are on the way to the Support & Maintenance subscription channel as we continue our work on the next release of ArcaOS. Watch for more announcements right here.

If you are still running OS/2 and/or eComStation systems and haven’t yet moved up to ArcaOS, this is a great reason to do so now. If you’ve already made the switch, but haven’t renewed renewed your support subscription, this is also a good time. Not sure what’s coming next? Have a look at our product roadmap pages.

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.

Driver and Software Preview Releases: Some General Guidelines

From time to time, we may make feature preview releases available. Driver and software preview releases differ from new GA releases and testcase packages in several ways. Consider testcase packages first:

Packages uploaded to the testcase files area are made available to specific customers to evaluate the effectiveness of various changes to our GA versions, usually to address one or more issues reported in specific trouble tickets. Feedback from the affected customer(s) is requested when we provide these packages, and these links are limited to only the custmer(s) involved in the related ticket(s), not for general use, and as always, not for sharing with other users.
Sometimes, we may go through several testcase revisions. Usually changes which have been vetted through this process will end up in the next GA of the package. Once the GA is released, all customers with related subscription access to the new package will be able to download and install it.
Testcase packages are almost always time-limited, and the remaining time will be prominently displayed in the banner during bootup or for other software, at program start. If a new GA of the package is not available when nearing the expiration, simply follow-up in the ticket to request a refresh.

In contrast, preview releases serve a different purpose and are subject to different terms of use:

Preview releases are made available to all customers with related subscription access.
Preview releases generally are not updated (one preview is provided before GA).
Preview releases may be time-limited. If a preview release is time-limited, that does not mean that another preview will be made available.
If a time-limited preview release has expired and a GA version has not yet been released, it may be necessary to uninstall it.
No trouble tickets are accepted for problems with preview releases. These are not beta tests. A preview may simply be feature-limited version of what would otherwise be considered finished software, or it may be a preview of as-yet-unfinished software that will be coming soon. Because these releases are previews – and may not be fully functional – reports of missing functionality, unexpected behavior, etc. are not relevant and will not be addressed. Please read the documentation that comes with the preview for a description of its particular limitations.
Preview releases may be completely broken or disabled by a subsequent update of another related GA package. As an example, if installing a preview release of a network driver, and later updating the network stack package, that preview release driver may cease to function. This is not unexpected behavior, and not a software fault. To continue to use the preview, simply return the system to its previous state, wait for the GA release of the driver, and then update the driver and the rest of the stack.
No feedback via email or tickets is requested for preview releases. They are for your benefit and use only, and intended to provide a sample of what is to come.

In the near future, we hope to bring preview releases for various works in later stages of development.

All previews will be available through the ArcaOS Support and Maintenance Subscription, However, some preview packages may not be available through the Arca Noae OS/2 & eCS Drivers and Software Subscription, so now may be a good time to consider moving up to ArcaOS.

Dynamic Icons version 2.5.2 for ArcaOS released

Dynamic Icons, the new spin on Sunny Icons from eCo Software, specifically enhanced and built for ArcaOS, has been updated to version 2.5.2, and is now available 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.

Version 2.5.2 includes a new unified Icon page in the WPS Properties notebook with the ability to easily switch between and browse for either a traditional icon file or a PNG image. In addition, it is now possible to add one-line comments to the “bigicons.txt” icon list file (see the online help from any Icon page for more details).

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.

Panorama Video Driver Package version 1.14 withdrawn

Due to some serious regressions that were not discovered during QA testing, I have withdrawn Panorama version 1.14. It has been removed from the subscription download area. The previous version v1.13 is now the latest version available. Originally I had thought that I would be able to get v1.15 out quickly, but the issues are difficult to address and may take some time to resolve. All of the regressions involve a failure to startup properly on certain systems. If you have already installed v1.14 and it is working OK for you, it is safe to keep using it. You do not need to revert back to v1.13.

Once these regressions are addressed, a new version 1.15 will be released. Watch for that announcement. During this transition time, the on-line wiki and on-line readme file will still reflect version 1.14 even though only v1.13 is available.

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

If you have an Arca Noae OS/2 & eCS Drivers and Software Subscription, the Panorama 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.

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

Panorama Video Driver Package version 1.14 released

Arca Noae is pleased to announce the immediate availability of our Panorama Video Driver Package for OS/2 and eComStation version 1.14.

This is a maintenance release containing some minor changes. The release changes the way that MTRRs are set for Write Combining. A larger aperture is used which may make allocation easier on some systems. National Language Support is also updated and an updated gradd.sys driver is included. This update is not critical and should not change the way existing installations operate.

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