Tag Archives: upgrade

ArcaOS Desktop updated to 1.0.14

Dynamic Icons[Edit: Download links have been properly adjusted as of this writing, and should all be working. Apologies for any inconvenience.]

Arca Noae is pleased to announce the immediate availability of ArcaOS Desktop (ANXWP) 1.0.14 in English, German, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, and Russian. This is a maintenance release containing bug-fixes and updates that have accumulated over the last year. The primary improvements include:

XShutdown

  • Power-off options have been simplified. The ACPI/APM shutdown option has been removed since the system always uses ACPI if it is available.
  • The shutdown sound which failed to play in Lite versions has now been restored.
  • The XShutdown dialog has been updated to suppress the list of BIOS-bootable partitions when booted in UEFI mode. It should also do a better job of handling situations where the data it collects from AirBoot is corrupt.

Folder Refresh

This feature has been completely rewritten to ensure that every filesystem update is reflected in the display within 1.5 seconds. The rewrite also fixes a bug where the code might try to delete a file that had been deleted then recreated.

Russian NLS (NEW)

Initial Russian language support has been provided by Yurii Zamotailo.

In addition, included is a minor update to Arca Noae Removable Media Monitor which suppresses attachment notifications (and subsequent failure messages) when USB floppy drives and some USB optical drives are plugged in.

See the Version Information topic of the ArcaOS Desktop Users Guide and Reference located in the Help Center for more details about this release.

If you have ArcaOS, this software 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 are still running OS/2 and/or eComStation this is a great reason to consider moving up to ArcaOS. This update includes reserved features licensed for use exclusively with ArcaOS.

 

DFSee 16

DFSee version 16.9 released

DFSee version 16.9 has been released, which is a MINOR release with some bugfixes. Because this is a MINOR release, you get it for FREE if you already have a 16.x key.

Of course, as usual, there are also smaller improvements and bug fixes.

DFSee is a very powerful disk-utility with disk partitioning, filesystem and disk analysis, file recovery/UNDELETE and smart imaging or cloning of partitions or complete disks.

It will require an upgrade if you currently have a registration for an older MAJOR version.

Direct download links from the DFSee website:

https://www.dfsee.com/dfsee/dfsee_install.zip
https://www.dfsee.com/dfsee/dfsee_windows.msi
https://www.dfsee.com/dfsee/dfsee_os2_wpi.exe

Self-booting options:

https://www.dfsee.com/dfsee/dfsee16x_dsk.zip
https://www.dfsee.com/dfsee/dfsee16x_iso.zip
https://www.dfsee.com/dfsee/dfsee16x_stick_iso.zip

Or from the HOBBES website:

http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/incoming/dfsee169.zip
or (after processing):
https://hobbes.nmsu.edu/?dir=%2F&stype=all&sort=type_name&search=dfsee

Functional changes since 16.8

  • RECOVER ExFAT new warning hint when ASSUMING files are contiguous
  • PART Fixed possible crash (string overflow) in certain displays
  • D or DOWN: Correctly go to FS-entry sector, even if bootsec empty
  • EXPORT/IMPORT sector list, fixed displayed the filename used
  • RECOVER, SAVETO and BROWSE streamlined WARNING/ERROR reporting
  • RECOVER, SAVETO and BROWSE recovery, always set file timestamps
  • CMD_WARNING on FileSaveAs alloc fail, is OK, so set timestamps!
Warpstock 2021 Online

Tune in to Warpstock 2021 Online

Warpstock 2021 will happen online at 12:00pm EDT (16:00 UTC) this  Saturday, September 18.

Sessions will be a mix of live and prerecorded presentations, in 45-50-minute slots, scheduled to start on the hour.

David Azarewicz, Lewis Rosenthal, and Alex Taylor will be among those presenting this year on a variety of topics of interest concerning ArcaOS 5.0 and 5.1, device drivers, UEFI, GPT, and more.

Questions may be posed via YouTube Chat as well as IRC during the event.

The WarpEvents YouTube channel is the place to watch the event stream.

The URL for the #warpstock IRC channel is: ircs://irc.libera.chat:6697/warpstock (TLS encrypted),
or irc://irc.libera.chat/warpstock (plain text), or https://web.libera.chat/  (web interface, type #warpstock into Channel field).

The conference is entirely free this year, and no registration is necessary.

Warpstock Europe 2021

Join us for Warpstock Europe 2021 Online

Warpstock Europe 2021 will begin online at 14:00 UTC this coming Saturday, June 5. (For quick reference, that’s 10am EDT/7am PDT in the US and Canada, and 16:00 CET.)

Sessions will be a mix of live and prerecorded presentations, with the presenters available to answer questions in realtime, submitted during the event via IRC. See the Warpstock Europe website for details.

The Warpstock Europe YouTube channel is the place to watch the event stream. This channel should be viewable with any ArcaOS release, using Firefox or SeaMonkey, or any other device or OS you might want to use.

IRC Channel on Freenode: #WSE2021.

The conference is entirely free this year, and no registration is necessary.

Both Lewis Rosenthal and Alex Taylor will be among those presenting this year.

Arca Noae Package Manager version 1.0.6 has been released

Arca Noae is pleased to announce the immediate availability of an updated Arca Noae Package Manager for ArcaOS, OS/2, and eComStation. (1.0.6)

This is update includes an array of substantial enhancements:

  • Fixed several errors in storing and retrieving credentials for secure repositories.
  • Added unresolvable RPMs to deferred-package logic.
  • Identify secure repositories in repository manager even when disabled.
  • Prevent duplicate yum repository names.
  • Added support for updating PKGPROC.LST.
  • Downgrading a package now incorporates PKGPROC.LST logic.
  • Various UI fixes and tweaks.

Arca Noae Package Manager is available in English with Spanish, French, Italian, German, Dutch, and Swedish language packs.

ANPM 1.0.6 requires WarpIN 1.0.24 or higher for installation. This WarpIN package is available from Hobbes.

This open source utility is available to everyone, free of charge, regardless whether you have an Arca Noae software subscription or an ArcaOS license.

Please review the wiki for important first-time installation and upgrade notes and other tips.

Warpstock 2020 Online

Tune in to Warpstock 2020 Online

Warpstock 2020 will happen online at 9:00am EST (14:00 UTC) this  Saturday, November 7, for those in North America and western Europe, and sessions will repeat in a second block beginning at 8:00pm EST (01:00 UTC, Sunday, November 8) for those in the Asia/Pacific region and eastern Europe. Each block should only be 3-4 hours in length.

Sessions will be a mix of live and prerecorded presentations, with the presenters available to answer questions in realtime, submitted during the event via IRC or YouTube chat.

The WarpEvents YouTube channel is the place to watch the event stream. This channel should be viewable with any ArcaOS release, using Firefox or SeaMonkey, or any other device or OS you might want to use.

IRC Channel: irc://freenode/warpstock

The conference is entirely free this year, and no registration is necessary.

Both David Azarewicz and Lewis Rosenthal will be among those presenting this year.

Arca Noae announces GUID for OS/2 Type 1 GPT partitions

In our last post concerning GPT in ArcaOS, we discussed the first phase of support and how our specification allows for multiple partitions up to 2TB in size. As every GUID (Globally Unique Identifier) partition type requires a GUID, we have set:

90B6FF38-B98F-4358-A21F-48F35B4A8AD3

as the GUID for OS/2 Type 1 partitions.

Any GPT partition using this GUID should ultimately be recognizable by any GPT-aware operating system as belonging to ArcaOS.

Although this is now just a simple proclamation, it is, in point of fact, a major advancement for the platform, and sets the stage for our initial GPT support, currently planned for release with ArcaOS 5.1 in 2021.

Arca Noae makes no guaranty as to availability of GPT support for ArcaOS 5.1. When available, GPT support will be an ArcaOS feature only, with no plans to make the technology available for other OS/2 distributions.

Don’t have ArcaOS yet? Now is a great time to pick up a license or two and replace those aging Warp 4 or eComStation installations and get to know what’s new and improved. If you’ve never run OS/2 before, you’ll be amazed. If you last used OS/2 in the 1990’s, you’ll be even more amazed. ArcaOS runs the vast majority of existing OS/2 Warp 4 software, because it really is OS/2 – just better. ArcaOS supports more modern hardware than any other OS/2 distribution available today, making hardware upgrades much easier than ever before. An ArcaOS 5.0 license now means steep discounts on future upgrades, including 5.1.

Arca Noae’s plan for supporting GPT disk layouts in ArcaOS

Through the release of ArcaOS 5.0.6, all OS/2 distributions have only supported MBR (Master Boot Record) partitioning schemes, that is, up to four partitions on a disk, with the possibility of creating multiple logical volumes in one extended partition. This partitioning scheme is also limited to a maximum of 2TB per disk.

The GPT (GUID Partition Table) breaks out of these restrictions by supporting an almost unlimited number of partitions (without the need for logical volumes) and disks exceeding 2TB.

Supporting GPT is another major step for multiboot configurations where the disk has already been partitioned using this style, which will allow ArcaOS to install alongside other GPT-aware operating systems (Windows 10, modern Linux distros, etc.), without the need to install a second MBR-partitioned disk or to wipe, re-partition, and reformat all volumes on the existing disk.

Arca Noae’s approach to supporting GPT will be multi-phased, with the first phase of development currently underway and anticipated for release with ArcaOS 5.1. The design specification of our initial GPT support is to allow for partitions up to the current 2TB maximum size, with multiple partitions of this size possible on disks larger than 2TB. Our specification further provides that ArcaOS be able to create, delete, and modify GPT partitions which are identified by their GUIDs as being “OS/2-type” partitions, and lastly, that GPT support be available for both traditional BIOS (for data volumes) and UEFI-based systems (for boot and data volumes).

Arca Noae makes no guaranty as to availability of GPT support for ArcaOS 5.1. When available, GPT support will be an ArcaOS feature only, with no plans to make the technology available for other OS/2 distributions.

Don’t have ArcaOS yet? Now is a great time to pick up a license or two and replace those aging Warp 4 or eComStation installations and get to know what’s new and improved. If you’ve never run OS/2 before, you’ll be amazed. If you last used OS/2 in the 1990’s, you’ll be even more amazed. ArcaOS runs the vast majority of existing OS/2 Warp 4 software, because it really is OS/2 – just better. ArcaOS supports more modern hardware than any other OS/2 distribution available today, making hardware upgrades much easier than ever before. An ArcaOS 5.0 license now means steep discounts on future upgrades, including 5.1.

Further progress on Arca Noae’s UEFI support for ArcaOS

The UEFI ForumIn our last post on this topic,we reported that much UEFI development work remained to be completed, primarily regarding DOS and Win-OS/2 sessions. Today, that work has advanced considerably, with more DOS and Win-OS/2 apps and games now running under ArcaOS on a wider range of systems than ever before. In fact, on systems which are incapable of providing usable DOS and Win-OS/2 sessions when booted in BIOS mode, DOS and Win-OS/2 run splendidly when booted in UEFI mode, thanks to the environment we create. This should provide a truly amazing experience for all retro-gamers seeking the ability to run classic DOS and Windows games in a native environment without the overhead of a virtualization layer.

Some of the classic DOS and Windows games which work well under current ArcaOS betas in UEFI mode include (note video modes and environments listed, as well):

  • 1869 (VGA 320×200)
  • Caesar 2 (VESA)
  • Many CGA games
  • C&C: Red Alert (VGA 320×200)
  • Civilization 1 (EGA/VGA 320×200)
  • Civilization 2 (Win-OS/2)
  • Colonization (VGA 320×200)
  • Commander Keen
  • Conquest of the New World (VESA)
  • Fallout (VESA)
  • Heretic (VGA 320×200)
  • Heroes of Might and Magic 2 (VESA)
  • High Seas Trader (VGA 320×200)
  • HomeAlone (VGA mode-x 320×200)
  • King’s Bounty (VGA 320×200)
  • King`s Quest II, IV (EGA 320×200)
  • Legions (Win-OS/2)
  • Lemmings (CGA/EGA 320×200)
  • Master of Magic (VGA mode-x 320×200)
  • Master of Orion (VGA mode-x 320×200)
  • Master of Orion 2 (VESA)
  • Merchant Prince (VGA 320×200)
  • Outpost 1 (Win-OS/2)
  • Outrun (CGA/EGA 320×200)
  • Planet X3 – (VGA 320×200, CGA 320×200, CGA 640×200)
  • Pool (CGA/EGA 320×200)
  • Quake (VGA 320×200)
  • Settlers 2 (VESA)
  • SimCity (EGA)
  • SimCity 2000 (VESA)
  • Space Quest I, III (EGA/VGA 320×200)
  • TES: Daggerfall (VGA 320×200)
  • Tie Fighter (VGA 320×200)
  • WarCraft (VGA 320×200)
  • Wolfenstein3d (VGA mode-x 320×200)
  • X-COM: UFO (VGA 320×200)

In addition, same very popular development and office titles are running quite well, such as:

  • Borland C 3.1
  • Boralnd Pascal 7.0
  • Image Alchemy
  • MS Word 5.5
  • Multimate 4.0
  • Lotus 1-2-3 3.4 and 4.0
  • Lotus Symphony
  • Q&A Write
  • QPV 1.7 (image viewer)
  • Quattro Pro 5.6
  • WordPerfect 6.0
  • WordStar 7.0

Both full screen and windowed DOS, Win-OS/2, and OS/2 sessions are operable, and OS/2 applications continue to run fine under UEFI in our testing, as well.

Installation in UEFI mode has also advanced considerably. Current betas install under traditional BIOS or UEFI from the same media, whether DVD or bootable USB stick. The current mode of the system is auto-detected without the need for user intervention. When released with ArcaOS 5.1 (anticipated sometime in 2021), this should provide for a truly effortless installation.

ArcaOS 5.1 will be an upgrade from ArcaOS 5.0. For a more complete list of planned enhancements for 5.1, please visit our ArcaOS Roadmap page. ArcaOS 5.1 will also continue to fully support traditional BIOS-based systems; UEFI is meant to expand device support for the latest generations of hardware.

Don’t have ArcaOS yet? Now is a great time to pick up a license or two and replace those aging Warp 4 or eComStation installations and get to know what’s new and improved. If you’ve never run OS/2 before, you’ll be amazed. If you last used OS/2 in the 1990’s, you’ll be even more amazed. ArcaOS runs the vast majority of existing OS/2 Warp 4 software, because it really is OS/2 – just better. ArcaOS supports more modern hardware than any other OS/2 distribution available today, making hardware upgrades much easier than ever before. An ArcaOS 5.0 license now means steep discounts on future upgrades, including 5.1.