Computer Installation Guide - Dragon Clan Series

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Text File | 1996-12-31 | 12.7 KB | 341 lines

------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ---------------------------- Updates to PMODE/W ------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ PMODE/W v1.33: -------------- ) Fixed a bug in PMWLITE which caused an error during compression of executables containing zero byte BSS objects. ) INT 31h/AX=204h no longer destroys AL. ) The correct exception number is now displayed in the status dump. PMODE/W v1.32: -------------- ) Fixed a bug in the internal error handler which caused PMODE/W to crash Windows in the event of a fatal DPMI error. ) Windows NT Workstation fails to free DPMI callbacks on termination of a client program. This would cause PMODE/W to fail during initialization after 8 executions at the command prompt. PMODE/W will now manually free all callbacks in order to compensate for this bug. ) Corrected memory problems under raw on systems with 64MB of RAM or more. PMODE/W v1.31: -------------- ) Fixed registers which weren't being saved properly in the exception handler stack frame. ) Compensated for a bug in Windows which caused INT 21h/AH=51h to return a protected mode selector rather than a real mode segment. It appears that the Windows DPMI extends this function when it is called from a protected mode program. I suppose that Windows uses this for its own API and 32bit programs, however it should not be permitted to interfere with the operation of DOS protected mode programs. ) Extended INT 21h/AH=62h (see PMODEW.DOC) ) Hooking an exception interrupt with INT 31h/AX=205h will no longer cause an error. However, doing so is pointless since the handler will never be called. (PMODE/W v1.30+ requires that exceptions be hooked via DPMI function INT 31h/AX=203h) PMODE/W v1.30: -------------- ) Added exception handling and DPMI functions 0202h and 0203h. ) Fixed a problem with BSS data on the last page of the executable that was not being cleared properly (thanks to Niklas Beisert for this one). ) Changed the behavior of IRQ passup to be more compatible with remapped PICs. ) Compensated for a bug in the old Borland DPMI host which was causing PMODE/W to lock up under raw/XMS. Apparently applications making use of the Borland DPMI runtime system were leaving the FS and GS segment registers in an unusable state. ) Added some new example programs. PMODE/W v1.24: -------------- ) PMWSETUP now supports command line configuration options. See UTILS.DOC for important usage information. ) Apparently ECX was being cleared during calls to INT 33h/AX=000Ch when ES and EDX were equal to zero. It is now up to the program to set ECX to its proper value upon entry to this function. ) Added DPMI function 0002h. (See PMODEW.DOC for more information) ) Fixed problem with only a single page frame of memory being available under a VCPI server. This was causing random crashes under EMM386 with the NOEMS switch. ) Byte offset fixups are now supported. ) The BIOS data area can now be accessed via selector 40h under Raw/XMS/VCPI. Under DPMI, it is up to the host to provide this selector. This should fix problems with some buggy DOS/4GW programs. ) DPMI function 0101h should no longer crash if an invalid selector is passed in DX. PMODE/W v1.23: -------------- ) Fixed a bug in PMWLITE compressor which sometimes caused compression to fail in a few very rare cases. ) DPMI function 400h will no longer destroy the FS register. ) The CPU detection routine now uses the CPUID instruction in order to properly identify newer 486 and 586 class processors. ) DOS extender info function added (See INT 31h/AX=EEFFh in PMODEW.DOC). ) Added an optional startup banner (It can be disabled in PMWSETUP). ) Mouse initialization now uses a software reset instead of the slower hardware reset. PMODE/W v1.22: -------------- ) UPDATES.DOC is now in reverse order. ) All memory blocks allocated during object loading are now 4096 byte aligned. ) PMWBIND and PMWLITE now include WATCOM's "BINW" directory in their search for PMODEW.EXE. ) Fixed a minor inconsistancy in the DOS extender detection function. ) Added DPMI compliant pass-up functionality for the BIOS timer tick interrupt 1Ch, and the DOS break interrupt 23h and critical error interrupt 24h. ) INT 1Bh is now hooked by PMODE/W and passed up to protected mode for compatibility with the WATCOM signal function. ) Returned to simply setting the high bits of ESP to zero in case of a 16bit stack in a DPMI real mode callback, seeing as how the previous more complex solution had no effect on the problem. ) PMWLITE will now allow compression of EXEs that have objects which are 2 bytes or smaller. ) PMWSETUP now limits the maximum number of real mode callbacks to 80h in order to provide for internal use of callbacks by PMODE/W. PMODE/W v1.21: -------------- ) Fixed a minor internal problem that might crash PMODE/W if the mouse real mode callback failed to allocate properly. ) INT 31h function 0Ch will now make sure that the user mouse handler is always called using a 32bit stack, even under a DPMI which provides only a 16bit stack like OS/2 Warp. ) Fixed INT 31h functions 300h, 301h, 302h behavior of using the real mode stack to store some system variables during mode switching in order to account for user supplied stacks with parameters already on them. ) Corrected for a problem which seems to be caused by the new HIMEM.SYS which is included with Windows 95. When using the combination of HIMEM, EMM386, and NDOS/4DOS, a lockup would occur while PMODE/W was attempting to get the status of the XMS driver. We tracked this down and it appears to be associated with A20 handler #2 of HIMEM.SYS v3.95. When this A20 handler is used, the lockup appears. We found that while PMODE/W locked up, other programs were working. It was soon discovered that the only difference between these other programs and PMODE/W was that there were DOS calls in between the calls to the XMS driver. For those technical people out there, we see it like this: Unless ANY DOS call is executed after INT 2Fh/AX=4300h and before INT 2Fh/AX=4310h, it locks up during the call to the XMS API entry point. We have done a lot of testing and we do not understand the reasoning behind this. So, we simply stuck a call to INT 21h/AH=30h in there and it works just like all the rest of the programs we tested. If Microsoft would like to comment (fat chance), we would be glad to hear (ignore) their explanation (excuse). PMODE/W v1.20: -------------- ) Added compression of protected mode executables. ) INT 33h function 0Ch will now compensate for OS/2 Warp's obscene habit of passing the real mode mouse callback a 16bit stack selector. This behavior was sometimes causing slowdowns and lockups with user mouse handlers in OS/2 DOS boxes. ) Fixed a problem where the exit code was being destroyed during cleanup. ) Under VCPI/XMS/raw, INT 31h functions 0702h and 0703h will now always return with the carry flag clear. Since PMODE/W will never page out memory, these functions are unnecessary. Under DPMI however, the DPMI host will handle this function. These two functions can now be checked for error while still returning successfully even when a DPMI host is not present. ) Fixed minor internal problem with an error not being returned correctly at startup if the A20 gate could not be enabled. ) Changed DPMI function 0400h to return DPMI host version number of 0.9 instead of 1.0. ) Documentation for PMWSETUP, PMWBIND, and PMWLITE can now be found in the file UTILS.DOC PMODE/W v1.16: -------------- ) Fixed system crash on exit under a DPMI host like Windows or OS/2. ) INT 33h function 000Ch will work correctly when called with 0000:00000000 for the function address. ) Fixed DPMI INT 31h functions 0900h, 0901h, and 0902h. PMODE/W v1.15: -------------- ) Fixed a bug with fixup buffer allocation at startup. In rare conditions, when not enough low memory was left to relocate the protected mode program after it was loaded into low memory, PMODE/W would exit with an out of memory error message. ) A 386 instruction had slipped into our code before our 386 detection. This caused PMODE/W to lock up under 80286 processors and below instead of exiting with the appropriate error message. Needless to say it has been fixed. ) Fixed IRQ handling to be compatible with possible hardware remapping of IRQ vectors. ) PMODE/W now backs up and restores the entire real mode interrupt vector table and the PIC masks upon exit instead of just the IRQ vectors. ) We have changed our licensing policy and added a student discount. ) Addition of ASM example files. ) New custom bind utility! PLEASE READ the "Utilities" section of PMODEW.DOC before using it. PMODE/W v1.14: -------------- ) Fixed a bug where INT 21h function 4Fh did not copy the DTA buffer properly. ) Changed initial system memory allocation behavior. Under VCPI memory managers, both VCPI and XMS memory will be allocated. This compensates for memory managers that do not allow VCPI access to their XMS memory pool. Specifically, this fixes a problem with not getting any extended memory under EMM386 with EMS turned off. ) INT 31h function 0100h was incorrectly documented in stating the DX register was the number of paragraphs to allocate from DOS, the correct register was BX. Other minor document errors were also fixed. ) Fixed DPMI function 0503h again, and this time it really works. ) Fixed DPMI function 0500h sometimes returning the wrong size. ) The temporary real mode DTA will now be set in the protected mode INT 21h function 1Ah, not just at extender initialization. PMODE/W v1.13: -------------- ) Fixed problems with DOS INT 21h read/write functions for disk full and end of file conditions. ) Segments will now be aligned on 256 byte boundaries instead of dword or paragraph boundaries. ) Fixed INT 31h function 0503h always failing. PMODE/W v1.12: -------------- ) Fixed a very obscure bug associated with 32bit near call/jmp fixups. PMODE/W v1.11: -------------- ) Added support for DPMI functions 0800h and 0801h. PMODE/W v1.10: -------------- ) Changed the way 16bit objects are handled during loading/relocation. ) Added support for 16/32 bit self-relative fixups. ) INT 21h services 1Bh, 1Ch, 1Fh, 32h, and 34h are now extended. ) MS Mouse INT 33h functions 0009h, 000Ch, 0016h, and 0017h are now extended. Please see PMODEW.DOC for more information on mouse-related functions. ) Under VCPI/XMS/raw, INT 31h functions 0600h and 0601h will now always return with the carry flag clear. Since PMODE/W will never page out memory, locking is unnecessary. Under DPMI however, the DPMI host will handle this function. These two functions can now be checked for error while still returning successfully even when a DPMI host is not present. ) Changed method of resizing the program DOS memory block at startup to be compatible with OS/2 Warp. This fixes a problem with not being able to spawn other programs. ) Fixed a very peculiar memory allocation bug. If you tried to allocate a memory block of about 2 gigs, the system would be corrupted and lock up. ) Fixed a minor inconsistency in the way memory was allocated for objects. PMODE/W v1.02: -------------- ) Maintenance release (documentation changes, added FAQ). ) Changed the method of restoring real mode IRQ vectors upon program termination. PMODE/W v1.01: -------------- ) Now even smaller in size (less than 8k). ) The DOS critical error handler is now included in the clean up process. ) 32bit far pointer fixups are now supported (though we doubt they are used). ) PMWSETUP updated to reflect the fact that the number of real mode callbacks allocated cannot exceed 0FFh. ) PMODEW.EXE will no longer crash the system if run by itself (though you should not be doing that anyway because its pointless). ) After that, we found a small bug in our INT 31h DOS memory block functions. Needless to say, it is fixed now. ) INT 21h function 49h zeroes the ES selector when that block is successfully freed. ) INT 21h function 48h now returns error codes correctly. ) After all this, we were bored, so we hunted down and compensated for a DOS/4GW and EMM386 bug. EMM386 trashed the high bits of ESP which DOS/4GW was assuming to be cleared. This only means that now you can run DOS/4GW successfully after a PMODE/W program. PMODE/W v1.0: ------------- ) First release of PMODE/W.