====== Early mid February work ======

**2024-02-18**

In the last three weeks several developments occurred. Last Friday, I also created [[https://www.bttr-software.de/forum/forum_entry.php?id=21373|release 7 of lDebug]].


===== instsect =====

Several bugfixes:

  * /MS= didn't allow [[https://hg.pushbx.org/ecm/instsect/rev/105820a163a5|sector sizes other than 8192]] to be specified
  * /MS= and /MO= didn't accept [[https://hg.pushbx.org/ecm/instsect/rev/7405ce1f09dc|hexadecimal input]] with ''0x'' prefix
  * All switches [[https://hg.pushbx.org/ecm/instsect/rev/436ca645ab5a|allow equals sign to separate keywords]] from the switches
  * If /BO /IR is used, [[https://hg.pushbx.org/ecm/instsect/rev/92beda3d4ff4|actually write the FSIBOOT stage]] rather than corrupting it with an all-1s pattern

The /G switch is newly supported. ''/G auto'' [[https://hg.pushbx.org/ecm/instsect/rev/c42352ff3c97|will query the DOS]] for the currently used CHS Heads, CHS Sectors, and hidden sectors, just like FreeDOS SYS does.


===== fddebug =====

[[https://hg.pushbx.org/ecm/fddebug/|The hg repo is updated]] with the most recent commits of Debug/X. [[https://pushbx.org/ecm/download/fddebug/|The downloads/fddebug/ directory]] now contains [[https://github.com/Baron-von-Riedesel/DOS-debug/releases|the release archives]] of versions 2.00, 2.01, and 2.02.


===== ldosboot =====

[[https://hg.pushbx.org/ecm/ldosboot/rev/765e768c801a|Comments on int 13h function 08h changing es]] were added. No code change was needed for this.

The test result writer kernel (testwrit) was updated [[https://hg.pushbx.org/ecm/ldosboot/rev/6dbad86bb9b5|to use the ldQueryPatchValue at all]]. Further, [[https://hg.pushbx.org/ecm/ldosboot/rev/1794893b35e6|a new flag 40h was defined]] to instruct testwrit to skip all redetection and trust the values detected by iniload.


===== lDebug =====

  * [[https://hg.pushbx.org/ecm/ldebug/rev/156a4890666e|Update lz4 tool]] used to compress
  * [[https://hg.pushbx.org/ecm/ldebug/rev/06ab3a19cc62|Add /G switch to instsect command help]]
  * Change dpb.eld [[https://hg.pushbx.org/ecm/ldebug/rev/38d29e5814ca|to allow residently installing]] it
  * Add variable.eld commands [[https://hg.pushbx.org/ecm/ldebug/rev/b8dd5ae31562|VARIABLES ON]], VARIABLES OFF, [[https://hg.pushbx.org/ecm/ldebug/rev/e70680c565cd|VARIABLES RUN]]
  * Add [[https://hg.pushbx.org/ecm/ldebug/rev/26207977d091|hint.eld]] and [[https://hg.pushbx.org/ecm/ldebug/rev/05f3186a2344|hintoth.eld]]. The hint.eld displays this debugger's listing hints to another debugger's AMIS message service. The hintoth.eld displays another debugger's listing hints to this debugger's terminal.
  * Add [[https://hg.pushbx.org/ecm/ldebug/rev/c1096baa7f47|eldiListing field]] to store [[https://hg.pushbx.org/ecm/ldebug/rev/26efc5a1fc37|the listing filename]] of every resident ELD
  * In eldcomp [[https://hg.pushbx.org/ecm/ldebug/rev/84fda10ad2f5|clear the eldiListing field]]
  * amismsg.eld: [[https://hg.pushbx.org/ecm/ldebug/rev/214aaadb5f43|Increase buffer size]] from 128 Bytes to 384 Bytes, function 40h [[https://hg.pushbx.org/ecm/ldebug/rev/85ebe949b21c|returns code 0FEh]] if buffer overflows
  * dosdir.eld, bootdir.eld: [[https://hg.pushbx.org/ecm/ldebug/rev/1d4c0e32f0ca|Display date as blanks]] if it is a zero (would display as "1980-00-00")
  * [[https://hg.pushbx.org/ecm/ldebug/rev/2cf96f4467c5|Do not list RM command]] in main online help any longer
  * Update main online help dump in manual, [[https://hg.pushbx.org/ecm/ldebug/rev/91847aa92645|adding ATTACH]] and [[https://hg.pushbx.org/ecm/ldebug/rev/920e74990c62|dropping RM, RN, X]]
  * Note in manual sections on X, RM, RN commands that [[https://hg.pushbx.org/ecm/ldebug/rev/005052289811|they are disabled by default]] and can be installed from ELDs
  * boot.asm: [[https://hg.pushbx.org/ecm/ldebug/rev/db2741b0662d|Comment on int 13h function 08h changing es]], no code change needed
  * Support commas around run [[https://hg.pushbx.org/ecm/ldebug/rev/85da1b67798b|WHILE, SILENT]], ss [[https://hg.pushbx.org/ecm/ldebug/rev/55f37cbe2ea1|REVERSE, SILENT, RANGE]], if [[https://hg.pushbx.org/ecm/ldebug/rev/c71f392cee66|keywords]]
  * [[https://hg.pushbx.org/ecm/ldebug/rev/81a86016f384|Update LSM and manual news section]] for release 7
  * [[https://hg.pushbx.org/ecm/ldebug/rev/6c161a646340|Add release7 branch]]


===== FreeDOS kernel =====

[[blog:pushbx:2024:0204_various_freedos_boot_sector_loaders_memory_overlap_cases|The loader overlap blog post]] and [[https://github.com/FDOS/kernel/issues/127|its corresponding bug report]] were created. [[https://github.com/FDOS/kernel/pull/135|The ecm-boot-overlap branch and a Pull Request]] were also added. The prior PR, [[https://github.com/FDOS/kernel/pull/120|ecm-boot32-dl]], was merged.

Some discussion of GRUB4DOS, lDebug, chainloading and loading other kernels, and EDR-DOS occurred [[https://github.com/FDOS/kernel/issues/50#issuecomment-1946392890|in a bug report to the FreeDOS kernel]].

Little progress was made in [[https://github.com/FDOS/kernel/issues/130|the new hang bug on installing a Book8088 USB driver]]. Some talk in that bug report concerning how to load lDebug as a bootloaded debugger happened.

An [[https://www.bttr-software.de/forum/forum_entry.php?id=21061|earlier Book8088 bug where the ROM-BIOS corrupts memory]] if DS != 40h on LBA function calls was discovered.

A commit to the kernel repo [[https://github.com/FDOS/kernel/issues/133|broke the makefile for GNU make]], relating to how the country.sys file is built.

A DOS Watcom 386 build of the kernel [[https://github.com/FDOS/kernel/pull/137|was added to the CI]] by Andrew. He also set it up to run the CI boot test I added a while ago.

The 186 machine check [[https://github.com/FDOS/kernel/issues/123|was adapted to also detect NEC V20/V30]] as an 186.


===== SvarCOM =====

As documented [[blog:pushbx:2024:0214_remote_debugging_of_svarcom_and_dos_navigator_incompatibility|in an earlier blog post]], I helped rr debug an incompatibility in the way SvarCOM reads its command line tail. The unexpected format was caused by a bug in Dos Navigator.


===== NewDOS sources released =====

The sources for the NewDOS collection of applications [[https://sourceforge.net/p/freedos/mailman/message/58738709/|were released under the GNU GPL v2-only recently]]. Back in the day I used to use their resident CLOCK program, until I replaced it by my own lClock.


===== xtize =====

I [[https://github.com/karcherm/xtize/issues/2|reported a bug to this project]]. It aims to trace programs to automatically emulate 186+ instructions when running on an 8086 or 8088 machine. The bug concerned handling of int 21h function 00h.

{{tag>instsect fddebug ldosboot ldebug fdkernel svarcom newdos xtize}}


~~DISCUSSION~~