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DirectSerial patch

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First post, by h-a-l-9000

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Hello,

First, nice work, that Dosbox. When i got it, i played all of Dune2 again. With sound.

I wanted to tell you that i improved the direct serial port code. Rewrote most of the serialport and directserial files. You could have your own serial mouse in Dosbox now :-). 2 other applications tested, too. If there is interest, i can tell you more about it and try to clean up the whole thing and send it somewhere.

h-a-l-9000

Reply 3 of 353, by h-a-l-9000

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Ok, until i figure out how to make patches and upload things to Sourceforge I will attach it here.

Things tested with this code:
- Microsoft mouse driver (with microsoft mouse, of course 😀, using a disk image

- An old tool I checked computers for brown-out serial ports a century ago
(internal loopback test, external loopback plug)

- A Siemens Simatic S5 PLC with its old programming software (interrupt-driven mode)

All those worked fine at last.

Now about the code itself:

- FIFO not implemented yet
- The softmodem cant be used yet
(Is there an easy way to test the softmodem? Then I could try to make it work again)

Attachments

  • Filename
    serial.zip
    File size
    11.92 KiB
    Downloads
    576 downloads
    File comment
    this is outdated!
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception
Last edited by h-a-l-9000 on 2005-06-02, 19:23. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 5 of 353, by scarnie

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Nice work!

I've recopiled with your Feb-23 sources posted to the forum, and it worked for some software my Dad uses to communicate with his Radio Controlled receiver. Very cool stuff.

What is in the updates you posted on sourceforge? Worth getting?

Cheers,

Stu

Cheers,

Stu

Reply 6 of 353, by h-a-l-9000

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The difference is that the newer code writes the com ports base address to the appropriate spaces in bios data area. If an application exists that directly reads those values it could be closer to work.

A Gates's dos booted inside dosbox now feels that there must be a comport around somewhere (mode reports a com1), but sending characters to it still doesn't work.

Reply 8 of 353, by h-a-l-9000

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You can have my test build (no warranty for anything...)
Be aware that this is a CVS build. I don't know how well people here will respond to questions about it.

If the files msvcp71.dll and msvcr71.dll are not on your system already, you will have to download them and put them into the Dosbox folder (or somewhere else where Windows will find them). Ask Google for download locations.

Extract the attached zip file into an already installed Dosbox0.63 folder.

Attachments

  • Filename
    dosbox_cvs_serport_win32.zip
    File size
    369.66 KiB
    Downloads
    633 downloads
    File comment
    this is outdated!
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception
Last edited by h-a-l-9000 on 2005-06-02, 19:24. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 11 of 353, by Ravagin

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Hello Hal,

I have downloaded your code for the use of serial ports, however I am not very familiar with how to put them into use. If you would, could you please give me some pointer or just down right instructions on how to do this.
Any help is greatly appreciated. 😀
Thanks
Ravagin

Reply 12 of 353, by h-a-l-9000

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Hello,

if you want to use your DOS application with serial port, you can download the compressed exe file I posted here.

If you want to edit the code, please tell me more specific where you need help.

Reply 13 of 353, by Qbix

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Hmm Somebody heared/know if canadacow is going to do something with the code ? Else I might take a look at it to see wether it can be commited to the cvs.

Water flows down the stream
How to ask questions the smart way!

Reply 14 of 353, by priestlyboy

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No clue,

Haven't heard from or seen CC in a long time probably RL (tm)

Anyways, I recently was messing with the patch to make it patch into the recent CVS core. It's not cleaned up yet (what with all the commented out stuff from the earlier one) but I might as well post it to make it available.

Greets
~Paladiante~

Attachments

  • Filename
    DB_SerialPatch.diff
    File size
    52.28 KiB
    Downloads
    341 downloads
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception

Ieremiou
----------
Helping Debug DOSBox.

Reply 16 of 353, by turtledisaster

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Hi h-a-l-9000
I have tried your test build from dosbox_cvs_serport_win32.zip. It is running some dos plc programming software on XP using a USB-serial adaptor which I have not been able to get working any other way. Excellent!

Reply 17 of 353, by Epyx

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Hal. Just wanted to thank you for the work you put into this Dosbox modification. It allowed us to use one of our older modem based payroll programs on Windows XP with modem!

We were beginning to think we would need to retain an older Windows 98 machine to keep this program going but now we can put it on the Windows XP box.

Thanks again!

Cheers!

Reply 18 of 353, by h-a-l-9000

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Hi,

thanks for the feedback. So it looks like I finally produced something useful 😀
I have further worked on it:
- added support for multiple com ports, which required a modification of the config file ([COM1]-[COM4] style)
- added a serial dummy port (UART but nothing connected to it, for programs that like to have a serial port around)
- added the ability to detect line errors on the hardware
- killed a bug which caused RX overflow if both modem and directserial were enabled

You may also want to check out the modem, it worked pretty well with my testing.

Have fun communicating with your microwave oven 😁

Attachments

  • Filename
    dosboxserial2.zip
    File size
    412.94 KiB
    Downloads
    410 downloads
    File comment
    source and binary #2
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception

Reply 19 of 353, by h-a-l-9000

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Another update:

- diff for current cvs
- modem update

Attachments

  • Filename
    dosboxserial3.zip
    File size
    419.88 KiB
    Downloads
    487 downloads
    File comment
    diff + binary
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception