Pandouche wrote on 2024-05-28, 12:10:

Hi all, […]
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Hi all,

I received my Pocket 386 computer from AliExpress a few days ago. It's a very nice little machine!
I like the fact that you can use the screen in a 4:3 aspect ratio; stretching it to 16:9 doesn't look like the original experience.

What do you think about a modification from the seller to make the screen's plastic bezel cover the 16:9 part, simulating a true 4:3 aspect ratio screen?
It would look much more like the Toshiba Libretto from the 90s.

Maybe the aliexpress shop could sell a plastic bezel replacement, I don't know if it would be an easy mod ?

I made a little Photoshop of what it could look like 😀

LOVE that idea and mock-up. Though it’s interesting to note that the Toshiba Libretto 100ct actually had an 800x480 widesceeen display, so there is historical precedent for that. I’ve been searching for a way to get Windows 95 to display at the 800x480 full screen res of the panel. And DOS text-based applications look great and crisp in the widescreen high-column modes.

To resolve the RTC issues, could someone point me to the location of the elusive R38, next to M6117D? I can't find either one. I removed the bottom chassis but couldn't find anything, either.

Also, is this an issue of simple disconnect/removal? If it's desoldering, that may be above my paygrade.

jakfish wrote on 2024-05-28, 20:01:

To resolve the RTC issues, could someone point me to the location of the elusive R38, next to M6117D? I can't find either one. I removed the bottom chassis but couldn't find anything, either.

Also, is this an issue of simple disconnect/removal? If it's desoldering, that may be above my paygrade.

I haven’t removed mine yet, but it’ll be a soldered resistor. I suppose you may be able to cut it in have with some snips or something, but really I’d imagine desoldering would be easier.

Thanks. I didn't see any other plug-n-play, except maybe the defunct volume controls, so I'm not surprised about the solder. Guess I'll continue partying like it's 2001.

jakfish wrote on 2024-05-28, 20:53:

Thanks. I didn't see any other plug-n-play, except maybe the defunct volume controls, so I'm not surprised about the solder. Guess I'll continue partying like it's 2001.

1981, maybe.

RTCs were omnipresent after the mid-80s.

(Also unrelated: the picogus for pocket 386es, book 8080s and hand386es is back in stock for anyone who cares: https://www.tindie.com/products/polpo/picogus … et-386-and-isa/)

mercator wrote on 2024-05-28, 19:06:

Pandouche wrote on 2024-05-28, 12:10:

Hi all, […]
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Hi all,

I received my Pocket 386 computer from AliExpress a few days ago. It's a very nice little machine!
I like the fact that you can use the screen in a 4:3 aspect ratio; stretching it to 16:9 doesn't look like the original experience.

What do you think about a modification from the seller to make the screen's plastic bezel cover the 16:9 part, simulating a true 4:3 aspect ratio screen?
It would look much more like the Toshiba Libretto from the 90s.

Maybe the aliexpress shop could sell a plastic bezel replacement, I don't know if it would be an easy mod ?

I made a little Photoshop of what it could look like 😀

LOVE that idea and mock-up. Though it’s interesting to note that the Toshiba Libretto 100ct actually had an 800x480 widesceeen display, so there is historical precedent for that. I’ve been searching for a way to get Windows 95 to display at the 800x480 full screen res of the panel. And DOS text-based applications look great and crisp in the widescreen high-column modes.

I didn't know about the Libretto 100ct. I just saw pictures, it's true there is actually a historical precedent!
Would be nice to display 800x480 in windows 95!
Do you think this is possible with the on-board graphic chip? Maybe it's a matter of appropriate drivers ?

@gargoyle Thanks for the heads-up the picogus femto availability. Does its wifi work OOTB? I'm looking at https://github.com/polpo/picogus/wiki/Configu … ng-your-PicoGUS and while it's not femto-specific, there's no reference to wifi.

But here, the wifi seems functional: https://bitbang.social/@polpo/112264573366506186

Alright, I've got a working 512MB Slackware 8.0 image up on archive.org. https://archive.org/details/pocket_386-Slackware_8 (I didn't explicitly state that it's a DD image. It's a DD image.)

No passwords and XFree86 was... ah... not working? I'm going with not working. Hopefully someone can fill in the details since it looks like there's a few instances of X running on this hardware okay. Let 'er rip and ping me or post if you fix something.

I'll update the image and move all my pocket 386 software/CAD over to GIT once there's more than a single released file.

jakfish wrote on 2024-05-29, 13:53:

@gargoyle Thanks for the heads-up the picogus femto availability. Does its wifi work OOTB? I'm looking at https://github.com/polpo/picogus/wiki/Configu … ng-your-PicoGUS and while it's not femto-specific, there's no reference to wifi.

But here, the wifi seems functional: https://bitbang.social/@polpo/112264573366506186

I don't know I'm afraid; I only just placed an order for it about five minutes before sharing the link here. I'll absolutely give it a try and will let people know.

I went ahead and bought one, too. Also: the Pico W ( https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BV1H4D7M/ref=pe_3 … simp_item_image )

My main problem with the setup is that I don’t know Raspberry, and I’m having to use its hardware in a DOS environment, so it feels very apples and oranges.

My searching tells me that via Linux/Win, one must make the Pico into a usb drive (which seems easy), then download and install Micropython. From there, using Thonny, one sets up wifi vitals. This seems to run off a user-saved py script and if it’s saved in the Pico’s drive, the Pico reads ssid/passwords, etc upon its start. But I’m not all certain.

The Pico arrives tomorrow from Amazon (Tindie’s shipping is always a little dreamy in my experience), and I’ll try to get it permanently on-line.

What I don’t understand is a) is the Femto already flashed with the NE2000 firmware [from yyzkevin and Ian: https://bitbang.social/@polpo/112264573366506186 ]? 2) how does DOS know what to do with the unholy union of ISA with the Pico piggyback? Through software?

As for the Pico itself, the W version originally appears to be without the soldered headers, the WH with headers. But now, the W seems to come with headers, labelled as both W and WH. Again, I’m really not sure.

jakfish wrote on 2024-05-30, 15:11:

I went ahead and bought one, too. Also: the Pico W ( https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BV1H4D7M/ref=pe_3 … simp_item_image ) […]
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I went ahead and bought one, too. Also: the Pico W ( https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BV1H4D7M/ref=pe_3 … simp_item_image )

My main problem with the setup is that I don’t know Raspberry, and I’m having to use its hardware in a DOS environment, so it feels very apples and oranges.

My searching tells me that via Linux/Win, one must make the Pico into a usb drive (which seems easy), then download and install Micropython. From there, using Thonny, one sets up wifi vitals. This seems to run off a user-saved py script and if it’s saved in the Pico’s drive, the Pico reads ssid/passwords, etc upon its start. But I’m not all certain.

The Pico arrives tomorrow from Amazon (Tindie’s shipping is always a little dreamy in my experience), and I’ll try to get it permanently on-line.

What I don’t understand is a) is the Femto already flashed with the NE2000 firmware [from yyzkevin and Ian: https://bitbang.social/@polpo/112264573366506186 ]? 2) how does DOS know what to do with the unholy union of ISA with the Pico piggyback? Through software?

As for the Pico itself, the W version originally appears to be without the soldered headers, the WH with headers. But now, the W seems to come with headers, labelled as both W and WH. Again, I’m really not sure.

It's relatively easy; they're often used by school children for science projects and the like so it won't be difficult to get up to speed.

The software is already written to interact with it over the ISA bus; you can read here: https://github.com/polpo/picogus/wiki/Configu … run-pgusinitexe

@gargoyle This helps a lot, thanks. I did find that latest firmware but I didn't find any reference to NE2000 emulation. In your opinion, you think the 1.2 firmware is good-to-go, wifi-wise?

In terms of the needed DOS software, in one of X snapshots, I saw a c: prompt for a mtcp directory. If so, I use mtcp to connect the serial-to-wifi adapter, so perhaps the Femto and serial adapter can share the same specs.

jakfish wrote on 2024-05-30, 17:47:

@gargoyle This helps a lot, thanks. I did find that latest firmware but I didn't find any reference to NE2000 emulation. In your opinion, you think the 1.2 firmware is good-to-go, wifi-wise?

In terms of the needed DOS software, in one of X snapshots, I saw a c: prompt for a mtcp directory. If so, I use mtcp to connect the serial-to-wifi adapter, so perhaps the Femto and serial adapter can share the same specs.

I'm afraid I don't quite know; I haven't yet gotten to play with one yet. It says that wifi will be supported in the future and tbh I have a 'theoldnet' serial-to-wifi adapter already that I use so wifi wasn't really my priority here. I just wanted a toy for various retro machines. If I learn anything I'll mention it in the thread.

I use the oldnet serial-to-wif too. I'll be glad to lose the battery, should the Femto/Pico prove successful.

@polpo kindly responded to my queries in another vogon subforum:

"WiFi support/NE2000 emulation is not finished yet but since that part uses a common codebase with PicoMEM, carrying over its fixes should be straightforward. Configuring Wifi will be done via pgusinit, and MicroPython is not involved. Since it emulates an NE2000, DOS 7.1 can use the NE2000 packet driver and MBrutman's MTCP."

I'm grateful for the reply as I would've gone down a micropython rabbit hole. I'm assuming that in oldnet's original start.bat, the downloaded ne2000 packet would replace ethersl:

ETHERSL -u
ETHERSL 0x60 4 0x3F8 115200

I think I've run out of theorizing and just need to wait for actual hardware to arrive.

kagamma wrote on 2024-05-14, 12:24:

kirikl wrote on 2024-05-14, 01:05:

I actually saw somebody posted Windows 95 logo with EXACT GREEN section below the logo... Wondering

Mine also has the same exact problem.

I resolved the problem. Seller sent me another model of the card!
5420! not 5428! Those 5428 caused that craziness! I have two of those now and both shows that distortion in some games I would say, very specific...
Anyway. I'm glad I was able to track and resolve it!

But I still have
1.that random CMOS reset
2.looks like those 5 new batteries lot I got suffer from the same problem after first run and charge... 100% to 52-49..... It's gotta be Book doing it. Cause first run is alright - from 100 to 10 or lower....

kirikl wrote on 2024-06-01, 04:55:

But I still have
1.that random CMOS reset
2.looks like those 5 new batteries lot I got suffer from the same problem after first run and charge... 100% to 52-49..... It's gotta be Book doing it. Cause first run is alright - from 100 to 10 or lower....

I'm not sure what this is doing in particular but without logic on the battery the battery percentage ratings probably won't work that well. Better to actually compare uptime.

That's sounding a little like it could be a bad solder joint in the loop somewhere.

Inhibit wrote on 2024-05-29, 14:08:

Alright, I've got a working 512MB Slackware 8.0 image up on archive.org. https://archive.org/details/pocket_386-Slackware_8 (I didn't explicitly state that it's a DD image. It's a DD image.)

No passwords and XFree86 was... ah... not working? I'm going with not working. Hopefully someone can fill in the details since it looks like there's a few instances of X running on this hardware okay. Let 'er rip and ping me or post if you fix something.

I'll update the image and move all my pocket 386 software/CAD over to GIT once there's more than a single released file.

What is you goal of running Slackware 8.0? Compiling or running X?

You can go up to Slackware 8.1 or down to the first versions with limitations of the time. My notes suggest that running fvwm and X on the 8.x versions will require 24 MB of RAM. This means with 8MB built into the SoC, you will be swapping. Where are you going to run the swap file?

If you aren't concerned about where the swap file will be, you might still be better off running some lighter versions. On Slackware 8.x, you can switch from XFree86 4.x to the earlier compiled 3.x servers in the pasture directory, to save some RAM. You can also switch to the 3.x/4.0 versions of Slackware before the switch to glibc to save some additional RAM, but really, my notes say you need 12 MB of RAM to run fvwm comfortably, so you are still swapping to get X up. If you are concerned about swapping, then you will want some really version, possibly 1.x version of Slackware. I don't have much knowledge of day-to-day use from the pre-2000 era of linux, and my notes are limited on what would be comfortable enough there. Linux really isn't that friendly to 386SX machines when it comes to RAM.

If you don't run X, then you can run up to Slackware 3.9/4.0 comfortably on 8 MB. There might be greater savings going older again, and turning off stuff. It will likely be a slow compiling machine. But then again, once you get a compatible OS working in a VM, you can do all the compiling you need in the VM.

Out of the box in Slackware 8.x, using XFree86 4.x, it is probably set to vesa or framebuffer drivers. Usually that works, but this was still in the days the Xconfig file was still necessary to have and hack on to get things working. Auto detection really didn't get fully ironed out until the Xorg days. You may try setting the driver to "chips" for the chips and technologies display controller. In XFree86 3.x, it looks like it is supported by the SVGA server.

Inhibit wrote on 2024-05-29, 14:08:

Alright, I've got a working 512MB Slackware 8.0 image up on archive.org. https://archive.org/details/pocket_386-Slackware_8 (I didn't explicitly state that it's a DD image. It's a DD image.)

No passwords and XFree86 was... ah... not working? I'm going with not working. Hopefully someone can fill in the details since it looks like there's a few instances of X running on this hardware okay. Let 'er rip and ping me or post if you fix something.

I'll update the image and move all my pocket 386 software/CAD over to GIT once there's more than a single released file.

I don't recommend running slackware 8.x on a Pocket 386, the memory is too low.
I tested with Slackware 1.2.1 from 1994, which can run full FVWM, and Mosaic 2.0 will also work.
Here is my disk image:
https://9game.oss-us-west-1.aliyuncs.com/485M … ilo_nolinear.7z
Use XFree86_SVGA server and add this to Xconfig file, tested with both XFree86 1.3 and 2.1

1Chipset "clgd5424"