This might be of interest: https://ask.adaptec.com/app/answers/detail/a_ … n-a-pci-card%3F

UPDATE:
I just ran AWE64 DOS based diagnose utility, and it fails at setting IRQ 5 to my card. I even moved the Adaptec to a different PCI slot, and it did not help.

UPDATE2:
I think I have isolated and fixed the issue, went into the BIOS, and under the Resources Controlled By, changed it from Auto to Manual, and under IRQ 5, changed it to Legacy ISA for my AWE64.

Upon a reboot, I no longer get the SoftMPU error message, and when I also run AWE64 DOS diagnose utility, no conflict is reported.

Do the same for DMA 1 and 5, just in case.

Also, "PNP OS Installed" should probably be "NO" when only running DOS without Windows.

I use SYSTEM COMMANDER 2000 to boot into multiple OS, DOS 7.1 being of them.

A question regarding a ymf744 card.
The card works fine in DDMA mode together with a SIS963 Southbrige. But as soon as I start SoftMPU, the system freezes.

Any ideas?

General question. I got myself a Music Quest MIDIEngine 2Port/SE (Parallel port) yesterday and I'm wondering if it's possible to use SoftMPU with it or not really? If it's not possible, let me know.

Hello! I'm new here, sorry if I post a question that has already been answered. I searched both Vogons and the internet but cannot find the answer.

I setup SoftMPU on my 486 and Munt on my Linux computer to emulate MT-32 with Munt through a serial cable and that works really great, no issues.

However when I tried to get General MIDI working in DOOM, Duke3D etc I had no luck. I was using JACK2 and FluidSynth on my Linux computer and it worked fine to play midi music using DOSMid, but General MIDI did not work in games.

I could not figure what was wrong, but after some searching i found that SoftMPU cannot work with DOS extenders (this would be great info to have on the SoftMPU website under troubleshooting).

So my questions are:
Will it ever be possible to use SoftMPU together with DOS extenders (with further development of SoftMPU)? Or is there some limitations making this impossible? I found no explanation anywhere as to why it's not working, just that it's not. Perhaps someone with a lot of knowledge about DOS can explain why?

Would my proposed setup without SoftMPU (see attached image, last example) work to get General MIDI working in games with DOS extenders? If this doesn't work, what would be the easiest option with new available hardware to be able to connect to JACK2 and use various soundfonts etc?

guzzard wrote on 2021-01-16, 22:49:

Hello! I'm new here, sorry if I post a question that has already been answered. I searched both Vogons and the internet but cann […]
Show full quote

Hello! I'm new here, sorry if I post a question that has already been answered. I searched both Vogons and the internet but cannot find the answer.

I setup SoftMPU on my 486 and Munt on my Linux computer to emulate MT-32 with Munt through a serial cable and that works really great, no issues.

However when I tried to get General MIDI working in DOOM, Duke3D etc I had no luck. I was using JACK2 and FluidSynth on my Linux computer and it worked fine to play midi music using DOSMid, but General MIDI did not work in games.

I could not figure what was wrong, but after some searching i found that SoftMPU cannot work with DOS extenders (this would be great info to have on the SoftMPU website under troubleshooting).

So my questions are:
Will it ever be possible to use SoftMPU together with DOS extenders? Or is there some limitations making this impossible? I found no explanation anywhere as to why it's not working, just that it's not. Perhaps someone with a lot of knowledge about DOS can explain why?

Would my proposed setup without SoftMPU (see attached image) work to get General MIDI working in games with DOS extenders? If this doesn't work, what would be the easiest option with new available hardware to be able to connect to JACK2 and use various soundfonts etc?

Not really sure what you're trying, but munt emulates MT-32/CM-32L, not general MIDI

Also not sure why you would use softmpu above and not below,.although in any case the idea is for it to be useful against mt-32 line.

walterg74 wrote on 2021-01-17, 00:26:

Not really sure what you're trying, but munt emulates MT-32/CM-32L, not general MIDI

Also not sure why you would use softmpu above and not below,.although in any case the idea is for it to be useful against mt-32 line.

He's using Fluidsynth, not Munt for GM. And it looks as if he's using SoftMPU for that purpose in order to use his serial port for MIDI output (and this is working, except where DOS extenders are used).

Pierre32 wrote on 2021-01-17, 00:32:

walterg74 wrote on 2021-01-17, 00:26:

Not really sure what you're trying, but munt emulates MT-32/CM-32L, not general MIDI

Also not sure why you would use softmpu above and not below,.although in any case the idea is for it to be useful against mt-32 line.

He's using Fluidsynth, not Munt for GM. And it looks as if he's using SoftMPU for that purpose in order to use his serial port for MIDI output (and this is working, except where DOS extenders are used).

So instead of that device he could just use a "normal" old school gameport/MIDI cable to that midi/USB cable/interface

Yep, as per the lower part of the diagram.

@guzzard the software on the Linux side isn't in my repertoire, but as far as sidestepping SoftMPU and using the gameport for GM, those bits of hardware are the way to go.

Pierre32 wrote on 2021-01-17, 01:36:

Yep, as per the lower part of the diagram.

@guzzard the software on the Linux side isn't in my repertoire, but as far as sidestepping SoftMPU and using the gameport for GM, those bits of hardware are the way to go.

Well, the lower part of the diagram has an extra device between the computer and the midi/usb cable, which he could just use the old midi cable instead...

Assuming he has one 😉 If not, that Serdaco unit is a good choice.

Pierre32 wrote on 2021-01-17, 04:13:

Assuming he has one 😉 If not, that Serdaco unit is a good choice.

Assuming he has one 🤣

Pierre32 wrote on 2021-01-17, 01:36:

Yep, as per the lower part of the diagram.

@guzzard the software on the Linux side isn't in my repertoire, but as far as sidestepping SoftMPU and using the gameport for GM, those bits of hardware are the way to go.

Thanks! Will order some parts and cables and test. Saw a nice board designed by another forum member here (Small warm up project - Gameport/MIDI box) but unfortunately don't have access to cheap pcb manufacturers (customs + vat etc make it too expensive).

Is there any software similar to softMPU that can be used together with DOS extenders that sends midi to a serial output. It would be perfect for thin clients like the HP 5710-5720 and alike .

I'm even looking for coding to support the LPT variant MIDI adapter (Music Quest 2Port/SE) since PCMCIA MPU-401 cards are either extinct or cost more than what I make in a week.

franky52 wrote on 2021-01-21, 21:59:

Is there any software similar to softMPU that can be used together with DOS extenders that sends midi to a serial output. It would be perfect for thin clients like the HP 5710-5720 and alike .

A while back, I floated an idea to solve a similar problem. (Sound Blaster emulation, even more challenging than SoftMPU, due to having to emulate DMA as well.)

My idea was to integrate a sound device emulator (such as SoftMPU in this case) into the DOS extender, since it typically runs at a higher privilege (ring 0) as opposed to the actual game that's running on it (typically ring 3, lowest privilege), meaning that the DOS extender should be able to intercept and redirect any attempts at hardware access by the application. So the port trapping and such would be handled inside the DOS extender.

DOS/32A would be a suitable candidate for this, since it's open source and can already be used as a drop-in replacement for the DOS/4G, DOS/4GW, DOS/4GW Professional, PMODE/W and CauseWay DOS Extenders. That means the vast majority of protected mode DOS games that have ever been released can already be patched to use DOS/32A instead.

The challenge, assuming that this idea could actually work, would be to find someone with the necessary expertise (and motivation) to dust off the DOS/32A source code and implement this functionality. The source code hasn't seen any activity in 15 years, and after having taken a peek at it, it seems quite daunting, at least to someone like me who's not an experienced 386 assembly guru.

So yeah, a variant of SoftMPU, integrated in DOS/32A, ready to be patched into protected mode games. Any people willing to explore this idea? 🙂

There's a GitHub mirror of the DOS/32A source code here: https://github.com/abbec/dos32a

If I had time... Haven't done much assembly but programming is programming.

I still have the assembly manual I printed out in college and have a number of assembly books I have purchased in the past few years.