Re: Does anyone own a MISTer FPGA and how is it?

Posted on 2025-05-22, 05:18

by

by SquallStrife

in Console & Arcade Emulation

in Console & Arcade Emulation

I can't speak directly to ao486, but the PCXT core is pretty darn good. As a compatibility yard stick, it runs something like 90% of 8088 MPH, and 85% of Area 5150 correctly, and the remaining parts ranging from minor glitches to complete mess. That's pretty impressive given only a few software …

---

Re: Silverstone to release a retro-style desktop case

Posted on 2025-05-22, 02:29

by

by SquallStrife

in Milliways

in Milliways

Unless they're obscenely expensive, I'll get these for all my ATX systems, including my main Ryzen system. Is it modern? Is it a K6-2? WHO KNOWS??? Lucky dip! 😁

---

Re: Windows NT on Motorola Powerstack II

Posted on 2025-05-14, 21:32

by

by SquallStrife

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Those /download/ntrisc/* URLs do seem to be dead, but I was able to locate Visual C++ for RISC: https://archive.org/details/VisualCRISC4.0RISC/ Not much but it's a start!

---

Re: VOGONS Driver Library

Posted on 2025-05-11, 22:05

by

by SquallStrife

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yep. The "image" on an entry is only meant to be illustrative. If you want to include high-res images (pictures) with your images (binaries), then chuck them together in a ZIP before uploading. The system that enforces image sizes is pretty simplistic. I need to revisit it in the future.

---

Re: Linux kernal going to drop i486 support

Posted on 2025-05-11, 21:57

by

by SquallStrife

in Milliways

in Milliways

If Linux becomes an OS that targets modern hardware all the time, then what's the purpose of it? 😟 Then it's nolonger useful to the hardware hacker who wants to get a 35 year old webcam going. Or likes to use Linux for testing purposes, for all sorts of hardware, no matter the age. Why do you keep …

---

Re: Linux kernal going to drop i486 support

Posted on 2025-05-01, 04:09

by

by SquallStrife

in Milliways

in Milliways

This brings me back to comments from industry insiders that they were still fabbing around a million 486 CPUs a year into this century, still wondering where they were going in 2007. Critical embedded and insustrial systems. Definitely not running a bleeding edge Linux kernel, many possibly not …

---

Re: Linux kernal going to drop i486 support

Posted on 2025-05-01, 03:23

by

by SquallStrife

in Milliways

in Milliways

It's also worth remembering that Debian, a distro famously focussed on compatibility and stability, stopped supporting Pentium 1 class processors in Stretch, well ahead of the kernel itself: https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2016/05/msg00001.html You haven't been able to run any …

---

Re: Linux kernal going to drop i486 support

Posted on 2025-04-30, 23:15

by

by SquallStrife

in Milliways

in Milliways

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2025-04-30, 22:48: SquallStrife wrote on 2025-04-30, 22:42: Even stoic, conservative, risk-averse IBM has Linux on z/Series. IBM bought Red Hat for that. They stand behind one of the oldest pillars of Linux distribution. Indeed!

---

Re: Linux kernal going to drop i486 support

Posted on 2025-04-30, 22:42

by

by SquallStrife

in Milliways

in Milliways

if not for sake of old hardware, then what's Linux actually good for? You keep saying this... Meanwhile, somewhere between 80 and 96% of web servers run Linux (depending on how you measure it). All but a handful of the supercomputers on the Top 500 list run Linux. Linux Kernel is used by the …

---

Re: Linux kernal going to drop i486 support

Posted on 2025-04-30, 00:18

by

by SquallStrife

in Milliways

in Milliways

kagura1050 wrote on 2025-04-29, 07:59: The concept of the distribution is "use and preserve 486", so somehow I feel like I've lost the battle. You'll still have 486 support in the current LTS kernel for a number of years, and the SLTS kernel for 10+ years past that.

---

Re: Linux kernal going to drop i486 support

Posted on 2025-04-29, 03:57

by

by SquallStrife

in Milliways

in Milliways

Isn't it the case, though? 🤷‍♂️ No, for the reasons I already explained. You are completely free to maintain your own branch of the kernel that still has the math-emu feature, and backport future changes to it. If the prevalence of Linux on pre-i686 CPUs is as high as you seem to think it is, then …

---

Re: Linux kernal going to drop i486 support

Posted on 2025-04-29, 01:58

by

by SquallStrife

in Milliways

in Milliways

Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if it has same fate in 2028, when another developer comes up with the brilliant idea of dropping another CPU generation. You're framing it like the decision was "let's stop supporting something because fuck those guys". There is code in the kernel that exists to …

---

Re: Are collecting groups more hostile / useless these days? (Facebook and Reddit mostly I mean)

Posted on 2025-04-29, 01:46

by

by SquallStrife

in Milliways

in Milliways

I swear lately I've gone into groups on Reddit (obviously reddit this is somewhat expected) and Facebook and asked questions about vintage computers / game consoles etc and have gotten insulted, downvoted or the most idiotic replies / suggestions. I swear it didn't used to be like this, am I just …

---

Re: VOGONS Driver Library

Posted on 2025-04-16, 05:58

by

by SquallStrife

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm going to split large files into ~32MB volumes on the BBS, since I imagine the use case for the larger files is pretty limited on systems where BBS access is your /only/ option, and large downloads in volumes are kinda period correct anyway lol! I've re-built the file database, including …

---

Re: VOGONS Driver Library

Posted on 2025-04-06, 12:21

by

by SquallStrife

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

OK, line breaks in the editor weren't being converted to HTML
's, I fixed that. The "list" tags are for creating a bullet list like... [list] [*]one [*]two [*]three [/list] makes one two three Also makes numbered lists with [list=1] or "lettered" lists with [list=a]

---

Re: VOGONS Driver Library

Posted on 2025-04-06, 01:05

by

by SquallStrife

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Fantastic thank you! The new BBCode parser is quite easy to modify and customise, so fingers crossed this will be a quick fix.

---

Re: VOGONS Driver Library

Posted on 2025-04-05, 04:55

by

by SquallStrife

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hmm interesting! I did switch to a new BBCode parser so entirely possible it behaves differently to the old one. Could you do me a huge favour and fling me some links to some good and bad looking descriptions?

---

Re: VOGONS Driver Library

Posted on 2025-04-04, 22:44

by

by SquallStrife

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks, Horun, much appreciated :) I've identified an issue on the BBS where trying to tag individual files >65535KB crashes your session. I'm going to split large files into ~32MB volumes on the BBS, since I imagine the use case for the larger files is pretty limited on systems where BBS access is …

---

Re: VOGONS Driver Library

Posted on 2025-04-02, 10:01

by

by SquallStrife

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

New host! Faster! More space! Less $$! Winner winner, chicken dinner! :D Not to mention we upgraded from Ubuntu 18.04 LTS to Debian 12. Kernel 3.10 to 6.1.0. PHP 7.2 to 8.2. You get the drift. :D Everything should be a bit faster now too. If anything acts up, please let me know. I'm aware that the …

---

Re: VOGONS Driver Library

Posted on 2025-04-02, 01:32

by

by SquallStrife

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Uploads are suspended for a few days while I perform some maintenance and upgrades. Will update when normal service resumes. Downloads available as normal.

---