ctmouse /S2 /Y ????

maybe for WFW311 one could start windows with a batch file, one for trackpad, one for auto mouse detection(or PS2). the batch file could just copy over the required mouse.ini before starting windows?
its a bodge I know...
and if its needed Its prob not practical to copy over system.ini .....

Jules_nerd wrote on 2026-08-28, 11:59:

Google AI tells me you can force the windows driver not to detect the mouse type, but forcce it to use a serial mouse, im just a […]
Show full quote

Google AI tells me you can force the windows driver not to detect the mouse type, but forcce it to use a serial mouse, im just about to try this:

Windows relies on MOUSE.INI to remember which port has been successfully probed. You can force it to assume a device is already present
edit it [mouse]
MouseType=Serial2

in system.ini :
in the [386Enh] part
mouse=*vmd
& in the [boot] part
mouse.drv=mouse.drv

or apparently you can do it in the windows setup, force it to serial mouse?

Of course, for those of us that swap between using PS2 or trackpad, this is a rather unwieldy solution!!! 😁

Nah, Windows creates this file automatically, I had it on my system without doing anything.
I think it's just a hint which tells it on which port to start searching, but it will still try to probe whatever you put in there, and fallback to the other ports if it detects nothing.
(Traditional Windows approach to PnP 😀 ).

And during setup you can't force which port ... except for mouse systems mice , again, which are not compatible 🙁

Oh well !!
for DOS cant the logitech driver mouse.exe be forced to bypass the handshake?
MOUSE.EXE SERIAL 2
?

javispedro1 wrote on 2026-08-28, 11:16:

For Linuxes of this era, remember that most likely you are handling the mouse in userspace, not in the kernel 😀 E.g. inside XFree86, or gpm (the mouse driver for console).

Ah, right, prior to HID devices being handled in kernel space as we gave way to USB. Not as much complexity there with straight serial.

And XFree was a bear before the X consortium took over again. Thanks for refreshing my memory.

I might take a poke in XFree or BSD but it sounds like you've characterised the problem well enough that there's not much I could add!

FYI I have gotten Debian Potato to run ! The 16MB of RAM are really helping, you can even attempt to do apt-get upgrade on it (dpkg by itself consumes 50% of the 16MB, so the experience is not snappy at all.....).

For me the 16MB is half the reason to upgrade from the pocket386. The touchpad was the other 50% , so I'm rather happy we have a workaround.
The no-dongle ports are nice. Plus, coprocessor and floppy disk are fun additions too, even if of limited use I guess.

I dislike the larger size of the book386, and the fact that many of the issues with the p386 remain unfixed (BIOS buggy, 8051 buggy, OSD buggy, ...), plus it seems a bit more unwieldly to open and hack around?
But I think it's good enough overall to call it an improved version, at least.

javispedro1 wrote on 2026-08-28, 13:37:

FYI I have gotten Debian Potato to run ! The 16MB are really helping, you can even attempt to do apt-get upgrade on it (dpkg by itself consumes 50% of the 16MB, so the experience is not snappy at all.....).

To be fair that wasn't snappy on my 486 at the time either. Although with a tailored kernel it did alright as an server or MOSIX cluster node.

javispedro1 wrote on 2026-08-28, 13:37:

FYI I have gotten Debian Potato to run ! The 16MB of RAM are really helping, you can even attempt to do apt-get upgrade on it (dpkg by itself consumes 50% of the 16MB, so the experience is not snappy at all.....).

interesting! was it difficult?
getting redhat 5.2 working was plain sailing - but I doubt ill use it for anything really... X was much better with the 16MB, but you didnt have to do much to get it to grind to a halt...
With Debian potato being newer (2.2 kernel vs 2.0??) Id presume its slower???

Jules_nerd wrote on 2026-08-28, 14:42:

interesting! was it difficult?
getting redhat 5.2 working was plain sailing - but I doubt ill use it for anything really... X was much better with the 16MB, but you didnt have to do much to get it to grind to a halt...
With Debian potato being newer (2.2 kernel vs 2.0??) Id presume its slower???

No, no issue at all, and while it is a bit slower, I don't think the kernel is to blame, but rather the overall system being more bloated. I can barely feel any difference in normal use when compared to the pocket , after disabling most services (I only dared with 2.0 in the pocket though) . In any case, potato brings easier networking, plus newer lilo and other things which are necessary to boot from a >8 GB CF card.

I had more issues with NT (3.51). At the end I got it to work, but I had to disable NTVDM, because for some reason it triple faults the entire system when used in the book386... have never seen this anywhere else, so no idea. (This means no DOS / win16 software works, but win32 software does). Likewise, the Cirrus driver also triple faults when used, likely the same issue. But VGA 640x480x16 it is quite usable, surprisingly snappy. (it was impossible to boot in the pocket with only 8MB).

Jules_nerd wrote on 2026-08-28, 12:54:

Oh well !! for DOS cant the logitech driver mouse.exe be forced to bypass the handshake? MOUSE.EXE SERIAL 2 ? […]
Show full quote

Oh well !!
for DOS cant the logitech driver mouse.exe be forced to bypass the handshake?
MOUSE.EXE SERIAL 2
?

I tried the 6.30 version, and saw that it was taking a while to detect the mouse, so it had promise -- but no, it definitely fails randomly like all the others. The slower startup I guess it's just bloat (it takes about 20K RAM .....).

I'll also note that MS Mouse 6 (which was discussed before) seems to always load correctly, but then it will fail randomly on mouse reset -- which happens everytime you launch a DOS app -- because of the delay issue. i.e. edit will sometimes work and sometimes don't. So it's I think worse than the other candidates.

Right now the combination I'm using is patched ctmouse + my driver on W3.x (which uses whichever driver you had active on DOS, i.e. ctmouse). It works kinda well, because on boot ctmouse will prefer a PS/2 mouse if plugged, fallback on the touchpad if not, and then W3.x naturally follows suite. But there are some glitches that I have not diagnosed yet. I may try to add serial support to my DOS driver too .

Well, fantastic that you've patched ctmouse to do the job for us 😀, many thanks!
I didn't realize that wfw311 used an already loaded dos mouse driver? i was under the misconception that it loaded its own regardless? all the better I was wrong on that one!!
Currently Ive got 86box going through a debian potato install 😀... and my book386 doing a kernel recompile for my redahat 5.2, cutting out a whole load of stuff...
though TBH looking at the 'top' output, whilst memory was in short supply running X (fvwm2) , even before it started using swap, you dont have to run much to see the processor really is limiting things....
xfishtank pretty much kills it!
Edit, sorry Ive just re-read your post, which is your WFW311 driver?

The first day of trials and tests since I’ve had it at home. I’ll just add that the display occasionally reports – a menu flashes up – that it has a resolution of 720x400. So for 800x600 maybe not much usable, too big step-up on vertical lines.

I’m trying to get in my larger CF card and DOS 6.22 + WfW 3.11 to work on it…

Back in 90s, when I had a 386DX40, I had 4MB of RAM in it; another 4MB back then would have cost like my mum month’s wage. It took a while, even with the 486DX80 I started with 4MB, but that was soon upgraded to 8MB – finally, WfW 3.11 with Works became comfortably usable, although DOS and games still dominated. I didn’t get 16MB until I had a Pentium a few years later, by which time it was already struggling with Windows 95…

It’s quite a massive machine now, but it’s nice that the ports are built into the body, still not bigger than A4 paper.

mariov8 wrote on 2026-08-29, 20:01:

The first day of trials and tests since I’ve had it at home. I’ll just add that the display occasionally reports – a menu flashe […]
Show full quote

The first day of trials and tests since I’ve had it at home. I’ll just add that the display occasionally reports – a menu flashes up – that it has a resolution of 720x400. So for 800x600 maybe not much usable, too big step-up on vertical lines.

I’m trying to get in my larger CF card and DOS 6.22 + WfW 3.11 to work on it…

Back in 90s, when I had a 386DX40, I had 4MB of RAM in it; another 4MB back then would have cost like my mum month’s wage. It took a while, even with the 486DX80 I started with 4MB, but that was soon upgraded to 8MB – finally, WfW 3.11 with Works became comfortably usable, although DOS and games still dominated. I didn’t get 16MB until I had a Pentium a few years later, by which time it was already struggling with Windows 95…

It’s quite a massive machine now, but it’s nice that the ports are built into the body, still not bigger than A4 paper.

Dont worry about the display flashing up things like 720x400, I'm pretty sure that's just the LCD controller telling you what signal its getting from the video card (rather like some external monitors on a desktop system might), that just sounds like a dos text mode...
The display is definitely at least 800x600....
ive still a sneaking suspicion it (EDIT the native screen res) might be higher (like 1024x768) but the controller may have been set to reject anything higher than 800x600? but , not sure...

Im with you its a shame that the only thing they have now in the cute pocket format now is the 8086... I'll certainly be keeping hold of at least one of my pocket386s!

Jules_nerd wrote on 2026-08-29, 19:47:

Well, fantastic that you've patched ctmouse to do the job for us 😀, many thanks!
I didn't realize that wfw311 used an already loaded dos mouse driver? i was under the misconception that it loaded its own regardless? all the better I was wrong on that one!!
Edit, sorry Ive just re-read your post, which is your WFW311 driver?

This is only when using my driver , from here New DOS mouse driver for VirtualBox/VMware/ PS/2 mice . Because I am putting all the code in the DOS version and didn't want to repeat for Windows, the Windows one is basically a stub that forwards everything to the DOS version (using the standard DOS APIs, so it works with cutemouse too and others). Normally pointless but useful here since I haven't found a builtin one in Windows that works consistently 😀
My DOS driver doesn't work with serial mice -- yet 😜

mariov8 wrote on 2026-08-29, 20:01:

I’m trying to get in my larger CF card and DOS 6.22 + WfW 3.11 to work on it…

Hey, welcome to the club.
This reminds me that CF cards have almost triplicated in price since the pocket386 times...

Jules_nerd wrote on 2026-08-29, 20:35:

The display is definitely at least 800x600....
ive still a sneaking suspicion it (EDIT the native screen res) might be higher (like 1024x768) but the controller may have been set to reject anything higher than 800x600? but , not sure...

Agreed there, the display is for sure >= 800x600.
On the pocket386 I could set Windows to 800x600, and it was easy to notice that the LCD controller was scaling down (lines that disappear, mostly).

Speaking of displays, how is the VGA lottery this time ? On both the pocket386 and the book386 I got the worst of the bunch (GD5240 with 512KB VRAM).
I have found that the 1.50 driver that is floating around is the only one that allows me to set 800x600x256colors on this chipset, all the other ones have glitches, missing text, etc. Note 800x600x16colors works fine with any version.

javispedro1 wrote on 2026-08-30, 00:35:

This is only when using my driver , from here New DOS mouse driver for VirtualBox/VMware/ PS/2 mice , because I am putting all the code in the DOS version and didn't want to repeat for Windows, the Windows one is basically a stub that forwards everything to the DOS version (using the standard DOS APIs, so it works with cutemouse too and others). Normally pointless but useful here since I haven't found a builtin one in Windows that works consistently 😀
My DOS driver doesn't work with serial mice -- yet 😜

So basically the overall best combination for DOS and Win311 is your patched ctmouse & your windows VBMOUSE.DRV ? - even if you say its not 100%, at least your windows driver will work!!

javispedro1 wrote on 2026-08-30, 00:35:

Speaking of displays, how is the VGA lottery this time ? On both the pocket386 and the book386 I got the worst of the bunch (GD5240 with 512KB VRAM).
I have found that the 1.50 driver that is floating around is the only one that allows me to set 800x600x256colors on this chipset, all the other ones have glitches, missing text, etc. Note 800x600x16colors works fine with any version.

I remember a review online where the reviewer seemed to say it was a lottery which chip you got & he referenced other products with a trident (i think that was a book8086?), but has anyone actually been supplied with anything other than a GD5240 with 512KB?
Ive a vague recollection someone on this thread mentioned it...
Both my pockets & my book386 have GD5420, for those that want to find out without taking theirs apart, Cirrus did a utility, IDCHIP.EXE
its in vogons driver lib
https://vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid= … 268&menustate=0
it says that my book has CG5420r1, 75MHz, Bios V1.3, 512k

I'm using drivers for GD54XX V1.2 (the two XX isnt a typo (or at least not on my part!), its what windows setup says it is, not GD542*, though one of the files is VDD542X.386) in WFW311, 800x600 256 colour, I haven't noticed any issues yet though I admit i havent used windows 311 much & when I just tried to change drivers in the windows setup from the dos prompt it gave me a warning about mismatched code pages & said that might cause display issues, missing chars etc??
Im not sure where I got the drivers, I thought Id downloaded from Vogons, but i cant find them online now!

FWIW attached is what im using.

Yes, that message is from LCD controller, 800x600 with 256 colors was limit for 512kB memory on VGA card. Seen from LCD controller a lot of other values till now. But such card could be capable to do 1024x768 with 16 colors, if i remember correctly. But must be allowed.

It seems to be Cirrus Logic, by Win95 drivers, but IDCHIP.EXE told me that it is not an CL GD chip...

W95 run even with 386SX 40MHz surprisingly "well", but who in those times has 16MB of RAM and so quick harddisk on such machine, even my 80MHz 486DX2 ended with 8MB of RAM and 240MB HDD which definitely was not so quick as used Compact Flash Professional card... Now trying to install Office 97. 😁 Well, it is 386SX...

Case is "only" 3D printed, but quality really is good, for 3D print with used technology.

Jules_nerd wrote on 2026-08-30, 14:53:

I'm using drivers for GD54XX V1.2 (the two XX isnt a typo (or at least not on my part!), its what windows setup says it is, not GD542*, though one of the files is VDD542X.386) in WFW311, 800x600 256 colour, I haven't noticed any issues yet though I admit i havent used windows 311 much & when I just tried to change drivers in the windows setup from the dos prompt it gave me a warning about mismatched code pages & said that might cause display issues, missing chars etc??

I just used the 1.41 version for Windows 3.11 which is included on the CF card. Don't forget the patch (=overwrite a DLL if I remember correctly). Without patch it doesn't work correctly. Max is also 800x600 and 256 colors with this driver btw for my GD5240/512KB.

Yoghoo wrote on 2026-08-30, 16:08:

I just used the 1.41 version for Windows 3.11 which is included on the CF card. Don't forget the patch (=overwrite a DLL if I remember correctly). Without patch it doesn't work correctly. Max is also 800x600 and 256 colors with this driver btw for my GD5240/512KB.

interesting.. I found the GD542x directory on the vendor supplied CF, but no patch, where did you find the patch?

mariov8 wrote on 2026-08-30, 16:03:

Yes, that message is from LCD controller, 800x600 with 256 colors was limit for 512kB memory on VGA card. Seen from LCD controller a lot of other values till now. But such card could be capable to do 1024x768 with 16 colors, if i remember correctly. But must be allowed.

It seems that if you use drivers for 1024x768 that the graphics IC does it, but the LCD controller display - the same one youve normally seen popping up showing the resolution, just says unsupported or something similar...

mariov8 wrote on 2026-08-30, 16:03:

It seems to be Cirrus Logic, by Win95 drivers, but IDCHIP.EXE told me that it is not an CL GD chip...

Even more interesting! Ive double checked that the IDCHIP.EXE i linked to (cant remember where I got my copy) and it definitely runs fine on mine and returns the chip type...
Im not sure what to suggest to find out whats going on there! Does win95 hardware device manager give any more hints ?

Jules_nerd wrote on 2026-08-30, 17:11:

Yoghoo wrote on 2026-08-30, 16:08:

I just used the 1.41 version for Windows 3.11 which is included on the CF card. Don't forget the patch (=overwrite a DLL if I remember correctly). Without patch it doesn't work correctly. Max is also 800x600 and 256 colors with this driver btw for my GD5240/512KB.

interesting.. I found the GD542x directory on the vendor supplied CF, but no patch, where did you find the patch?

It's in the 512K directory which is in the GD542X directory.

Yoghoo wrote on 2026-08-30, 17:17:

It's in the 512K directory which is in the GD542X directory.

Oh, its not there on mine!
that directory jsut has two files on mine, 256_1280.DRV & a README that seems to imply its for the CL-GD5426 & 28?

Jules_nerd wrote on 2026-08-30, 17:21:

Yoghoo wrote on 2026-08-30, 17:17:

It's in the 512K directory which is in the GD542X directory.

Oh, its not there on mine!
that directory jsut has two files on mine, 256_1280.DRV & a README that seems to imply its for the CL-GD5426 & 28?

Those files are correct. Just follow the README. It works on GD5420.