DOS ain't dead

Panasonic Communications has released version 2.24 on 06 November 2007.

Home page & download: http://panasonic.co.jp/pcc/products/drive/other/f2h_usb.html

Changes:
*

P.S. Previous version 2.20 is available from http://panasonic.co.jp/pcc/products/drive/combi/kxlcb45an/download.html.

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Forum admin

Nice to know still supported.

EDIT by rr: removed direct link; Please don't use these, because users should read license first.

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DOS gives me freedom to unlimited HW access.

> EDIT by rr: removed direct link; Please don't use these, because
> users should read license first.

Yakta? (Surely ye jest, Robert-san, most of us probably don't speak/read Japanese.)

> Yakta? (Surely ye jest, Robert-san, most of us probably don't speak/read
> Japanese.)

LOL,
isn't it a bit overboosted care about licensing and (C)? I think that there's some readme explaining it inside the package so if you don't agree you can always delete it. But I though that linking the legal sw don't violate anything. In our country you can even link the illegal sw if it was not you who uploaded it. We say 'don't try to be more holy than a Pope' or so (I cannot exactly translate to eng. but hope understand what i meant :)

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DOS gives me freedom to unlimited HW access.

> We say 'don't try to be more holy than a
> Pope' or so (I cannot exactly translate to eng. but hope understand what i
> meant :)

The English equivalent is: "More Catholic then the Pope".

> Yakta? (Surely ye jest, Robert-san, most of us probably don't speak/read
> Japanese.)

OK, but I don't like direct downloads of my software. Therefore I don't make direct download links to other sites.

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Forum admin

rr wrote:

> Panasonic Communications has released version 2.24 on 06 November 2007.
> http://panasonic.co.jp/pcc/products/drive/other/f2h_usb.html
> http://panasonic.co.jp/pcc/products/drive/combi/kxlcb45an/download.html

Thanks for pointing.

> EDIT by rr: removed direct link; Please don't use these,
> because users should read license first.

Agree, but here it's in Japanese only, and I don't understand this language - anyone does here in this forum ?

RayeR wrote:

> isn't it a bit overboosted care about licensing and (C)?

NO. IMHO piracy is one of the most crucial evil things DOS should get rid of ASAP

> that there's some readme explaining it inside the package
> so if you don't agree you can always delete it.

YES - it's Japanese only

> In our country you can even link the illegal sw
> if it was not you who uploaded it.

Residual "newbie" tolerance ...

Well, the download works, even with Arachne (see shot), you just have to click on the YES button, not the NO one



The file is Win32 PE GUI, no chance in DOS, not even with HX GUI and "ignore missing imports hack" Seems to be a Win-LHA SFX full of garbage, and somewhere inside the USBASPI.SYS file can be found as well

Judging from the Japanese texts, it is intended for fixing broken Windaube using IO.SYS "MS-DOS" 98/7.1 or ME/8.0 rather that to help DOS to compete against Windaube ...

Thus, I still consider Georg Potthast's [J]DOSUSB as more promising

> The file is Win32 PE GUI, no chance in DOS, not even with HX GUI and
> "ignore missing imports hack" Seems to be a Win-LHA SFX full of
> garbage, and somewhere inside the USBASPI.SYS file can be found as well
>

May I point you to DOS USB Driver Update?

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Forum admin

> The file is Win32 PE GUI, no chance in DOS, not even with HX GUI and
> "ignore missing imports hack" Seems to be a Win-LHA SFX full of
> garbage, and somewhere inside the USBASPI.SYS file can be found as well
>

If it's a LHA file, try unpacking it with LHA.EXE (or even the DJGPP port of LHA/Unix). Usually unpackers ignore the executable stub of such files.

EDIT: Yup, unpacks fine. Try this (DJGPP port of LHA/Unix):

lha e kxlcb45an.exe F2h/USBCD.SYS F2h/Usbaspi.sys (case sensitive)

BTW, you can read a translated English version of that page. Use either Babelfish or Google Language Tools.

> Judging from the Japanese texts, it is intended for fixing broken Windaube
> using IO.SYS "MS-DOS" 98/7.1 or ME/8.0 rather that to help DOS to compete
> against Windaube ...
>
> Thus, I still consider Georg Potthast's [J]DOSUSB as more promising

I personally use DOS on old (and new) computers, some without USB at all. But to be pragmatic (and accede to sol a bit), just use something that does support USB (e.g. NetBSD or a small Linux like DeLi). Easier than learning Japanese, anyways.

> May I point you

YES.

> to DOS USB Driver Update?

Not seen this before

Richard Bonner http://www.chebucto.ca/~ak621/DOS/ wrote:

> I recently downloaded a DOS USB driver update package, but the idiot
> compressed the files using a *Windoze* program. I gave the self-extracting
> executable to a friend but when he tried to run the executable, it wanted
> to install the drivers, which he did not want.
> So I went to another website and had the same thing happen even though
> it was a different executable. How can these people be so stupid as to
> offer a DOS driver package that requires Windoze to expand it?

Couldn't agree more

BTW: rather than suppress this forum and move to (all / one of ?) those numberous silly MS-DOG based "msdos" groups, as someone suggested in the past, it might be an interesting idea to to invite Richard Bonner here in

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This is a LOGITECH mouse driver, but some software expect here
the following string:*** This is Copyright 1983 Microsoft ***

> Richard Bonner http://www.chebucto.ca/~ak621/DOS/ wrote:
>
> > How can these people be so stupid as to offer a DOS driver package
> > that requires Windoze to expand it?
>
> Couldn't agree more

It's not uncommon for people to do so (e.g. registered A86). But this one we're talking about (for example) can be unpacked in DOS with LHA-UNIX (or maybe the common LHA, didn't test that).

For instance, OpenWatcom comes as a Win32 installer / .ZIP sfx, so you can just unzip it in DOS if you want it. (There was a beta DOS installer, DSETUP, recently but it disappeared for some reason, dunno why.)

> past, it might be an interesting idea to to invite Richard Bonner here in
>

Beware!

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Forum admin

> It's not uncommon for people to do so (e.g. registered A86). But this one
> we're talking about (for example) can be unpacked in DOS with LHA-UNIX (or
> maybe the common LHA, didn't test that).

No need to test it. Just read the link in USBASPI.SYS version 2.24 available.

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Forum admin

> > past, it might be an interesting idea to to invite Richard Bonner here
> in
> >
>
> Beware!

Why?

> > Beware!
>
> Why?

I'm too lazy to teach him DOS basics.

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Forum admin

> No need to test it. Just read the link in USBASPI.SYS version
> 2.24 available.

Yes, believe it or not, I posted before I got to reading your message.

Besides, LHA 2.55 is old and only (undocumented) supports -lh6- (extraction only) while the LHA-Unix/DJGPP port is only 1 year old and also supports compressing/extracting up through -lh7-.

> It's not uncommon for people to do so (e.g. registered A86)

True, but it doesn't make the thing or the guys better

> talking about (for example) can be unpacked in DOS with LHA-UNIX
> OpenWatcom comes as a Win32 installer / .ZIP sfx, so you can just unzip

ZIP/UNZIP, LHA, 7-ZIP, INNOUNP, ... most of them indeed can be extracted in DOS if you try hard enough but this fact doesn't make the creators less stupid and idiotic ... software should be designed to be "easy to use", not intentionally difficult to use and bloated with dead crap (the installer / SFX code). Finally, DOS again is the only OS having such habits tolerated ... nobody would come up with the idea to code a package for Windaube and pack it with an installer running on for example MENUetOS only

> There was a beta DOS installer, DSETUP, recently but it
> disappeared for some reason, dunno why.)

Some sort of "no need" probably

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This is a LOGITECH mouse driver, but some software expect here
the following string:*** This is Copyright 1983 Microsoft ***

> Changes:
> *

I don't know. But I did a speed test with v2.24 and v2.20 (tested an USB memory stick). The good thing: v2.24 is not slower than v2.20. The bad thing: it is not faster than v2.20.

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MS-DOS forever!

> Besides, LHA 2.55 is old and only (undocumented) supports -lh6-

I used LHA until 1996 only.

> (extraction only) while the LHA-Unix/DJGPP port is only 1 year old and
> also supports compressing/extracting up through -lh7-.

For completeness: I think, you're talking about http://www.rahul.net/dkaufman/.

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Forum admin

> I don't know. But I did a speed test with v2.24 and v2.20 (tested an USB
> memory stick). The good thing: v2.24 is not slower than v2.20. The bad
> thing: it is not faster than v2.20.

So they probably just improved compatibility/stability.

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Forum admin

> ZIP/UNZIP, LHA, 7-ZIP, INNOUNP, ... most of them indeed can be
> extracted in DOS if you try hard enough

Unpacking a zipped EXE is no harder than unpacking a ZIPfile.

> but this fact doesn't make the
> creators less stupid and idiotic ... software should be designed to be
> "easy to use", not intentionally difficult to use and bloated with dead
> crap (the installer / SFX code).

Speaking of bloat... But back to the main thread: Running an installer EXE is the easiest method for most users. "Experts" who want to play with the contents will have no more difficulty unpacking EXEs then ZIPs, etc. There is no problem.

> Unpacking a zipped EXE is no harder than unpacking a ZIPfile.

How do you know it's a ZIP ?

> Running an installer EXE is the easiest method for most users.

It doesn't run

> There is no problem

maybe for you to go to a forum matching your primary OS.

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This is a LOGITECH mouse driver, but some software expect here
the following string:*** This is Copyright 1983 Microsoft ***

> > Unpacking a zipped EXE is no harder than unpacking a ZIPfile.
>
> How do you know it's a ZIP ?

Look at it in a viewer. Or just try to open it - it takes a few seconds and the worst that can happen is you get an unrecognized filetype message. Big deal.

> > Running an installer EXE is the easiest method for most users.
>
> It doesn't run

LHA SFXes are usually, like Panasonic's, for DOS. WinZIP SFXes can be unzipped in DOS. And even hardcore DOS users usually have Windows.

> > There is no problem
>
> maybe for you to go to a forum matching your primary OS.

I admit I'm not as interested in playing with DOS itself as I used to be. But I still use a good number of DOS apps and that's enough to keep me interested in subjects that come up here. Unless and until complete ideological purity is required, I will stay. But thank you for your concern.