Software Update: FreeDOS 2.0.35

FreeDOS is a complete, open source, 100% MS-DOS compatible operating system. Development is in full swing and recently version 2.0.35 of the kernel is available with the following changelog:

Changes Lucho + Tom

• config.c, fatfs.c, globals.h, init-mod.h: From Tom: must set r_bpfat for C_BLDBPB, otherwise USBASPI.SYS, DI1000DD.SYS won’t like us. From Lucho: use DiskTransferBuffer for deblock_buf.

Changes Lucho

• docs/fdkernel.lsm, stacks.inc, version.h, entry.asm, inthndlr.c, io.asm, nlssupt.asm: no need to preserve high part of ecx for Borland, ebx for MSVC
• device.h, dsk.c, init-mod.h, ioctl.c: MSC fixes and small cleanup
• ioctl.c: Cache attr and control flow optimizations (~120 bytes)
• device.h, dsk.c, ioctl.c: deal with the correct structure for generic and query ioctls. Fixes issues with 3rd party device drivers (or ones that use dsk.c)
• dosfns.c, inthndlr.c, proto.h: Merge dosmkdir and dosrmdir
• config.c: strcasecmp and set_strategy common code optimizations.
• main.c: Add necessary cast for BC
• portab.h: Avoid problem with BC declaring __emit__, and/disable twice.
• dsk.c: DJ mechanism without memcpy.
• newstuff.c: replace loops by fmemset/fmemcpy (43 bytes)
• dosfns.c, fatdir.c, fcbfns.c, ioctl.c: Some small cleanups.
• config.c: GetNumArg and misc other cleanups
• time.h, fatfs.c: converted TM_ENCODE into a function.
• inthndlr.c, proto.h, fatfs.c: Inlined dos_setdta.
• Various bug fixes and cleanups from Lucho and Arkady.
• inithma.c: moved fmemcmp’s into a checkHMA function.
• inithma.c: HMAFree == 0xfff0 – bytesToAllocate is valid and may happen if the buffers occupy exactly all HMA space up to and including the last byte at ffff:ffff. Failing caused all buffers to go low …
• inthndlr.c: cleanups (merge common code into long_check and short_check). Made int21/3301,2e,54 consistent with MSDOS behavior.
• globals.h, task.c, main.c: Convert setvec into a function for the resident code

Changes Arkady

• initdisk.c: initdisk optimizations (65 bytes) and is_suspect fix.
• config.c, init-mod.h, intr.asm: optimized allocmem()
• fattab.c, kernel.asm: optimizations
• main.c: Make signon one big printf function call.
• ioctl.c: bugfix for INT21/440b (change NetRetry if DX is _non_zero).
• inthndlr.c: cntry == 0 doesn’t make sense for Set Country Information. Fix int21/5e02+
• sys/talloc.c: Turbo C really wants unsigned __brklvl. Only shows up if you enable stack checking.

Changes Bart

• memmgr.c, proto.h, inthndlr.c: DosUmbLink no longer tries to merge free blocks. Also cleaned up a bit.
• inthndlr.c: Fix int21/3302 (the swap was wrong, Lucho & Bart)
• config.c: Pointer-ise specificCountriesSupported accesses.
• config.c: Reorganized GetBiosKey a bit — inlining GetBiosTime saves a slight amount of code, converted timeout config.c: Use strcaseequal instead of strcasecmp since we never care about order anyway.
• chario.c: Fix problem with redirected input and int21/ah=0a (debug console.asm, main.c, prf.c: Use int29 for kernel console output. Enables ansi escape sequences in config.sys once you load nansi.sys It also saves a couple of bytes.
• newstuff.c, proto.h: made dosmktmp to return a long: consistent with DosOpen et al and avoids the cast.
• mkfiles/tc2.mak: Let TC2 warn for the utilities.
• config.c: Disabled EBDA moves by default. Automatic EBDA moves now happen using switches=/e:-1
• config.c: Pointer-ize MenuStruct[MenuSelected]… (from Lucho). and InstallCommands[i]† (from Bart). Some other small optimizations.
• memmgr.c: Some small optimizations (46 bytes) and dead code removal from Lucho and Bart
• init-mod.h: Need to define strchr to init_strchr otherwise the wrong one may be called.
• initdisk.c: Do a bit of printf merging.
• filelist, drivers/makefile, init-mod.h, inthndlr.c, task.c, globals.h, main.c: Convert getvec into a C function.
• int2f.asm: Clean up int2f assembly a bit (merge some common bits, clarify label names)
• fatfs.c, fattab.c: fattab.c now remembers if the old FAT entry was free or not, so the free space adjustment could be moved back to fattab.c.
• init-mod.h: Replaced setvec macro by a function.
• entry.asm, inthndlr.c: Made int21/ah=25.35 reentrant. Solve problem with Intel PRO/1000 driver.
• portab.h, globals.h, main.c: Initialize all int vectors except the ones at 70:xxxx using a table. Convert setvec into a function that disables/enables ints (init code only for now, resident code will follow later); cli/sti (disable/enable) are now macros (inlined).
• fnode.h, fatdir.c, fatfs.c: dir_read() no longer updates the diroff counter. This eliminates the NEW field, simplifies remove_lfn_entries(), and avoids a bug if you delete the first entry in the root directory on FAT32.
• fattab.c: Stop abusing “idx”. The OW optimizer likes this better,too.
• fattab.c: Clean up FAT12 handling — there’s a portable approach that’s small too.
• fattab.c: Inlined much of getFATblock() into link_fat. Saves the idx reference. The second call (for a FAT12 entry that is divided into two sectors) can be much simpler, no need to recalculate. Merged next_cluster and link_fat into one function depending on a special Cluster2 value.
• fattab.c: Calculate the nibble/word/dword index of the FAT entry in the sector centrally in getFATblock.
• fattab.c: “clussec” can be of CLUSTER size if we divide by an adjusted “words per sector”(FAT16), or “dwords per sector”(FAT32) value instead of multiplying it first. For FAT12 the *3/2 works out a little differently: here we first multiply by 3 and then divide by the number of “nibbles per sector”.
• main.c: Config.cfgInitTail is a pointer now so sizeof isn’t good. Just using strcpy helps F5 and F8.
• main.c: “copyright” is near now so we have to use %s and not %S
• blockio.c, dosfns.c, int2f.asm, network.c, proto.h, task.c: reduced the number of network redirector functions in int2f.asm. The remote_ functions (with one far pointer argument) are now called with the help of a network_redirector() wrapper in C by one multiplex function using a generic void *arg argument to pass the third parameter which can be various things. Split int2f.asm functions, don’t let them preserve as many registers, use pascal calling convention for the “open” (but really: multiplex) function.
• dsk.c: floppy determination type optimization for format — based on Arkady’s suggestions a long time ago.
• a few other small optimizations (~70 bytes total).