ReactOS on OLD hardware

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bochek
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Joined: Tue Oct 18, 2005 10:04 pm

ReactOS on OLD hardware

Post by bochek »

First of all i would like to say that i am new to ROS and i think its a great thing you are doing here.

Secondally, I have installed ROS on a OLD PI 233, this computer has no ps2 port for mouse support, this leaves only a serial mouse.

But it seems as tho the serial mouse does not work, and nor do any keyboard commands i try.

Any information?

Thanks,
Adam Bochek
mikedep333
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Post by mikedep333 »

I'm not sure about serial mouse support, but it seems like you're saying that keyboard isn't working. Is this the case? ROS should support XT/AT keyboards.
Elledan
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Post by Elledan »

A serial mouse should be plugged into the first serial port (COM1), or it won't work. This is because ROS for now only checks that port for the presence of a mouse :)
Gasmann
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Post by Gasmann »

in most pentium boards, you do have ps/2 mouse (like on my old, great PCChips M537DMA33) and even usb onboard, but you have to find the plugs on the board and to know how to wire it up (lot of info available about this on the internet) and turn it on in BIOS. I've installed a Optical PS/2 mouse on that computer without ever having problems. However, as said before, you should also be able to use serial mouse. You can select it in the installer of ReactOS. Normal XT/AT keyboard should work too, at least mine is working.
steveh
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serial mice small port is COM1 or COM2?

Post by steveh »

>A serial mouse should be plugged into the first serial port (COM1), or it won't work. This is because ROS for now only checks that port for the presence of a mouse Smile

I also intended to install reyctos on an old mainboard without ps2 mouse port, without success. When the first install screen pops up, the mouse pointer sits in the upper right corner of the blue background and the keyboard freezes. The machine has two serial ports, one "small" and one "large". I'm not sure which one is COM1 and which COM2. Moreover serial mice always (?) have the "small" plug.

How to check this? Would anyone know a good freeware hardware test program bootable from floppy, which can check the mouse port ?

:twisted: and if i discover that the small plug ever is COM2, where could i find the serial interface codings in the sources and have reactos ignore COM1 and scan COM2 instead ?
Elledan
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Re: serial mice small port is COM1 or COM2?

Post by Elledan »

steveh wrote:>A serial mouse should be plugged into the first serial port (COM1), or it won't work. This is because ROS for now only checks that port for the presence of a mouse Smile

I also intended to install reyctos on an old mainboard without ps2 mouse port, without success. When the first install screen pops up, the mouse pointer sits in the upper right corner of the blue background and the keyboard freezes. The machine has two serial ports, one "small" and one "large". I'm not sure which one is COM1 and which COM2. Moreover serial mice always (?) have the "small" plug.

How to check this? Would anyone know a good freeware hardware test program bootable from floppy, which can check the mouse port ?

:twisted: and if i discover that the small plug ever is COM2, where could i find the serial interface codings in the sources and have reactos ignore COM1 and scan COM2 instead ?
The 'small' serial port should be COM1 by default. You can/should be able to change this in the BIOS.

Most P1 and newer mainboards do have an onboard header for a PS/2 mouse port, though.
steveh
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PS/2 on old mainboard

Post by steveh »

>Most P1 and newer mainboards do have an onboard header for a PS/2 mouse port, though.

@Elledan

Mine has, and i tried some time ago to cable it according to a scheme i found in the internet. But after plugging the mouse, nothing worked, not even in MSDOS with Norton commander. The keyboard froze as soon as i moved the mouse or pressed a mousekey. And of course the mouse moves did not show up on the screen.

I never knew what was wrong.
My cabling? Or a BIOS bug preventing the board's PS/2 functionality from working correctly? It is a P1 Soyo board of 1995, unfortunately a version with an EEPROM BIOS so i could not flash it with the last available BIOS version ...

I don't know if i could find out something on hardware side. I have a multimeter, but not an oscilloscope because that's a really expensive professional device. I could also "listen" with an audio amplifier on the PS/2 mouse port of the mainboard to check which pin is what?
Elledan
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Post by Elledan »

Both the keyboard (AT) connector and the mouse PS/2 header use the PS/2 bus, so a wrong connection could really screw things up :)

Do you have the manual for this mainboard, and if so, does it list the pin-out? It might be that you just found a wrong pin-out, or interpreted it incorrectly/swapped a wire.

Less likely is that the mouse you used was broken/incompatible for some weird reason.

On a sidenote, old IBM Model M keyboards are known to not work with some modern mainboards due to some subtle differences in the way that they handle the PS/2 protocol signals, fixable with some resistors.
Gasmann
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Post by Gasmann »

Be aware that a wrong connection can fry your mouse! (for example if you connect +5V to Data).
I've got my wiring from this site (only german, sorry) and it works perfectly.
bochek
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Post by bochek »

well it turns out the mouse wasn't the problem, the whole os was actually freezing apon boot, it got to the "desktop" and froze.

i havent had time to get any farther on it then this

any info would help

Adam
kokodin
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Post by kokodin »

hi I have check this on my pc and:

ps/2 mouse work perfectly

ps/2 keyboard too

serial mouse in com2 doesn't work system is look like hang but clock is working :)

serial mouse in com1 work but not good the pointer is going to right corner and don't want to go where we want pointer steel returning to his corner :twisted:

It can be a bug :D
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