1. sfx2.e bug
Hi Everyone,
Those of you who are using sfx2.e beware that the part of code that
detect the
sound card IRQ is buggy. Micheal Packard reported me that it disrupt is network
communication and hang up the system. I don't have access to a network computer
to test it. I will have hard time to figure what getting wrong unless I get
some help
from as many people as possible for debugging. If some of you want to help
me, send
me an e-mail and I will send you a debug version of sfx2.e. It will produre
a log file
that you will have just to send me back. The problem happen only if BLASTER
environment variable is absent.
Jacques Deschenes
Baie-Comeau, Quebec
Canada
desja at quebectel.com
2. Re: sfx2.e bug
At 04:57 AM 5/15/97 -0500, you wrote:
>
>---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>Sender: Euphoria Programming for MS-DOS <EUPHORIA at
>MIAMIU.ACS.MUOHIO.EDU>
>Poster: Jacques Deschenes <desja at QUEBECTEL.COM>
>Subject: sfx2.e bug
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Hi Everyone,
>
> Those of you who are using sfx2.e beware that the part of code that
>detect the
>sound card IRQ is buggy. Micheal Packard reported me that it disrupt is
network
>communication and hang up the system.
<snip>
>Jacques Deschenes
>Baie-Comeau, Quebec
>Canada
>desja at quebectel.com
>
I think that you will find that EVERY single sound blaster autodetect
routine will
hang the system if there are network cards present and/or in use. If you
read the
manuals for some of the new games, where they discuss the soundcard settings,
you will see warnings not to use the autodetections if the computer has a
network
card in it.
So, it's not suprising that Mr. Packard is having dificulties with your
program. It's
just a sad fact of life that network cards and Sound Blasters don't like
each other.
<grin>
James A. Powell
P.S. If you do find a way to autodetect a SB card in a computer that has a
network
card with 100% accuracy and without crashing the system, it could possibly
be worth some money to game companies. Then again, maybe not. ;)
3. Re: sfx2.e bug
On Thu, 15 May 1997, James Powell wrote:
>
> I think that you will find that EVERY single sound blaster autodetect
> routine will
> hang the system if there are network cards present and/or in use. If you
> read the
> manuals for some of the new games, where they discuss the soundcard settings,
> you will see warnings not to use the autodetections if the computer has a
> network
> card in it.
> So, it's not suprising that Mr. Packard is having dificulties with your
> program. It's
> just a sad fact of life that network cards and Sound Blasters don't like
> each other.
> <grin>
Doom, Wolf 3d, AND duke nukem 3d all autodetect my cards fine with no
network problems...
Michael Packard
Lord Generic Productions
lgp at exo.com http://exo.com/~lgp
A Crash Course in Game Design and Production
http://exo.com/~lgp/euphoria
4. Re: sfx2.e bug
- Posted by Greg Harris <blackdog at CDC.NET>
May 15, 1997
-
Last edited May 16, 1997
> Hi Everyone,
>
> Those of you who are using sfx2.e beware that the part of code that
> detect the
> sound card IRQ is buggy. Micheal Packard reported me that it disrupt is
network
> communication and hang up the system. I don't have access to a network
computer
> to test it. I will have hard time to figure what getting wrong unless I
get
> some help
> from as many people as possible for debugging. If some of you want to
help
> me, send
> me an e-mail and I will send you a debug version of sfx2.e. It will
produre
> a log file
> that you will have just to send me back. The problem happen only if
BLASTER
> environment variable is absent.
I tested it on my system a while back and it hangs my computer up as well.
I don't have a network card. Also it doesn't detect my 16-Bit DMA. I saw
some ASM code on the net to detect the IRQ and just deleted it from my hard
drive a few minutes ago. I'll see if I can round that up and send it to
you.
L8r,
Greg.
5. Re: sfx2.e bug
- Posted by Jacques Deschenes <desja at QUEBECTEL.COM>
May 15, 1997
-
Last edited May 16, 1997
At 11:33 97-05-15 -0700, Micheal wrote:
>Doom, Wolf 3d, AND duke nukem 3d all autodetect my cards fine with no
>network problems...
The problem here is that I have no idea how is the network interrupt working.
My interrupt jump to the old interrupt (network interrupt) after executing
it's own code. Maybe it should jump to the network interrupt only when it's
really a network interrupt an otherwise simply make an IRET
.I'm in the dark here.
Jacques Deschenes
Baie-Comeau, Quebec
Canada
desja at quebectel.com
6. Re: sfx2.e bug
- Posted by Marcel Kollenaar <M.Kollenaar at SLO.NL>
May 18, 1997
-
Last edited May 19, 1997
James A. Powell wrote:
> It's just a sad fact of life that network cards and Sound Blasters
> don't like each other.
>
> James A. Powell
>
> P.S. If you do find a way to autodetect a SB card in a computer that has a
> network
> card with 100% accuracy and without crashing the system, it could possibly
> be worth some money to game companies. Then again, maybe not. ;)
Why not checking for a network device first? Then you can decide
for the next 50% pass or fail SB-detection. I know it is possible
to detect, in case of a Novell system, if there is an IPX/SPX network
running. And there must be a way to detect which IRQ they're using
without crashing the system, Qemm's MFT from Quarterdeck does!
Marcel Kollenaar
7. Re: sfx2.e bug
At 23:31 97-05-18 +0100, you wrote:
>---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>Sender: Euphoria Programming for MS-DOS <EUPHORIA at
>MIAMIU.ACS.MUOHIO.EDU>
>Poster: Marcel Kollenaar <M.Kollenaar at SLO.NL>
>Subject: Re: sfx2.e bug
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Why not checking for a network device first? Then you can decide
>for the next 50% pass or fail SB-detection. I know it is possible
>to detect, in case of a Novell system, if there is an IPX/SPX network
>running. And there must be a way to detect which IRQ they're using
>without crashing the system, Qemm's MFT from Quarterdeck does!
There is certainly a way to do that but I didn`t find it yet.
To detect Novell network I found a snippet on SWAG.
-- detecting novell network snippet
include machine.e
sequence r
integer al
r = repeat(0,10)
r[REG_AX] = #7A00
r = dos_interrupt(#2F,r)
al = remainder(r[REG_AX],256)
if al != 255 then
puts(1,"No Novell network detected.\n")
elsif r[REG_ES] != 0 or r[REG_DI] != 0 then
puts(1,"Novell network detected.\n")
end if
Thanks for your offer to test sfx2.e on the network of your enterprise but
you rather
not take that risk. I can't garanti that it will not disrupt all the network.
Jacques Deschenes
Baie-Comeau, Quebec
Canada
desja at quebectel.com
8. Re: sfx2.e bug
Marcel wrote:
>Why not checking for a network device first? Then you can decide
>for the next 50% pass or fail SB-detection. I know it is possible
>to detect, in case of a Novell system, if there is an IPX/SPX network
>running. And there must be a way to detect which IRQ they're using
>without crashing the system, Qemm's MFT from Quarterdeck does!
>
>Marcel Kollenaar
Ok, ok. Yes, it appears that there are ways to autodetect a SoundBlaster
without
crashing a computer with a network card. I will admit that I was wrong, and
that
since I don't have a network card to test my statement against, I should not
have
blindly repeated notices that appeared in a couple of manuals. Next time I
won't
open my big mouth quite so fast. :)
