Hey Deon, mL and others!!! I've been playing around with Docker lately.
It seems like a decent platform to run [several] bbSes on one server... both the simple ones [bbsio/synchronet] and even DOS BBS softwares w/ the use of DOSEMU. [jgoerzen/bbs-renegade and others by him]
Deon - is yer ANSiTex in Docker by chance?
Is there any interest in this - and/or, can I ask ?s here along the way if I start to get a hang of things? It seems a lot of folks get something basic running, but don't go the full distance. I'd like to get persistent installs of different softwares - which in the grand scheme doesn't seem all THAT hard - just work getting there.
I was thinking it would be awesome to have a 'bbs' that was simply a WFC screen that allowed the connected user to login to as many historical [stock] bbS softwares as I can get setup... thinking that Docker might
be a decent way to do this. With help from the above works, and others,
I can learn some better practices at setting up both native and DOS softwares.
Is there any interest in this - and/or, can I ask ?s here along the way
if I start to get a hang of things? It seems a lot of folks get
something basic running, but don't go the full distance. I'd like to get persistent installs of different softwares - which in the grand scheme doesn't seem all THAT hard - just work getting there.
I think this is a neat idea, for sure. You should definitely pursue it. Ask questions, maybe we can all learn from/with you =)
Christian aka MeaTLoTioN // @meatlotion:erb.pw
It seems like a decent platform to run [several] bbSes on one server... the simple ones [bbsio/synchronet] and even DOS BBS softwares w/ the us DOSEMU. [jgoerzen/bbs-renegade and others by him]
I like your thinking. Yup, it is a good platform to run anything, and
I've taken jgoerzen method and extended it to run DOS BBSes. I started
on it a while ago, to get my Ezycom back online - and I did, but parked
it as I got distracted with other things. (I built images using dosemu
and qemu - serial transfers was tricky, but doable...)
The challenge I had, (which may be due to the way I was implementing
it), is DOS doesnt give up the CPU, so my poor little APU1D was working hard for very little use. It was also challenging to get a reliable
mailer working (so that it had mail) - since zmodem is very fussy if one side is slower than the other. (Which resulted in me starting on clearghouz with EMSI/Zmodem support - where I could control the Zmodem timeouts.)
Seconded. I would love to learn more about the Docker stuff I do have a couple docker servers when I need to work on them it's always a journey. Would love to see how you do with it. Keep us posted. BTW did you ever get all the picks of that 486 up?
I sent YOU a bunch - the Dolch project is coming to an end and I'll be making a video... it took a long time to understand all the old BIOS issues - but I've overcome them and have a really nice 2-CFCard solution all cleanly installed and... its coming along great.
I got a bit sidetracked as I'm waiting for hardware... gonna install a floppy emu and am still waiting for a suitable SoundBlaster as the
Dolch's weren't build for... us. Once that arrives, I have an amplifier
w/ some speakers that I'm installing in the luggable...
pAULIE42o
.........
I don't LOVE jgoerzen's way of using 'supervisor' and VNC to get into the
DOS dockers - but he's done a lot of work...
The challenge I had, (which may be due to the way I was implementing it), is DOS doesnt give up the CPU, so my poor little APU1D was working hard for very little use. It was also challenging to get a reliable mailer working (so that it had mail) - since zmodem is very fussy if one side is slower than the other. (Which resulted in me starting on
Yer above my head already, but for mail I've gained a lot of knowledge from the Renegade guys... they have their [Legacy hardware/VMs] tossing right along.
I actually used this to get multinode running, so each "node" was a new window, and VNC enabled me to see what was going on in each window.
Which part? The CPU bit is because DOS thinks it owns the CPU and runs
it full steam. You can load "dosidle" which does give up the CPU, but
when you have a BBS with a WFC screen (or a mailer), it doesnt give up much :(
The mailer part is if you want to use mail transfers (or for that matter enable file downloads from the DOS BBS). The common transfer being used (zmodem), is not tollerant to each side of the connection having
different speeds.
Since DOS BBSes only talk serial ports - the "DOS" side is limited by
the speed of the emulated serial port - say 115200 baud, but the other side is ethernet (with operating system buffers). So when a transfer is done, 1 side waits for the other to say "I'm finished, or I got it" -
and it only waits so long. If it doesnt get a response then it
"timesout".
The problem is, for example, the ethernet side sends a file, it fills up
a TCP/IP buffer and it thinks the otherside should have got it (and
waits for the ACK) - but the other side is draining the TCP buffer
through a slow link (115200) and if it takes too long to get to the end
of the buffer, the other side has given up and gone.
I sent YOU a bunch - the Dolch project is coming to an end and I'll be making a video... it took a long time to understand all the old BIOS issues - but I've overcome them and have a really nice 2-CFCard solution all cleanly installed and... its coming along great.
What is Dolch? I just found some retro computer as the only reference I could find on the net? Above suggests some software rather than hardware reference. I'm confused :>
You can read all about it on my website @ https://techheart.life/articles/meet-the-dolch-pac-60/
You can read all about it on my website @ https://techheart.life/articles/meet-the-dolch-pac-60/
Interesting, what CPU do you have in that PAC-60 version? 3/486 or is it already a pentium era computer?
What is the GPU there? Is is just VGA compatible or does it come with ho>various SVGA capabilities as well?
great package for vintage computing, since its MIL spec and such a
strong and compact (luggable) package.
The GPU is a Viper 535 (or 353 - I can't remember and I don't wanna go look at the card. :P) - its a VGA, but nothing fancy... it'll play Doom,
I've got it kitted out w/ two CFCard --> ISA adapters and waiting on a SoundBlaster that I'm gonna add a small amplifier and speaker to.
great package for vintage computing, since its MIL spec and such a strong and compact (luggable) package.
Any chances they can be available outside US, somewhere EU as well?
The GPU is a Viper 535 (or 353 - I can't remember and I don't wanna g look at the card. :P) - its a VGA, but nothing fancy... it'll play Do
If with UniVBE you can confirm it has at least VESA 1.2 then this would
be a very legitimate graphics card for 486DX, but of course if its VGA
is fast and can do Doom in 70Hz then it's obviously a superior MS-DOS retro gaming and computing platform.
If you have packet driver for MTCP the I believe you can also get it ho>connected to BBSes, have you tested that?
It seems like a decent platform to run [several] bbSes on one server... both the simple ones [bbsio/synchronet] and even DOS BBS softwares w/
the use of DOSEMU. [jgoerzen/bbs-renegade and others by him]
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