OS 6.1 New Operating System

[RJH_MUSIC]

Brain Farts are good. They are like smelling salts!

[Carlo]

Are there any more news? This idea is awesome. IS it possible?

[RJH_MUSIC]

I don't Think so at the moment. I'm in the process of building up a new power supply and there's another thread on that which is just as interesting as this one. I've hit a few snags and I've had to purchase more materials but hopefully in the next couple of weeks I'll have a new power supply biult and CPU. That might spark some inspiration here. I have managed to take a 2 rack unit server PSU case and modify it modify it to hold the original D8B motherboard and pro be motherboard and peripherals and I've tested it and it works. The 2nd phase is the actual power supply for the console which I originally was going to put in a separate one rack unit but found out quickly that with the parts needed I cannot so now I'm trying to figure out how to get everything into the 1 to reconnect chassie. If that works then there will be real incentive and updating the OS because you'd be able to use a 2 rack 8 rack Unit server chassi using current motherboards and that would be a big game.

[RJH_MUSIC]

Please excuse all of spelling errors voice recognition does not always work as you intend. To translate what I was trying to say is that if I am successful in the end I will have a 2 RU unit power supply With sufficient cooling That will run everything. If that all works it would be real incentive for upgrading the OS because because instead of modifying a current day server case to accommodate the older motherboard a newer motherboard could be usedAnd that would be a real gain.

[RJH_MUSIC]

I personally do not think the answer to a new OS is using Mac OS or windows. I think the best solution is just to modify the current OS to be able to take current drivers so in the end you would still have a standalone OS but it would be greatly updated for current day computer peripherals.

[arjepsen]

I personally do not think the answer to a new OS is using Mac OS or windows. I think the best solution is just to modify the current OS to be able to take current drivers so in the end you would still have a standalone OS but it would be greatly updated for current day computer peripherals.

That would be great - but I suspect that will be quite difficult. You would have to understand how they originally made their OS, and how they implemented the drivers, in order to write new drivers. This solution would also be somewhat bothersome, since you'd have to write seperate drivers for every new piece of hardware we would like it to run on.

I still think the best way would be to write a new graphical interface program (whether under windows, mac or linux would likely not be essential - although I would like to do it under linux, since this might open of for running it on a raspberry pi or similar small board, that would fit within the desk). There are two communication ports being used a.t.m. - one port is communicating with the brain board. The other one with the DCA board.
So short: map out all the communication with the desk on these two ports. Write a new program/interface, that does does the same communication.
I wish I was a software engineer, then I might be able to do it - but alas I don't know enough to undertake such a project.

[RJH_MUSIC]

You make a really good point there, because I purchased at least 5 different low profile video cards recently in pairs of 2 since I have 2 d8b's, and none of them would work. Interestingly enough, when you first turn the unit on the video works, but causes the OS to hang on the OS splash screen. So I do agree, that fining or writing drivers for every conceivable setup would be a major PITA! I just would hate to have to boot into MAC OS/WIN before booting into Mackie OS.

[RJH_MUSIC]

Here are some update pics of the work in progress

[Jondav1120]

I have been recently delving into the existing code using IDA pro...it appears that the MBR is fairly standard stuff (MS-DOS header and stub code, followed by a PE header, and some code to load PME.SYS into memory and execute it).
PME.SYS seems to do a lot of setup stuff (data arrays in memory, etc), and finally loads and executes Mackieos.exe, which appears to be the main application.
Neither of these programs are written to run under Windows / Mac / Linux, so actually getting them to run would require extensive work, or possibly some form of wrapper / emulation of the existing hardware.
I suspect that PME.SYS is doing the hardware setup and recognition of the various pieces that are needed to make the system boot correctly, so another avenue of exploration may be to reverse engineer PME.SYS to recognise newer hardware and present a compatible interface to the application.
Another possibility would be a completely new application built to run on WIndows / Mac using two serial ports to communicate with the D8B console.

Although I have made some progress with the reverse engineering, this is a huge task, and I'm only just dipping into it at the moment...sorry to disappoint, but I don't expect to see a D8B running on new hardware anytime soon.

Regards

John

Sorry to have been very quiet on this subject. I have been working on replacing the OS with an application running on Win / Linux. The data structures are nearing completion and thanks to jf_uk's image extraction scripts, I have been able to make a start on the GUI. This is currently using the original 8bit files as an upgrade to 24bit graphics files is on the nice to have list, rather than the essentials!

D8B under windows.PNG (Array KiB) Viewed 1921 times

The attached screenshot is the GUI running under Windows 10.
Whilst I would love to be able to give a timescale for completion, I cannot due to work commitments, family, etc, etc. This is primarily for my own use, but if I can get it to a stable working state, with the majority of functionality implemented, I would consider releasing it for general use.

Regards

John

[arjepsen]

Dude, that's AWESOME!!
KEEP IT UP!!!