(no subject)

[Adam Agnew]

This is mostly for Adam Sulmicki for the benefit of our current project,
but it's been about a year since it was mentioned last so I felt it
wouldn't help to reiterate (i know i forgot) that there exists another
open source bios, tinyBIOS

http://www.pcengines.com/tinybios.htm

and since his zip file is difficult to uncompress due to patents or some
such non-sense, i repackaged it at
http://www.missl.cs.umd.edu/~agnew/anopenbios.zip

- Adam Agnew

[Gregg C Levine]

Hello from Gregg C Levine
Adam, please define that none-sense for me. I have most of the things
here, from that guy's site. My only objections are for the assembler he
chose. I felt he should have used the assembler that's at the core of
the binary utilities of the GNU set of tools, instead of A86. Or even
Turbo Assembler from Borland, at least they understand proper licensing.
Oh, and thank you for repackaging the whole material in that form. I
didn't have any problems unzipping any of it here, just a darned
nuisance to make it work here.
-------------------
Gregg C Levine [e-mail]
------------------------------------------------------------
"The Force will be with you...Always." Obi-Wan Kenobi
"Use the Force, Luke."  Obi-Wan Kenobi
(This company dedicates this E-Mail to General Obi-Wan Kenobi )
(This company dedicates this E-Mail to Master Yoda )
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [e-mail] [mailto:linuxbios-
> [e-mail]] On Behalf Of Adam Agnew
> Sent: Monday, October 28, 2002 9:27 AM
> To: [e-mail]
> Cc: [e-mail]; [e-mail]
> Subject: (no subject)
>
> This is mostly for Adam Sulmicki for the benefit of our current

project,
> but it's been about a year since it was mentioned last so I felt it
> wouldn't help to reiterate (i know i forgot) that there exists another
> open source bios, tinyBIOS
>
> http://www.pcengines.com/tinybios.htm
>
> and since his zip file is difficult to uncompress due to patents or

some
> such non-sense, i repackaged it at
> http://www.missl.cs.umd.edu/~agnew/anopenbios.zip
> Adam Agnew
>
> Linuxbios mailing list
> [e-mail]
> http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios

[Gregg C Levine]

Hello again from Gregg C Levine
Sorry, Adam, small typo in that statement. It should be "non-sense",
not, "none-sense". Same for all of us. I just looked at his site, and it
still says that other assemblers are not supported. I wonder what he
means by that?
-------------------
Gregg C Levine [e-mail]
------------------------------------------------------------
"The Force will be with you...Always." Obi-Wan Kenobi
"Use the Force, Luke."  Obi-Wan Kenobi
(This company dedicates this E-Mail to General Obi-Wan Kenobi )
(This company dedicates this E-Mail to Master Yoda )
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [e-mail] [mailto:linuxbios-
> [e-mail]] On Behalf Of Gregg C Levine
> Sent: Monday, October 28, 2002 10:10 AM
> To: 'Adam Agnew'
> Cc: Linuxbios
> Subject: RE: (no subject)
>
> Hello from Gregg C Levine
> Adam, please define that none-sense for me. I have most of the things
> here, from that guy's site. My only objections are for the assembler

he
> chose. I felt he should have used the assembler that's at the core of
> the binary utilities of the GNU set of tools, instead of A86. Or even
> Turbo Assembler from Borland, at least they understand proper

licensing.
> Oh, and thank you for repackaging the whole material in that form. I
> didn't have any problems unzipping any of it here, just a darned
> nuisance to make it work here.
> Gregg C Levine [e-mail]
>
> "The Force will be with you...Always." Obi-Wan Kenobi
> "Use the Force, Luke."  Obi-Wan Kenobi
> (This company dedicates this E-Mail to General Obi-Wan Kenobi )
> (This company dedicates this E-Mail to Master Yoda )
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: [e-mail] [mailto:linuxbios-
> > [e-mail]] On Behalf Of Adam Agnew
> > Sent: Monday, October 28, 2002 9:27 AM
> > To: [e-mail]
> > Cc: [e-mail]; [e-mail]
> > Subject: (no subject)
> >
> > This is mostly for Adam Sulmicki for the benefit of our current
>
> project,
> > but it's been about a year since it was mentioned last so I felt it
> > wouldn't help to reiterate (i know i forgot) that there exists

another
> > open source bios, tinyBIOS
> >
> > http://www.pcengines.com/tinybios.htm
> >
> > and since his zip file is difficult to uncompress due to patents or
>
> some
> > such non-sense, i repackaged it at
> > http://www.missl.cs.umd.edu/~agnew/anopenbios.zip
> > Adam Agnew
> >
> > Linuxbios mailing list
> > [e-mail]
> > http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
>
> Linuxbios mailing list
> [e-mail]
> http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios

[Adam Agnew]

This is pretty off topic, but...

<clipped from http://www.info-zip.org/pub/infozip/FAQ.html#unshrink >
(this applies to the unzip that ships with most linux distributions)

"Why does UnZip say "`shrink' method not supported"?

The `shrink' compression method is encumbered by a patent. Although it
appears that stand-alone unshrinking is not covered, the owner has claimed
otherwise in public statements, and the matter has never been tested in
court. (For what it's worth, the same algorithm is used in other utilities
that have been included in every Linux and FreeBSD distribution that has
ever shipped or been downloaded, and no one has ever complained about
that. So the public statements may simply be the usual legal posturing. On
the other hand, Info-ZIP has no particular desire to become the test
case.)

Thus, by default, unshrinking is not enabled in newer releases of
Info-ZIP's distributed binaries. Those who wish to download older binaries
or compile their own versions may still do so. See UnZip's COPYING and
INSTALL files for more information. "

So, yeah, I just repackaged it.

Other non-sense you speak of.

<clipped from http://www.pcengines.com/biosfaq.htm%3E
"Why do you use A386 rather than MASM/NASM/TASM ?
    Prior versions of tinyBIOS were based on an assembler I wrote in 1987.
While ridiculously fast, it did have its limitations. A386 is the closest
replacement I could find, easy to get through www.eji.com, and fairly
priced at $90. Please, please do not attempt to use MASM, NASM or TASM.
Your time is worth more than that."

It is quite a pain to go and buy A386. But then, the man wrote it himself
and its pretty hard to find a good open source bios, so I'm not going to
complain. Luckily, the reason we're looking at it is really just to steal
some interrupt implementations, not to try and use his bios in full. We're
experiencing a bit of trouble with INT15 86 and 87 specifically, and
every source helps.

- Adam Agnew

On Mon, 28 Oct 2002, Gregg C Levine wrote:
> Hello from Gregg C Levine
> Adam, please define that none-sense for me. I have most of the things
> here, from that guy's site. My only objections are for the assembler he
> chose. I felt he should have used the assembler that's at the core of
> the binary utilities of the GNU set of tools, instead of A86. Or even
> Turbo Assembler from Borland, at least they understand proper licensing.
> Oh, and thank you for repackaging the whole material in that form. I
> didn't have any problems unzipping any of it here, just a darned
> nuisance to make it work here.
> Gregg C Levine [e-mail]
>
> "The Force will be with you...Always." Obi-Wan Kenobi
> "Use the Force, Luke."� Obi-Wan Kenobi
> (This company dedicates this E-Mail to General Obi-Wan Kenobi )
> (This company dedicates this E-Mail to Master Yoda )
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: [e-mail] [mailto:linuxbios-
> > [e-mail]] On Behalf Of Adam Agnew
> > Sent: Monday, October 28, 2002 9:27 AM
> > To: [e-mail]
> > Cc: [e-mail]; [e-mail]
> > Subject: (no subject)
> >
> > This is mostly for Adam Sulmicki for the benefit of our current
>
> project,
> > but it's been about a year since it was mentioned last so I felt it
> > wouldn't help to reiterate (i know i forgot) that there exists another
> > open source bios, tinyBIOS
> >
> > http://www.pcengines.com/tinybios.htm
> >
> > and since his zip file is difficult to uncompress due to patents or
>
> some
> > such non-sense, i repackaged it at
> > http://www.missl.cs.umd.edu/~agnew/anopenbios.zip
> > Adam Agnew
> >
> > Linuxbios mailing list
> > [e-mail]
> > http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
>
> Linuxbios mailing list
> [e-mail]
> http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios

[Gregg C Levine]

Hello again from Gregg C Levine
Point taken. I did go over his website the first time I heard about his
product. And that point you found was found, but I completely forgot it,
until now. That sticky issue that Info-Zip is grouching about sounds
about right. However, the folks at WinZip Computing, Inc, as they are
calling themselves must have struck some kind of bargain with the actual
patent holder. But how did Info-Zip accomplish everything else? Say
Adam? Which e-mail did you catch? The first? Or second, with my
corrections?
-------------------
Gregg C Levine [e-mail]
------------------------------------------------------------
"The Force will be with you...Always." Obi-Wan Kenobi
"Use the Force, Luke."  Obi-Wan Kenobi
(This company dedicates this E-Mail to General Obi-Wan Kenobi )
(This company dedicates this E-Mail to Master Yoda )
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Adam Agnew [mailto:[e-mail]]
> Sent: Monday, October 28, 2002 10:44 AM
> To: Gregg C Levine
> Cc: Linuxbios
> Subject: RE: (no subject)
>
> This is pretty off topic, but...
>
> <clipped from http://www.info-zip.org/pub/infozip/FAQ.html#unshrink >
> (this applies to the unzip that ships with most linux distributions)
>
> "Why does UnZip say "`shrink' method not supported"?
>
> The `shrink' compression method is encumbered by a patent. Although it
> appears that stand-alone unshrinking is not covered, the owner has

claimed
> otherwise in public statements, and the matter has never been tested

in
> court. (For what it's worth, the same algorithm is used in other

utilities
> that have been included in every Linux and FreeBSD distribution that

has
> ever shipped or been downloaded, and no one has ever complained about
> that. So the public statements may simply be the usual legal

posturing. On
> the other hand, Info-ZIP has no particular desire to become the test
> case.)
>
> Thus, by default, unshrinking is not enabled in newer releases of
> Info-ZIP's distributed binaries. Those who wish to download older

binaries
> or compile their own versions may still do so. See UnZip's COPYING and
> INSTALL files for more information. "
>
> So, yeah, I just repackaged it.
>
> Other non-sense you speak of.
>
> <clipped from http://www.pcengines.com/biosfaq.htm%3E
> "Why do you use A386 rather than MASM/NASM/TASM ?
>     Prior versions of tinyBIOS were based on an assembler I wrote in

1987.
> While ridiculously fast, it did have its limitations. A386 is the

closest
> replacement I could find, easy to get through www.eji.com, and fairly
> priced at $90. Please, please do not attempt to use MASM, NASM or

TASM.
> Your time is worth more than that."
>
> It is quite a pain to go and buy A386. But then, the man wrote it

himself
> and its pretty hard to find a good open source bios, so I'm not going

to
> complain. Luckily, the reason we're looking at it is really just to

steal
> some interrupt implementations, not to try and use his bios in full.

We're
> experiencing a bit of trouble with INT15 86 and 87 specifically, and
> every source helps.
> Adam Agnew
>
> On Mon, 28 Oct 2002, Gregg C Levine wrote:
> > Hello from Gregg C Levine
> > Adam, please define that none-sense for me. I have most of the

things
> > here, from that guy's site. My only objections are for the assembler

he
> > chose. I felt he should have used the assembler that's at the core

of
> > the binary utilities of the GNU set of tools, instead of A86. Or

even
> > Turbo Assembler from Borland, at least they understand proper

licensing.
> > Oh, and thank you for repackaging the whole material in that form. I
> > didn't have any problems unzipping any of it here, just a darned
> > nuisance to make it work here.
> > Gregg C Levine [e-mail]
> >
> > "The Force will be with you...Always." Obi-Wan Kenobi
> > "Use the Force, Luke."  Obi-Wan Kenobi
> > (This company dedicates this E-Mail to General Obi-Wan Kenobi )
> > (This company dedicates this E-Mail to Master Yoda )
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: [e-mail] [mailto:linuxbios-
> > > [e-mail]] On Behalf Of Adam Agnew
> > > Sent: Monday, October 28, 2002 9:27 AM
> > > To: [e-mail]
> > > Cc: [e-mail]; [e-mail]
> > > Subject: (no subject)
> > >
> > > This is mostly for Adam Sulmicki for the benefit of our current
> >
> > project,
> > > but it's been about a year since it was mentioned last so I felt

it
> > > wouldn't help to reiterate (i know i forgot) that there exists

another
> > > open source bios, tinyBIOS
> > >
> > > http://www.pcengines.com/tinybios.htm
> > >
> > > and since his zip file is difficult to uncompress due to patents

or
> > some
> > > such non-sense, i repackaged it at
> > > http://www.missl.cs.umd.edu/~agnew/anopenbios.zip
> > > Adam Agnew
> > >
> > > Linuxbios mailing list
> > > [e-mail]
> > > http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
> >
> > Linuxbios mailing list
> > [e-mail]
> > http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios