Re: port-i386/58624: dosboot(8) fails to load kernel through eXtended Memory Specification API (XMS)

[gnats-admin%netbsd.org@localhost]

The following reply was made to PR port-i386/58624; it has been noted by GNATS.

From: Rin Okuyama <rokuyama.rk%gmail.com@localhost>
To: gnats-bugs%netbsd.org@localhost, port-i386-maintainer%netbsd.org@localhost,
 gnats-admin%netbsd.org@localhost, netbsd-bugs%netbsd.org@localhost, vezhlys%gmail.com@localhost
Cc: 
Subject: Re: port-i386/58624: dosboot(8) fails to load kernel through eXtended
 Memory Specification API (XMS)
Date: Mon, 26 Aug 2024 17:14:20 +0900

 Hi Andrius, thanks for analysis!
 
 On 2024/08/22 6:20, vezhlys%gmail.com@localhost wrote:
  > however it seems to be broken for ages (likely after "Merge XMS 
 changes from exec_fromdos.c" in this commit 
 https://github.com/NetBSD/src/commit/e58bb7948317c81664b47ff2d86b21df13f69251), 
 potentially worked back in 1.3.x releases.
 
 When I cleaned up dosboot.com recently, I had the same impression.
 I thought about trying PC DOS 2000 for sure, but I haven't yet
 (probably never)...
 
 Let us drop XMS support entirely. It has been broken over the
 last quarter century (!!!), and we can safely assume there are
 no user needs... As a bonus, we can unifdef some `XMS` blocks
 outside dosboot directory.
 
 Here, I note again that dosboot.com successfully works without XMS.
 We can drop himem.sys nor himemx.exe from config.sys, or skip
 config.sys itself. Then, we can use extended memory by ourselves.
 
 Thanks,
 rin