eCo Software newsletter, 200711

December 02, 2007 by Eugene Gorbunoff

During the fall we released updates of: Evolutionary Sprint plan, ACPI subsystem, Panorama video drivers,
General Network Utilities, Firewall ports setup, USB Dock, UNIAUD.


0. Evolutionary Sprint 2007/11 is published as article -- http://ecomstation.ru/showarticle.php?id=169
(ESWay it's a plan, forecast of future eComStation development -- http://ecomstation.ru/esway)
* Evolutionary = don't migrate to other platform
* Sprint = 1-2 years to improve situation (starting from fall 2006)


1. ACPI sub-system

Current version: 3.05, BETAZONE

We published ACPI documentation at ACPI homepage -- http://ecomstation.ru/projects/acpitools/?action=faq

We have improved some global critical things during 2007 (this tasks required global improvements in ACPI.PSD)
* mutexes support (to delimit the access to ACPI variables, ACPI devices)
* PCI Scan, moved from snooper to .psd, improved.
* suspend support for SMP computers (computers with VIA chipset are supported; Lenovo T60 is supported)
* support of VIA chipset
* support of new Danis IDE driver

moreover,
* updated Intel ACPI machine several times
* every user has own model of computer. we spend time to support users and investigate every model of PC
* every chipset has own specific problems. the research required some monthes
* users have old drivers - it's not easy to make them upgrade device drivers to versions ready for ACPI
* OEMHLP$ driver is embedded to OS/2 kernel. it was replaced (in other words, the kernel of eCS is updated)



2. Video drivers

Panorama VESA is updated (20071120) -- http://ecomstation.ru/panorama
* Panorama VESA works on old processors which do not have MTRR (useful for mini-notebooks).
* Fix for "computer hangs after switch to fullscreen text mode"
* Moreover, updated WPS Setup, updated FAQ -- http://ecomstation.ru/projects/panorama/?action=faq



3. Internet utilities

* New homepage for PMDownloader -- http://www.eros2.info
* Firewall ports setup 20070903 -- BETAZONE
* General Network Utilities, 20070919 -- http://ecomstation.ru/gnu



4. USB

USB Dock was updated during the fall -- BETAZONE


5. Audio-drivers

* Uniaud for HDAudio Intel, mixer: Realtek ALC88x is released.
http://ecomstation.ru/hardware.php?action=item&id=799

* Fixed resume in UniAud for compatibility with ACPI APM.



6. eCo Software support service

The hardware database contains more than 1300 reports of supported hardware -- http://ecomstation.ru/hardware.php
You can post new reports or add notes.
Now gathering reports about sub-notebooks -- http://ecomstation.ru/hardware.php?action=category§ion=brand


7. New sites:

* Software for eComStation -- http://ecomstation.ru/software
* eComStation PC -- -- http://ecomstation.ru/ecspc
* eComStation attributes -- http://ecomstation.ru/attributes


8. Additional information:

* Welcome to eCo Software homepage -- http://ecomstation.ru/ecosoft/?action=orders
* eCo Software runtimes -- http://ecomstation.ru/ecosoft/runtime.php
* Full pricelist of eCo Software products -- http://ecomstation.ru/ecosoft/?action=pricelist
* BETAZONE -- How to download ACPI, Panorama, eSchemes? -- http://ecomstation.ru/mensys.html
* Previous eCo Software newsletter -- http://ecomstation.ru/commentnews.php?id=1410