Looks like a new PicoGUS firmware was released last month that has built-in WiFi support! Time for me to update the PicoGUS Femto on my Pocket 386 with the latest and greatest, and we'll do so in a 🧵 here!
So, first, I have actually been running a WiFi "developer" firmware build for quite some time, since around April 2024 or so. I put together a procedure on how to build and update the firmware at the time. You actually had to hardcode your SSID and password back then!
For the curious, the release notes for the firmware we are using can be found here (you'll see which versions of PicoGUS can support this firmware and the caveats. My device supports it and I am most interested in WiFi capability, so this works for me): github.com/polpo/picogus/…
We're going to reach "Productivity Level 1000" in Windows 3.11 for Workgroups with this newly-developed
Win3.1 video driver, now running on my eMachines T2341. Let's talk about it in a 🧵 here!
So, for starters, I learned about this driver today, and tried it in virtualization. I wanted to try it on real hardware too!
To get things started, I booted Windows 98 to see what the "max" video resolution would be for this card. And it looks to be 1600x1200. Okay! So, I set the parameters accordingly using the same manner discussed in my earlier thread.
Let's take a few minutes and look at this newly written Modern Generic SVGA driver for Windows 3.1. We'll check it out in Oracle VM Virtualbox 5.2.44 first in a 🧵 here (I do plan to try real hardware next!)
First, I will say this is off to a GREAT start. The author has done a nice job at logging some of the issues that are present... and this driver has A LOT of promise!
Installation is pretty easy! Copy over vbesvga.drv and vbevdd.386 that you can download from the releases page of the project to your windows\system directory: github.com/PluMGMK/vbesvg…
Haha, oops. I'm testing out the LTE 5000 fleet, and it looks like I gave two of them the same name 😅. I renamed one system, but I bet it will take a router reboot to fix this!
Actually, wait a minute! Why the hell did I harcode the IP address? I bet that I did that and cloned it, probably was having some issue. Okay, easy fix 😂
Ugh, maybe not. Okay, this system has been flaky, I think I'm going to reload Win3.11 on it
I have some updates on my Windows 3.1 16-bit NABU Application, and also on my 486 DX2/66 which I wanted to get in a position to drive the NABU. Let's do a quick 🧵
So, first, for the 486, I got a 9 pin connector that follows the right standard to work with this system. My DTC controller card uses the DTK standard. I installed in the bottom slot. We talked about different serial connector standards here:
As for the application, I added support to download files from the Internet to feed the NABU! The website has to be HTTP (I don't support HTTPS/SSL), but it works well! Files get cached locally and don't get downloaded again if present on disk.
It's not every day that I write a Windows 3.1 16-bit application, but yesterday was one of those days 😂. Let's talk about it, and discuss the NABU a bit, in a 🧵here.
So, a few days ago, I mentioned that I was getting my 486 ready to run something, and that I needed an extra serial port. And then I disappeared for a few days 😅.
Well, that "something" is the NABU software adaptor, which is needed to run the NABU, since NABU originally ran over the cable network. There are several great options out there for modern machines, with the flagship one being available here: nabu.ca