MiSTer FPGA Forum

To help folks with getting started with this core, I was thinking it'd be good to have a place where people can find drivers for it.

Mouse drivers: Microsoft drivers (DOS driver and Windows 3.1 utilities) CuteMouse (alternate DOS driver)

Sound drivers (Sound Blaster 2.0): DOS and Windows 3.1

ET4000 Video BIOS (for upcoming ao486 release): Here
UniVBE 4.0 (for upcoming ao486 release, requires the above ET4000 BIOS): DOS utility for VESA BIOS Extensions
Video Drivers (Tseng ET4000) (for upcoming ao486 release, requires the above ET4000 BIOS): Windows 3.1 Windows 95 Windows 95 Disk Image

Modem driver: Windows 95 (use it as a null modem cable)

TCP/IP stack (Trumpet Winsock): Windows 3.1 (registration page is here; this version is 3.0, not 5.0, as 3.0d is the last version that works with Windows 3.1)

HIMEM.SYS/EMM386.EXE replacements from Win98SE (to work around bugs in these in MS-DOS 6.22): HIMEM.SYS EMM386.EXE

Open-source HIMEM.SYS replacement: HimemX

HIMEM.SYS/EMM386.EXE replacements from PC-DOS 7.1 (potential work-around for bugs in these in MS-DOS 6.22, untested to see whether they fix the issue, though): HIMEM.SYS EMM386.EXE

Not sure about Windows 3.1, but for DOS you just need to add SET BLASTER= setting in autoexec.bat

You do need a driver for Windows 3.1. It doesn't support any sound cards without vendor drivers.

The only Windows 3.1 driver packages Creative Labs ever released for their cards also bundle some DOS utilities with them and take care of autoexec.bat modifications as part of the installation.

I played DOS games as a kid, but I haven't touched DOS in 25 years, so I really don't know what I'm doing here. I've installed the drivers, but I have no clue how to actually use sound in the games. I pulled up Wolfenstein 3D, and only get sound effects. Is there some MISTer setting I need to change?

Kreeblah wrote: ↑Sun May 24, 2020 10:59 pm You do need a driver for Windows 3.1. It doesn't support any sound cards without vendor drivers.

The only Windows 3.1 driver packages Creative Labs ever released for their cards also bundle some DOS utilities with them and take care of autoexec.bat modifications as part of the installation.

Entirely true, at least for WfWG 3.11, got that sound working for the Sound Blaster 1.5 just fine on it. But that's definitely not the correct version

What is a good mouse driver for the core?

QuillOmega0 wrote: ↑Mon May 25, 2020 1:01 am

Kreeblah wrote: ↑Sun May 24, 2020 10:59 pm You do need a driver for Windows 3.1. It doesn't support any sound cards without vendor drivers.

The only Windows 3.1 driver packages Creative Labs ever released for their cards also bundle some DOS utilities with them and take care of autoexec.bat modifications as part of the installation.

Entirely true, at least for WfWG 3.11, got that sound working for the Sound Blaster 1.5 just fine on it. But that's definitely not the correct version

You're absolutely right. I grabbed the wrong link from my list. I just corrected it (whenever my edit is approved by the moderators).

Newsdee wrote: ↑Mon May 25, 2020 1:11 am What is a good mouse driver for the core?

I added a link to the Microsoft drivers, which is what I'm using.

One caveat to this, though. If you already installed the sound drivers, you might need to copy the mouse driver installation files to your hard drive before running Windows. There's currently a bug which causes the core to lock up if it access the floppy drive after it's used the sound card for something (which Windows does for its startup sound).

all drivers for a SoundBlaster 2.0 should work well
there are some 6 and 8 disk driver sets with dos 6.22 and windows 3.11 drivers
drivers can still be obtanide from the soundblaster web site
windows 95c has a built in driver for the sound card that also works.

Newsdee wrote: ↑Mon May 25, 2020 1:11 am What is a good mouse driver for the core?

ctmouse.exe works for me.

Newsdee wrote: ↑Mon May 25, 2020 1:11 am What is a good mouse driver for the core?

ctmouse.exe (also known as Cute Mouse) is probably the best option as it has a small footprint in memory.

Cheers

I am looking for a univbe driver compatible with the core, I have not found. It may not be possible ...

tontonkaloun wrote: ↑Sat Jun 13, 2020 1:28 pm I am looking for a univbe driver compatible with the core, I have not found. It may not be possible ...

Not possible as far as I know. ao486 is not vesa compatible (at least not supporting any SVGA resolution) - So until SVGA is added you will not find anything compatible.

cutmouse occasionally causes an error "mouse reset returned 08 (should be ack)"
Have you had this problem?

tontonkaloun wrote: ↑Mon Jun 15, 2020 4:53 pm cutmouse occasionally causes an error "mouse reset returned 08 (should be ack)"
Have you had this problem?

Yeah, just dont touch the mouse when the core is booting up till you get to the command prompt. That always triggers the error.

I had thought about it ! but i don't touch it !

suverman wrote: ↑Tue Jun 16, 2020 2:55 am

tontonkaloun wrote: ↑Mon Jun 15, 2020 4:53 pm cutmouse occasionally causes an error "mouse reset returned 08 (should be ack)"
Have you had this problem?

Yeah, just dont touch the mouse when the core is booting up till you get to the command prompt. That always triggers the error.

you were right
I had to touch it without realizing it

tontonkaloun wrote: ↑Sat Jun 13, 2020 1:28 pm I am looking for a univbe driver compatible with the core, I have not found. It may not be possible ...

If you are using one of the beta cores, Cache24 or newer, it should work, but you also need to replace the bios file boot1.rom with the ET4000 bios linked in the opening post to get the newer cores running with VESA, otherwise Univbe will see the bios you are using, the currently released one being a standard VGA bios.

Btw... the bios in the OP might not be the bios they are using to develop with, although it is newer. I have not tried that one yet, because in another thread it was said the developers use a certain bios with a certain CRC checksum, and I found that bios here:
http://www.elpod.org/pcem_roms/et4000w32.bin

Rename that to boot1.rom and you can use it for VESA stuff... but no idea if it will be better than the one linked in the OP.

Edit: Seems I have actually been using the one in the OP, and have not tried the one I just linked yet.

Yeah, the CRC32 of the video BIOS (boot1.rom) that people are using is 713CB637, which is the one I have linked in the first post there. It's also the same CRC32 (and SHA256) as the one there on elpod.org.

I created a GitHub repository for this stuff so we don't have to worry about other sites going down and migrated the files from the old links into that, so it should be up to date with direct links to files now.

Kreeblah wrote: ↑Fri Jul 31, 2020 7:58 am Yeah, the CRC32 of the video BIOS (boot1.rom) that people are using is 713CB637, which is the one I have linked in the first post there. It's also the same CRC32 (and SHA256) as the one there on elpod.org.

I created a GitHub repository for this stuff so we don't have to worry about other sites going down and migrated the files from the old links into that, so it should be up to date with direct links to files now.

Ahh, nice. Yeah, it seems I got my files mixed up. I will have to double check which one I am actually using when I get home then.

Tseng ET4000 Windows 3.1 Drivers in disk img format for convenience.

Note : Don't copy the contents of this disk straight into your WINDOWS\SYSTEM .. that will brick windows. Recommend just mount the disk as and when needed.

The ET4000 drivers for Win3.1 could works in Windows95?

Apolonius wrote: ↑Sun Aug 02, 2020 12:17 pm The ET4000 drivers for Win3.1 could works in Windows95?

Someone got them working in Windows ME, so I would suspect so.

I am using the ET4000 drivers that come with Windows though and it seems to work for Windows 95 OSR2 and Windows 98SE. SE found the right driver on its own at the first boot.

Caldor wrote: ↑Sun Aug 02, 2020 12:23 pm

Apolonius wrote: ↑Sun Aug 02, 2020 12:17 pm The ET4000 drivers for Win3.1 could works in Windows95?

Someone got them working in Windows ME, so I would suspect so.

I am using the ET4000 drivers that come with Windows though and it seems to work for Windows 95 OSR2 and Windows 98SE. SE found the right driver on its own at the first boot.

Thanks, I'll try to find the W95 vendor driver and if I don't have luck, then I'll go with the included in the W95 disc.

Apolonius wrote: ↑Sun Aug 02, 2020 12:17 pm The ET4000 drivers for Win3.1 could works in Windows95?

Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 drivers are different. You should be able to just use the built-in drivers in Windows 95, though.

I keep failing to be able to set 256 colors in WfWG 3.11 using the linked BIOS and drivers. Any ideas? Do I need to revert to Windows 3.1?

If I remember well I was having issues also to run windows 3.11 in 640*480 256 colors with this driver. I then tried 640*480 in 32K colors and it ran fine. It is actually the configuration I've been using since then.

Kreeblah wrote: ↑Mon Aug 03, 2020 8:33 pm You should be able to just use the built-in drivers in Windows 95, though.

Built in Drivers with 95 OSR2 are good up to 1024x768 256 with Cache37, although I do have to lock the core output to 60Hz and set the speed to 90Mhz (video corruption at 100)

The versions of EMM386.EXE/HIMEM.SYS in MSDOS 6.22 contains some bugs, especially when used with slowdown apps. These bugs were fixed in the Windows 98 SE version of DOS.
The Drivers can be downloaded here:
(My Firefox says the site contains malware, but my antivirus didnt find anyting. If you dont trust the zip, pull the files yourself from WIN98SE)
https://www.legroom.net/files/howto/msdos/mem98se.zip
They replace the original files in the C:\DOS\ directory. Dont forget to make backups of the original files.

Also, there is an open source version of HIMEM.SYS called HIMEMX (used in FreeDOS),
It can be downloaded here:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/himemx/

Lastly, there is an even newer version of CTMOUSE.EXE than the one floating around on the internet.
It fixes some bugs, but can only be obtained from the C:\FDOS\ folder in FreeDOS.

These updated drivers should be a good fit in your list.

Windows 9x Video driver (from dev branch) in disk image img format