OpenWatcom 1.9-built binaries lock up on 8088 without FPU
category: code [glöplog]
For those of you who like to to do the 16-bit DOS thing...
I have been hunting a bug in the OpenWatcom clib the past few days, which made it lock up on an 8088 when no FPU is installed.
I have found that the FPU-detection routine they used was not compatible with 8088, and issued an fwait instruction, which would make the 8088 wait for an 8087 to respond indefinitely.
I have reported the bug and suggested a fix: http://bugzilla.openwatcom.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1161
I have also prepared some fixed clib files here: http://bohemiq.scali.eu.org/Watcomclibc8088.zip
If you're using Watcom, even if you're not actually targeting 8088 w/o FPU, I suggest you use these libraries, because they make the code compatible with these machines, while not having any adverse effects on the other architectures.
I have been hunting a bug in the OpenWatcom clib the past few days, which made it lock up on an 8088 when no FPU is installed.
I have found that the FPU-detection routine they used was not compatible with 8088, and issued an fwait instruction, which would make the 8088 wait for an 8087 to respond indefinitely.
I have reported the bug and suggested a fix: http://bugzilla.openwatcom.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1161
I have also prepared some fixed clib files here: http://bohemiq.scali.eu.org/Watcomclibc8088.zip
If you're using Watcom, even if you're not actually targeting 8088 w/o FPU, I suggest you use these libraries, because they make the code compatible with these machines, while not having any adverse effects on the other architectures.
Maybe you can submit it to https://github.com/open-watcom/open-watcom-v2. They seem to be much more reactive there for upstreaming patches.
Quote:
Maybe you can submit it to https://github.com/open-watcom/open-watcom-v2. They seem to be much more reactive there for upstreaming patches.
Yea, I reported it there, and they've implemented a fix: https://github.com/open-watcom/open-watcom-v2/commit/40dfa157a1f419a477a04392473d188a53495966
Buy a 486, private dancer :)
