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Application Review
SysInfo/2
Review
by: Craig Miller – 03/15/11
OS Reviewed on: eComstation
2.0
Audio: Uniaud16 V1.9.25 & Uniaud32 V2.1.2
Video
Card Driver: SNAP, version 3 (eCS 2.0 package)
Year:
07.07.2008
Version: 0.8.26
Game Type: System Information
utility
Developed by: N/A
Published by: N/A
Homepage
Link: None
Wikipedia
Link: None
Manual - None
Download
SysInfo/2 now!
File
Size: 925K
(1)
Introduction:
The purpose of project was the creation of the universal graphic utility, which gathers as much possible information about the configuration of eComStation, the drivers of devices, productivity, speed, etc. Subsequently, it was intended to be developed as a collection of system utilities on the example of the popular application at that time from Symantec, System Utilities. Over time the idea was to develop and to include an in packet editor, an optimizer for the hard drive, a graphic editor for system tuning, and so on.
This project was launched by Alexey S. Smirnov in 1997 after the long investigation of OS/2 system utilities market. For now this is a NETLABS.ORG project and its runs under BSD (programs) and LGPL (runtime) licenses.
If you start to compare the common set of Win32 system utilities with all that were made for OS/2, you may see the great precipice that divide these two markets. More over, a lot of OS/2 developers were switched to porting UNIX applications instead of creating native code lately. The author thinks that this process may lead to total superseding of OS/2 native apps with their porting analogs, including UNIX-ported apps and apps that will be ported with the help of Odin project.
So, using SysInfo/2 you may get a complete set of hardware and software information. Also, you can detect all your PCI cards, even if they are not detected and not in use by OS/2 system.
One last thing, I did ask Alexey S. Smirnov (the original creator of the SysInfo/2) to look over the review and assist me in if I was going horribly wrong. He was a huge help to me and I cannot thank him enough! Juriy Prokushev, the current programmer, is no where to be seen. If anyone knows him or has his updated code, please email me!
(2) Installation:
After downloading sysinfo826.zip and unzipping it you will have several files:
Install.exe
– The file to install SysInfo/2
SICPUBCH.DLL - DLL that
contain CPU&FPU benchmark code.
SIFILBCH.DLL - same one,
that contain File system benchmark code.
SIMEMBCH.DLL - -//-
that contain CPU<->Memory benchmark code.
SIRNTIME.DLL -
this DLL contains some SysInfo/2 runtime.
ReadMe.eng –
Covers general information and version updates.
PCI.INI - This
file is used by SysInfo/2 during PCI BIOS scanning.
THESEUS0.DLL
- The THESEUS4 API library.
SysInfo.Exe - The PM utility itself
Double click on the install.exe to install the program.
Sysinfo/2 0.8.6 has it's own installer. I have never seen this type before, it is not an IBM installer nor WarpIn.
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Step
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Step 3 |
Step
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Well
maybe not...but I did wake you up for the rest of this review.
So oddly enough, for my install, SysInfo/2 “installed” a new folder on the desktop called SysInfo/2. But when I went there to use the program the two icons (SysInfo/2.exe and the Readme) were both broken links.
To get around this I tried double clicking the sysinfo.exe in the unziped file I just downloaded and it worked(?)! Sysinfo.exe then became my icon I used to run the program.
(3) Startup:
The first time I ran the program I thought my computer froze, it took around 15 seconds for it to load up on my computer, I am assuming it is finding the required information it needs. Oddly, this 15 second pause happened when I was running SMP, I had to take eCS off of dual processor because of crashing issues. When I did turn off SMP, the boot up time for SysInfo/2 went down to 3 seconds. So remember, it might take longer than you think to start this program up with SMP, less with it off, or it might just my computer.
There is a lot of information within those ten tabs. Lets go over each of them!
(4) The Program:
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1st tab – System: After the long boot up, very nice screen came up and welcomed me to my computer and all the important information below:
If you notice, there is a small icon to the top right, across from the system CPU description, if you click on this you can learn some more about your computer and it's an easy way to print your computer's information without using any color.
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You can benchmark your computer from here as you will notice that the benchmark button is “click-able”. When you click and run the Benchmark, you get:
You can print but be aware that there are no graphs, just some simple text telling you your scores are (Values Tab). I ran the tests several times and the numbers were always consistent. Showing me that even if they are not 100% accurate (which they might be), the consistent score hows me if I compare them to another eCS computer, we should be correctly scored. |
2nd tab – Components:
Benchmark button is not click-able, no tests to be done.
3rd tab – Power:
This tab lists all the ACPI and APM information generally needed, its a fast way to make sure you have both of them installed.
Benchmark button is not click-able, no tests to be done.
4th tab – Memory:
There is a bit of information here about your memory distribution information (RAM) as well as the total processes. The pie graph is a nice touch, to bad the graphics are not working correctly.
I have 4 Gigs of Ram in my computer and you can see the amount of memory on my PC is beyond the borders of the function used to read and to convert it. So this amount is shown erroneously.
The Benchmark button is click-able:
Here
is the Chart Tab for Memory.
Here
is the Vales tab for Memory.
5th tab - Disks
The Disks tab shows total volumes (dir's and files) information, I have some issues with this tab as it will lock up my computer. To the top left you can choose the drive you want it to view. It's a nice pie graph of how much space you have left on your hard drive.
You can see some troubles with HDD information, why is the folders structure not displayed? It seems that there I have the same problem with the size of memory & disk amount to read and to display. SysInfo/2 was actually all was done using 32bit arithmetic and should not work with modern Giga-bytes (from what Alexey S. Smirnov told me).
Benchmark button is click-able, but as stated, I was having problems with crashes with this tab so I was not able to run it. .
6th tab - Video
Video subsystem information has a ton of information on your video card.
Oddly enough, the benchmark button is not click-able, no tests to be done. This is one benchmark I would of loved to seem and compared to others. Also, you cannot print this information, why not have a print button like the System tab?
7th tab – Printers
SysInfo/2 was able to grab the correct information about my printer and the correct driver (CUPS). If you have more than one printer you can look at others by clicking at the top Printer/Queue option.
The benchmark button is not click-able, no tests to be done. It would have been nice if it could of printed a test page but this is a minor gripe
8th tab - Multimedia
One of the more lacking points of information, the Multimedia tab does show attached devices but nothing else. Clicking on an icon, like Speaker Device, shows nothing.
Benchmark button is not click-able, no tests to be done.
9th tab – Network
This tab shows the network subsystem info (MPTN, Internet and Novell Client). This can be helpful in finding out issues you might have. Case in point, I am still having disconnects from the Internet after 30 minutes and I am not sure why. If you notice though, my Gateway Address is “not found”, a clue!
Benchmark button is not click-able, no tests to be done.
10th tab – System Device Tree
The System Device tree shows all devices known and unknown (but can be detected) by eComStation.
You will notice I have many, many things not seen by eCS, I'm not sure if this adds to anything that is odd with my computer (crashes) or maybe it slows eCS because it cannot find some of my hardware, or maybe nothing happens. I do know that it, at least, lets me know something is not seen. You can even get more information if you click on one of the icons.
The original algorithm was based on ResManager functions provided by OS/2 & Presentation Manager. ResManager information next was supplemented with the info coming from PCI scan algorithm. It looks like ResManager is not included into up-to-date eComstation distribution (Again, what Alexey S. Smirnov suggests). So the device tree creation algorithm is not 100% working anymore.
Lets use an example of more information you can gather if you click on one of the icons that has an exclamation mark. If I click on the P64H2 I/O Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller, a new window comes up with three tabs:
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There
is a lot of information for the typical use to digest. I'm looking
at important data but I have no idea what any of it really means.
Which leads me too...
(5) Final Thoughts:
...Where the hell is the help file and/or manual!!!!! If you look at every tab you will notice one thing that is the same for each, there is no help. Though SysInfo/2 does a great job at tracking data, if you do not know what to do with it, whats the point?
For half the data I see, I'm not sure what to do if something is perceived to be wrong. I'm not asking for it to install drivers but maybe if it finds something, to tell me what the issue might do to my computer, such as slow it down or crash the computer.
It's a shame really because this is such a great tool, I highly recommend SysInfo/2 to every eCS user out there. I have looked around the Internet but could not find any manual, even a Linux one. If there was a manual, and some small tweaks, I could say no wrong. Hopefully whomever has the helm of this great program will see this and update the program soon.
I highly suggest downloading SysInfo/2 if you don't have it already!
(6) Updates after the review:
03-18-11 – I finally was able to connect with Yuri Prokushev via email, he had some comments about the article and about the code:
“Ok. Some comments about article and current codebase.
Device detection (tree of devices on your screen shots) was first attempt to show true devices info, not based on res manager but based on SMBIOS information. RESMGR was used as helper for extra info. So, I have draft of SMBIOS information classes and I very interested to make SMBIOS information library to be more powerful. If you can find person who will continue develop this module then SysInfo/2 can become more powerful and report much more devices info in comparison with the current one. I started to implement SMBIOS (and other BIOS tables info) but stopped it from no time. I can help and instruct new maintainer about various BIOS information tables and so on.
But:
a) License must be BSD (as SysInfo/2).
b) All sources must be shared with me and Alex (at least)
I think Alex will be interested to have SMBIOS information tables too because only tables access is different. I have OS/2 and Windows specific code for SMBIOS tables access, If Alex will add Linux specific part of code then it will be great to have common library for all systems.
As of SysInfo itself. Current SysInfo has one serious bug – multimedia subsystem information gathering. This is most problematic part.”
So I am hoping someone will be interested in updating the code to such a great program, if you want to try your hand in something that would be highly beneficial, please contact me and I will connect you with Yuri and Alex.
03-15-11 - Alexey S. Smirnov told me (email) that SysInfo/2 is working (for his point of view) at 65-70%. And should be updated to reflect changers made in eComstation and to finish Benchmarks & Help. Hopefully someone can email me or Alexey wanting to take the first step.
03-15-11 – I have tried may times to track down the current programmer (Yuri Prokushev). Alexey Smirnov and I have emailed each other a few times but he does not know the current programmer. If anyone knows, please email me, I would like to talk to him/her.
