Has anyone loaded ReactOS and tried laz 32 bit apps on it?

[Ñuño_Martínez]

ReactOS 0.4.11 released
(...)

Great to see such project to grow and be better.

[valdir.marcos]

Yes, and my comments are on Mantis (sorry, can't give a number from where I currently am).
Bottom line is that (working from memory) unpacking Lazarus goes too long between forced syncs, which triggers a watchdog. I was able to install it by starting off on FAT and then copying to BTRFS (or something like that).

Talking about ReactOS, BTRFS is more stable and many times faster than FAT, FAT32 and FATX.

IMO- and it hurts to say this-  BTRFS even on Linux is more trouble than it's worth.
MarkMLl

BTRFS is improving really fast.
Have you tried newer versions of BTRFS recently?

Btrfs For Linux 5.1 Brings Configurable Zstd Compression Level, A Number Of Fixes
Written by Michael Larabel in Linux Storage on 4 March 2019 at 03:16 PM EST.
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-5.1-Btrfs-Changes

Comments:
https://www.phoronix.com/forums/forum/phoronix/latest-phoronix-articles/1084296-btrfs-for-linux-5-1-brings-configurable-zstd-compression-level-a-number-of-fixes

[marcov]

Seems there is a ReactOS update that resolves some btrfs memleaks, and incompatibilities with some SATA drivers.

[valdir.marcos]

Lazarus 2.0.4 FPC 3.0.4 is back working on ReactOS 0.4.12 (only on English language + BTRFS) on Oracle VirtualBox 6.0.12.
Please, see the attached images.

[valdir.marcos]

Another image.

[valdir.marcos]

Another image.

[valdir.marcos]

Just a small update.

First of all, ReactOS is still in alpha stage. Although some of us can handle its limitations, it should not be used in production.
Newest version is 0.4.14 (December 16, 2021):
https://reactos.org/project-news/reactos-0414-released/


Recently, I have tested ReactOS 0.4.15 (nightly builds) (reactos bootcd 0.4.15-dev-6472-g732f223-x86-gcc-lin-dbg) only on VirtualBox 7.0.10.

I have run with success some old Delphi 7 applications on ReactOS 0.4.15-dev-6472-g732f223-x86 connected to remote Firebird 2.5.9 and 3.0.11 servers.

I was not able to install any recent version of Lazarus (they freeze at the very end):
- Lazarus 2.2.6 and FPC 3.2.2
- Lazarus 3.0.0 RC 1 and FPC 3.2.2

I could run some simple Lazarus 2.2.6 and FPC 3.2.2 applications.

I could install Firebird 2.5.9 and Firebird 3.0.11, and use them to remote connections, but not to local connections.
FlameRobin and Lazarus 2.2.6 simple applications worked against remote Firebird 2.5 and 3.0 databases.

I could not install neither Firebird 4.0.x (none of the all four versions available) nor Firebird 5.0 Beta 1.

With few developers and a small amount of money, the progress of ReactOS project is positively impressive!

[MarkMLl]

I was not able to install any recent version of Lazarus (they freeze at the very end):

I might be able to throw some light on that. Rather a long time ago (in FPC/Lazarus's Mantis era) I believe I reported that as a bug, and it was ignored.

As far as I can see, the problem is that a (ReactOS) Btrfs filesystem flushes state to disc on a timed basis, and the speed of the Lazarus installation filled the buffers hence the whole thing locked up.

Try installing it into a FAT-32 filesystem. and then either converting that to Btrfs or mounting (?) it somewhere appropriate.

MarkMLl

[valdir.marcos]

I was not able to install any recent version of Lazarus (they freeze at the very end):

I might be able to throw some light on that. Rather a long time ago (in FPC/Lazarus's Mantis era) I believe I reported that as a bug, and it was ignored.

As far as I can see, the problem is that a (ReactOS) Btrfs filesystem flushes state to disc on a timed basis, and the speed of the Lazarus installation filled the buffers hence the whole thing locked up.

Try installing it into a FAT-32 filesystem. and then either converting that to Btrfs or mounting (?) it somewhere appropriate.

MarkMLl

You're right!
Thanks!

FAT-32 filesystem did a better job:

- Lazarus 3.0.0 RC 1 (FPC 3.2.2):  it freezes at the very end again, and it gets an error message when I try to run it.

- Lazarus 2.2.6 (FPC 3.2.2): it's installed and working.

-- It saves, compiles and run projects, but I can't stop debugging without rebooting the virtual machine...


Again, lacking developers and money, what the ReactOS Project does is amazing!

[valdir.marcos]

Some more images.

[MarkMLl]

-- It saves, compiles and run projects, but I can't stop debugging without rebooting the virtual machine...

I might have a (Qemu) VM somewhere of the last version I had running. I'm heading into the fifth day of a long-running legal hearing, but if I have any energy I'll take a look and report back over the next couple of days.

MarkMLl

[MarkMLl]

-- It saves, compiles and run projects, but I can't stop debugging without rebooting the virtual machine...

I might have a (Qemu) VM somewhere of the last version I had running. I'm heading into the fifth day of a long-running legal hearing, but if I have any energy I'll take a look and report back over the next couple of days.

MarkMLl

I can't find discussion of this on the bugtracker, since it no longer recognises me as an author. I can't boot the ReactOS image, probably because I've upgraded a whole lot of host OSes, and I've put as much time into this as I can afford.

Inspecting the Qemu image files, I see FPC was 3.0.4 and the Lazarus build date was "2018/02/25". Inspecting lazarus.exe, I think it was IDE 1.8.2 and I see that combination elsewhere.

I don't remember any obvious issues with debugger etc., but I really can't remember how deeply I went or whether I was looking at any specific project.

In any event, the fact that the installer bug hasn't been fixed speaks volumes in itself: this was back in 2019.

MarkMLl

[valdir.marcos]

-- It saves, compiles and run projects, but I can't stop debugging without rebooting the virtual machine...

I might have a (Qemu) VM somewhere of the last version I had running. I'm heading into the fifth day of a long-running legal hearing, but if I have any energy I'll take a look and report back over the next couple of days.

MarkMLl

I can't find discussion of this on the bugtracker, since it no longer recognises me as an author. I can't boot the ReactOS image, probably because I've upgraded a whole lot of host OSes, and I've put as much time into this as I can afford.

Inspecting the Qemu image files, I see FPC was 3.0.4 and the Lazarus build date was "2018/02/25". Inspecting lazarus.exe, I think it was IDE 1.8.2 and I see that combination elsewhere.

I don't remember any obvious issues with debugger etc., but I really can't remember how deeply I went or whether I was looking at any specific project.

In any event, the fact that the installer bug hasn't been fixed speaks volumes in itself: this was back in 2019.

MarkMLl

Mark.

Thank's for your time.

The ReactOS project is still in the alpha phase.

As the project evolves, these errors tend to be resolved.

Thank you for your effort and your help.

Rest assured. Stay in peace.

[MarkMLl]

The ReactOS project is still in the alpha phase.

As the project evolves, these errors tend to be resolved.

You misunderstand me: it was not ReactOS that was crashing or locking up.

The FPC installer's error handling needs to be checked. If doing so proves conclusively that ReactOS (or BtrFS) wasn't returning an appropriate result code when the buffers were full then it becomes a ReactOS problem, but not before.

Pax vobiscum.

MarkMLl

[valdir.marcos]

I believe we are in a moment of transition within Lazarus and FPC with the removal of GDB/LLDB to make FpDebug the new default for new installations and the REMOVAL of STABS/DWARF2 without sets/DWARF2 with sets for DWARF3 to become the new default for debugger info.

After this transition, I believe that FpDebug will evolve even faster making debugging in Lazarus and FPC simpler, more efficient and less error prone.

I can't find discussion of this on the bugtracker, since it no longer recognises me as an author. I can't boot the ReactOS image, probably because I've upgraded a whole lot of host OSes, and I've put as much time into this as I can afford.

Inspecting the Qemu image files, I see FPC was 3.0.4 and the Lazarus build date was "2018/02/25". Inspecting lazarus.exe, I think it was IDE 1.8.2 and I see that combination elsewhere.

I don't remember any obvious issues with debugger etc., but I really can't remember how deeply I went or whether I was looking at any specific project.

In any event, the fact that the installer bug hasn't been fixed speaks volumes in itself: this was back in 2019.

MarkMLl

That said, here are some tips that might help you with GitLab searches:

https://gitlab.com/freepascal.org/lazarus/lazarus/-/issues/?sort=created_date&state=opened&search=markli&first_page_size=20
https://gitlab.com/groups/freepascal.org/fpc/-/issues/?sort=created_date&state=opened&search=markli&first_page_size=20

https://gitlab.com/freepascal.org/lazarus/lazarus/-/issues/?sort=created_date&state=opened&search=markli&search=install&first_page_size=20
https://gitlab.com/groups/freepascal.org/fpc/-/issues/?sort=created_date&state=opened&search=markli&search=install&first_page_size=20

https://gitlab.com/freepascal.org/lazarus/lazarus/-/issues/?sort=created_date&state=opened&search=Original%20Reporter%20info%20from%20Mantis%20MarkMLl&first_page_size=20
https://gitlab.com/groups/freepascal.org/fpc/-/issues/?sort=created_date&state=opened&search=Original%20Reporter%20info%20from%20Mantis%20MarkMLl&first_page_size=20

Original Reporter info from Mantis: MarkMLl @MarkMLl
Reporter name: Mark Morgan Lloyd
https://gitlab.com/MarkMLl

The ReactOS project is still in the alpha phase.
As the project evolves, these errors tend to be resolved.

You misunderstand me: it was not ReactOS that was crashing or locking up.

The FPC installer's error handling needs to be checked. If doing so proves conclusively that ReactOS (or BtrFS) wasn't returning an appropriate result code when the buffers were full then it becomes a ReactOS problem, but not before.

Pax vobiscum.

MarkMLl

How can I help testing the FPC installer on ReactOS project?

Thanks again for you kindness help.